The beef between the two started with three: J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake. Some say J. Cole didn’t want any smoke as he was friends with Drake and Kendrick. Considering that fans list him as one of the “big three” for his lyricism and creativity, he easily found himself in the middle as he too has been at the top for a long time, and deserves his flowers.
It all started with Drake making a song called “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole on October 6, 2023. “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, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali” said J. Cole. Kendrick didn’t take this lightly as he responded with “Motherf**k the big three, n***a, it’s just big me” in the song “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin. From there both parties started dropping songs and the beef as we know it continued.
Metro Boomin and Drake’s falling out was due to Metro sending Drake a beat, but delaying it because his mother passed away. Drake responded by not caring about Metro’s loss and wanted him to make the beat anyway. This doesn’t help Drake’s case, as he was overlooked as an artist who used ghostwriters. Having help with hooks is okay, but not verses, as that is a big no-no as they take up the majority of a song.
The song “Push Ups” by Drake was released on April 19th, 2024 where he made fun of Kendrick’s looks, his deal with Top Dawg Entertainment, and other rappers. Later on on April 24, 2024, Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle” and took more shots at Kendrick by using A.I. vocals to impersonate Tupac and Snoop Dogg, Kendrick’s influences. He was mad when Kendrick didn’t respond to “Push Ups”. On April 30th, 2024 Kendrick released a six-minute diss track named “Euphoria”. In the song, Kendrick tells Drake to focus on their beef and not involve other people. He highlights that Drake should worry about Pusha T, the rapper who made a song accusing Drake of hiding his son from the world. Less than 72 hours later, Kendrick released “6:16 in LA” on May 3, 2024. In this song, Kendrick says that people in Drake’s inner circle aren’t trustworthy as he believes there is a mole and gives out information about his personal life.
On May 3rd Drake decided to drop “Family Matters” in response to him taking shots at Kendrick and his girlfriend. Drake then continues to go on to diss other rappers such as A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Future, and Rick Ross.
Kendrick released “Meet The Grahams” within a couple of minutes. In this song, Kendrick calls out Drake for being a “deadbeat” father and says he is hiding another child. “You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, huh, you lied about the other kids that’s out there hoping that you come,” Kendrick states. Ending it talking about Drake having issues with alcohol, and gambling before saying there are pedophiles inside his OVO company.
The timeline fast forwards to May 4, 2024, when Kendrick released yet another one of his most popular songs “Not Like Us”. where he raps about Drake and his OVO team being pedophiles calling them “OV Hoe”. “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young/ You better not ever go to cell block one/ To any bitch that talk to him and they in love/ Just make sure you hide your lil’ sister from him/ They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs/ And Party at the party playin’ with his nose now/ And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?/ Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles” He then goes on to talk about how Drake uses other rappers for his own benefit. “You called Future when you didn’t see the club (Ayy, what?)/ Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up (What?)/ 21 gave you false street cred/ Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head (Ayy, what?)/ Quavo said you can be from Northside (What?)/ 2 Chainz say you good, but he lied/ You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars/ No, you not a colleague, you a f****n’ colonizer/ The family matter and the truth of the matter/ It was God’s plan to show y’all the liar”
Drake responds to all of this by dropping “The Heart Pt. 6” saying that he fed false information to Kendrick and his team about all the allegations that Kendrick accused him of. Drake then takes more shots at Kendrick’s girlfriend, Whitney, saying “And why isn’t Whitney denyin’ all of the allegations?/ Why is she following Dave Free and not Mr. Morale?/ You haven’t seen the kids in six months, the distance is wild/ Dave leaving heart emojis underneath pics of the child.” This left fans divided on who to support as Some thought it was a good effort, while others believed it was too late for Drake. As a result, many felt Kendrick won the battle.
“Not Like Us” became the No. 1 song on the Hot 100 charts and it’s Kendrick’s first solo entry to win since 2017 when he released “HUMBLE”. On July 4, 2024, Kendrick released the video for “Not Like Us,” featuring clips that responded to the jabs Drake made at him and his girlfriend. The video showed Drake’s OVO company logo, an owl, as a piñata, and showed it being locked in a cage. This song becomes extremely popular which then leads to Kendrick announcing he is going to perform during the halftime show at Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025.
After all of the back-and-forth, Kendrick Lamar shuts out any future truce with Drake in the song “Wacced Out Murals”. “I never peaced it up, that s–t don’t sit well with me / Before I take a truce, I’ll take ’em to Hell with me,”
This resulted in Drake not releasing any songs responding to Kendrick recently but has filed motions accusing UMG (Universal Music Group) of using bots to inflate streams and defamation on “Not Like Us”.
This rap beef has significantly impacted the music industry, bringing joy to fans with the resulting music. It reflects the evolution of rap beef that fans have witnessed over the years.
