As many people know, Kendrick and Drake were good friends in the rap industry, and even collaborated on songs together such as Poetic Justice. So how did they go from friends to enemies? This story goes all the way back to 2013.
In 2013, Lamar was featured on Big Sean’s song, “Control”, in which he called out Drake and many other rappers, including Pusha T, Mac Miller, and A$AP Rocky.
“I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you”, Lamar rapped, adding he’s “tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you”.
Many fans started to find and point out the subtle shots that were thrown at each other through their songs. The conflict primarily surrounds the question of who the greater rapper is; Lamar or Drake.
Now fast forward to Oct. 6th, when Drake and another famous rapper, J. Cole, released “First Person Shooter”, in which J. Cole says that he, Lamar, and Drake are the “big three” in the rapping industry. Then, in March of 2024, Metro Boomin and Future’s song “Like That”, drops, where Lamar is a feature in. In his verse, Lamar slammed the rappers for “sneak dissing” and rejected their idea of the “big three”, instead rapping: “It’s just big me”.
Cole wasn’t too happy about this, and on Apr. 5th he released “7 Minute Shooter”, in which he dropped “warning shots” at Lamar, accusing him of seeking attention, and called his latest music “tragic”. However, just a short 2 days later, J. Cole took the song off all streaming platforms and apologized to Lamar, stating he felt pressured to respond because “the world wanna see blood”.
After looking at what Lamar ended up doing to Drake’s career, that was probably the best move J. Cole could’ve done in this situation.
On Apr. 13th, Drake responded to Lamar by dropping “Push Ups”, with lyrics making fun of Lamar’s shorter stature and his collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. Then, not even a week later, Drake released another diss track called “Taylor Made Freestyle”, using AI-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to diss Lamar, daring him to respond. Reasoning behind this petty diss was that Lamar was very open about his inspiration he had for Tupac.
Everything was pretty quiet for a while besides when Kanye West dropped a remix of “Like That”, where he talks about the excitement for the downfall of Drake. Yet, it wasn’t until the end of April when Lamar finally responded to Drake.
On Apr. 30th, Lamar dropped “Euphoria”, a 6-minute long diss on Drake’s inability to say the n-word, his inability to be a father, and the differences between him and Drake, which is rap and art. Euphoria quickly jumped up in the charts to No. 1 on the daily U.S. Spotify chart, while Drake’s “Push Ups” rose from No. 15 to No. 11.
On May 3rd, Drake released “Family Matters”, slamming Lamar’s engagement to longtime partner Whitney Alford and suggesting infidelity within their relationship. Audiences, disappointed by Drake’s weak comeback, weren’t prepared for Lamar’s quick new release “Meet the Grahams”, a reference to Drake’s legal name, Aubrey Drake Graham.
This song is jaw-dropping, as its melody gives a creepy vibe and Lamar sings almost to a whisper. In the song, Lamar sends piercing messages to not only Drake, but Drake’s son Adonis, his alleged daughter, and his parents. Lamar raps about how Drake is hiding another child, that he is the head of a Toronto child sex-trafficking ring, and a pedophile.
On May 4th, Drake posted on Instagram denying the lost daughter allegations. That same day Lamar drops yet another diss track, “Not Like Us”, in which he alludes to Drake’s alleged affinity for younger women and calls him and people on his team “certified pedophiles”.
As we get closer to recent days, Metro Boomin pops back on the scene and releases a beat called “BBL Drizzy”, as a response to Drake previously dissing Boomin on “Push Ups” by telling him to “shut up and make some drums”. Boomin invites fans to rap over it, offering a free beat to the best song.
Drake continues to deny all claims of dating underage girls or having missing children. However, early Tuesday morning, one of Drake’s security guards was shot outside of Drake’s Toronto estate in what was said to be a drive-by shooting. It is currently unclear if this is related to the beef between him and Lamar or unrelated.
