Yasiin Bey Clarifies His Critique of Drake, Says He Requires More Than ‘Just Talent or Charm or Charisma’
Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) made headlines when he jabbed Drake by comparing the 6 God’s discography to the music played while shopping at stores like Target.
Mos felt the backlash and clarified his comments with a 25-minute clip that he posted to his Instagram on Monday (Jan. 29) in a halfway apology to Drizzy.
“First of all, I don’t hate anyone,” Bey began. “My opinion is mine. It’s legal in all states, as far as I’m aware. It was not an opportunity to try to slander him or to clown on him. I have reached out to him. I have no responses yet.
“I’m not keen to talk about people or to them through a screen, I prefer to talk to people directly. But I will say this: The young man is very talented. He’s been able to be very successful with that talent, and I have no issue with his success or anything that he’s been able to achieve as a result of his talent.”
Mos didn’t want to be grouped in with those who have unfairly critiqued Drake throughout his career and opened the door to having a direct conversation with the OVO boss, if that’s what he wanted.
“I do feel that some of the criticism that he’s received in the past has been mean-spirited or unfair. So I don’t want to participate in that,” he continued. “I’ve never had no issue with you personally — I don’t know you well enough to have any sort of issue with you in that regard. Nonetheless, it’s not sacrilegious to have a critique or opinion of a public figure, particularly one of that magnitude in current, modern culture.”
Bey contacted Dave Chappelle in hopes of having the legendary comic serve as a mediator in extending the olive branch.
“Drake, if you would like to speak to me directly, you can at any point,” he added. “I reached out to Chappelle, asked him to reach out to you. I DM’d you. You are a very talented MC. But for me, I require more of myself and others than just talent or charm or charisma — particularly in times of urgent crisis.”
Ultimately, the Black Star rapper wants more substance from artists of today in hopes of seeing them connect further with the audience than the club.
“What I would like to see, in terms of creators or creative people in the world as it relates to our culture, is for people to connect with us beyond the jukebox or the dance floor,” the 50-year-old opined. “A fair-weather friend can hardly be called a friend at all. The people that party with you, that’s cool, but will they show up if you at the triage, or you in a crisis situation?”
The Brooklyn rap dignitary made the controversial comments swiping at Drake during an appearance on The Cutting Room Floor podcast earlier this month.
“Drake is pop to me,” he said when asked if he looked at Drake as hip-hop. “In the sense like if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song… It feels like a lot of his music is compatible with shopping… You know, shopping with an edge in certain instances.”
The “Nice for What” rapper has yet to respond directly to Bey’s latest comments on social media but did post a video of Method Man describing his definition of what hip-hop is following Yasiin’s “shopping” remarks.
“What Umi say again? Lemme shine my light king, don’t change up now,” Drake captioned the repost to his IG Story earlier in January.
Drake has mentioned the backpack rapper on a couple of occasions within the last year. Bey caught a stray jab from Drizzy when describing the target audience of his Titles Ruin Everything poetry book.
“Can you do an article now where the baddest Instagram girls in the world review my poetry book, not the head of the Mos Def fan club… Thanks,” he wrote in a comment to Complex over the summer.
Michael Saponara
Billboard
