Cash Cobain is the latest artist to get dragged into the Drake wars. A reference track for the Drake song "Calling For You" has leaked online with Cobain rapping the lead vocal. Cobain was listed on the official track as a co-producer, but the leak suggests that the artist also had a bigger hand in the songwriting. This is the second time a Drake reference has leaked in the last week, with the first being "Jumbotron S**t Poppin." It looks like the "Calling For You" diss may be a fake, however.
Cobain posted an image of Allen Iverson to his IG and Twitter on April 16. There was no mention of the leak, but it didn't take much for fans to tie the image of Iverson in to the reference track. Iverson is known for his fake behind the back move, so Cobain is confirming that the leaked "Calling For You" is phony. Cobain and Drake are friends, and Cobain has even championed the Canadian rapper during interviews. "Don't think Drake not tuned in," he said on TikTok. "He definitely tuned in. Especially with the New York sound. I feel like every sound he tuned in with."
Drake has been hounded by reference track allegations for a decade. The rapper's pen game has been a talking point ever since Quentin Miller's reference for "10 Bands" leaked in 2015. He addressed the issue during a profile in The Fader, claiming that it does not reflect a lack of involvement in the writing process. "I need, sometimes, individuals to spark an idea so that I can take off running," he stated. "I don’t mind that. And those recordings—they are what they are. And you can use your own judgment on what they mean to you. I don’t know if I’m really here to even clarify it for you."
Despite Drake's clarification, the ghostwriting rumors persist. Rick Ross recently implied that he wrote Drake's verse on the 2018 smash "Sicko Mode." The MMG honcho also stated that Drake uses writers when posting comments and insults on social media. The latter claim was made after Drake posted a screenshot of a DM exchange in which he mocked Ross' (lack of) wealth.
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Benzino knows how to drum up controversy. The former editor of The Source Magazine has made a career out of it. Few people would know he was a rapper were it not for his highly-publicized beef with Eminem during the 2000s. Unfortunately, Benzino's knack for making bold statements has come back to bite him. He recently went on the We In Miami podcast, where he declared that R Kelly should be given a second chance despite his heinous crimes. This proved to be the last straw for Benzino's daughter, Coi Leray, who publicly denounced their relationship.
Leray posted an X (formerly Twitter) thread on May 1 to clarify her stance on Benzino's comments. She did not mention R. Kelly by name, but it was obvious she did not agree with her father. "I want everybody to know I want nothing to do with anything my father has going on," she wrote. "I haven’t spoken to him in over a year and I don’t condone or respect any of them interviews he got going on." The rapper went on to explain that she does even want to be associated with Benzino in the future. "I don’t respect his decisions," she added. "I want nothing to do with him please don't even think of me when you see him."
Coi Leray doubled down on her feelings towards her father in a second tweet. "Sharing the same DNA and blood doesn't make us family," she noted. "Loyalty, boundaries, respect, teaching, guidance, love, patience, encouragement makes us family... Keep me away from people who try to 'get their lick back' please." The rapper then told followers that she looks forward to having a child of her own so that she could put what she's learned into practice. "I can’t wait to have a kid one day," she concluded. "I can’t wait to look her/him in the eye and tell them how much I love them."
As sad as this exchange is, Benzino and Coi Leray's estrangement is not surprising. The father and daughter have gone through a very public cycle of beefing and then making up over the years. Leray criticized Benzino for harassing her mother back in 2022, and went against her father when he tried to revive his beef with Eminem the same year. "Let’s build bridges and get over them before you burn the bridge and burn with it," she said at the time. Unfortunately, the time for building bridges with Benzino seems to have come to an end.
