J. Prince reveals that he has relayed the message to the 'God's Plan' hitmaker, convincing him it's in everyone's best interests to walk away from the rivalry before it gets further out of hand.
- Jun 7, 2018
AceShowbiz - Kanye West reached out to Drake's mentor to put an end to the lyrical feud between the Canadian rapper and his chart rival Pusha T.
The two MCs' longtime animosity hit headlines again in late May after Pusha released his album "Daytona", and took aim at Drake on the song Infrared for reportedly using ghostwriter Quentin Miller to pen some of his rhymes.
Drake responded with "Duppy Freestyle", a diss track in which he called out Pusha's fiancee Virginia Williams, prompting the former The Clipse star to drop "The Story of Adidon", claiming the "God's Plan" hitmaker has been hiding a secret lovechild conceived during a fling with former porn star Sophie Brussaux.
He also used an old photograph of Drake in blackface as the track's cover art.
The 31-year-old released a statement addressing the reason for the image, explaining on Instagram that it had been taken during a 2007 project exploring black actors' problems with typecasting and how African-Americans have historically been portrayed in racist ways in entertainment.
However, he failed to fire back with a musical response, and in a number of new interviews, Rap-A-Lot Records CEO J. Prince reveals Drake did record a comeback, but he persuaded the talented musician to leave the battle alone.
Prince, whose producer son Jas Prince worked closely with Drake after discovering him on MySpace, has since also explained Pusha T's close confidante, Kanye, reached out to the label boss in a bid to help clear up the dispute.
"This something Kanye didn't want," Prince told New York radio show Ebro in the Morning. "He called me... He let me know, 'I'm a family man. I don't want this.'"
Prince relayed the message to Drake, and convinced him it was in everyone's best interests to walk away from the rivalry before it got further out of hand.
"Me and Drake have a mutual respect for one another. When I speak, he listens. When he speaks, I listen," Prince explained to Billboard.com. "I spoke in a manner where it made sense. I didn't use my words loosely or lightly. I had some substance about what I said."
The industry veteran encouraged Drake to "keep moving on" with his success and leave the haters behind, and Prince is glad Kanye adopted the same approach to the fall out.
"Kanye has made one of the most intelligent decisions of his life to feel the same and not want this as well," he added. "He could have advocated differently, but I respect his decision. He told me he's a family man - I take him for his word, and all of that went into my decision to not allow Drake to damage the situation even further."
West had previously hinted at his stance on the matter in a Twitter post on Saturday, June 2, although he didn't name Drake or Pusha in his message.
"I've never been about beef I'm about love," he wrote. "lines were crossed and it's not good for anyone so this is dead now."
