LeBron James took to Instagram Stories on Monday to post lyrics from Kendrick Lamar’s verse on the unreleased Clipse track “Chains & Whips.”
“Therapy showed me how to open up! It also showed me I don’t give a F 😤,” the post reads.
Since history has shown us that LeBron’s every move is thought through, people have turned into the Brian Windhorst meme, and left wondering, “Why would he do that?”
In an interview with GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe, Pusha T revealed he and Malice delivered their upcoming album Let God Sort Em Out to Def Jam last year, and received pushback from the label to “Chains & Whips,” specifically Kendrick’s verse.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” Pusha said. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there, was like, ‘We’ll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can’t work because I’m still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go….”
Universal Music Group, the parent company of Def Jam, is also affiliated with Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang and Drake’s OVO Sound. The alleged directive to censor and remove the verse reportedly came after the two artists’ public back-and-forth and Drake’s subsequent lawsuit.
Amid the rap battle, Drake appeared to assume that LeBron’s allegiance was with Kendrick because the Los Angeles Lakers star attended the rapper’s Pop Out concert, and was recorded dancing and reciting the lyrics to “Not Like Us.”
The relationship hit a point of no return with the leak of Drake’s “Fighting Irish” freestyle, which included several references to James. The rapper only distanced himself from LeBron even further, altering lyrics about his former friend during a concert in Perth.
In turn, LeBron ramped up his support of Kendrick. His recent Instagram Story post appears to be the latest chapter in their own feud.
Def Jam eventually released Clipse and dropped Pusha. When the two shopped the album, along with “plenty more music,” Push said he was encouraged by the response. “It felt good to even see how other labels were buying for the project,” he said.
Clipse have signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
Let God Sort Em Out will feature “Chains & Whips,” which was previewed at Pharrell Williams’ first Louis Vuitton show.
