For years, rap artists have competed against each other, trying to be the best rap artist of our generation. Over the past week, the long-term beef quickly turned into diss tracks with many accusations. The drama concerns Canadian rapper Drake and Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar. A few other people involved are Metro Boomin, J. Cole, Rick Ross, and Future.
One of the first disses was J. Cole in First Person Shooter when he said, “Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We, the big three, like we started a league.” Kendrick responded with a hit song like that, which was number one on the billboard for three consecutive weeks. He says, “There is no big three; it’s just big me”.
Cole wrote another Kendrick Diss called 7 Minute Drill. J. Cole and Kendrick used to be great friends and began co-writing an album together. However, Cole sided with Drake when claiming he was the better rapper. Soon after its release, J. Cole apologized to Kendrick and deleted the track from all streaming platforms.
Drake’s next contribution was Pushups, which were not directed at any one person but at all of his enemies. Many people consider Pushups a weak comeback, with shots at Kendrick saying that he has small feet and that he is abusive towards his fiancee Whitney, whom he has been engaged to for nine years. One line told producer Metro Boomin to “shut up and make some drums.” Metros’ response was a beat called BBL Drizzy, which he released to Soundcloud, saying that he would give a giveaway to the person who creates the best rap to his beat.
Drake released again, not waiting for a response from Kendrick, with a tailor-made freestyle in which he uses AI replicas of Tupac and Snoop Dogg, as well as his own voice, to say all the bad things Kendrick may use against him. This is a tactic known as the 8-mile strategy, where saying all the things your opponent was going to say to steal their thunder makes your failures seem less bad. Drake says things like how he has been accused of pedophilia and how he moved his album release date because Taylor Swift was releasing her album on the same day.
Kendrick released two new songs very quickly: Euphoria on all streaming platforms and 6:16 in LA, which was released on Instagram. Some of the allegations brought up in Euphoria are that Drake doesn’t raise his son, has ghostwriters, and uses AI to write his music. Some other main points are that Drake is a “master manipulator” and a liar. 6:16 in LA is different. There are fewer accusations, but a notable one is that Kendrick claims that he has an informant in OVO, Drake’s brand.
Family Matters is Drake’s next addition. It has accusations like that he is a terrible father, a bad husband, and that one of his kids isn’t his, but that of his fiance and best friend. Some of the weaker claims are that Kendrick doesn’t earn his Grammys and is short. The next jab is “Where is your uncle at? Cause I want to talk to the man of the house,” saying that Kendrick’s transgender uncle is more masculine than Kendrick.
Kendrick then comes out with back-to-back releases Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us. Meet the Grahams is a letter to everybody in Drake’s family, including Drake’s son Adonis, his father Dennis, and his mother Sandra. To the surprise of everyone, Kendrick addressed a section of his song “Dear Baby Girl,” insinuating that Drake has a daughter that he has not taken care of or acknowledged. He tells Adonis and Drake’s daughter that he is sorry that their father is a bad person and wishes that they would have a better childhood. In Not Like Us, Kendrick has many allegations, but one of the main ones is that Drake likes underage girls. Not Like Us debuts at number 1 on the Billboard 100, with its most popular line being “Tryna strike a chord, and it’s probably a minor,” meaning that Drake has always had odd friendships with girls much younger than him.
The heart part 6 is the most recent addition as of the release of this article. Over his music career, Kendrick has released The Heart Parts 1–5, and Drake released The Heart Part 6 as a diss and defense against Kendrick. Drake says that he does not have a secret daughter, that Kendrick made it up, and that Kendrick abuses his fiance. One more defense is that he never was with any teenage girls, bringing up longtime friend Millie Bobby Brown, with whom he had a suspicious friendship when they were 14 and 31. Many people find this odd, as nobody brought her up before the release of Heart Part 6. He also brings up how Kendrick was sexually assaulted as a child, even though it had nothing to do with the current argument. As an outro, he thanks Kendrick for the inspiration to put out new songs, saying that his fans must be happy that he has released so much music recently.
This beef had been expected for a while, and once it started, the drama unfolded very quickly. The internet has been thrilled by this rapid release of music and has been quick to pick sides. It has been a full week since the release of Heart Part 6, and we are waiting for another release to gain a greater understanding of the beef.