Kendrick Perkins and Quavo squashed their insisted “non-beef” on national television – with comedic results.
The NBA champion and Migos member went at it on ESPN’s “First Take” on Thursday, where the rapper was on hand to promote the group’s new “Culture III” album.
“First Take” hosts Molly Qerim Rose and Max Kellerman asked Quavo what his “beef” with Perkins was about on the show.
“I don’t got no beef man. He must’ve felt some type of way since I dropped them bars, and ever since then, he was saying my bars is weak, and I’m just stating facts,” Quavo said, referencing the time he rapped about Perkins on the song, “F–k 12,” from his 2018 debut solo album, “Quavo Honcho.”
The lyrics included: “Every time your b—h phone when she workin’ / Get no playin’ time, Kendrick Perkins.”
Quavo explained on “First Take” that he had recorded the album during Cleveland’s series with the Raptors during the 2018 Eastern Conference playoffs, where Perkins — as a spectator on the sidelines — got into a verbal dispute with Drake.
Quavo and Drake are frequent collaborators and close friends, and Quavo referenced the moment on “F–k 12” as well.
“You wanted to argue and wanted to fight. / Why you want to cause so much chaos if you ain’t playing? / If you ain’t playing you shouldn’t be trying to fight,” Quavo raps in the song.
Perkins reminded Quavo on Thursday that though he wasn’t playing at the time, he was an important player for the Celtics earlier in his career, including on their 2007-08 championship team.
“When I was putting in work, you probably still had Similac on your breath when I was helping the Celtics go to the Finals during that time,” Perkins said.
Quavo and Perkins have gone tit for tat for years, and their back-and-forth made its resurgence this week when Quavo used a photo of Perkins with a fist emoji under his chin to promote Migos’ new album.
Perkins hit back with, “Thank God you’re back with the Migos because this photoshop uppercut is as close as you’ll ever get to a hit as a solo artist! Carry on…”
In 2019, Perkins referenced the lyrics in an interview on “Fair Game with Kristine Leahy” and said he almost “got into it” with Quavo.
“He tried to diss me… so I was like, ‘Uh, no and you need to stick to staying with the Migos and not going solo. I kinda wanted to fire back because his album flopped anyway,” he said, adding, “It was trash.”
Perkins went on to explain that his role at the end of his career was to be a “locker room” guy as opposed to playing more minutes. He retired in April 2019.
By the end of his “First Take” appearance, Quavo determined there’s never been bad blood with Perkins.
“All jokes aside, it ain’t ever beef with Big Perk and it’s all love… it’s all respect,” he said.
“If we had beef, we would’ve made hamburgers,” Perkins replied. “It’s no beef, it’s just a little boxing and I’m all cool with it.”