After Drake skipped Friday night’s tilt between the Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers, basketball fans wondered how the Canadian rapper would handle himself the following night when his former friend DeMar DeRozan was in town with the Sacramento Kings.
DeRozan, who played for the Raptors for nine seasons, took to the court with the Kings on a night the Raptors had circled to honour former star Vince Carter.
The two were often seen embracing and laughing postgame during DeRozan’s time in Toronto.
But the friendship came to a grinding halt when DeRozan appeared onstage as rapper Kendrick Lamar performed Not Like Us — a diss number he wrote aimed at the Raptors’ Global Ambassador — earlier this summer.
On the track, which the Compton emcee dropped in May, Lamar raps, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / To any bitch that talk to him and they in love / Just make sure you hide your little sister from him.”
The lines alluded to a 2010 concert video that resurfaced nearly a decade later in which the Toronto hitmaker invited a teenage fan onto the stage at a Denver show where he proceeded to dance and fondle her.
The chart-topping tune also made reference to DeRozan returning “home” to the United States after the Raptors dealt the all-star to the San Antonio Spurs back in 2018 as part of a trade package for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
“I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, ya’ll didn’t deserve him neither,” Lamar raps on the single. The accompanying music video also contained other subtle digs at T.O., with one background player spotted in a Toronto Blue Jays cap. DeRozan himself popped up in a cameo.
During Saturday night’s broadcast, Drake told TSN commentators Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong that it was “unfortunate we’re playing this goof tonight,” referring to DeRozan.
He also said that if the Raptors ever retire DeRozan’s No. 10 jersey, he’ll rip it down.
“If you ever put up a DeRozan banner, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself … shout out to Kyle (Lowry),” he said.
After the game, which the Raps won 131-128, DeRozan heard about the five-time Grammy winner’s comments. “He’s going to have a long way to climb,” he sarcastically said. “Tell him good luck.”
But the morning afterwards, eagle-eyed fans caught Drake badmouthing DeRozan throughout the game. When the six-time NBA All-Star missed a chance to tie the match at the end, the Hotline Bling star could be seen from his courtside seats waving bye-bye.
After the Kings lost, Drake appeared to slag DeRozan further as he was making his way off the court calling his one-time friend a “p****.”
It’s a far cry from the bromance the two shared while DeRozan was a member of the Raptors from 2009 to 2018.
In 2016, the two appeared alongside Lowry on the cover of Slam with DeRozan telling the magazine the trio had a group chat.
“I mean for me, my first year here, that’s when Drake first started coming out. To see him grow and evolve into the megastar he is, and always supporting the city, the country, us, to be our team ambassador—this man got his own team jersey that we wear. To have that, it’s definitely incredible. He’s really our man. He texts me and Kyle in our group chat after games and all that. He’s really supportive of what we’re doing, and vice versa,” DeRozan said.
On 2021’s Lemon Pepper Freestyle, Drake paid tribute to DeRozan, rapping, “My city love me like DeMar DeRozan.”
After he was shipped out of Toronto in 2018, DeRozan said he went over to Drake’s house where the Billboard’s Artist of the Decade consoled him.
“Yeah, day it came out, I went to Drake’s house,” DeRozan told ESPN’s Chris Haynes. “Me and him sat and talked for a couple of hours. Not even on some hoops stuff. Just to hear the words that come from him being the person that he is in this world, especially in Toronto. What I meant to this city. It was what I needed.”
Following his appearance at Lamar’s “Pop Out” concert and in the video for Not Like Us over the summer, DeRozan tried to downplay talk of a rift between Drake and himself.
“It was fun to be a part of (Not Like Us),” said DeRozan told The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Anderson. “For that moment, it was so much bigger than what people look at it as a beef between (Lamar) and Drake. It brought our whole city together in a different type of light where there wasn’t no issues, no violence. Everybody was coming together in a peaceful manner and that was the beauty out of those moments.”
Not Like Us dropped less than 24 hours after Lamar released his brutal Meet the Grahams, in which he hit out at members of Drake’s family, including his 7-year-old son, Adonis, and his mother and father, blaming them “for all his gamblin’ addictions.”
He also insisted that “Drake’s still my man, still my man, none of it changed.”
“It’s so easy to get overlooked and look at it for what it looks like, but at the end of the day it’s music, entertainment,” DeRozan told Anderson. “Two of the biggest rappers in the world went at it from a competitive standpoint and they battled it out. That’s what you want to see as a fan: Kobe (Bryant) playing (Michael) Jordan 1-on-1 and see who wins, see the trash talking, and whoever wins out of that, you’re still going to have the debate, so that’s all that is.”