Surprisingly, Azealia Banks publicly sided with Drake in his ongoing feud with Kendrick Lamar, criticizing the West Coast emcee’s approach and tactics.
On her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (May 1), Banks declared, “Drake won. That’s it.” In the same post, she also lambasted Lamar’s “euphoria,” which came out on Tuesday (April 30): “That beat Kendrick is rapping on is dumb trash, and the mix is muddy as hell.”
Elsewhere, Banks accused Lamar of exploiting other people’s legal issues, particularly referencing YNW Melly’s ongoing case. “That kid is being tried in Florida for a double homicide with [the] potential to receive the death penalty as punishment for his crime,” she wrote while questioning the ethics of alluding to such an incident in a diss track.
During the opening verse, Lamar likened himself to the “Murder On My Mind” artist while talking about J. Cole and Drake. He spat, “Yeah, Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish n**ga/ The crown is heavy, huh/ I pray they my real friends; if not, I’m YNW Melly.”
Melly is currently preparing for the retrial of his double homicide case for the alleged murders of Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams and Chris “YNW Juvy” Thomas. Speaking to TMZ, the Florida native said, “Kendrick Lamar is one of my favorite rappers, so I feel honored and appalled… I’m a household name, just for the wrong s**t.”
Additionally, Banks claimed that Lamar pressured both Drake and Cole to pull their diss tracks from online before releasing his own record, which she derisively called a “s**tty pamper.” It’s worth noting that the Toronto rapper removed his AI-assisted “Taylor Made Freestyle” from Instagram after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Tupac Shakur’s estate. Snoop Dogg’s likeness was also used in the song, although he was a lot more lenient.
On the other hand, Cole withdrew his “7 Minute Drill” from DSPs after extending an apology to Lamar at 2024’s Dreamville Fest. Banks added, “There’s absolutely a legitimate legal way to punk Kendrick into also giving Drake [an] apology and having him remove his garbage track from the internet.”