Drake Disses Mavado, Hails Popcaan And Gaza In ‘Only You Freestyle’ Video
As Toronto rapper Drake limes with this OVO family and dancehall artiste Popcaan over in Barbados these last few days, a new track from his team has hit the music scene.
The fully loaded single is entitled Only You Freestyle, with British rapper Headie One, and it throws subliminal jabs at arguably the grimiest 1/3 of dancehall’s MVP crew, the Gully Gad himself, Mavado.
Popcaan and Mavado have had a longstanding beef spanning back about 4 or so years ago. True to dancehall nature, the two have gone at each other’s neck through an exchange of diss tracks including Mavado’s Beat and Teach and Popcaan’s Dutty Dread in 2016.
Things have somewhat simmered between the two, except for Poppy’s little stunt a few months back in February, when he reposted a viral video on Instagram of a partygoer sleeping through a play of Mavado’s tune, but who then sprang to her feet when the selector fired up Family.
Of course, Mavado reacted with a threat-laden track Artillery to remind his nemesis, he’s not one to mess with … and still the sound of crickets chirp.
Now here we are, as Drake stirs the pot while unleashing his personal plight with Mavado in his release of Only You Freestyle that dropped yesterday. The Toronto rapper and Gully Gad were pretty good friends at one point, even taking on a business venture together, but it quickly turned sour when Mavado failed to deliver on his end of the deal.
According to an MTV article dated back in 2010, it stated: “American rapper Drake has reportedly donated $25,000 towards building a learning centre in Jamaica with dancehall artist, Mavado.”
This was in aid of a project pioneered by Mavado with his manager Julian Jones-Griffith, who further revealed that work had already started and the name for the library would be the Drake and Mavado Peace Centre. To date, unfortunately no further action has been taken towards the project since the rapper’s contribution.
In Drake’s new track, which includes an attempt at rapping some patois (but not quite), he first shouts out his bredrin and OVO signee, Popcaan, and nods Vybz Kartel’s GAZA Empire saying, “Link Popskull in Gaza but not that Gaza but still it’s amaza.”
Then in an apparent diss and a play on Mavado’s hometown Cassava Piece and what was to be the home of his co-owned library, he continues,
“Nigga’s want piece like Cassava but we let bridge dem burn like grabba/ Boy 4 in the clips and one in the headie / Hand no shake man I hold that steady / Your man love pose wid the ting for the picture / Your man shoulda buss that ting already / Your man love hesi hesi / Yeah, can’t backchat to the Prezzi.”
While sketchy, the verses hit straight at Mavado and the evident ‘bridge’ that went up in flames over their business deal. Even the reference ‘Your man’ sounds a lot like his manager/ project overseer, Jones-Griffith.
Check out the full track and music video here –