A$AP Rocky versus Drake?!

The “Don’t Be Dumb” rapper has addressed the simmering online drama between him and Drake, saying the relationship between the two rappers has soured and laying the source squarely at the feet of past romantic entanglements — namely, Rihanna. 

Rocky made a few comments in a recent interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden around the release of his new album “Don’t Be Dumb,” which added fuel to a feud fans have tracked back through lyrics and social-media slights. 

“I just don’t f— with him,” Rocky told Darden when asked about Drake. He described the situation as not “real smoke,” but said their falling-out “went wrong over females,” a blunt acknowledgment that romantic history (and public references to it in music) helped push the two apart. 

The dispute has a clear lyrical through-line. Listeners have pointed to Rocky’s recent track “Stole Ya Flow,” from Don’t Be Dumb, which includes lines fans read as a brag about his relationship with Rihanna and a jab at another rapper: “First you stole my flow, so I stole yo’ b—.” Listeners connected those bars to Drake, especially given the long-running speculation around Drake’s references to Rihanna on his 2023 record For All the Dogs (notably the song “Fear of Heights”), which many took as lyrical shots tied to his past with the singer. 

Despite the heat, Rocky emphasized he isn’t naming a single enemy and framed much of the back-and-forth as performative — “like wrestling,” he said — where trolling and baiting are part of the game. “I think hip-hop tactics and beefs is, like, WWF. It’s like wrestling all the way, right? But this thing between us, it’s not real smoke. But I just don’t f— with him.” Rocky shared. Still, his refusal to reconcile with Drake is notable given the pair were once collaborators and friends. 

“We were once friends,” Rocky said. “And I think at some certain point when everybody gettin’ older and it’s just like, you're supposed to be moving on. For you to still be pickin’ at a female and all that, that’s soft to me. I didn’t put out an album, I didn’t put out music for me to really say something back.”

Rocky and Rihanna are partners and parents. Rocky has spoken publicly about family life with Rihanna and their three children, and the couple’s relationship has been a recurring point of public scrutiny when other artists have referenced Rihanna in their music. 

Rihanna and Drake had an on-and-off relationship for nearly a decade. He even professed his love for her at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. And during an appearance on LeBron James' show “The Shop” in 2018, Drake said he wanted to have children with Rihanna. That personal overlap helps explain why lyrical references can become charged public moments, especially lines from Rocky like: “First you stole my flow, so I stole yo’ b—. Now I’m a father, my bitch badder than my toddler / My baby mama Rihanna, so we unbothered.”

At the moment, the situation looks to be one of pointed lyrics and cool indifference rather than open conflict. Rocky said his new album “isn’t meant to be for one person,” even as fans and media parse the lines for meaning. With both artists still releasing high-profile work and maintaining massive cultural footprints, fans can expect more headlines and more lyrics to analyze.