Drake Agrees With Me, Tells Rappers to Stop Stealing His Style

God I love when I'm right.

Four months ago I wrote an in-depth investigation of Drake's "elongated pause" punchline flow. You know, the elongated pause punchline flow that Drizzy's made so popular: "In your city faded off the brown...Nino / She insists she got more class...we know / Swimming in the money come and find me...Nemo / If I was at the club you know I balled...chemo." Ever since "Forever" dropped, seemingly every rapper who's breathed on a mic has felt obligated to sweat that style, a style that thanks to the collective incredible hip-hop knowledge of RefinedHype nation (and most prominently Mike Dreams) we were able to determine that Big Sean actually pioneered on his 2008 track "Supa Dupa".

Well guess who just backed up every word in that article? Yep, that's right, Drake himself. In an interview with AHH, Drake revealed that it was indeed Big Sean who deserves credit for starting the craze, and insisted that folks need to get off his nutsack:

AHH: How much do Young Money artists bounce off each other? I noticed you have similar inflections and cadences or rhyme patterns. I noticed this one thing that Nicki said, “It’s going down. Basement.”

Drake: "Well, that flow has been killed by so many rappers. And, I never want to use that flow again in life. [Laughs] I wanted to take if off my album, because I was like, “I shut ‘em down. Onyx.” I hate the fact that that rhyme is still in there. To be honest, that flow, you can trace it back to like…I trace it back to Big Sean (artist on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music). That’s the first guy I heard utilize that flow throughout the duration of a verse. I’ll give him that credit. I think Kanye got it from him. Me and Wayne found a dope way to do it. I don’t want to sound cocky, but the best way its been used was on “Forever.” Those lines just all individually make so much sense. They’re all punchlines. Then a bunch of rappers started doing it and using the most terrible references in the world. I don’t want to offend somebody…I hate that rappers picked that flow up. I wish they had left that for people that know how to use it. [They go like] “It’s a parade! MACY’S!”

Two quick reactions to that quote. First, everyone's going to understandably go Planter's on Drake for calling Ludacris out like that, but the really crazy thing is, he's completely right. If I were Aubrey there's a long list of rappers I'd put on the spot before the Ludameister, but there's denying the man did indeed sweat the elongated pause punchline style.

Second, seriously everyone, stop. Just stop. It's gotten to the point where I'm surprised if I don't hear someone throw in an elongated pause punchline. This shit was played out four months ago when I first wrote the article, and lord knows it's well beyond that now. And as long as we're at it, I'm officially declaring an end to the related "believe it or not....Mr. Ripley" line that I've now heard some version of eleventy billion times. What's even crazier is every rapper who spits that line acts like they made it up. No you didn't. Stop.

Together we can stop this epidemic and return originality to hip-hop RefinedHype nation. Do your part and call out the elongated pause punchline, and the Mr. Ripley line, every time it pops up.

(Did I mention I called this four months ago? I did? Well I just did again.)