Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar: the juiciest moments in their beef

As soon as upon a time, Drake and Kendrick Lamar had been collaborators: Lamar was a gap act for Drake’s Membership Paradise Tour in 2012 and Drake appeared on Lamar’s tune “Poetic Justice” the identical 12 months. However issues started to bitter in 2013, after Lamar rapped on Large Sean’s observe “Management” and referred to as out Drake and a number of other different rappers by title earlier than including: “I bought love for you all however I am making an attempt to homicide you n—s / making an attempt to verify your core followers by no means heard of you n—s.”

WATCH | The official video for ‘Poetic Justice’:  

Whereas Drake did not formally reply — his 2013 tune “The Language” was rumoured to be a diss, however Birdman, the CEO of Drake’s then-label, denied it was concentrating on Lamar — issues between them appeared secure, as Drake praised Lamar at his OVO Competition the next 12 months.

On March 22, the feud formally began once more after Lamar appeared on “Like That,” a diss observe from Metro Boomin and Future, and declared himself a greater rapper than J. Cole and Drake. The fiery verse prompted retaliative tracks from J. Cole, who launched — then retracted — “7 Minute Drill” on Apr. 5 and Drake, who dropped “Push Ups” on Apr. 19.

Lamar responded to “Push Ups” on Apr. 30 with “Euphoria” and dropped one other diss observe, “6:16 in LA,” on Could 3. We have damaged down among the key moments from their disses to date, beneath.

Lamar’s loaded ‘Like That’ references

There are a variety of highlights in Lamar’s “Like That” function that take photographs at Drake akin to, “Motherf–k the massive three, n—a, it is simply massive me” and “‘Fore all of your canine gettin’ buried/ that is a Ok with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary” (Drake’s most up-to-date album is titled For All of the Canine.) 

Nevertheless it’s when Lamar raps, “Your finest work is a light-weight pack/ n—a, Prince outlived Mike Jack,” that he attracts an attention-grabbing comparability between two iconic artists. Drake is a longtime fan of Michael Jackson: he is referenced Jackson in a number of songs, tied a few of his Billboard information, and included a posthumous Jackson function on his observe “Do not Matter to Me.” 

Michael Jackson and Prince famously feuded for many years, so by Lamar evaluating himself to Prince and likening Drake to Jackson, he positioned himself not solely as Drake’s creative rival, but additionally a private one.

Drake hits again with humorous bars on ‘Push Ups’

On Apr. 19, Drake fired again with “Push Ups,” responding to a number of artists together with Rick Ross, the Weeknd and Metro Boomin. Nevertheless, he saved his funniest lyrical barbs for Lamar:

• He mocks Lamar’s pop collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift: “Maroon 5 want a verse, you higher make it witty/ then we want a verse for the Swifties”

• He calls out Lamar’s alleged shoe measurement: “How the f–k you massive steppin’ with a size-seven males’s on?”

• He hits again at Lamar’s comparability to Prince on “Like That”: “What’s a prince to a king? He a son, n—a”

• Whereas referencing The Bodyguard movie, he additionally name-drops Lamar’s spouse, Whitney Alford: “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney/ high say drop, your little midget ass higher f–kin”

Drake baits Lamar on ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’

Hours after releasing “Push Ups,” Drake dropped one other diss observe. On “Taylor Made Freestyle,” he used AI voices of West Coast hip-hop titans Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur to rap lyrics encouraging Lamar to battle again. A number of the lyrics highlight Lamar’s Compton, Calif., heritage whereas calling him out: “Kendrick, we want ya, the West Coast saviour/ engraving your title in some hip-hop historical past.”

After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Shakur’s property, the tune was faraway from Drake’s social media channels.

Lamar delivers scathing call-outs on ‘Euphoria’

Everything of Lamar’s Apr. 30 response observe, “Euphoria” was directed at Drake, with Lamar mocking every thing from Drake’s lack of parenting abilities to his style sense. Whereas there are quite a few cutthroat strains, among the most memorable moments on the tune are:

• The much-memed lyric about Drake’s affinity for braided hairstyles: “Cutthroat enterprise, you bought shit twisted/ What’s it? The braids?”

• The loud reminder about Drake shedding his beef with Pusha T: “Yeah, f–k all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T”

• His pointed diss of Drake’s fake persona: “I like Drake with the melodies, I do not like Drake when he act powerful”

• His trace at Drake getting cosmetic surgery: “Yeah, my first one like my final one, it is a traditional, you do not have one/ let your core viewers abdomen that, then inform ’em the place you get your abs from”

• His incorporation of Toronto slang whereas rapping in a Toronto accent and in addition shouting out an area Chinese language restaurant: “I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie”

Lamar claps again once more with ‘6:16 in LA’

Drake responded to “Euphoria” by making enjoyable of it on Instagram, however earlier than he had an opportunity to answer in tune, Lamar launched a follow-up diss observe on Could 3. The tune’s title “6:16 in LA” is a play on Drake’s many timestamp diss tracks akin to “7am on Bridle Path” and “4PM in Calabasas.” Followers have additionally theorized that the title can also be stands for Jun. 16, which is Tupac Shakur’s birthday, and Father’s Day. 

The observe was additionally co-produced by Jack Antonoff, who’s one among Taylor Swift’s most frequent collaborators, signaling that Antonoff could not have appreciated Drake namedropping Swift on “Taylor Made Freestyle” or dissing Lamar on “Push Ups” for collaborating with Swift. The result’s a ‘Taylor-made’ diss and the standout moments are beneath:

• Lamar doubles down on his hatred of Drake whereas claiming he has sources at Drake’s label who’re giving him info: “Have you ever ever thought that OVO was working for me? Faux bully I hate bullies/ you should be a horrible particular person/ everybody inside your staff is whispering that you simply deserve it”

• He pokes enjoyable at Drake’s single “Toosie Slide“: “Cannot Toosie Slide up outta this one”

• He hits at Drake for reacting to the diss on-line: “Your lil memes is shedding steam, they figured you out”

• The tune ends with a nod to Michael Jackson: “Earlier than you work that you simply’re not alone/ ask what Mike would do?”

Drake releases the surprising ‘Household Issues’

Hours after the discharge of “6:16 in LA,” Drake responded with “Household Issues,” an explosive diss observe with an accompanying music video. Within the video, a van just like the one on the quilt of Lamar’s album good child, m.A.A.d metropolis is crushed, and the ultimate moments present Drake at New Ho King, the Toronto restaurant Lamar referenced on “Euphoria.”

Drake had blistering phrases for the Weeknd, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, Metro Boomin and Future on the tune, however he makes quite a few surprising allegations about Lamar particularly, together with:

• Claiming that Lamar abuses his spouse, Whitney Alford, by evaluating Lamar to Bobby Brown and Alford to Whitney Houston: “On some Bobby shit, I wanna know what Whitney want”
   
• Doubling down on Lamar being supposedly violent: “They employed a disaster administration staff to scrub up the truth that you beat up your queen/ the image you painted ain’t what it appears”
   
• Insinuating that Lamar was the rationale for the cease-and-desist letter he acquired for “Taylor Made Freestyle”: “A cease-and-desist is for hoes/ cannot take heed to lies that come out of your mouth/ you referred to as the Tupac property/ and begged ’em to sue me and get that shit down”

Lamar instantly responds with the explosive ‘Meet the Grahams’

Lamar wasted no time in responding to “Household Issues” and dropped the incendiary “Meet the Grahams” (Drake’s authorized final title is Graham) solely minutes later. The paintings for “6:16 in LA” was a cropped picture of a pair of gloves, a sliver of the total cowl artwork for “Meet the Grahams,” which is a photograph of a shirt, the gloves, prescriptions, receipts and different objects that supposedly belong to Drake.

Nevertheless it’s not simply the picture that is startling: Lamar makes use of the tune to deal with every of Drake’s members of the family in a grotesque style. The wildest moments are beneath:

• The tune begins with Lamar talking on to Drake’s son, Adonis Graham, then Lamar explains that he is usually a higher father determine to him than Drake is: “And you are a good child that want good management/ let me be your mentor since your daddy do not educate you shit”
   
• He compares Drake to convicted intercourse offender, Harvey Weinstein: “Mm-mm, your son’s a sick man with sick ideas, I believe n—s like him ought to die/ him and Weinstein ought to get f–ked up in a cell for the remaining they life”
   
• He alleges that Drake has a secret daughter: “Pricey babygirl, I am sorry that your father not energetic inside your world”
   
• Lamar states that Drake has “bought gamblin’ issues, drinkin’ issues, pill-poppin’ and spendin’ issues”
   
• He calls Drake an all-around liar: “‘Trigger you lied about spiritual views, you lied about your surgical procedure/ you lied about your accent and your previous tense, all is perjury/ you lied about your ghostwriters, you lied about your crew members”

Drake refuted the declare that he’s hiding a daughter on Instagram, however has but to answer the opposite allegations within the tune.