Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
Credit: Instagram.com/champagnepapi, Reuters Fil Photo
The long-building and increasingly testy rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake exploded into full-bore acrimony and unverifiable accusations over the weekend with the rapid-fire release of multiple songs littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more.
Most relentless was Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize winner from Compton, California, who tends toward the isolated and considered but has now released four verbose and conceptual dis tracks -- totaling more than 20 minutes of new music -- targeting Drake in the last week, including three since Friday.
Each racked up millions of streams, and the three that were made available commercially -- "Euphoria," "Meet the Grahams" and "Not Like Us" -- are expected to land near the top of next week's Billboard singles chart, while seeming to, at least momentarily, shift the public perception of Drake, long a maestro of the online public arena and meme ecosystem.
In between, on Friday night, Drake released his own broadside against Lamar -- plus a smattering of other recent challengers -- in a teasing Instagram interlude plus a three-part track and elaborate music video titled "Family Matters," in which he referred to his rival as a fake activist and attempted to expose friction and alleged abuse in Lamar's romantic relationship.
But that song was followed within half an hour by Lamar's "Meet the Grahams," an ominous extended address to the parents and young son of Drake, born Aubrey Graham, in which Lamar refers to his rival rapper as a liar and "pervert" who "should die" in order to make the world safer for women.
Lamar also seemed to assert that Drake had more than a decade ago fathered a secret daughter -- echoing the big reveal of his son from Drake's last headline rap beef -- a claim Drake quickly denied on Instagram before hitting back in another song Sunday. (Neither man has addressed the full array of rapped allegations directly.)
How did two of the most famous artists in the world decide to take the gloves off and bring real-life venom into an extended sparring match for rap supremacy? It was weeks, months and years in the making, with a sudden, breakneck escalation into hip-hop infamy. Here's a breakdown.
Why Now?
Since late March, the much-anticipated head-to-head seemed inevitable. Following years of "will they or won't they?" lyrical feints, Lamar hit directly on record first this year during a surprise appearance on the song "Like That" by Atlanta rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin, both formerly frequent Drake collaborators.
With audible disgust, Lamar invoked the track "First Person Shooter" from last year's Drake album, "For All the Dogs," in which a guest verse from J. Cole referred to himself, Drake and Lamar as "the big three" of modern MCs.
Lamar took exception to the grouping, declaring that there was no big three, "just big me." He also called himself the Prince to Drake's Michael Jackson -- a deeper, more complex artist versus a troubled, pop-oriented hitmaker.
"Like That" spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as Future and Metro Boomin released two chart-topping albums -- "We Don't Trust You" and "We Still Don't Trust You" -- that were anchored by a parade of Drake's past associates, each of whom seemed to share a simmering distaste toward the rapper, who later called the ambush a "20 v. 1" fight.
In early April, J. Cole fought back momentarily, releasing the song "7 Minute Drill," in which he called Lamar overrated, before backtracking, apologizing and having the song removed from streaming services. But Drake soon picked up the baton, releasing a wide-ranging dis track called "Push Ups" less than a week later that addressed the field, with a special focus on Lamar's height, shoe size and supposedly disadvantageous business dealings.
Less than a week later, Drake mocked Lamar's lack of a response on "Taylor Made Freestyle," a track released only on social media. It featured Drake taunting Lamar for being scared to release music at the same time as Taylor Swift and using artificial intelligence voice filters to mimic Tupac and Snoop Dogg imploring Lamar to battle for the good of the West Coast.
"Since 'Like That,' your tone changed a little, you not as enthused," Drake rapped in an abbreviated third verse, as himself. "How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed." ("Taylor Made Freestyle" was later removed from the internet at the request of the Tupac estate.)
But it was a seemingly tossed-off line from the earlier "Push Ups" that included the name of Lamar's longtime romantic partner -- "I be with some bodyguards like Whitney" -- that Lamar would later allude to as a red line crossed, making all subject matter fair game in the songs to come. (It was this same alleged faux pas that may have triggered an intensification of Drake's beef with Pusha T in 2018.)
How We Got Here
Even with Drake-dissing cameos from Future, Ye (formerly Kanye West), Rick Ross, the Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, the main event was always going to be between Drake, 37, and Lamar, 36, who have spent more than a decade subtly antagonizing one another in songs while maintaining an icy frenemy rapport in public.
In 2011, when Drake introduced Lamar to mainstream audiences with a dedicated showcase on his second album, "Take Care," and an opening slot on the subsequent arena tour, the tone was one of side-eying competition. "He said that he was the same age as myself/and it didn't help 'cause it made me even more rude and impatient," Lamar rapped on "Buried Alive Interlude" of his earliest encounter with a more-famous Drake. (On his Instagram on Friday, Drake released a parody of the track, citing Lamar's jealousy since then.)
The pair went on to appear together on "Poetic Justice," a single from Lamar's debut album, "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City," in 2012, as well as "___ Problems" by ASAP Rocky the same year.
But their collaborations ceased as Drake became his generation's premier hitmaker across styles in hip-hop and beyond, while Lamar burrowed deeper into his own psyche on knotty concept albums that brought wide critical acclaim alongside less constant commercial success.
When asked, the two rappers tended to profess admiration for one another's skill but seemed to trade subtle digs in verses over the years, always with plausible deniability and in the spirit of competition, leading to something of a hip-hop cold war.
The Week It Went Nuclear
Lamar's first targeted response, "Euphoria," was more than six minutes long and released Tuesday morning. In three sections that raised the temperature as they built, he warned Drake about proceeding and insisted, somewhat facetiously, that things were still friendly. "Know you a master manipulator and habitual liar too," Lamar rapped. "But don't tell no lie about me and I won't tell truths 'bout you."
He accused the biracial Drake, who was born and raised in Toronto, of imitating Black American heritage and insulting him subliminally. "I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress," Lamar said. "I hate the way that you sneak dis, if I catch flight, it's gon' be direct." And he called Drake's standing as a father into question: "Teachin' him morals, integrity, discipline/listen, man, you don't know nothin' 'bout that."
Days later, Lamar doubled down with an Instagram-only track called "6:16 in LA," borrowing both Drake's "Back to Back" dis tactic from his 2015 beef with Meek Mill and a song title structure lifted from what is known as Drake's time-stamp series of raps. Opting for psychological warfare on a beat produced in part by Jack Antonoff, Swift's chief collaborator, Lamar hinted that he had a mole in Drake's operation and was aware of his opponent's opposition research.
"Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person," he rapped. "Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it."
That night, Drake's "Family Matters" started with its own justification for getting personal -- "You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad/I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad" -- before taking on Lamar's fatherhood and standing as a man in excruciating detail. "They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen," Drake rapped. "The picture you painted ain't what it seem/you're dead."
Yet in a chess move that seemed to anticipate Drake's familial line of attack, Lamar's "Meet the Grahams" was released almost immediately. "This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game," Lamar said, noting that Drake had erred "the moment you called out my family's name." Instead of a rap battle, Lamar concluded after another six minutes of psychological dissection, "this a long life battle with yourself."
He wasn't done yet. Dispensing with subtlety, Lamar followed up again less than 24 hours later with "Not Like Us," a bouncy club record in a Los Angeles style that delighted in more traditional rap beef territory, like juvenile insults, proudly unsubstantiated claims of sexual preferences and threats of violence.
Lamar, however, didn't leave it at that, throwing one more shot at Drake's authenticity as a rapper, calling him a greedy and artificial user as a collaborator -- "not a colleague," but a "colonizer."
On Sunday evening, Drake responded yet again. On "The Heart Part 6," a title taken from Lamar's career-spanning series, Drake denied the accusation that he preyed on young women, indicated that he had planted the bad information about his fake daughter and seemed to sigh away the fight as "some good exercise."
"It's good to get out, get the pen working," Drake said in an exhausted outro. "You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator." He added, "You know, at least your fans are getting some raps out of you. I'm happy I could motivate you."