What Young Thug Thinks of the Drake & Kendrick Lamar Beef

Someone tell Future to drop the mixtape because New Music Friday needs him. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• What Young Thug thinks of Drake & Kendrick beef 🐍 

• Soulja Boy apologizes to Metro Boomin but not 21 Savage 😤 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

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Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new week and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from May 3 to 9.

Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” opens with $264K from almost 59M streams. His three solo diss songs on the chart had a combined revenue of over half a million dollars ($562,368). Drake’s “Family Matters” and “Push Ups” had a combined revenue of $207,564.

What Young Thug Thinks of the Drake & Kendrick’s Beef

The rap civil war is not on the list of things Young Thug has missed while behind bars. He’s stayed tapped in via his girlfriend, Mariah the Scientist, who gave an update on how he’s coping behind bars and his take on the Kendrick vs Drake beef in a new interview with Billboard.

Despite being on tour, Mariah says she communicates with Thug “all day, every day” and tunes in physically when her schedule allows her to go to court. Two years into the nightmare that began when Thug was arrested on RICO charges and 78 days into a trial that has no end in sight, Mariah asserts that his spirits remain up.

“He’s just like that. I feel like sometimes they expect me to say he’s down and out. He’s not really that kind of guy. It’s very rare that he’s like that,” she says.

Some of their daily communication has been a breakdown of the Kendrick and Drake beef. “I tell him everything. I might tell him too much. I play him the [diss] songs over the phone and shit. He’s a lover of music in general,” Mariah says sharing his thoughts on the last few weeks.

“He fucks with everybody. I don’t think he would ever be able to – let me not speak for him. He loves music though [...] He thinks it’s interesting, for sure.” Joining 21 Savage’s child of divorce, “I can’t pick a side” energy, Thug remains neutral, at least publicly.

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Thug defending Drake & Kendrick in the past

But never forget 2020, when Thug beefed with other rappers on behalf of Drake and Kendrick—what a time to be alive. If you don’t remember this, the TLDR is he called out Pusha T for using his verse on Pop Smoke’s “Paranoia” to sneak diss Drake because it inadvertently dragged Thug and Gunna into their beef. 

Then Thug came for French Montana’s neck after he declared in an interview that he has as many hits as Kendrick. “You don’t got nowhere near more hits than no motherf—kin’ Kendrick Lamar,” Thug said, popping off on socials.

Soulja Boy Apologizes to Metro Boomin But Continues to Beef 21 Savage

Soulja Boy beefing with 21 Savage is the Temu version of Drake and Kendrick. Almost two days after choosing violence with Metro Boomin and, subsequently, 21 Savage, Soulja Boy pulled a J. Cole and apologized to Metro (but not 21). Find everything you missed in the rap civil war (Temu’s version) below.

It all started with a Metro Boomin tweet from 2012, when he was an 18-year-old aspiring producer trying to flex for his 500 followers. The tweet wasn’t meant to diss Soulja Boy, but he caught a stray (see below). 

Soulja Boy somehow unearths this tweet from a decade ago and gets heated. He pops off, saying Metro used to be in his DMs asking to send beats, he has 24 hours to delete this tweet or else…etc, the usual Soulja Boy rant. Metro remains silent, but 21 Savage enters the chat.

The online banter was harmless until Soulja Boy got outta pocket and taunted Metro about his late mother—on Mother’s Day.

For context, Metro’s mom, Leslie Wayne, was murdered by her husband (not Metro’s biological father) two years ago, around the same time as Mother’s Day. That level of disrespect over an old tweet was enough to awaken the “redrum” in 21 Savage.

48 hours and countless “there’s no disses with 21, just straight smoke” memes later, Soulja Boy retracted his statement to Metro…but hopped on IG live to dismiss the narrative that 21 intimidated him into apologizing.

“21, where you at n-gga? I’m hanging out the window, n-gga. Pussy ass n-gga, you still a bitch, n-gga. I ain’t apologize for you, n-gga. I apologize for myself, n-gga. I ain’t like what I said about the n-gga momma. 21, you still a bitch,” Soulja said. 

J. Cole couldn’t stand on his diss, but at least he stood on his apology—may Soulja Boy find the peace to stop “responding to hate, new or old.”

New Music Friday

It might not have been a new music friday worth staying up late for but—new Homixide Gang and Veeze? A win is a win. Here’s all the music you can listen to now—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Better Off Alone by A Boogie Wit da Hoodie

• 💿️ Valedictorian by ian

• 💿️ Valentino by Wolfacejoeyy

• 💿️ Rio Circa 2020 by Rio Da Yung Og

• 🎶 “R50” by Homixide Gang

• 🎶 “duh duh duh” by Dom Corleo, Veeze

• 🎶 “Win Wit Us” by 42 Dugg

• 🎶 “Band Man” by Rich The Kid

• 🎶 “Together” by Chance The Rapper, DJ Premier

• 🎶 Swag It! (Remix)” by Chow Lee, Flo Milli

• Gunna launches “P By Gunna” clothing line. He’s officially pushing P on June 5th for the brand’s inaugural release.

• Travis Scott is on track to have one of the most profitable hip-hop tours. ‘Circus Maximus’ will mark the second highest-grossing tour by a rapper in history, surpassing Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent.

• Childish Gambino wins “This Is America” copyright case for the second time. An appeals court upheld his original victory, ending the three-year legal battle.

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