Pusha-T leveled a lot of damning accusations at Drake in his apocalyptic diss track “The Story Of Adidon,” but it was the picture that accompanied the track that was the most galling: Drake, smiling widely in blackface. And while he may still respond to some of those other accusations via verse, he took a more serious tack for the pictures themselves, posting a full statement via—what else—a screengrab of the Notes app on Instagram.
The manufacturer of the Jim Crow shirt Drake’s wearing in the picture also released a statement:
The photographs were originally shot in 2008, a year before Drake released his debut LP.
The two rappers have been taking pot-shots at each other for years, but it was the accusations of ghostwriting on “Infrared,” from Pusha-T’s excellent new Daytona, that really drew Drake’s ire. He responded on Friday, the same day Daytona came out, with “Duppy Freestyle,” which acknowledged the ghostwriting controversy, attacked Pusha’s insistence on his drug-dealer back-story, and laundry-listed Drake’s own accomplishments. But it was in mentioning Pusha’s fiancé by name that he elicited the scorched-earth venom of “The Story Of Adidon,” which accused Drake of fathering an illegitimate child, made fun of his producer for having multiple sclerosis, and, of course, came emblazoned with the damning blackface cover art. Whether or not Drake will respond to the rest remains to be seen; his new album, Scorpion, is scheduled for release sometime this month.