(Photos from left: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images, Valerie Macon/Getty Images, Phil McCarten/PictureGroup)

Get you plate, forks and steak knives ready, kids, we’ve got another steaming helping of fresh-cooked rap beef. In the ring this week? Common and Drake.

When Com dropped “Sweet,” from his just-released The Dreamer/The Believer, some saw the song as a subliminal shot at Drake. "Singing all around me manla-la-la / You ain’t no mother----kin’ Frank Sinatra,” Common adlibs before the hook sample, “You look so sweet,” drops.

Drake responded to the perceived jab onstage at a recent show in Las Vegas, saying, “I might sing, but I ain’t no b---h. If Common got something to say, say it to my face.”

Com has since been asked about the perceived diss in various interviews, and he finally more or less confirmed that Drake was indeed the intended target in a sit-down yesterday on the “Sway in the Morning” radio show. “He opened his mouth and said some things, so if that’s what he want, all that subliminal [talk] … you could do that, too, but say it now," Common said. “The verse is about me, but when you hear some of the stuff on the chorus, it’s like, you can’t help but think about dude, and I guess that’s what he felt. So at the end of the day, he fits that category, he already embraced it, so wear it.”

But Com wasn’t all jabs; he also gave his Toronto counterpart some props. “He’s a very successful artist obviously, and like I said, he’s a talented artist, too,” he said. “I give credit where it’s due.”

In the end, Common says it’s about hip hop’s spirit of competition, referring to some of the infamous battles that have always captured the culture’s attention.

“It’s just about MCing, and once you step in there, you’re in the ring, baby, especially if you’re gonna say, ‘I’m the champion, I’m the greatest,'” he said. “Just like for me: I’m on ‘Sweet’ saying, ‘I’m the greatest.’ There’s gonna be some cats that gon’ come at me, but I’m a warrior, so let’s go.”

Ah, but the plot thickens. Drake’s in-house producer and close friend Noah “40” Shebib responded to Common’s shots on Twitter yesterday.

“@Common, I remember being called a b---h in grade 9 cause I had your cd,” he wrote. “Good thing I also had 456 by kool g rap on me. Now that’s real. After ‘one day it’ll all make sense’ came out I spent months arguing weather [sic] or not @common was hip hop. Everyone was saying it was too rnb. I’m not dissing, just facts. I love common. I also love swv and John b.”

Q-Tip then jumped into the fray as well, defending Common and directing a tweet back at Shebib: “Ayo @OVO40 please don’t suggest that @common aint hiphop. #keepitfunny. #nodissrepect.”

40 responded by writing, “@QtipTheAbstract, never! Common is in my top 5 always has been. He’s also been brave enough to be different. I respect that as well. #irony.”

Stay tuned to BET.com as the beef progresses — we have a feeling there’s going to be a second helping.

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