is a ruthless and unforgiving place. We hear people decry cancel culture every day, as celebrities and public figures get jumped on for the slightest slip-up. knows the way the game works but he will not let himself go down like that. 

On Wednesday (Feb. 5), he shared a photo on Instagram himself sitting on a couch beside his son. While at first glance this appears to just be a harmless, even heartwarming, “like father like son” moment, if you give the pic a closer inspection, you might detect that Tory’s got a blunt tucked between his fingers. The Toronto rapper foresaw that there would be a faction people ripping him apart for smoking in front his young child, so he shut them down before they got the chance. “Minus the tobacco (which is not lit) for u shade room Ass n****s,” he pointed out in the caption. 

Did Tory just defuse a potential bomb? It’s not hard to imagine a hip hop blog headline along the lines “Tory Lanez Gets Dragged For Smoking In Front Of His Young Son.” In an alternate universe, I could have even been writing that article at this very moment. Instead, I’m just informing you that Tory came prepared.