Page Explains Beef With Drake: ‘He’s a Snitch and a Coward’

There's no doubt that Drake has been steadily gaining attention for months. Noting his new-found popularity in the new single 'Over,' Drake truthfully raps "I know way too many people here right now that I didn't know last year/ Who the f--- are y'all? But Toronto rapper Page is aiming that same question back at his former friend. "He's a snitch and a coward, and that's just it," Page tells the BoomBox of who he thinks Drake really is.

The beef between Page and Drake, born Aubrey Drake Graham, sparked at the birthday bash for Toronto Raptor Chris Bosh late last month. "Drake's bodyguard took a swing [at Page's manager] and hit his beer bottle," Page says. And even though he wasn't even at the party, Page says the incident "was the last straw."

Weirdly enough when rappers start beefs, they rarely start off with thrown punches, though the grudges eventually often end there. Despite having known each other for years, trouble between Page and Drake began brewing after Drake was robbed in the summer of 2009. He filed a police report, leading Page to oddly denounce the actor-turned-rapper as a snitch via Twitter. But nothing's so simple: Drake had released his solo remix version of Page's 'I'm Still Fly' single -- which originally featured Drake on the refrain -- before Page released his official track to radio.

"He hit me up and apologized for putting the song up," Page explains. "I knew he was burning me, but I said it was all good. Because the city is so small and people talked, people assumed I had problems with Drake. But I had no issues. I knew the song would be a hit -- I didn't care. I know Aubrey a long time –- I know what he is and what he isn't; who he truly is as a man. A lot of people's relationship with him is on a music basis. I know him on a personal level." With a basis of friendship to lean on, Page moved on from what could've been a career-damaging move. But on New Year's Eve 2010, Page finally realized the two "were no longer on a good friendship level."

"I was in Miami and Drake had a show there," Page recounts. "The club promoters put me in a booth right beside him. We shook hands and kept it moving, but when he was with me in the booth with cameras around us ... this being his party, I think he didn't want me to get any light. He asked for me to be escorted out of the club. He didn't know that I knew the promoter and club owner -- they put me [in the booth]. He thought I snuck my way up."

The violence at Bosh's party was allegedly paired with a much less visible form of aggression: computer hacking. "I recorded a verse over Drake's 'Over,'" Page says. "It wasn't a diss, but just some subliminal shots about him being a snitch. I just had it saved to my email -- it wasn't sent to anybody. It was just in my email, but it didn't stay there." Page realized quickly that someone had hacked into his email account. "Drake called us up to say he heard the overdub and I was real disrespectful with his beat. But there was no way he'd have heard my track unless he knows the people [who hacked my email]. I personally believe he paid people to hack my shit," says Page. "When I react, I react in the light. When he reacts, nobody ever sees it. I'm just fighting back, but it looks like I'm always attacking him."

Where the beef will go from here is anyone's guess. With Drake's 'Thank Me Later' due June 15, and Page's 'Things Young People Do' dropping this summer, expect to hear a lot more from both ends of the feud. Though Page doesn't "expect Drake to say anything about [the beef]," he offered this notion: "If people really understood the full story with Aubrey, it'd mess his career up. And I'm not trying to do that. It is what it is. But if I could reach out to him, I'd tell him not to let people dictate how he acts as a person. Don't let the industry get in your head and fill it with nonsense. We know who you are."