It's been a wild few months for Drake, Kendrick Lamar and rap fans in general, as the two rappers have traded barbs (and bars) over the last several weeks in a beef that has grown more serious than many expected.
Lamar and Drake's feud goes back more than a decade to 2013, when Lamar rapped on the Big Sean song "Control" about how he wanted to "murder" Drake and other prominent rappers. Though Lamar clarified at the time that the track was intended to spur friendly competition, things between the rap stars couldn't be less friendly now.
In a rap battle that has brought up everything from Ozempic rumors and height shaming to sobering allegations of abuse and grooming, here's what to know.
The rappers' feud intensified with Lamar appearing on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That," released March 22. In Lamar's verse, seemingly in reference to Drake, he said: "It's time for him to prove that he's a problem."
He later rejected the idea of there being a "big three" in rap, declaring on the track, "It's just big me." The lyric was a response to J. Cole referring to himself, Drake and Lamar as the "big three" on Drake's October 2023 track "First Person Shooter."
J. Coleapologizes to Kendrick Lamar for 'lame' diss '7 Minute Drill after "Like That"
Drake officially entered the ring with a full diss track against Lamar (and other artists including Rick Ross and The Weeknd) in "Push Ups" on April 19.
"Pipsqueak, pipe down / You ain't in no big three," Drake rapped, in between bars about Lamar's shoe size, record deal contract and collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift.
Drake fired back again with "Taylor Made Freestyle" on the same day. The song, which featured artificial intelligence impersonations of Snoop Dogg and Tupac got the Toronto-born rapper in hot water with Tupac's estate and was pulled from streaming services.
"Kendrick, we need ya, the West Coast savior / Engraving your name in some hip-hop history," the Tupac audio deepfake raps in "Taylor Made." "If you deal with this viciously / You seem a little nervous about all the publicity."
Lamar responded with his first full diss track, "Euphoria," just over a week later on April 30. The "Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers" rapper referenced "Taylor Made Freestyle" by rapping that Tupac is turning "in his grave."
Lamar goes on to call Drake, who is a producer on the HBO series, a "pathetic master manipulator" and a "habitual liar" who is "not a rap artist" but "a scam artist."
Kendrick Lamardrops brutal Drake diss track 'Euphoria' amid feud: Listen
Lamar released "6:16 in LA" on the morning of May 3, with the song title referencing Drake's popularized timestamp song format.
In it, Lamar takes a shot at Drake's label and team, rapping, "Have you ever thought OVO is working for me?" before calling Drake a "fake bully." He continues: "I hate bullies / You must be a terrible person / Everyone inside your team whispering that you deserve it."
Kendrick Lamardoubles down with fiery Drake diss: Listen to '6:16 in LA'
Fourteen hours later, Drake followed up with the diss track "Family Matters" on the night of May 3. Drake again addressed Lamar among disses aimed at fellow rappers like A$AP Rocky in the three-part, nearly eight-minute track.
But Drake's shots at the "DAMN." rapper were more severe, with the "More Life" rapper explicitly claiming Lamar physically abuses fiancée Whitney Alford. "When you put your hands on your girl, is it self-defense 'cause she bigger than you?" Drake rapped.
Drake, Kendrick Lamar diss tracksescalate with 'Meet the Grahams' and 'Family Matters'
Minutes after "Family Matters," Lamar laid out gossip and Ozempic rumors against Drake amid serious allegations of abuse, addiction and a second hidden child in "Meet the Grahams." The more than six-minute response sees Lamar talking to Drake's family, including his son Adonis and his parents, as well as an alleged 11-year-old daughter, whom Drake has not claimed publicly.
Lamar later alluded to sex crime allegations and Drake's association with sex offenders: "Him and (Harvey) Weinstein should" be "in a cell for the rest they life," Lamar says. He later adds, "He got sex offenders" on record label OVO "that he keep on a monthly allowance."
On May 4, Lamar's allegations went even further and he seemingly alluded to previous allegations of grooming against Drake on "Not Like Us."
"Say, Drake, I hear you like (them) young. You better not ever go to cell block one," Lamar raps. "To any (girl) that talk to him and they in love, just make sure you hide your (little) sister from him."
The "Poetic Justice" rapper also took shots at some of Drake's musical colleagues, appearing to reference R&B singer PartyNextDoor and rapper Baka Not Nice, both of whom are signed to Drake's record label OVO Sound: "And Party at the party, playing with his nose now. And Baka got a weird case, why is he around? Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles," Lamar raps.
Kendrick Lamarfuels Drake feud with new diss track 'Not Like Us': What the rapper is saying
On May 5, Drake upped the ante by releasing the somber diss "The Heart Part 6," a reference to Lamar's track series, including 2022's "The Heart Part 5."
"Speakin' of anything with a child, let's get to that now / This Epstein angle was the (expletive) I expected / TikTok videos you collected and dissected," he rapped.
Drake later brings up Lamar's "Mother I Sober" song, off his "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" studio album, in which the Compton rapper alludes to familial accusations of sexual assault. "Wait a second, that's that one record where you say you got molested," Drake raps. "I just made the whole connection / This about to get so depressing / This is trauma from your own confessions."
Drakedenies Kendrick Lamar's grooming allegations in new diss track 'The Heart Part 6'
Contributing: Edward Segarra, KiMi Robinson, Anika Reed, Brendan Marrow and Naledi Ushe
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