Who would think that fun-loving actor Brian Baumgartner, known for playing Kevin for nine seasons on the legendary, Emmy Award-winning series, "The Office" would be caught up in the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar — which turned out to be the biggest rap beef in modern hip-hop history? Well, I wouldn't, but it is, in fact, true.

When Drake and J. Cole dropped the hit song and video, “First Person Shooter,” a few months back the first thing I noticed was Baumgartner because he's in the first frame of the video, playing a resurrected Kevin-type role. He is sitting at a desk and playing video games as his entire staff runs amok. The song's connection to "The Office" is a double entendre of sorts with J. Cole's opening bar going: “First-person shooter mode, we turnin' your song to a funeral/ To them ni**** that say they wan' off us, you better be talkin' 'bout workin' in cubicles.”

Kendrick heard this song, saw this video, took some of the lyrics spat by J. Cole and Drake personally, and a war was ignited. When I talked to Baumgartner for "Salon Talks," I couldn't help but ask him if he anticipated playing a role in this battle. He said, “I need Kendrick to give me a call. We’ll do a sit-down, I'll take care of everything.”

“Yeah, I did not know, obviously, at that time, what it was going to start,” Baumgartner continued. “I went back and looked at that video recently, and I saw it hopped millions and millions again. I was like, ‘Why is everybody . . .? Oh, that's why everybody's going back to it and looking at it again.’"

TV fans around the globe know Baumgartner for playing Kevin, one of the funniest, original, and memorable characters in sitcom history, but they may not know that the Georgia native is also a grillmaster. “Barbecue and grilling outside, that's something that I started when I was a kid," he said. "When I'm home, I'm at the grill, four or five nights a week, cooking something."

Baumgartner’s career in producing cookbooks began after Kevin had an incident with a huge pot of chili on an episode of "The Office." First, there was his "Seriously Good Chili Cookbook," and now there's a follow-up, "Seriously Good Barbecue Cookbook." Baumgartner and I talked about his journey into barbecue, his favorite cuts and why he simply loves being behind the grill.

Watch my "Salon Talks" episode here or read a Q&A of our conversation below to hear more about BBQ, "The Office" and of course, the Drake and Kendrick feud.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

For fans of “The Office” that have not been following your passion for cooking, can you bring us into that side of you and why you started putting cookbooks out?

Well, there was let's just call it an incident that happened during "The Office," where there might have been some chili that got spilled.

Kevin's famous chili.

Yeah, that's right. That was the first cookbook I put that together. I met a lot of people in the chili world. But this book is much more personal for me. Barbecue, I'm from the South, I'm from Georgia originally, I’ve been doing it, been around it my whole life. It's something I really am passionate about. I'm on the road a lot, but when I'm home, I'm at the grill, four or five nights a week, cooking something. Barbecue and grilling outside, that's something that I started when I was a kid.

As you explain in the book, barbecuing and grilling are not the same thing.

That's right. Technically barbecue means slow-cooked — smoking it, putting it on indirect heat. Whereas grilling is fire, hot—cooking steaks or whatever — over a direct heat. That's the difference. For me, the word barbecue really is about that communal outdoor thing, cooking together with family and friends, getting tips from different family........

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