"What would I rat about?" — Elliott Wilson dispels rumors he leaked information about Drake to Kendrick Lamar

American journalist and media personality Elliott Wilson addressed the claims that he was the alleged "rat" who leaked information about Drake to Kendrick Lamar during their recent rap battle that took over the hip-hop industry in April and May.

Appearing on The Joe Budden Podcast on June 9, 2024, Wilson claimed that Drake assumed he was the snitch feeding Lamar with information. This came after Lamar's diss track "6:16 in LA," released on May 3, hinted that Drake had a mole.

Elliott Wilson elaborated that he had reached out to Drake after Lamar's track had dropped, asking if he had a rebuttal, to which the Canadian rapper allegedly responded with "Yeah, something, lol."

Following this, the rapper also sent Wilson a rat emoji, which the latter interpreted as Drake calling him the snitch. Elliott Wilson denied this allegation, adding that he and Lamar didn't share a "personal rapport."

“What would I rat about? Imagine if you said that everything Kendrick knows [is] ’cause Elliott Wilson is telling him that? Kendrick would laugh all day. I’m cool with Kendrick, but we’re not cool like that to even have that level of personal rapport. And then, like, what am I telling him? [Drake’s] gonna drop a battle record against you? Yes, n*gga, you’re in a battle! What am I telling you? What is the information I’m telling you?” he said during the podcast.

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Elliott Wilson claimed Drake ceased all contact with him following the diss battle

Elliott Wilson, a veteran journalist who founded Rap Radar, weighed in on the highly publicized Drake-Kendrick Lamar diss battle when he appeared on The Joe Budden Podcast on June 9. He dispelled the narrative that he double-crossed the Canadian rapper, adding that receiving the rat emoji felt very "disrespectful."

"Out of nowhere, he [Drake] sent me a rat emoji! I’ve never had a grown man ever send me a disrespectful emoji of any sort. I’m a grown a** man. I’m fuming.”

Elliott Wilson claimed that he responded to the emoji with a meme of 50 Cent saying “What he say ‘f*ck me’ for?” but Drake reportedly never responded. He also added that after this interaction, Drake ceased all contact with him and blocked him on Instagram.

The media personality said the incident occurred before Drake released Family Matters in response to Lamar's back-to-back disses, Euphoria and 6:16 in LA. In the latter track, K. Dot alluded to Drake having leaks in his record label OVO with the lyrics:

"Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let's see/ Have you ever thought that OVO is workin' for me?/ Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/ Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it."

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Elliott Wilson was warned not to visit Toronto after the feud

On an episode of his podcast The Bigger Picture on May 22, Elliott Wilson said he got calls from the "OGs" that warned him he wasn't welcome in the 6 God's hometown of Toronto after the feud was over.

“I got the calls from OGs. You know, I’m not really welcome in Toronto right now […] I grew up in New York City — you know you don’t go through other people’s project, right? I would not go to Toronto if me and Drake weren’t good, so that obviously makes sense. So yeah, I just think it’s a tough time,” Wilson said.

Elliott Wilson also claimed that Lamar won the feud, ranking his final diss track, Not Like Us, in his list of the top three best diss tracks of all time. The DJ Mustard-produced track broke several records, becoming the fastest rap song to surpass 100 million streams in nine days of its release.

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The intense rap battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake dominated the hip-hop industry for weeks as they exchanged diss tracks. The saga began with Lamar's surprise feature on Metro Boomin and Future's Like That on March 26. Drake responded on April 19 with two tracks, Push Ups and Taylor Made.

However, he had to take down Taylor Made after receiving a cease-and-desist from Tupac's estate for using the late rapper's vocal likeness via AI without permission.

Kendrick Lamar continued the battle when he dropped Euphoria on April 30, and 6:16 in LA on May 3. Drake's Family Matters and Lamar's Meet the Grahams came within an hour of each other on May 3, and Lamar closed off the battle by releasing Not Like Us the next day.