Wild weekend of diss tracks: Beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar comes to a head

Canadian superstar Drake and legendary Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar continued to trade blows over the weekend, releasing multiple scathing diss tracks that took shots at each other’s personal lives as the feud between them continues.

The war of words began in March after Lamar targeted Drake and his tour partner J. Cole on the song “Like That” by Atlanta rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin from their collaborative album “We Don’t Trust You.”

Among the lines from the Compton MC’s incendiary guest verse were allusions to hip hop’s “Big Three” of Drake, J. Cole and Lamar, three of the most successful rap artists of the 2010s.

K. Dot also took several bars from Drake and Cole’s collaboration “First Person Shooter,” which included a line about all three rappers and told the duo that their legacies won’t outlive his.

Cole was the first to respond to Lamar’s “Like That” verse, releasing a diss track towards him titled “7 Minute Drill” on April 5.

The song was removed from streaming services a week after Cole publicly bowed out of the feud and apologized.

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For his part, Drake first clapped back with “Push Ups,” a diss track that specifically targeted Lamar by poking fun at his shoe size, among other things. The song also called out Miami rapper Rick Ross, who began to dissociate from the Canadian star after Future and Metro Boomin’s joint album, in which Ross appeared, was released. 

Ross jumped into the fray himself with his diss track, titled “Champagne Moments,” the title alludes to Drake’s song “Champagne Poetry” and his Instagram handle @champagnepapi.

After “Push Ups,” Drake didn’t wait for Kung Fu Kenny to respond, instead taking to Instagram to post “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which featured AI-generated verses from Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. Tupac’s estate later threatened to sue the Canadian rapper for illegally using his likeness, and Drake later took the track down.

It took just over a week-and-a-half for Lamar to issue a response to Drake’s back-to-back disses; the Los Angeles-born MC released the nearly six-and-a-half minute diss track titled “euphoria” on April 30, which addressed the beef head on and cautioned him to watch some of the language he uses in his songs.

“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,” the “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers” artist said on the track, playing on a 2012 radio interview on The Breakfast Club with the late rapper DMX, who boldly expressed his dislike for Drake.

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Lamar doubled down three days later with his next diss track “6:16 in LA,” the title of which may have alluded to Drake’s involvement as an executive producer on the TV series “Euphoria” (which, incidentally, premiered on June 16, 2019) or the date of Lamar’s first show in Drake’s home city of Toronto, which took place on June 16, 2011.

The feud continued on Thursday when Drake responded yet again with “Family Matters,” refuting claims Lamar made on his previous diss tracks while also talking about his infidelity, use of ghostwriters (which Drake has also been criticized for) and alleged abuse of his fiancée.

Just under an hour later, Lamar uploaded “Meet the Grahams” to YouTube; the track sends a personal message to each member of Drake’s family (Drake’s birth name is Aubrey Drake Graham) and includes an allegation that Drake is hiding the fact that he has more children.

Then on Saturday, Lamar kept the momentum by dropping a hard-hitting track directed at Drizzy called “Not Like Us.” The song’s artwork shows an aerial view of Drake’s massive Toronto estate with over a dozen red sex offender symbols around it. The four-and-a-half-minute song doesn’t let up and accuses Drake of liking underage girls and being a pedophile as well as members of his crew.

Drake responded again on Sunday afternoon with “The Heart Part 6,” directly taken from Lamar’s “The Heart” song series. In it, Drake reveals that his team allegedly leaked false information so that Lamar would use it as material in his song; he also rebuked K. Dot’s claims that he is a pedophile among other allegations.

Unlike the last two disses, Lamar did not respond immediately, and public opinion as to who is “winning” the beef remains mixed.

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