Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud is one of – if not the – biggest rap beef in modern memory. While they were on the come-up together and being dubbed as the future of hip-hop in the early ‘10s, the duo seemed to be a united front. They teamed up for bangers like the ‘Buried Alive’ interlude on Drake’s magnum opus ‘Take Care’ and the sultry Janet Jackson-sampling ‘Poetic Justice’ from Lamar’s major label-debut ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’.
However, after a decade of sending shots at one another, Drake and Lamar’s friendship has turned sour, resulting in increasingly sinister rapid releases from both men, resulting in a rap battle that is captivating the world.
Friends to foes
In 2011, both Drake and Kendrick Lamar were dubbed the next rap superstars after the success of their respective debut albums, ‘Thank Me Later’ and ‘Section80’, and Drake invited Lamar and fellow budding star A$AP Rocky to open for him on the Club Paradise tour. With the tour going well (it was the highest-grossing US rap tour in 2012) and a leaked collaboration that turned out to be ‘Buried Alive’ emerged online, this union appeared to have legs – especially since Lamar told XXL that he and the Canadian “clicked immediately” when they met.
Then ‘Control’ dropped
In 2013, Lamar featured on Big Sean’s second album ‘Hall Of Fame’ on the infamous ‘Control’ track. The song saw the young rapper call himself the King of New York and say he, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem and André 3000 were the greatest MCs of all time. He also unapologetically sent shots at Drake as well as other rap heavyweights (Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole, Mac Miller, ScHoolboy Q and more), stating: “I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you n****s”.
Drake commented on the verse in an interview with Billboard shortly after the song’s release. Drake said: “It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That’s all it was. I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform.” Numerous rappers like Joey Badass, Joe Budden, Jay Electronica and more released their respective response tracks to ‘Control’ – but Drake didn’t.
Since then, “sneak disses” have been sent between both Drake and Lamar. The first is speculated to be done by the Canadian juggernaut on ‘The Language’ from his 2013 album ‘Nothing Was The Same’. In the song, he called out an unknown rapper, telling them “Your shit is not that inspirin’”. Lamar apparently clapped back in a BET Hip-Hop Cypher and ever since, the two had dropped subliminal messages for one another in their songs.
The diss tracks
Back in March this year, Kendrick hopped on ‘Like That’ from Metro Boomin and Future’s joint album ‘We Don’t Trust You’. On the menacing beat, Lamar clapped back at J. Cole and Drake’s collaborative single ‘First Person Shooter’ where Cole called the trio “the big three”: “Motherfuck the big three / N****, it’s just big me.” He also called out Drake specifically, reminding the 37-year-old that “Prince outlived Mike Jack” – poking fun at Drake comparing himself to Michael Jackson on the song.
Cole initially responded with ‘7 Minute Drill’, a “mere warning shot” at Lamar on which he mocked his recent albums and work rate. Cole later apologised and removed the song from streaming platforms, calling it “lame, goofy shit” to have put out – making the whole rap game believe that the feud was over in just one week.
On April 13, Drake’s first song in the saga ‘Push Ups’ leaked. In it, he sent numerous shots at Lamar as well as Metro Boomin, Future, Rick Ross, and The Weeknd. The OVO founder said Kendrick was not in “the big three” of modern music since SZA, Travis Scott and 21 Savage got him “wiped down”. He further claimed that 50% of Lamar’s music is owned by his ex-boss, Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith. Rick Ross was the first to respond to ‘Push Ups’ with ‘Champagne Moments’, on which he alleged Drake of having cosmetic surgery – specifically a Brazilian Butt Lift – and issued a cease-and-desist to his frequent collaborator French Montana.
Lamar didn’t reply to Drake immediately, all the while the Toronto native was taunting him online. On Instagram, the rapper told fans that the ‘Swimming Pools’ star “has nothing to drop”. He continued to mock the rapper by releasing ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ – his second diss track aimed at Kendrick, poking fun at Lamar’s working relationship with Swift. ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ also featured A.I.-generated verses from Snoop Dogg and Tupac. The 37-year-old eventually removed the song from his social media and other streaming platforms after Tupac’s estate threatened to sue him.
At the end of April, Lamar dropped the brutal six-minute song ‘Euphoria’ in retaliation, where he criticised Drake for his rap skills, appearance, racial identity, and parenting: “I got a son to raise, but I can see you know nothin’ ’bout that.”
On May 3, Kung-Fu Kenny put out another scathing track called ‘6:16 In LA’. He called Drake a “terrible person” who has plenty of moles in his team. Lamar also revealed Drake gave people $100,000 to find dirt on him but lost it because “they came with no receipts”. Hours later, Drake rebutted with ‘Family Matters’. In seven and a half minutes, he accused Kendrick of domestic violence and infidelity against his partner Whitney Alford. The rapper also claims one of Lamar’s children is fathered by his childhood friend and business partner, Dave Free.
20 minutes later, Kendrick released ‘Meet The Grahams’. Over the eerie track, Lamar brands Drake as a sexual predator, saying he and Harvey Weinstein ”should get fucked up in a cell for the rest their life”, forcing Drake to deny that he had “never been with no one underage”
Lamar quickly followed up with ‘Not Like Us’ – an upbeat roast track which sees the rapper doubling down his accusations against Drake of paedophilia and exploiting Black artists and culture for financial gain. This time, he added a catchy hook and dance: “Lemme hear you say OV-Hoe, Say OV-Hoe / Now, stamp and sway, stamp and sway.”
On May 5, Drake dropped the latest song in the rap saga ‘The Heart, Part 6’ – the name being a call back to Lamar’s popular single series. He boasted about feeding Lamar the lies he’s used in his recent diss tracks, including the information on his hidden daughter: “We plotted for a week and we fed you the information / A daughter that’s 11 years old, I bet he takes it.” ‘The Heart, Part 6’ has over 1million dislikes on YouTube.
The latest developments
Kendrick Lamar has yet to respond to ‘The Heart, Part 6’. However, ‘Not Like Us’ topped the Billboard Hot 100 and broke the Spotify record for the most streamed rap song in one day
In other news, the OVO store in Soho, London was vandalised with the lyrics from ‘Not Like Us’, while wrestler Shawn Michaels has said Drake and Lamar could settle their differences in a WWE ring.
Elsewhere, Vince Staples spoke out against the rap battle, saying the rap community “deserve better”. “We’ve been saying for decades that we want people to respect Black music and Black art and Black people,” Staples explained. “I think for that to happen, we gotta respect ourselves and they don’t make it easy for us, but we gotta try to work a little bit harder at that.”
Questlove also commented on the feud, calling it a “wrestling match-level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary”.
On May 7, a shooting outside Drake’s residence in Toronto left a bodyguard seriously injured. There is no confirmation that the shooting is connected to the ongoing feud between Lamar and Drake. While reporting on the story, a TV news anchor slipped up and called Drake a “raper” not a “rapper”.
A day after the shooting, a man was arrested for attempting to break into Drake’s Toronto mansion. This incident was the first of three trespassing attempts that week, which increased media presence at the home. Drake took to Instagram to ask whoever operated a news helicopter to stop flying at night so he could sleep.
Universal Music Group – the parent label which distributes both Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s music – denied wanting to get involved and end the feud. “Kendrick and Drake’s beef is between them and completely separate from the business side of things,” TMZ reported. “And UMG just doesn’t think it’s their place to step in either way.”
On May 14, journalist Christopher Alvarez came forward and denied being assaulted by Drake after alleged CCTV footage from The Mark Hotel in Manhattan, New York went viral on X/Twitter. In the images, he was put in a headlock and many speculated that the Canadian rap star may have assaulted Alvarez.