“It definitely wasn’t insulting…Kendrick Lamar, I don’t think he was trying to insult any of us, you know. We all know each other personally,” Meek said. “There were a lot of names that weren’t mentioned…It was a competition thing. I live for competition. Everyone who knows me knows I don’t want to lose in a game of nothing. I don’t want to lose in a game of tic-tac-toe. I’m not going to make a diss record for Kendrick Lamar. But if he wants to get competitive, we’re going to have some fun.”
For his part, Waiters, the former Syracuse University standout, likened Kendrick’s verse to the rivalries that develop on the basketball court. “It’s like a sport,” said Waiters, who was drafted in 2012. “I look at it like, that’s motivation…he said your name, that means you’re doing something… You’ve got to look at it like me going against Kobe. I’m trying to kill him.”