The feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, influential rappers, has been taking over the internet for the past few weeks after the two traded diss tracks.
The feud began with the release of “First Person Shooter” by Drake and J.Cole in October 2023. In the track, Cole describes himself, Drake, and Kendrick as the “Big Three” artists in Hip-Hop. On March 22, 2024, Lamar replied to the track, dissing both rappers by saying, “Mother**** the big three” and “it’s just big me,” in the song “Like That” with Metro Boomin and Future. Cole would later respond with the song “7 Minute Drill,” only to remove it from all streaming platforms after publicly apologizing onstage.
On April 13, 2024, different versions of Drake’s song “Push Ups” were leaked across the media. The song was made as a response to “Like That.” Drake claimed that many artists are better than Lamar, including SZA, 21 Savage and Travis Scott. Drake went on to mock Lamar’s height (5’5″), and his shoe size. “Push Ups” was officially released on April 19.
Another diss track at Lamar was posted on the same day, titled, “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The song included AI generated vocals of Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. Shakur’s estate would later threaten to sue Drake because of this, stating that it was against Shakur’s personality rights. “The unauthorized, equally dismaying use of Tupac’s voice against Kendrick Lamar, who has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult.”
In the track, Drake claimed that Lamar didn’t respond to the diss due to wanting Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” to chart higher. Lamar was also criticized by Drake for collaborating with Swift. Drake then deleted the song on April 26, 2024.
On April 30, Lamar released “Euphoria” in response to Drake’s diss. On the track, Lamar criticizes the Canadian rapper’s parenting skills,“I got a son to raise, but I can see you know nothin’ ‘bout that.” Three days after the release of Euphoria, Lamar posted an Instagram reel, the caption revealing a new diss track named “6:16 in LA”, referencing Drake’s song “8AM in Charlotte.” The track was produced by Swift’s producer, Jack Antonoff.
On May 3, as a response to “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA,” Drake released “Family Matters.” On the track, Drake claims that Dave Free, Lamar’s friend and label co-founder, is the biological father of one of Lamar’s children. Drake goes on to claim Lamar is a domestic abuser and unfaithful to his fiancee Whitney Alford. Lamar previously addressed cheating on Alford in his record, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Twenty minutes later, Lamar released “Meet the Grahams,” which is directed to Drake and his family. He apologizes to Drake’s son, Adonis, for having Drake as a father. The track goes on to allege that Drake is hiding a second child, is a child predator, and that he’s managing a sex trafficking ring.
On May 4, Lamar released “Not Like Us,” in which he states that Drake and members on his side are pedophiles, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ‘em young” and “Certified lover boy? Certified pedophiles,” as well as ”and Baka got a weird case, why is he around?” Lamar mentions the case of Baka Not Nice, a former member of Drake’s team, where he was charged for forcing a 22 year old woman into prostitution and stealing her money. According to the Toronto Sun, Baka was sentenced to 6 months and the charges for procuring prostitution and human trafficking were dropped.
In 2014, Baka was charged with only assault. The track broke Drake’s spotify record, reportedly hitting No.1 on the US Spotify chart, with a high of 10.986 million streams. The next day, Drake released “The Heart Part 6,” where he denies the allegations of grooming minors and being a predator. He states that he’d “never look twice at no teenager.” The track has a sample of the Aretha Franklin song “Prove it”, “Now let me see you prove it/ Just let me see you prove it.” Drake states that Lamar was fed false information. As of right now, the two have been silent, but only time will tell if the feud is going to continue.
