21 Savage made some controversial comments about iconic rapper Nas recently. “I don’t feel like he’s relevant, he just has a loyal ass fanbase and he still makes good-ass music,” he said in a Twitter space. He then backtracked on the statement after receiving backlash, writing in a tweet, “I would never disrespect nas or any legend who paved the way for me y’all be tryna take stuff and run with it 
.”
It looks like that all may have been a publicity stint. 21 Savage made an Instagram post about a collaboration with Nas, announcing “One Mic, One Gun” only an hour before its release. It’s out now, and it’s a skittish, relentlessly catchy track, watching the two talented rappers switching verses and embarking on flows about their own determination and success in a genre that poses a lot of challenges.
There are many reasons why we should take 21 Savage’s word with a grain of salt, all pertaining to his rollout with Drake for Her Loss. The cycle was packed with fake press — a faux NPR Tiny Desk, a spoof Howard Stern interview, a parody SNL performance, and a photoshopped Vogue cover. This led to Conde Nast opening a lawsuit against the rappers, seeking either $4 million in damages “or triple the defendants’ profits from their album and ‘counterfeit’ magazine.”