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Drake Admits That The Meek Mill Feud 'Took An Emotional Toll' On Him

'It’s not something that I’m proud of'

Drake and Meek Mill exchanged several pointed barbs via bars thanks to their numerous diss tracks and ensuing beef, but now, the Grammy-winning rapper is speaking out on the situation with Mill — and he's doing so directly for the first time since all that drama went down.

On his Beats 1 radio show OVO Sound, Drake opened up about a lot — his indifference to the Grammys, what to expect from More Life, comments Kanye West has made about him in the past, and more – with DJ Semtex. The Meek Mill feud came up, and he had no problem explaining to Semtek how Mill "decided to create this narrative" that Drake doesn't write his own music and that the beef turned him into "the poster child for ghostwriting." He hasn't responded in such detail until now because his collaborators, apparently, know he's the real deal, and that's what matters.

"Anybody that’s been in any room with me, period, knows first of all knows that I am one of the best writers, period," he told Semtek. "That is what I do. That is what I’m known for. I go and write for other people. I write my biggest songs, my biggest hits; the massive majority of my catalogue has all been written solely by me, which is a big feat, because music is a collaborative process ... [the feud] really just kind of blossomed into this thing where I became the poster child for ghostwriting."

It's a back-and-forth that didn't leave him unscathed, either — on a mental level, anyway. He's resilient as he's used to criticism — he grew up a part of a generation "where people get off on bullying people on the internet" — but the drama with Meek took an "emotional toll."

"I respect revenge when its warranted, and that was just warranted," he continued, describing how and why he went into the studio to respond to Mill's ghostwriting charges with "Back to Back."

"It was what it was, and it’s not something that I’m proud of because it took just as much of an emotional toll on me — I mean, not as much as it did on him, but it took an emotional toll on me. It was just a lot. You always gotta hear about it, even just seeing people get so riled up off negativity. It didn’t feel great. It just was what had to happen at the time."

He goes on to clarify that he doesn't think this is a Jay Z and Nas situation — i.e. an epic rap feud with a happy ending — because unlike Jay Z and Nas, the respect between the sparring parties just isn't there. "Well Jay Z and Nas said some crazy shit about each other, they went really deep and personal," he explained. "Our thing wasn’t that bad. You know, that’s just not somebody I ever really wanna be friends with. I think Jay Z has a mutual respect for Nas. I just really don’t have that level of respect for him because of his actions."

There you have it. DJ Semtek has published his full conversation with Drake here, so read on for his thought on Nicki Minaj, Kanye, and more.

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