Royce da 5’9″ speaks on Kendrick vs Drake fallout and reveals behind-the-scenes talks with Eminem.
Royce da 5’9″ recently went live on Instagram with his wife to celebrate their 24th anniversary, but the conversation quickly turned into something deeper than just a celebration. The rapper gave an update on his life, mindset, and how he feels about what’s been happening in hip-hop culture lately.
During the livestream, the Detroit rapper spoke about the ongoing impact of the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake beef… and it’s clear he’s not a fan of how things played out overall.
He started by bringing up comments from Jay-Z about rap battles. According to Royce, people misunderstood what Hov was trying to say. He then explained that there’s a difference between “healthy” competition and battles that turn too personal.“What y’all think about what Jay-Z said about battling that everybody keep talking about? Y’all felt like he was tripping? Because I don’t feel like it was received the way he intended it, the way people was taking it,” he said.
“I feel like he was just saying, I don’t think he was talking about battling from top to bottom, like URL. And I don’t think he’s talking about the healthy battling. I think he’s talking about battling on that level when it starts going real personal. And then it causes like that divide in the fans and all the mess and bad energy that came with it.”
The rapper also talked about how things went beyond just music. Different camps started creating tension, and even legal issues got involved. Royce made it clear that this kind of energy isn’t good for hip-hop in the long run. At the same time, he admitted the beef felt real… like something that had been building up for a while. Because of that, he understands why it happened. But even then, he’s not a fan of everything that came with it, especially the negativity online.
Social media was a big part of the problem. Royce shared that he was following everything closely at first, but eventually it became too much. Looking ahead, he said he wouldn’t want every big rap battle to turn out like this. If every major clash between top artists comes with this level of chaos, it could take away from what makes hip-hop great in the first place.
Even with all that, Royce still gave props to this generation. He said it won’t be easy for future rappers to surpass names like Kendrick, Drake, and J. Cole in terms of success. He also made sure to remind people not to sleep on Cole, calling him dangerous on the mic. “Rappers that can surpass Kendrick, Drake, and Cole. If you’re talking about in terms of success, that’s going to be tough for somebody to surpass,” he added. He then showed praise for J. Cole: “That motherf–ker can rap man… y’all better leave him alone because… he gonna f–k over somebody… he dangerous.”
One of the most interesting moments came when Royce revealed that he had talked privately with Eminem about the Kendrick vs Drake situation. He confirmed the conversations happened during the peak of the beef, but didn’t share any details. “Did me and Em talk about Kendrick and Drake battle? Hell yeah, of course we did. But I will never tell you what we talked about. He was one of the few people I was talking to about it when it was going on.”
Royce was also asked about new music and something about Bad Meets Evil, to which he stated that he’s not sure what Eminem is currently working on. “I don’t even know what Marshall [Mathers] has been doing. Pretty sure he’s recording but I don’t know what he’s working on or what he’s doing.”
Watch the full interview below.
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