If you had any doubts that the friendship between former Toronto Raptors great DeMar DeRozan and Drake was over, you can pretty much put those aside now.
The lines alluded to a 2010 concert video that resurfaced nearly a decade later in which the Canadian hitmaker invited a teenage fan onto the stage at a Denver show where he proceeded to dance and fondle her.
The tune also makes reference to DeRozan returning “home” to the United States after the Raptors dealt the all-star to the San Antonio Spurs back in 2018 as part of a trade package for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
“I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, ya’ll didn’t deserve him neither,” Lamar raps on the single.
After Deebo’s concert walk-on, some fans of Lamar mocked Drake for not having DeRozan in his corner, with one person writing: “This is murder. Drake can’t come back from this.”
But after the music video dropped, and DeRozan firmly aligned himself with Lamar in the pair’s ongoing war-of-words, Raptors fans roasted the six-time All Star for his treachery.
“No one in Toronto is the least bit affected by this,” one person wrote on X. “We all got over DeMar very very quickly.”
“Raptors won as soon as he left,” another swiped, with a third adding, “Raptors got Kawhi (Leonard) and a championship. The better choice was made.”
“Didn’t he get traded and they won the finals the very next year?” a fourth person asked. “Oh yeah, he’s still hurt over it.”
Another Raptors fan said it must have hurt DeRozan watching Toronto hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy less than 12 months after he had been sent packing by the team.
“I mean the year DeRozan was gone from the Toronto Raptors they won it all. I bet he was going crazy watching Drake cheer on the sidelines during that championship run.”
The war of words between the two has played out in recent months after Lamar responded to a line in Drake and J. Cole’s 2023 song First Person Shooter, in which Cole referred to the three of them as the industry’s three greatest hip-hop artists.
“We the big three like we started a league,” Cole rapped.
Lamar dismissed that declaration on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That, spitting back, “It’s just big me.” He also hit out at Drake on back-to-back diss tracks Euphoria and 6:16 in LA in which he called the lyricist “a terrible person.”
During his nine seasons as a Raptor, DeRozan formed a close bond with Drake, a global ambassador for the team and fixture at many home games at Scotiabank Arena.
On 2021’s Lemon Pepper Freestyle, Drake paid tribute to DeRozan, rapping, “My city love me like DeMar DeRozan.”
In 2016, the two appeared alongside Kyle Lowry on the cover of Slam with DeRozan telling the magazine the trio had a group chat.
And after he was shipped out of Toronto in 2018, DeRozan said he went over to Drake’s house where the five-time Grammy winner consoled him.
After three seasons with the Chicago Bulls, DeRozan is still looking for a new NBA team. No doubt when he returns to Scotiabank those cheers he’s been used to hearing, even as a visitor, will turn to jeers.