Rapper Pusha T isn’t lovin’ it anymore, which is why Arby’s enlisted him for a diss track.
- The song takes a shot at McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish and promotes Arby’s new chicken sandwich. In the track, Pusha T claims “a little cube of fish from a clown is basic,” going after the legendary Ronald McDonald himself. He also claims to be the creator for the “I’m lovin’ it” jingle, one of the longest-running campaigns in the fast-food chain’s history.
“We have this maverick spirit and that’s consistent with the authenticity of our brand, which gives us pretty broad latitude to participate in unexpected ways,” Patrick Schwing, Arby’s chief marketing officer, told Marketing Dive.
Pusha T goes on to rap lines like, “How dare you sell a square fish asking us to trust it / A half slice of cheese, Mickey D’s on a budget?”
“We think he’s struck the right tone in this one. Make no mistake, we’re drawing a comparison between us and them, and we think we’re better, but we also think that it’s not mean if you’re right,” Schwing said.
Making sure to take credit where credit is due, Pusha T opens the song with the lines, “I’m the reason/The whole world love it/Now I gotta crush.”
“I am solely responsible for the ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ swag and the jingle of that company,” he told Rolling Stone. “That’s just real. I am the reason.”
He said that he and his brother were paid a one-time fee of $1 million, without royalties, to write the jingle, which was “peanuts for as long as that’s been running.”
But his claims have been disputed. In a 2016 Pitchfork article, others who were credited with the jingle have denied the rapper's involvement.
This isn’t the first time a fast-food chain has used a diss track to take shots at a competitor. Wendy’s did it back in 2018, but no one as notable as Pusha T was involved.