Part of me wonders if he really wanted to do this. There was a certain aggression/attitude that was in Back 2 Back that just wasn’t here delivery wise
He wanted it. When he dropped Push Ups he BEGGED for it.
He simply underestimated Kendrick while overestimating all the other opps. Nobody really gave a fukk about him sonning Ross and Asap (and to his or his writers credits, he DID son them) once Cole bent the knee and gave up, the only thing everyone wanted was Dot Vs Drake. The entire middle portion of the song is basically filler.
Also he shot himself DEAD in the foot with the freeing slaves line. Stupid stupid down right RETARDED move. It opened the door WIDE open for Kendrick to run with the “Not Like Us” angle culturally. Drake not only underestimated Kendrick, he underestimated just how much like an actual colonizer he made himself look like. And he underestimated just how easy it would be to pull his card on how much phony cosplaying of black AMERICAN culture he’d done throughout his career. Its like he learned absolutely nothing from the battle with Push, a battle he admitted he LOST.
I think Drake REALLY thought for some reason he was viewed as more authentic than Kendrick. Which is absolute insanity and further helped Kendrick to prove a point. That Aubrey Graham is nothing more than a method actor and Drake is his greatest character. A character he’s gotten lost in and therefore unable to see reality.