If you’ve been on the internet, you’ve probably heard about the current hot topic: the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The artists have been in what seems like a boxing match, constantly hitting each other with bars and innuendos, which, in the end, are not innuendos but direct disses. Some bet on Drake, others on Kendrick. What’s certain is that this hasn’t been an easy battle, but far from it.
Here we’ll tell you how one of the most historic beefs in rap history has progressed so you can make your own conclusions.
It all started with J Cole?
To understand the context, it’s worth mentioning that both rappers collaborated for the first time in 2011 when Lamar appeared on Drake’s album Take Care.
However, J Cole initiated a war -for which he would later back down- when, in his collaboration with Drake on the song ‘First Time Shooter,’ they would set their sights on K-Dot (Kendrick):
Love when they argue the hardest MC
Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?
Apparently, these bars seemed harmless, but they ended up provoking a response that would lead Kendrick to dedicate several songs along with Future and Metro Boomin on his album, ‘We Don’t Trust You.’
The album contains countless references to Drake, so many fans began to notice the beginning of a rivalry and awaited a response from the rapper.
At first, the Canadian didn’t write a song about it, but he did send some words to Lamar during a concert in Sunrise, Florida.
“Many people ask me how I feel. I let you know how I feel. Listen, the same way I feel is the same way I want you to leave this building tonight,” he said. “I have my damn head held high, my back straight, I’m ten damn toes down in Florida and anywhere else I go. And I know that no matter what happens, there is no one on this earth who can mess with my life!”
Later, J Cole publicly apologized to Kendrick by calling him one of the “greatest” to ever use a microphone and said he hoped Lamar would forgive him.
“The past two days felt terrible,” J. Cole said. “It let me know how good I’ve been sleeping for the past 10 years.”
First Round: ‘Push Ups’
“Push Ups (Drop & Give Me 50)” was the song with which Drake officially initiated the rap war. In it, he mocks Kendrick for his height, the people he has collaborated with, proclaiming himself as a ‘Hitmaker,’ and pointing out that Kendrick couldn’t measure up to him.
‘How the fuck you big-steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?’ Push Up Lyrics by Drake.
On the same day, Drake released the song “Taylor Made Freestyle,” where the rapper involved Tupac, one of Kendrick’s favorite singers. How did he do it? Thanks to artificial intelligence. He also mentions Taylor Swift several times, which, honestly, is a bit out of place, as both artists have collaborated with the pop star.
The next one is really ’bout to bring out the coward in you
But now we gotta wait a fuckin’ week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top
And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve
This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud
However, Drake was forced to take down the song as he could face a lawsuit for using Tupac’s voice since many considered this to be disrespectful to one of the most important rappers in the history of rap.
Drake pressured Kendrick to respond, insinuating that he wasn’t doing so because Taylor’s album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ would be released that week.
BIG MISTAKE.
Second round: Kendrick Drops Euphoria
On April 30th, Kendrick surprised everyone with a link on Twitter containing a YouTube link.
euphoriahttps://t.co/oTSoAYmtiy
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) April 30, 2024
It was the song Euphoria, a ‘diss track’ of over six minutes where the rapper from Compton calls Drake ‘A pathetic master manipulator‘ and ‘a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted,’ and makes reference to Pusha T, who had revealed in a song in the past that Drake had an unrecognized child.
He also dedicated some lines that would soon become a TikTok trend:
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.”
Kendrick revealed that he might know more than we thought about Drake’s family, a matter we would see more of later on.
Don’t speak on the family, crodie
It can get deep in the family, crodie
Talk about me and my family, crodie?
Someone gon’ bleed in your family, crodie
Third round: Drake claps back with Family Matters
On Friday, Drake had responded with Family Matters. There, he questions Lamar’s paternity, says that one of his children is not his but his associate, Dave Free’s, accuses rapper Baby Keem as one of the ghostwriters of his tracks, and makes a very serious accusation: Drake asserts that Kendrick hit his wife, Whitney, and mocks the fact that the couple hasn’t married despite being together since high school.
“They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat up your queen.”
We can also see in the music video the van that appears on the cover of ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City’ (2012), Lamar’s album, being crushed.
The K.O.: Kendrick Responds 40 minutes after with ‘Meet The Grahams’
Almost 40 minutes after Drake released the song, Kendrick responded with a harsh track where he held nothing back and exposed all of Drake’s alleged secrets.
The cover shows what are supposedly items found at Drake’s house, suggesting that there is someone within his team who may have betrayed him.
In ‘Meet The Grahams,’ Kendrick goes one by one and speaks to Adonis, Drake’s son, telling him that he regrets his father being his dad. He tells him not to use Ozempic, to get a gym membership instead, and regrets that Drake is such a bad role model for him. It’s important to note that ‘Graham‘ is Drake’s family’s name.
Then, he goes against Drake’s parents, questioning how they raised him and saying they turned him into a manipulator and a pedophile.
“We gotta raise our daughters knowin’ there’s predators like him lurkin’
F-ck a rap battle, he should die so all of these women can live with a purpose
I been in this industry twelve years, I’ma tell y’all one lil’ secret
It’s some weird shit goin’ on and some of these artists be here to police it”
Subsequently, he speaks directly to Drake, whose real name is Aubrey, and calls him a liar: about his religious views, his surgery, ghostwriters, and having a daughter.
Kendrick ends the song with ‘F-ck a rap battle, this a long life battle with yourself.’
Drake responded by posting an ig story asking for someone to find his lost daughter, but he didn’t mention anything about the pedophilia accusations.
The aftermath
Later on, Kendrick released “Not Like Us,” where he made the situation Drake was being accused of even more visible. “Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophiles” (Drake’s 2021 album was titled “Certified Lover Boy,”) that’s how he refers to Aubrey in his song, which has a much more mocking tone.
Lamar also used an image of Drake’s mansion in Toronto marked with red markers of “pedophile” as the single cover.
drake first mistake was beefing with a short gemini from compton
— Meech Arlert (@DemetriusHarmon) May 5, 2024
Many mention that this song finished off Drake, and some even asked him to stop responding as he had already lost.
But Drake did respond, releasing another song called “THE HEART PART 6” where he simply denies Kendrick’s accusations and tries to turn the tables on the rapper, saying that the allegations of pedophilia are actually a projection that Lamar has on him for having been sexually abused in the past. Kendrick had previously mentioned about sexual abuse on his album Mr. Morale, denying having suffered it himself but claiming that it was actually his mother who experienced it.
“I never been with no one underage, but now I understand why this the angle that you really mess with
Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I’m too respected
If I was fucking young girls, I promise I’d have been arrested
I’m way too famous for this shit you just suggested”
For some strange reason, Drake also referenced Millie Bobby Brown: “Only fuckin’ with Whitneys (Whitney Houston or Whitney, Kendrick’s wife), not Millie Bobby Browns, I’d never look twice at no teenager.” Drake says in his song. However, Drake had previously been accused of “grooming” the young actress.
drake was 32 when he sent text messages to the 14 year old millie bobby brown, telling her “i miss you so much” and giving her advice about boys.
seems as good a time as ever to bring this back. pic.twitter.com/exGA3cgigz
— 🍭 (@tiredasslesbian) May 4, 2024
As a result, many fans reacted very negatively to this latest song, calling it “cringeworthy” and unnecessary, as it denies the rapper from Compton’s accusations without evidence and calling his arguments “lame,” as many mentioned, “How can you say you’re too famous for that? Apparently, Drake hasn’t heard about Weinstein, Bill Cosby, or Dan Schneider.
So maybe that was the end of this intense battle. Currently, “Meet The Grahams” has over 17 million views, while “Family Matters” has 15 million. But in the end, the numbers don’t matter.
Who do you think won?
