At the tail end of last year, Dave East found himself facing a difficult decision. For some context, the New York lyricist had lined up "Night Shift," a collaboration with Lil Baby and Kodak Black, which was set to appear on his Survival album. Unfortunately, Kodak allowed his reckless temper to get the better of him, firing off a slew of disrespectful statements to Lauren London, the widow of Nipsey Hussle. Following that, the young rapper was taken to task by the rap game at large, leaving Dave East with no choice but to stand up for Nipsey and pull the plug on his Kodak feature.
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Now, months removed from Survival and days removed from his brand new Karma 3 album, Dave East has once again revisited the discussion on Noreaga and REVOLT's alcohol-fueled Drink Champs. With the full episode set to arrive in full at ten PM, NORE uploaded a teaser of what's in store. "The record I had him on, I had Lil Baby on it too," says East. "They was telling me it was crazy. You got both of them on this record? But me and Nip was tight. Like tight. I'm cool with his brother, all his homies. I have a different relationship with Nip than I do with Kodak. And that time, when I saw what he was saying, it rubbed me the wrong way."
"I move off morals," he continues. "I don't move off Billboard or none of that, or who's the biggest. If it don't feel right, or if I feel any amount of disrespect toward somebody I got genuine love for and I know they got genuine love for me -- and they not even around no more to defend themself, to speak on their own -- I can't move forward with it." Look for Dave East's full Drink Champs appearance tonight, and be sure to stream that Karma 3 album right here.