The Drake x Kendrick Lamar Lore
Champagne Papi, always in my heart.
The rap world is no stranger to a not-so-lighthearted feud. There is a solid argument for feuds being a sort of backbone to the genre. One can’t talk about rap beefs without mentioning Tupac vs. Biggie— East vs. West— THE rap beef that bears the standard for every MC dispute since the 1990s. In that beef 2Pac and B.I.G. both tragically lost their lives, Kendrick and Drake didn’t. Well one kinda did… figuratively.
Like Biggie and Pac, Drake and Kendrick started out as collaborators on three tracks. The pair first came together in Drake’s 2011 junior album: “Take Care” (arguably his best) in “Buried Alive Interlude”; the album debuted at #1 in the Billboard Top 200. Then again in Kendrick’s breakout “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” for “Poetic Justice”. In between they were both on A$AP Rocky’s “F**kin' Problems” (my favorite ensemble collaboration of all time), when we were a real family.
Then there was the divorce.
I’d like to say there was a calm before the storm, but between 2012 and now, the waters were NOT still. Lamar threw plenty of shots at Drake throughout the years; claiming he had a ghost writer and threatening to take all his fans. But that’s Kendrick, we (the self-proclaimed rap connoisseurs) would come to know him as this cocky sharp-shooter with the pen and the swagger to back it up. Unfortunately for me, an old-Drake lover, the Certified Lover Boy was the prey right in K.Dot’s iron sight… multiple times.
October 2023. For All the Dogs. Track six. First person shooter. “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league”. To literally any other artist, this would’ve been a compliment. Kung Fu Kenny took it personally. To this he responded with his feature verse on “Like That” on Metro Boomin’s “WE DONT TRUST YOU”. The entire (and I mean ENTIRE) verse is venomous, starting off with “These n**s talkin' out of they necks/Don't pull no coffin out of your mouth”. But the bullet that started this all-out war was “Motherf*ck the big three, n**a, it's just big me”.
As a response, Drake dropped “Push-Ups” and at the time it seemed brutal, in retrospect its playground trash talk; hitting K. Dot with disses on his height and whatnot. I’d probably like the song if it weren’t for the out of place outro. He hit me personally with this, “Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty/Then we need a verse for the Swifties”. Do NOT bring Bad Blood into this, Drake!
Kenny did not respond right away. No, Kenny is a real hater who lets his feelings boil and brew. To this, Drake teased “Taylor Made Freestyle” (What did I just say, Drake!), a super out of pocket project that used AI to recreate the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. Tupac being one of Kendrick Lamar’s, and any california rapper really, inspirations. The Tupac Estate threatened to sue and Drake had to remove it.
Then came Euphoria, Kendrick’s first official Drake diss track. The 6 (SIX!) minute long track perfectly encapsulates the difference between the two MCs; Kendrick is an artist. And he has a PEN. The track is literally beautiful. Aiming everywhere, at anything, at anyone. He talks about Drizzy’s ties, his looks, his fatherhood, his craft. Explicitly telling him he hates the way he talks, walks and dresses. It is worth noting that “Euphoria” includes Drake’s first BBL allegation, the second came by Megan Thee Stalion. There was no stone left unturned.
To double down, Lamar teased a verse on his instagram captioned “6:16 in L.A.” 14 hours later, Drake dropped “Family Matters”. A 7 (SEVEN!) minute diss-track aimed at the Compton native. To me, the track just proves that Drake, even in his attempt to be cunning, is super corny. Although, the lyrics include jabby allegations of domestic violence, drug use, and Ozempic.
This time Kendrick wasted no time in responding with “meet the grahams”. Call me impartial, but the track is gorgeous. Written as a set of 5 letters to his son, his parents, and Drake himself. It touches on allegations of predatory behavior, gambling addictions, drugs, manliness or lack thereof, and once again, Ozempic. What is it with these guys and Ozempic?! But the ground-breaking claim came in the fourth letter, addressed to Drake’s alleged secret daughter; alleged by Kendrick. Any verse from“meet the grahams” is enough to kill a man.
Then came the big one. May 4, 2024. Not Like Us. I don’t even have to get into it. A song so brutal The New York Times reported Drake is suing his Universal Music Group (his own label btw) over defamation. “Not Like Us” debuted at No. 1 and became an anthem for the city of Los Angeles, whose citizens had unanimously backed their own. Lamar performed the song during his Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert at the Kia Forum, five times might I add.
Drake tried to come back with “THE HEART PART 6” but the war was over, and Kendrick’s pen took no hostages.
Later that year came GNX, Kendrick’s sixth studio album. But that’s a topic for another time.
If this was a boxing match Kendrick won by unanimous vote. But Rap is a game of pride. A genre where if you can dish it, you have to be able to either take it or double down hard. This pride war that goes all the way back to the “Take Care” and “good kid, m.A.A.d. City” days. As of September 2024 the star studded “Take Care” had spent 600 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, the second rap album in history to do so. Second only to “good kid, m.A.A.d. city”. Tupac has “That’s why I f*cked your b*tch, you fat motherf*cker” and Kendrick has “Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minoooooor”. The West Coast stays on top.