Hip Hop fans were already anticipating Drake taking shots at Kanye West on Certified Lover Boy after recently lighting up their feud again, but another person who ended up in the firing line was Swizz Beatz. Drizzy appears to take aim at the Ruff Ryders producer on the song “You Only Live Twice” featuring Lil Wayne and Rick Ross.
“Unthinkable when I think of the way these n-ggas been actin’,” he raps. “Yeah, I never did you nothin’ and you play like we family, huh?/Next thing, you wanna shoot me down, it can’t be love/Not sure where you was tryna send it, it can’t be up/That day you sounded like a bitch, you fancy, huh?”
The verse references Swizz Beatz’s wife Alicia Keys’ song “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready),” which Drake wrote and later remixed, as well as “Fancy,” a track Swizz wrote, produced and featured on for Drake’s Thank Me Later album. The “shoot me down” line also seems to bring up past comments from Swizz Beatz.
In June 2020, Swizz Beatz called Drake a “pussy” on Instagram Live after a Busta Rhymes and Drizzy song leaked online.
“That kid is a good kid as well,” he said at the time. “He’s not a bad kid, he’s a good kid. He started from different things, we made hit record together, it’s all love. I just wanna play music. Because my filter is burnt. Because at the end of the day, n-ggas is pussy for real. What’s up? Pop off. Let’s go.”
That same week, Swizz Beatz issued an apology for his comments and mentioned shooting a plane out of the sky, which is likely what Drake was referring to in his verse.
“Man, I want to address my actions on Zone Radio last night,” he began. “I was in the wrong space, I was in the wrong energy and I hate that my kids and other people got to see me on that side. I was a little nice, I was a little excited. I definitely spoke on some things that I definitely shouldn’t have spoke on. Although I may feel a certain way about a certain person — things like that — as a G, I’m man enough to say that I did that on the wrong platform and I wasn’t supposed to do that like that. I wouldn’t respect somebody else if they did that like that.”
Swizz Beatz added, “My whole energy was based off of something that got leaked that you couldn’t put out, no matter what the circumstances is. That’s a guy, that’s a little guy and we made a lot of great things together. It’s not personal. I got no personal things. If it was personal, we’d shoot your plane out the sky.”
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OVO’s Head of Security Nessel “Chubbs” Beezer later took to his Instagram Stories to reject his apology.
“@therealswizz We Don’t Need No Apology,” he wrote. “Its Clear You’d Don’t Like Us So Act That Same When You See Us. Pussy.”
Check out reactions to Drake’s lyrics below.