21 Savage, Drake ‘Zesty’ Friendship: Rapper Explains His Idea Of Gender Norms, Expectations

Drake, 21 Savage
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for SiriusXM

21 Savage and Drake released perhaps one of the greatest collaborative albums of the decade with "Her Loss." The album is up for Grammy nominations despite Drake's questionable relationship with the Recording Academy.

As 21 Savage explains his relationship with the rap icon, he can't help but also defend his own definition of gender norms and gender expectations that support his description of their unique friendship.

21 Savage, Drake Friendship

Talking to Rolling Stone, 21 Savage was asked about his friendship with Drake. Like most men in Hip-Hop, the rapper wanted to come out fierce and unemotional.

"I feel like describing male friendships is zesty as hell," he simply put it. When lectured by Rolling Stone about using "zesty" as descriptive slang, 21 Savage elaborated on his idea of gender norms and expectations.

"There are these unneeded parameters around men and the way we expect them to express love or care or friendship," Rolling Stone told 21 Savage, who says that it is "needed."

According to 21 Savage, these gender norms and expectations are what separates men and women.

"Like in the argument, a man's supposed to think more about what he say. I feel like a woman is supposed to cry, like, 'Fuck this shit.'," he added.

As the writer tried to explain that both men and women can have room to be emotional, explaining the fluidity of gender, 21 Savage stopped them.

"I get what you're saying, but I don't agree with it," he said: "Well, I agree with most of what you're saying. I just feel like the man supposed to be one way and the woman supposed to be one way."

As the conversation strays away from the actual topic, 21 Savage argued that they could have the debate all day, but eventually left the topic as it is.

21 Savage, Drake 'Her Loss'

"Her Loss" is the first collaborative album that 21 Savage and Drake worked with. The album has been nominated for Best Rap Album.

Some of their songs are also nominated, including "Spin Bout U," which was nominated for Best Rap Melodic Performance, and "Rich Flex" which was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

It was quite a surprise that "Her Loss" was submitted for Grammy consideration considering that Drake and the Recording Academy have had a pretty volatile relationship with each other in the past few years.

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Drake, 21 Savage
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