Photo Credit: Pop Smoke / YouTube
UMG allegedly threatened to nix Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album over their belief that a guest verse by Pusha T featured a Drake diss.
Just after Pusha T dropped a bombshell claim that Def Jam urged him to censor a Kendrick Lamar guest verse on Clipse’s forthcoming album, his manager drops another. According to Steven Victor, who manages Pusha T and signed Pop Smoke to his imprint, Victor Victor Worldwide, UMG wanted to censor a Pusha verse from Pop’s posthumous debut album, which they believed featured a diss aimed at Drake.
“What happened on the Pop Smoke song is that UMG thought that he was dissing Drake on that song,” said Victor. “He wasn’t, but they thought he was. Pop Smoke was released on my label, and obviously, I managed Pusha. So they came to me and said, ‘We’re not going to put this out now, unless you get Pusha to change these lyrics.’ Even though it has nothing to do with Pop Smoke, they’re like, ‘Either he changes these lyrics, or we’re not putting the album out.’”
“First of all, he’s not dissing Drake,” argued Victor. “But how do you tell him to just change his lyrics or you’re not putting this album out?”
Ultimately, Pusha was taken off the song, “Paranoia,” which was released on Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon without his contribution. But the song in its original form leaked online, and led many fans to believe that Pusha’s lyrics were, in fact, taking aim at Drake.
Meanwhile, Young Thug also called out Pusha for the nixed verse. “I don’t respect the Pusha T verse on the song with me and Gunna, ‘cause I don’t have nun to do with y’all beef nor does Gunna, and if I knew that was about [Drake] I would’ve made changes on our behalf.”
“Don’t feel bad, nobody knew what the verse was about,” Pusha replied. “The label heads that stopped it didn’t even know. They only assume because [Drake] told them. The same way he told about the Ross ‘Maybach 6’ verse. And if he’ll tell record executives about rap verses, God knows what else he’ll tell. I don’t deal in police work, police rappers, or police n—as!!”
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