Dua Lipa Helps Break Down the Drake and Kendrick Lamar Feud on ‘SNL’
If you’re confused by Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud, look no further than Dua Lipa for all the intel.
The pop star, 28, tried to explain the rappers’ bad blood while hosting Saturday Night Live on Saturday, May 4, in a skit titled “Good Morning Greenville.” (Dua was also the episode’s musical guest.)
In the sketch, Dua appeared as culture critic Wanda Weems on the morning show — hosted by Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day — and pieced together Drake, 37, and Lamar’s recent diss tracks about one another. She stood in front of a detective-like pinboard that connected all the mysteries surrounding the artists’ latest quarrel.
Lamar, 36, surprised fans on Friday, May 3, by releasing a second Drake diss track, “6:16 in LA,” which he shared mere days after his first, “Euphoria.” The songs were Lamar’s long-awaited response to Drake’s “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which he released last month.
“Well, here’s one clue: on the song ‘Euphoria’ when Kendrick describes Drake as Canadian, that is because Drake is from Toronto,” Dua said in the skit as Gardner, 40, and Day, 44, reacted with shock. “And he calls Drake ‘crodie,’ which is a term used by the Crips, which according to Wikipedia is an alliance of street gangs based in southern California.”
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There actually are cutthroat lyrics in Lamar’s six-minute takedown “Euphoria,” including: “It's always been about love and hate, now let me say I'm the biggest hater / I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk / I hate the way that you dress / I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it's gon' be direct.”
Interestingly enough, Lamar worked with producers and co-writers Jack Antonoff and Sounwave on “6:16 in LA,” an apparent dig at Drake’s mention of their longtime collaborator and friend Taylor Swift in his first two diss tracks.
In “Push Ups,” Drake mocked Lamar’s hip-hop authenticity by pointing out how he appeared on Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know” and on Swift’s “Bad Blood,” a song from her 2014 album, 1989. Then, Drake referenced the impending success of Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, in “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a song he also released on April 19 after Lamar’s perceived lack of response.
“Now in Drake’s diss track, he questioned Kendrick’s manhood saying he wears a size 7 shoe,” Dua added in her SNL bit. “But now Drake is being sued by 2Pac’s estate for using an AI version of his voice.”
Drake could, in fact, face legal action from Tupac Shakur’s estate. According to Billboard, the estate threatened to sue Drake over his use of the late rapper’s voice in “Taylor Made Freestyle,” resulting in the song being pulled from streaming services.
Although Gardner and Day tried to quell the feud on SNL using face mask paddles of Drake and Lamar, it appears their battle isn’t waning. Their friendly career beginnings first turned sour when Lamar took aim at Drake and others on Big Sean’s 2013 track “Control.” From there it slowly escalated until Drake finally answered with the J.Cole diss track “First Person Shooter” in October 2023. Lamar responded on Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That” before Drake, of course, released “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
The diss tracks have been dropping more frequently. Drake called Lamar "pipsqueak" on "Push Ups," which he released on April 19, and Lamar responded with "Euphoria" 11 days later. He didn’t wait for Drake’s response before he followed up with "6:16 in LA" on Friday, May 3.
The beef only got more personal on Saturday, May 4, when Drake released "Family Matters" — in which he accuses Lamar of cheating on fiancée Whitney Alford — and Lamar dropped "Meet the Grahams” just hours later, in which he claimed Drake is a deadbeat dad and has a secret daughter. Later that day, Lamar followed up with "Not Like Us."
