Drake and Kendrick Lamar have had lowkey beef for years, but everything got kicked up a notch last year, when Drake and J.Cole did “First Person Shooter,” in which they reference Kendrick. Kendrick didn’t respond for months, then came out on Future’s “Like That,” attacking both Drake and J.Cole. That’s when J.Cole skedaddled on out of there – he saw the smoke up ahead and he called it a day, leaving Kendrick and Drake to go to war. Drake then released “Push Ups,” a song about how Kendrick is short and has small feet. Drake kept pushing, releasing “Taylor Made Freestyle” on April 24, suggesting that Kendrick didn’t want to respond to him because Taylor Swift was dominating the headlines with The Tortured Poets Department. Sidenote: Kendrick and Taylor have been friends/work colleagues for years now, and Kendrick is rumored to appear on Reputation (Taylor’s Version), because he visited her New York studio a few times last fall. Like, Kendrick is still tight with Taylor.
Kendrick was just biding his time though – on April 30, Kendrick released “Euphoria,” a cornucopia of hate directed at Drake, attacking Drake for using the n-word, being a poseur and a joke. Kendrick even referenced that he knew Drake’s play, that Drake would go too personal and start talking about his family. On May 3rd, Kendrick then followed up “Euphoria” with “6:16 in LA” – a song produced by Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift’s go-to producer – and Kendrick claimed to have a mole working in Drake’s camp. Kendrick was telling Drake: you’re surrounding yourself with people who hate you, people who want to see you fail or worse.
About 14 hours after “6:16 in LA,” Drake released “Family Matters,” where Drake sh-ttalked Kendrick’s family, his partner Whitney and their children. Less than an hour later, Kendrick dropped “Meet the Grahams,” a song which Kendrick had clearly recorded days if not weeks earlier, correctly predicting that Drake was going to lie about his family. “Meet the Grahams” is more than a diss track – it’s just pure, mainlined hatred and the most personal gossip about Drake ever, since Pusha T revealed that Drake was hiding a whole-ass son. Kendrick says that Drake has a daughter too, and possibly other kids, and he’s a deadbeat dad who won’t acknowledge or raise his children. Kendrick claims Drake has a gambling problem, that he’s on Ozempic and he’s gotten cosmetic surgery and that Drake is a predator who surrounds himself with predators. As soon as “Meet the Grahams” came out, Kendrick won. It was over as far as the “battle” part of this, with Kendrick easily declared as the winner. After all that, Drake’s only response was “oh, I have a daughter, huh?” It’s like the Pusha T situation all over again, only it’s even worse. Does Drake have other secret children out there??? And the stuff about Drake being a predator who likes teenage girls… well, those rumors have circulated for many years.
Oh and the image for “Meet the Grahams” is a smorgasbord of literal and figurative receipts.
After all that, Kendrick dropped “Not Like Us,” which is basically Kendrick completely ending Drake again. Kendrick not only calls Drake a “certified pedophile,” he dissects Drake’s colonizer moves in Atlanta. Kendrick told Drake to keep Serena Williams’ name out of his mouth, a great callback to Drake’s bullsh-t from 2022. The “A-minor” thing is *chef’s kiss*. Apparently, Kendrick has a lot more to say, so there’s probably more music coming out??
Just in case you lost track…
3/22 – Kendrick Lamar, “Like That”
4/5 – J. Cole, “7 Minute Drill”
4/7 – J. Cole apologizes for “7 Minute Drill”
4/12 – J. Cole deletes “7 Minute Drill”
4/19 – Drake, “Push Ups”
4/19 – Drake, “Taylor Made Freestyle”
4/30 – Kendrick Lamar, “Euphoria”…
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) May 4, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.