LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: Drake, winner of the Artist of the Decade Award, poses backstage for the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, broadcast on May 23, 2021 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for dcp)

Is this the same DJ Hed that played at “The Pop Out”?!

DJ Hed might’ve played at “The Pop Out,” thus picking a firm side in the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, but he doesn’t only have negative things to say about the Toronto superstar. Moreover, he recently gave him some due flowers on HipHopDX‘s The Bigger Picture podcast with Elliott Wilson. As you can see in the clip below, the @djakademikstv caption for this clip is a pretty pro-Drizzy and anti-K.Dot one, which makes sense given Akademiks’ current beef with Hed. Nevertheless, the California native thinks that The Boy does deserve a lot of credit for his hip-hop contributions, despite the picture that Kendrick painted in his diss tracks.

“You know what?” DJ Hed’s remarks began on The Bigger Picture. “Thank you. Thank you, Drake, [for] what you’ve done to the ecosystem. We appreciate you. No, I’m not even throwing shade. Drake has done more for hip-hop than a lot of people give him credit for. ‘Cause he’s actively participated in the culture the whole time. There’s credit to be owed for that, you know what I’m saying? He also used his platform to benefit others outside of himself,” he concluded, with Jeremy Hecht asserting that “he has a family tree.”

DJ Hed Speaks On Drake

This seems to be what Drake himself is trying to prove through his “100 GIGS” content drops, showing off his connection to the rap game over the past decade-plus. His combative new material hints at him wanting a “Game 2” with Kendrick Lamar, although we don’t know exactly what this “game” will look like. Will they have a sales battle for their next albums, or will it be another lyrical back-and-forth? Will they actually go at each other again or does Aubrey want to focus on winning “the long game” by staying as the top dog in the industry?

These are all big questions, and ones that DJ Hed himself doesn’t want to answer just yet. Furthermore, the whole reason why he clashed with DJ Akademiks is because he shut down Ak’s report that Kendrick Lamar will drop again soon. No matter what he or Drake choose to do next, it’s clear that this conversation is much less black-and-white than what many fans assume.