We’ve all followed Drake and Pusha T’s feud from mixtape to mixtape. And maybe dragging on for 10+ years seems a bit extreme, but arguing through music makes sense for them, because they’re musical artists. It doesn’t make as much sense when a fast food restaurant tries to settle beef with a mixtape, but recently, Wendy’s did just that.
Um, what?
No, seriously. This actually happened. Last week, fast food giants Wendy’s and Steak ‘n Shake got into a Twitter feud, seemingly out of nowhere. It began with this diss from Steak ‘n Shake, which honestly, reads like an attempt to stay relevant:
And of course, Wendy’s responded.
The back-and-forth continued for over an hour, with lots of input from the peanut gallery:
But the highlight of it all was Wendy’s final retort, which was complete with a link to a mixtape on Spotify called “We Beefin?”
Yes, that is a real mixtape. There are five songs—”Twitter Fingers,” “Holding It Down,” “Rest in Grease,” “Clownin,” and “4 for 4$”. The songs are all under four minutes, ranging from 1:30 to 3:12. And yes, of course, I listened to it all.
The musical rundown
Each song has a distinct theme. “Twitter Fingers” features a feminine-voiced rapper (supposedly Wendy) preaching about their flavor and social media prowess.
“Holding It Down” reminds listeners that the Wendy’s team is ready to handle any potential challengers, not just Steak ‘n Shake—as “this ain’t no cake walk” but they still “run this town for many miles” and have been “holdin’ it down for like a minute now”. The wordplay in this track was actually pretty clever, I have to admit.
“Rest in Grease” also takes shots at multiple other fast food restaurants, explicitly calling out McDonald’s constantly broken ice cream machines.
“Clownin” chides Steak ‘n Shake for not thinking harder about calling out “the Wendy,” and “4 for 4$” finishes the tape off with a reminder about the “blessing” that is their 4 for $4 deal.
All in all, the music on the tracks wasn’t as trash as I expected, and I give the brand props for getting a full-fledged mixtape together. But you know, Wendy’s has probably been working on this for a minute and was just waiting to get into it with someone so they could drop it.