Drake Plays Unreleased Kanye West Song, Which Disses Drake, on SiriusXM
During a guest mix on SiriusXM’s Sound 42 last night, Drake broadcast an unreleased Kanye West track, “Life of the Party”—a reputed Donda outtake that takes aim at Drake in lyrics addressing rising tensions between the pair. The airing of the track, which appears unauthorized by Kanye, follows an escalating rivalry that began with Drake’s guest appearance on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal” last month.
Kanye had recently previewed “Life of the Party,” a sprawling epic featuring a rare André 3000 verse, at a Donda event in Las Vegas. The version Drake played, however, was studio quality. It is unclear how he acquired the track, and his representatives did not immediately respond to comment. Pitchfork has also emailed Kanye’s team and SiriusXM.
“I put Virgil and Drake on the same text, and it wasn’t about the matching Arc’teryx or Kid Cudi dress,” Kanye raps on the track. “Just told these grown men stop it with the funny shit.” He goes on to allude to the pair’s scrapped plans to collaborate: “Thought we was the new Abu Dhabi/Told Drake don’t play with me on GD and he sent that message to everybody/So if I hit you with a ‘WYD,’ you better hit me with, ‘Yessir, I’m writing everything you need.’”
On the radio show, Drake also dropped in an unreleased track of his own called “Mention Me,” although its subject matter was unrelated to the spat.
The pair’s beef resurfaced on August 21 when, on “Betrayal,” Drake appeared to call West “burned out” and delivered the line “Ye ain’t changin’ shit for me, it’s set in stone.” West made a cryptic post to his Instagram the next day, with what appeared to be a screenshot of a group text thread containing the new contact “Pusha.” The screenshotted text message read, “I live for this. I’ve been fucked with by nerd ass jock n—-s like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you.” It included a photo of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker.
West returned to Instagram the following Monday, posting (and quickly deleting) Drake’s Toronto home address. Though Drake’s address had been published elsewhere, fans perceived it as another escalation. Drake responded with another Instagram Story where he sat and laughed in a car, before aiming barbs at Kanye on Certified Lover Boy track “7am on Bridle Path.”
Read Pitchfork’s Alphonse Pierre offer “5 Takeaways From CLB” and rank “Every Guest Appearance on Donda From Worst to Best.”