Yasiin Bey needs no introduction. He's one of the most acclaimed rappers of his generation, and someone who's been praised for putting artistry before commercialism. It's this propensity for artistry that led Bey aka Mos Def to criticize Drake during a January interview. He claimed the Toronto rapper failed to meet his definition of hip-hop. A lot has transpired since then, however. The Big Three was destroyed by Kendrick Lamar, and Drake took another high profile L in a rap battle.
Yasiin Bey has decided to resurface in the aftermath of the Drake vs. Kendrick battle and drop a new freestyle. His instrumental choice? The song that started the whole Big Three conflict in the first place, "Like That" by Future and Metro Boomin. Bey sounds sharp as ever over the sparse beat, but the lines that turned the most heads were aimed squarely at the Big Three. The Black Star rapper appears to criticize the artists connected to the moniker for being superficial and greedy.
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Yasiin Bey Claimed The Big Three Is "Not Much To Look At"
"Greedy, seedy, and creepy/Corny, horny, and boring," Bey raps. "Bougie, goofy, and moody/Foolish, ruthless, and clueless/Variations on a petty Big 3/A whole lot to look at, but not much to see." Calling rap's most popular artists "petty" is enough to offend the younger generation, but Bey doubles down and claims that the Big Three don't provide much substance. "A whole lot to look at, but not much to see" is a root of the rapper's original problem with Drake.
In the aforementioned January interview, Bey dubbed Drake a "pop artist" instead of a rap artist. “Drake is pop to me," he asserted. "In the sense like if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song. It feels like his music is compatible with shopping. You know, shopping with an edge in certain instances." He drew so much negative attention for his comments that he clarified them on Instagram. That said, he stood by his opinion. "I require more of myself and others than just talent or charm or charisma," he told Drake. "Particularly in times of urgent crisis." Bey's freestyle can be seen, consequently, as a triple down.
