RZA is once again weighing in on Kendrick Lamar and Drake‘s famous feud, with the Wu-Tang Clan member comparing it to a clash of two other famous titans on The Late Show Thursday night (Feb. 27).
When host Stephen Colbert asked whether he’d been tuned in to the two hip-hop stars’ explosive exchange of diss tracks last year, RZA smiled. “Yeah, that was like Godzilla vs. King Kong,” he said.
The rapper went on to explain why feuds like Dot and Drizzy’s are actually “valuable in hip-hop” — not that anyone ever dared mess with his iconic Staten Island crew back in the day, as he says “people know that Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to f–k with.”
“At the end of the day, hip-hop is a sport,” he told Colbert. “And it’s a sport where we challenge MCs, we challenge the DJs … It’s good for the sport when there’s confrontation.”
“It’s healthy, as long as it stays on the record, and it stays in the music and doesn’t spill over into the streets where someone gets hurt,” RZA added.
The frontman’s comments come many months after Lamar and the Toronto hitmaker’s behind-the-scenes tension simmered over into a war of words lasting throughout the spring of 2024, during which the pair lobbed searing diss tracks — such as the Compton native’s Billboard Hot 100-topper “Not Like Us” and Drake’s “Family Matters” — back and forth. RZA previously shared his thoughts on the battle in an October interview with Complex, calling Dot a “natural lyricist” and Drake a “trained” wordsmith.
“You could train a fighter and he could be good,” he elaborated at the time. “Then you got those natural fighters who also then go through training. So that’s a different chamber there. And while Drake got bars forever, Kendrick’s bars’ potency was stronger.”
RZA’s visit to The Late Show comes just a few days after Wu-Tang announced its final tour, a 27-date trek kicking off June 6 in Baltimore and — following stops in Tampa Bay, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York City, Toronto and more cities — wrapping July 18 in Philadelphia. All nine surviving members of the Clan will take part in the trek, while the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s place will be taken over by his son, Young Dirty Bastard.
Of the reunion, RZA told Colbert, “This Final Chamber Tour is all of us coming back together … showing that even through the hard times, some of the beefs and gripes that we had, the unity and community is what keeps us tight and united.”
Watch RZA on The Late Show above.
