Drake calls Macklemore’s apology to Kendrick Lamar ‘wack’
When Macklemore & Ryan Lewis swept the rap categories at the Grammys last month, it sparked a controversy among rap fans that the Seattle duo’s pop-oriented brand of rap bested albums from Drake, Kanye West, Jay Z and frontrunner Kendrick Lamar.
After racking up a bounty of wins, including best new artist, Macklemore sent a text message to Lamar and later posted a screen shot of the message to his nearly 3 million Instagram followers.
In the text Macklemore apologized to Lamar.
“You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have,” Macklemore wrote, adding that Lamar “deserved best rap album.” He offered no apologies for beating him in the new artist, rap performance and song races.
Reaction to the move was mixed.
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Many praised Macklemore for showing love to Lamar and acknowledging one of the night’s biggest upsets, but others questioned his motives for making the private messages public.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Drake calls Macklemore out over the apology, bluntly calling it “wack as …” [insert profanity] and cheap.
“I was like, ‘You won. Why are you posting your text message? Just chill. Take your W, and if you feel you didn’t deserve it, go get better — make better music,’ ” Drake told the magazine. “It felt cheap. It didn’t feel genuine.”
“Why do that? Why feel guilt?” Drake continued. “You think those guys would pay homage to you if they won?”
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Drake added that Macklemore “made a brand of music that appealed to more people than me, Hov, Kanye and Kendrick” but wanted him to own up to it.
“Whether people wanna say it’s racial, or whether it’s just the fact that he tapped into something we can’t tap into,” he added. “That’s just how the cards fall.”
And, yes, the Canadian bred rapper-singer felt a certain kind of way about Macklemore’s singling out Lamar post-show.
“To name just Kendrick? That … made me feel funny. No, in that case, you robbed everybody. We all need text messages!”
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