Canadian rapper Drake has been involved in plenty of beefs in his past. But apparently, rather than one of his fellow artists, he seems to be in a rift with NBA icon LeBron James.

The ‘Started from the Bottom’ rapper was performing in Perth, Australia on Tuesday when he changed a lyric in one of his songs that directly references James.

In the song ‘Nonstop’ off his 2018 album ‘Scorpion’, Drake raps the lyric: ‘How I go from 6 to 23 like I’m LeBron’. 

The lyric references the two numbers James has worn in his career in the NBA. James wore No. 6 while with the Miami Heat and briefly while on the Lakers. He’s also worn that number while representing Team USA at the Olympics.

James currently wears No. 23, a number he also wore on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But during the performance of ‘Nonstop’ in Australia, Drake changed up the lyric to say, ‘How I go from 6 to 23 but not LeBron, man.’

Drake switched up the lyrics to NonStop while performing last night”How I go from 6 to 23 but not Lebron, man” pic.twitter.com/tuRdNoGNBa

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) February 5, 2025

It appears that Drake and LeBron James’ friendship has hit a bit of a rough patch

Drake changed up lyrics with references the NBA superstar to now reflect a negative light

It implies that Drake and James, who have been friends for years, may have had some sort of falling out.

Drake and James have been intertwined in some form since the beginning of the rapper’s career. 

One of Drake’s first major hits was the song ‘Forever’, featuring Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West. The song was made for the soundtrack to the film ‘More than a Game’ – which was a documentary about LeBron’s journey to fame through high school.

But it appears that Drake’s beef with Kendrick Lamar may have permeated into his relationship with James.

Over the summer, Drake and Kendrick embarked on a highly publicized rap beef – with a majority of people believing that Lamar won.

That victory was solidified this past Sunday, when the diss track ‘Not Like Us’ won a whopping five Grammy Awards – including both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

James was seen singing and dancing along to ‘Not Like Us’ at a Juneteenth ‘pop-out’ concert held by Lamar at the Forum in Los Angeles last summer. Other NBA stars like James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, and Russell Westbrook also attended.

On Wednesday, James posted a video of Lamar saying that he ‘can’t wait’ for K-Dot’s performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, adding, ‘He gone kill that s**t!’

The feud between Drake and James could likely reflect Drake’s rap beef with Kendrick Lamar

The Canadian rapper appeared to hit out at his friends in a swiftly deleted freestyle track

Last month, Drake appeared to lash out at his friends on a freestyle that was uploaded to producer Conductor Williams’ YouTube page and was quickly taken down.

The song was тιтled ‘Fighting Irish’ – which, incidentally, is the mascot of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio which James attended. 

‘The world fell in love with the gimmicks, even my brothers got tickets, seemed like they loved every minute,’ Drake raps on the track. ‘Just know the s**t is personal to us and wasn’t just business / Analyzing behavioral patterns is somewhat suspicious.’

James has not yet publicly addressed any speculation about his friendship with Drake – or any potential beef they might be having.