Common vs. Drake | Canada Dry Reference

Posted by Oak and Oar on January 16, 2012

Rap beefs crack me up, well at least ones that don’t involve guns and knives. The verbal exchange of name calling and metaphorical innuendoes have had their place in rap well before I was born. You’ve had East Coast vs. West Coast, Bad Boy vs. Death Row, NWA vs Ice Cube, LL Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee, Ja Rule and 50 Cent, and the more laughable ones like Eminem vs. Mariah and Soulja Boy vs. Ice T.

This week Common, over “Stay Schemin”, decided to take a shot at Drake by comparing him to former Canadian based beverage, Canada Dry. My initial thought, after I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, was that some jokester tucked away in the corner of his dorm room tweeted something like “Wouldn’t it be funny if someone compared Drake to a carbonated beverage?” and then some how this spiraled through twitter becoming a trending topic. But after a quick goggle it turned out that in fact Common had made the comparison. So here is the Cole’s Notes version of the Drake vs. Common beef…

Common calls Drake soft on “Sweet” the third single from Common’s ninth album supposedly because he is bummed that Drake has befriend his former lady, Serena Williams. I know I didn’t believe it either. I could see if it was over Jess Stam or Kate Beckinsale but Serena Williams? Sorry guys I’m just not seeing it. Maybe it is just me, but I prefer a girl that can’t crush my mid section with her quadriceps.

Drake tells media during a concert in Las Vegas in December that if Common has an issue with him to come and say it to his face. I don’t want to take sides but that makes sense to me.

Common confirms on “Sway in the Morning” that the “Sweet” diss was directed at Drake.

Some irrelevant Twitter dialect between 40 and Q-Tip takes place.

After really staying out of it, Drake answers on Ross’ Rich Forever Mixtape on “Stay Schemin”, basically calling it a marketing stunt on Common’s part to sell a few more records. I mean his first week sales in the US were only 69,000 copies vs. Drakes first week US numbers of 162,000 (631,466 worldwide). Logical move by anyone looking to sell a few more discs.

Then this week Common puts a verse down on a “Stay Schemin” remix calling Drake out once again and comparing him to carbonated beverage, Canada Dry. “I’m talking too long with this amateur guy/ You ain’t wettin’ nobody, you Canada Dry.”

Outside of a couple Rick Ross retweets and some insight courtesy of The Weeknd we get to this week, yet to see what will stem from his recess scuffle.

I was going to weigh in on each event that led up to Common’s diss on “Stay Schemin” but rather I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about Canada Dry, a beverage I think we all can say we have enjoyed at one point or another.

In 1890, Canadian pharmacist and chemist, John J. McLaughlin of Einniskillen, Ontario opened a carbonated water plant in Toronto and created “Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale”. The company has since made its way, through a series of moves, to the roster of the Dr. Pepper and Snapple Group based in Texas.

Here is where I get confused, and think that Common might have forgotten to do his homework on the comparison.

- Canada Dry’s popularity as a mixer began during Prohibition, helping to mask the taste of homemade liquor. So I guess you could say it is versatile and helps to cover up some of the other crappy tasting beverages out there.

- Canada Dry is the champagne of Ginger Ales. In fact it is the only ginger ale made of real ginger. So I guess who could say that through the cluttered world of beverages, it stands above the rest as the only one having real substance?

- Canada Dry is one of the few beverages that has never been pigeon holed with a motto or tagline. Although it did run with “Listen…this is the best one yet!”.

- The only thing that made sense was the Toronto connection. True both stem from the TDot and have gone on to have a wealth of worldwide success, however with all the success they continue to rep their country proudly.

So I see where Common was going with this diss but upon further analysis I think it turned out more of a compliment. And all along I thought Drake was a Sprite guy.