"Duppy Freestyle" is a song by Canadian rapper

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

. Released on May 25, 2018, the song is a

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...

aimed at American rappers

Pusha-T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. The song was produced by

Boi-1da Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da ( , a play on "boy wonder"), is a Jamaican-Canadian Record production, record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. The Toronto raised producer has work ...

and Jahaan Sweet.

Background

On the final track of Pusha-T's 2018 album ''

Daytona Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Da ...

'', "Infrared", Pusha-T perpetuates allegations of ghostwriting which have been leveled against Drake. In response to the track, Drake released a song on the same day of the album's release called Duppy Freestyle. Drake posted on Instagram a few hours after the release of this song, sending subliminals to Pusha-T with a photo of a bill OVO had sent to G.O.O.D Music and Def Jam for $100,000 captioned “You’re welcome”. The satirical reason behind the bill was “promotional assistance and career reviving". The song garnered significant media attention, as well as a response from Pusha-T on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Pusha-T responded to the track by releasing a response track titled "

The Story of Adidon "The Story of Adidon" is a diss track by American rapper Pusha T aimed at Canadian rapper Drake, released on May 29, 2018. It reuses the instrumental track from Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J.", which was produced by No I.D. and sampled " Four Women" ...

" four days later.

Synopsis

“Duppy Freestyle” takes shots at G.O.O.D Music artists Pusha T and

. The word “duppy” is Jamaican patois for an evil spirit or ghost, which effectively means that Drake is using the title of the song to call Pusha-T a

malevolent spirit In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or crema ...

. During the song Drake implies that he ghostwrote music for Kanye West in Wyoming, while calling him a "leech and serpent" for resenting his former collaborator

Virgil Abloh Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...

, as he left Kanye's company Yeezy to become Creative Director of

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...

. He also questioned the extent and extravagance of Pusha-T and his brother Malice's drug dealing background. Drake ended the song by denying the ghostwriting allegations brought up by

Meek Mill Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, ...

in their 2015 rap beef, and name dropping the wife of Pusha-T.

Release and reception

Matthew Schnipper from Pitchfork magazine said, "He lets loose a big old exasperated sigh... then he proceeds to dismantle Pusha with glorious pettiness." Aron A. from HotNewHipHop rated the song "Very Hot", and went on to say, "...this song is fire and the two emcees are delivering an incredible moment in hip hop with their back and forth." Max Grobe from Highsnobiety said, "Following the major digs on Pusha T’s track “Infrared,” Drake swiftly dropped a reactionary diss track on SoundCloud, and Toronto's finest has not held back at all."

References

2018 songs Drake (musician) songs Diss tracks Songs written by Drake (musician) Song recordings produced by Boi-1da {{2010s-hiphop-single-stub

Background

Synopsis

Release and reception

See also

References