Rich The Kid Drops Subtle Shade on New Song “Dead Friends”

Days before the release of his debut album, Rich The Kid appears to be firing on all cylinders. Yesterday (March 25), the Rich Forever Music boss unloads "Dead Friends," a potentially subliminal-laced track from The World Is Yours.

Featuring an active, but lowkey instrumental, "Dead Friends" finds Rich throwing some shots at an unnamed foe. While it's usually safe to assume a rapper's talking about an imaginary composite of all the lames in the world, there are a constellation of bars on this particular track that have led many to think Rich is actually dissing Lil Uzi Vert.

"You little niggas/My check bigger (check bigger)/Can't flex, nigga (flex)
Can't bet witcha (huh)/Teach you how to be a boss (boss), top dropped off (skrrt)/Motherfuck the fame, I done came to the vault (what)/All them dead friends (dead)/You a middleman (what)/You a little man (little, huh)/Your money getting shorter (shorter)," Rich spits in the hook for the track.

In two of the several bars on "Dead Friends," Rich drops a couple of lines that could be allusions to Uzi songs. "Money Longer" was one of Uzi's breakout singles, and on his multi-platinum-selling  "XO Tour Llif3," Uzi says that all his friends or dead. Coincidence? Quite possibly, but then again, they could also be subliminal shots.

On January 12 Lil Uzi Vert began a Twitter thread in which he complained about the circumstances surrounding his current record label situation. Responding to the tweet, Rich told Uzi he should have signed to his Rich Forever Music. Uzi responded to Rich's tweets, "Boy I’m not signing for 20racks."

Since then, there haven't been many headlines about their purported beef, but "Dead Friends" could be a continuation of it.

While it's fun to speculate, Rich actually used an appearance on Zane Lowe’s World Record on Beats 1 to speak on the song himself. Rich says he actually recorded the song before he and Uzi's social media conflict popped off, and the track is about letting fans know "how money change people."

"Its funny cause I made this record months before all that and so whatever darkness comes to light," Rich said. "So you listen to the song you know whats going on. Billboard don't lie."

Rich is apparently looking forward to Uzi's next move. "Well you know it's funny I'm just waiting to see if he's going to reply back," he said at the time. "You know you can't write better than me though."

Check out "Dead Friends" below. Pre-order The World Is Yours, which drops on Friday (March 30), on iTunes. Listen to Rich's interview with Lowe when you're done with that.

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