Young Thug Criticizes Pusha-T’s Apparent Drake Diss On Leaked Pop Smoke Song “Paranoia”

Over the weekend, a Pop Smoke track titled “Paranoia” surfaced online in which Pusha-T appears to continue his feud with Drake. The song, which was left off Pop’s posthumous debut album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, also features Young Thug and Gunna. After hearing about the leak, Thug said he never would’ve agreed to be on the song in the first place if he knew about Pusha’s verse.

via HipHop-N-More

On the track, Push seems to make several references to his beef with Drake:

You know reality bites, it’s chess, not checkers
Those empty threats only sound good on your records
If the patois is not followed by a Blocka
It’s like Marked for Death Screwface, without the choppa
Let ‘em rush the stage when you made like Sinatra
Only to hide the blade flyin’ back through LaGuardia
I might even buy a home out in Mississauga

Pusha responded to Thug’s criticism on his own Instagram Story with a detailed explanation first implying that Drake was the reason why the song got pulled from the album.

There is some plausibility to Pusha’s claim. Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon was released through Republic Records as part of a joint partnership with Victor Victor Worldwide. The latter label is headed by Steven Victor, who serves as both Pop Smoke and Pusha’s manager. Meanwhile, Drake has a deal with Republic Records through his OVO label.

Back in August 2019, Pusha’s verse was scrapped from Rick Ross’s “Maybach Music VI” after it seemingly took veiled shots at Lil Wayne and Drake. At the time, Ross told Hot 97 that Pusha and Wayne’s teams cleared each other’s verses.

Pusha’s beef with Wayne dates back to the early 2000s, when Wayne appeared on the cover of Vibe wearing BAPE, which Pusha’s group Clipse perceived as biting its style. Pusha and No Malice thought they started the trend of rappers wearing BAPE alongside their mentor Pharrell Williams, kicking off a feud that would pull in Drake when he signed to Wayne’s Young Money label.

Drake and Pusha’s beef escalated in the summer of 2018. It culminated in “The Story of Adidon,” in which Pusha revealed Drake had a child named Adonis and claimed that the OVO rapper was planning to “reveal” his son during a brand deal with adidas.

Pusha continued his Instagram Story rant by claiming that Thug was added to “Paranoia” at his request:

Finally, Pusha asked Victor to take him off the deluxe edition of Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon to avoid any further distraction.

Based on Victor’s recent comments on Instagram, “Paranoia” was slated to hit streaming services on a previously teased deluxe version of Pop Smoke’s album. If the song does make the cut this time around, it looks like Pusha’s verse won’t be on it.

Read all the lyrics to Pop Smoke’s “Paranoia” featuring Pusha-T, Young Thug, & Gunna and the original version of Rick Ross' “Maybach Music VI” featuring Pusha-T, Lil Wayne, & John Legend on Genius now.