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This time last week, fans were still waiting to see what either Drake or Kendrick Lamar would do next. The conversation was focused on the fact the Toronto superstar used modulated vocals, popularly mislabeled AI, on “Taylor Made Freestyle“. This battle elevated to a more intense, dark level in just six days.
Understandably, many fans are a bit exhausted. The records have been high quality and entertaining, but the barrage of songs over this past weekend made it difficult to fully digest everything the Hip-Hop community had received before having to move on to the next one. This entire experience is the perfect example of “Be careful what you wish for,” as this is a beef that fans have wanted for over a decade. Sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing.
This beef has also uncovered an often dismissed reality: there is no closure in music. More specifically, there is no way to determine who wins a rap beef other than a myriad of opinions. Fanbases have picked their sides, some before even hearing a single song, and waged war over the internet. The fighting between fans has contributed to the aforementioned feeling of exhaustion, but there is no impartial judge here to decide the true victor and provide a reprieve.
So, with that, here comes another opinion: which diss song is the best here? However, even that question opens the door for more questions, because what goes into having the best song? Is it the lyrical content? How about the listenability and replay value? Is it the release strategy, timeliness, and marketing? All of those things matter, but fans all prioritize different aspects of this multi-layered, overwhelming heavyweight bout.
Alas, here we go; read below as VIBE ranks the best diss songs of Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s beef so far. Note that the J. Cole-assisted “First Person Shooter” will not be included given the fact the masses weren’t aware that it was a diss toward Kendrick Lamar, and the song was released almost seven months ago. “7 Minute Drill” will also not be included since the Dreamville rapper unceremoniously removed himself from the chaos, and deleted the song from streaming platforms, though that may have been wise given where this entire situation has gone.
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Kendrick Lamar - "6:16 In LA"
Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Early Friday morning (May 3), Kendrick Lamar surprised the world and pulled a on Drake with “6:16 In LA.” He utilized his opponent’s “Back To Back” strategy by releasing again before the Toronto superstar even had a chance to respond to “Euphoria,” which came out earlier that week. The Compton rapper also stole his timestamp series by making the song title a reference to the time and location that he released it.
There’s also the multiple meanings that come with “6:16.” That date is Tupac’s birthday, Father’s Day, the date Euphoria premiered in 2019, an obvious reference to Drizzy being the “6 God,” and several other significant meanings that the internet uncovered. The verdict is out on what Kendrick’s true intentions were in using those numbers because it genuinely just could have been the time he wanted to release the song. However, placing that challenge in the hands of fans allowed them to change one another’s minds on his strategy and the person he was attacking.
The Instagram-exclusive track’s biggest revelation was that Lamar had moles in the OVO camp and there were people around his opponent who wanted to see his downfall. “If you were street-smart, then you woulda caught that your entourage is only to hustle you/ A hundred ni**as that you got on salary/ And twenty of ’em want you as a casualty/ And one of them is actually next to you/ And two of them is practically tired of your lifestyle/ Just don’t got the audacity to tell you,” he rapped.
The issue with this record is the Pulitzer Prize winner takes a bit too long to get to the real body blows. While he is lyrically impressive in the onset, makes subtle jabs, and delivers a powerful line in “There’s opportunity when livin’ with loss/ I discover myself when I fall short,” a lot of the content before he mentions DJ Akademiks and the ensuing shots at Drake feels unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.
Another Easter egg is the sample of Al Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is.” That was calculated on Lamar’s behalf, as Drake’s father’s cousin, Teenie Hodges, contributed to the track. Sounwave and Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift’s trusted collaborator, helped him produce the record. Antonoff’s inclusion was strategic, as Drake has repeatedly said Kendrick Lamar bends the knee to the pop star.
Kendrick’s strategy has been to drop layered metaphors and similes, so anyone seeking references to Drake could interpret the early lines in a myriad of ways, but they ultimately pale in comparison to the latter half of the record. Being at the bottom of this list is no slight, as “6:16 In LA” is still very good, especially as a setup to the tracks Lamar released later but in the face of everything else that has come out, it falls where it falls.
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Drake - "Push Ups"
Image Credit: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images Drake‘s “Push Ups” was riddled with controversy when it leaked on Saturday, April 13. Fans immediately thought the track was AI, but that idea was silenced when DJ Akademiks was sent the CDQ version and premiered it on his stream hours after the initial leak. Less than a week later, the Toronto rapper uploaded it to streaming services.
“Push Ups” was the father of one’s long-awaited reply to the initial shots on “Like That.” Many people weren’t fond of the part-time crooner posting memes, spicy Instagram captions, or making speeches at his shows; finally getting this song brought a sense of surprise at the fact he was willing to engage with people’s “boogeyman” and awareness of his frustrations upon realizing he wasn’t focused solely on Kendrick Lamar on the song. The For All The Dogs artist had smoke for Future, Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, and even Ja Morant.
Kendrick Lamar got a bunch of jokes about his height, being subject to a bad deal while on TDE, and being subservient to Taylor Swift. Drizzy recycled jokes about Rozay’s past as a correctional officer, dismissed Metro for being a producer by telling him to “make some f**king drums,” and said he could never be Hendrix’s No. 1 fan when he helped him achieve all of the No. 1’s in his career. He also called out Weeknd’s manager Cash XO for using their money to spend on other men, as opposed to the women they claim to constantly be around.
The impressive part of this song was his ability to have quality jabs for each one of these gentlemen, even though people felt like his focus should be solely on Lamar. In true Drake fashion, he did all of this on an upbeat, fun song that would go over well “outside” or in clubs. The repetitive “Drop and give me 50” refrain was a multi-layered earworm playing on Lamar doing pushups on social media and allegedly giving 50% of his earnings to Dave Free.
Yet even with that, “Push Ups” falls low on this list because the jabs weren’t powerful enough. In hindsight, and with the line “This ain’t everything I know, do not wake the demon up,” it is clear that this was a setup for more that we will get to later. Still, Drake mostly took it easy on everyone who had banded together to take him down, and compared to his other efforts in this beef, this was the lightest.
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Drake - "Taylor Made Freestyle"
Image Credit: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images Yeah, yeah, we know. The song used AI vocals (it didn’t) and the song got deleted (most of you still have the files). Anyways, “Taylor Made Freestyle” was a diabolical effort by Drake, dropping the very same day that “Push Ups” officially hit streaming platforms. He is not the first rapper to write and perform verses from someone else’s perspective, but he is the first to reenact their vocals and use them to diss someone who idolizes both of them.
He took on the form of the late Tupac, vocally, and gave Kendrick Lamar a pep talk about engaging in this beef. He attempted to get ahead of the predicted pedophilia angle and simultaneously downplayed it by saying it was heard on The Joe Budden Podcast. He also had Pac take on a big brother perspective and tell Lamar that he isn’t a real thug, but he can prove it if he takes Drizzy to task.
The funniest part is the West Coast legend alluding to Taylor Swift and how K. Dot hadn’t dropped a diss track yet because he was waiting for her to drop her album. It may not have been true, but his silence after firing the first shot on “Like That” allowed that to be a narrative that grew legs. Drake had Pac pull Lamar’s “boogeyman” card as well, questioning if he is this true rap beef savant despite never being in one before, all before passing things off to “Snoop Dogg.”
The Toronto rapper had the modulated version of Snoop share the same sentiment, recalling the time he and other West Coast rap legends passed him the torch at The House Of Blues in 2011. “Now’s a time to really make a power move/ ‘Cause right now it’s looking like you writin’ out the game plan on how to lose/ How to bark up the wrong tree and then get your head popped in a crowded room/ World is watching this chess game, but are you out of moves?” he rapped.
Finally, Drake jumped in with his real voice and acknowledged Snoop’s suggestions. He downplayed “Taylor Made” and “Push Ups” as light compared to what he had coming next. This was a premium effort to goad Lamar into speaking up and it ended up working. More importantly, it attacked his mentality and status as Los Angeles’ torch bearer.
Now, of course, Tupac’s estate sent Drake a cease and desist letter for using his likeness. This led to the Grammy winner removing the track from Twitter and Instagram, but the impact and damage were already done. The people were talking and Kendrick Lamar was clearly affected, as he referenced the song in his later disses. The directness, playfulness, and dismissiveness of “Taylor Made Freestyle” puts it ahead of “6:16 In LA” and “Push Ups,” though still within the bottom three. However, getting co-signed by Snoop Dogg is a nice consolation prize.
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Kendrick Lamar - "Meet The Grahams"
Image Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images Imagine being a high school student who has a child and thirty minutes after you misbehave, the principal calls you into the office where you find your mother, father, and son waiting for you. Rather than the principal simply repeating what you did, they go on to berate your parents for being the reason you’re a troublemaker, encourage your son that he can be better than you, and reveal to them all that you have a second child that you have been hiding. Oh, and imagine this meeting was streamed to the entire school.
That is what Kendrick Lamar did to Drake on “Meet The Grahams” this past Friday (May 3), just over a half hour after the 6 God released “Family Matters.” The immediacy of the release lent credence to the claim that Lamar had a mole in the OVO camp that was feeding him information. However, the content was a full, psychoanalytic stripping down of the persona that is Drake. Though Adonis Graham won’t understand the content of this record until he is older, K. Dot made sure to make it incredibly personal and warrant questioning his father’s character by attaching him cutting corners by using ozempic and being ashamed of his son’s mother, Sophie Brussaux.
Kendrick took a more tender approach with Sandra Graham, Drake’s mother, though his assertion that someone like her son should die made his soft tone make him appear like a true psycho. However, that is the depths one has to go to win a rap beef. Dennis Graham, however, got no sympathy for breeding his son’s gambling addiction and mistreatment of women, as that is what he allegedly saw growing up.
The climax of the record came with Kendrick Lamar revealing Drake had a second child that he was hiding, an 11-year-old daughter. He blamed the Toronto superstar’s ability to only commit to music as to why he wasn’t involved in her life, and related it back to Dennis Graham’s poor job as a father being why it trickled down to him. As if all of that wasn’t enough, he finally turns his attention to Drizzy and reminds him the battle could’ve stayed friendly until he mentioned his fiancée Whitney Alford’s name on “Push Ups.” He attacks every facet of Drake’s life and how what appears lit on the surface reveals something deeper and darker within him. “F**k a rap battle, this a long life battle with yourself,” he spits.
Conceptually, this track would be a kill shot for anyone. Whether any of the allegations were true or not, it was calculated, attacked Drake’s psyche, and affected his perception among fans. The content is almost too dark to lend itself to the record having replay value, and the somber production doesn’t aid in that endeavor. It took the battle from “I want to see what you’ll do next” to “I’m going to take you out.” It’s a tough listen, but that’s where these two acts felt they needed to go to win this war. It was effective, thus it sits in the middle of the pack on this list.
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Future & Metro Boomin feat. Kendrick Lamar - "Like That"
Image Credit: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Nobody can forget “Like That.” Drake and Kendrick Lamar — even J. Cole and Rick Ross — could release 100 more diss songs but people will always have to point back to the record that truly kicked off this entire experience. And the best part was, it was a genuine shock.
Fans went into that fateful March evening expecting to press play on We Don’t Trust You and hear the usual trap excellence that Future and Metro Boomin cook up; Kung Fu Kenny had another plan and that was to stir up trouble. This was a refreshing effort from K. Dot as it was the most motivated he sounded in a while. He did not leave anything up to interpretation or drop any quintuple entendre; it was clear he was talking to Drizzy and J. Cole.
He told them to stop the sneak dissing and aim directly at him. “Motherf**k the Big 3, ni**a it’s just big me” was a statement. His clever flip of the 6 God’s album title For All The Dogs, his play on Drake likening himself to Michael Jackson and calling himself Prince, who outlived the King Of Pop, and his direct reference to “First Person Shooter” were all his way of saying, “I’m in the ring. Come fight me, bro.” The energy of this verse, even if it wasn’t the lethal jabs he would send later, was enough to show that he did not want to delay this highly-anticipated battle any longer.
This was all people could talk about, despite the album being very good, but it worked out for Future and Metro in the long run; they got a No. 1 record and fans, albeit prematurely, called the track the “song of the summer.” It’s withstood the test of time in the month or so that has passed since the track released and has genuinely impacted the people, so that probably would’ve been the case if not for a song we’ll discuss later.
The commercial success of “Like That” equally created some odd conversations. Fans claimed Kendrick Lamar did not need to engage with Drake any further because of the commercial success of this song; the same fans who have said numbers don’t matter because Lamar makes #real #art. The track was also polarizing and drew a line in the sand within Hip-Hop. Were you on Drake’s side or Future and Metro Boomin’s side, who had seemingly enlisted Kendrick’s help to take down “The Boy”?
Regardless, “Like That” cannot be denied. And outside of Lamar’s verse, it is genuinely a great record. The way it has taken over clubs and parties has been a sight. It will always have to be considered somewhat high within these rankings due to the sheer quality of the record and the chaos that it caused.
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Drake - "The Heart Part 6"
Image Credit: Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images Drake has proven time and time again that when people doubt him and his back is against the wall, he shines. “The Heart Part 6” is his latest offering in this heavyweight feud (so far) and a strong counter to the barrage of records Kendrick Lamar sent his way this past weekend. The cover art featured Dave Free, Lamar’s close personal friend, commenting heart emojis on a photo of his children that Kendrick’s fiancée, Whitney Alford, posted. The comment was noticeably liked by Alford, who follows Free on Instagram but does not follow Lamar.
This was also Drizzy’s take on K. Dot’s popular “The Heart” rap series, a direct counter to Lamar lifting his timestamp record series. In this song, the 6 God revealed that he planted a mole in his camp to give Kendrick false information about a daughter he was hiding and the contents of the suitcase that appeared in the “Meet The Grahams” cover art.
He took on a disappointed tone for Lamar seemingly being so eager to take the bait, only for everything he said to be proven false, according to him. “Master manipulator, you bit on the speculation/ You dumb and reactive, ni**a, I’m petty with dedication,” the part-time crooner rapped. He also sounded exasperated with the beef and the fact that his opponent continued to repeat allegations of him being a pedophile all while never addressing whether or not he abused his fiancée.
Drake also denied being interested in underaged women, though his line about the fact he would have been arrested by now was a bit questionable given the fact several high-profile sex offenders have taken years before being caught. Additionally, his misinterpretation of Lamar’s 2022 record “Mother I Sober” — used to say Kendrick was obsessed with the pedophilia allegations due to the fact he was molested as a child — was a blunder. Some fans have decoded the line to actually be a positive on his behalf, and the theory of it being intentionally misconstrued to play on K. Dot’s psyche is sound.
This record, like all of the records in this beef, was riddled with controversy due to the fact many people theorized that Drake planted a fake mole and posted Dave Free’s comment on Whitney Alford’s Instagram all before “The Heart Part 6” even came out. People accused both rappers of getting their content from Twitter, and the verdict is still out on whether everything they said was true or simply defense mechanisms.
Thus, while we are unable to prove anything and assess the record at face value, it is another sharp rap performance from the Toronto artist. “Speakin’ of anything with a child, let’s get to that now/ This Epstein angle was the sh*t I expected/ TikTok videos you collected and dissected/ Instead of bein’ on some diss-direct sh*t/ You rather f**king grab your pen and misdirect sh*t,” he rapped. The play on words using the “A Minor” line from “Not Like Us” and subtle piano keys each time he said a note was masterful.
Again, we don’t know what is true or not, but if what Drake is saying is true, this record gets a major boost for the chess of it all. He executed a more cerebral plan than anyone could have imagined and found a way to shift the narrative into him being tired of this beef because he believed Kendrick Lamar could come up with something better, not because he knew he was losing.
Many people have interpreted this song as him bowing out of the battle, but in reality, it is him saying he anticipated a better battle from someone he thought would be a more worthy opponent and encouraging Lamar to hit him where it hurts. He may have lost in the court of public opinion and even acknowledged how great “Not Like Us” was, but in his mind, he walked away with the victory. For that confidence, despite taking multiple body blows, the strategy used here, and the individual performance on this song, “The Heart Part 6” ranks high.
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Kendrick Lamar - "Euphoria"
Image Credit: Santiago Bluguermann/Getty Images “Euphoria,” released last Tuesday morning (April 30), was Kendrick Lamar‘s first set of words ever since he set the rap game on fire with “Like That” at the end of March. This time he was on his own, as opposed to standing next to Future and Metro Boomin. What he may have lacked in companions, though it has seemed this entire time that he wasn’t interested in cliquing up, he made up for bars and depth.
The track got off to a slow start, leading many to wonder if he was going to opt for a more pensive disposition. He calls Drake a scam artist and a master manipulator and softly alludes to the pedophilia allegations he would tackle in future songs with the lines “I make music that electrify ’em, you make music that pacify ’em/ I can double down on that line, but spare you this time, that’s random acts of kindness.”
Once the beat drops, it’s clear what type of energy he is bringing. Lamar calls out “The Boy” for talking tough about guns in his songs, only to turn around and be sympathetic when someone dies from gunfire. He suggests J. Prince, a psuedo father figure in the Toronto rapper’s life, has a dark past and that Drizzy wants to be like him. He even makes a joke about the Canadian rapper’s new braids and them being so tight that they’re messing up his cognition and how he views the music business.
One of the highlights of this track is the eight-bar setup using YNW Melly’s current murder case: “It’s three GOATs left, and I seen two of them kissin’ and huggin’ on stage/ I love ’em to death, and in eight bars, I’ll explain that phrase/ It’s nothin’ nobody can tell me/ I don’t wanna talk on no celly/ You know I got language barriers/ It’s no accent you can sell me/ Yeah, Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish ni**a, the crown is heavy, huh/ I pray they my real friends, if not, I’m YNW Melly.”
Another standout portion of this song is Kendrick Lamar admitting he was a hater. He claimed he hated the way Drake walked, talked, dressed, and even the way he says “Ni**a.” Hilariously, he doesn’t have any deeper meaning to it; he simply just says that it is cringe-worthy. And the bars about him believing Drizzy sees two “bad bi**hes” when he stands next to Sexyy Red may truly be the funniest bars to ever come from rap beef.
Content-wise, there was still a feeling K. Dot was holding back, which makes sense now that three more records have come out. But he subtly warned Drake that more was coming by referencing his 2015 diss record “Back To Back,” which felt ominous then and yielded horrific results.
“Euphoria” ranks high because of the fact Kendrick Lamar was humorous, clever, disparaging, disrespectful, but still playful. It was especially entertaining to see him match up to the tempo of “Push Ups,” though he switched the beat and seemingly got angrier as he kept rapping.
Throw in the title being a reference to the MAX show Drake executive produces about high schoolers, the revered sample from The Wiz where Richard Pryor is exposed as a fraud, and the unbridled hate, “Euphoria” deserves a spot in the conversation when discussing the best songs not just within this beef, but of all-time.
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Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"
Image Credit: Antony Jones/Getty Images for Spotify If “Meet The Grahams” was a family meeting with a high school principal that was broadcast to the world, “Not Like Us” was an assembly where the principal enthusiastically announced that a student was expelled. Kendrick Lamar did what possibly no one expected him to; his approach to the battle so far had been lyrical, despite utilizing a myriad of production choices. “Not Like Us,” though, had a similar impact as “Like That” but leaned on his West Coast roots.
The upbeat, dance-friendly, chant-laden bop is undeniable. Make no mistake, he still raps extremely well, but to do it on a club record in an era when many people have claimed he does not have any of those and his music “scares the h**s” showed he was more prepared to battle the biggest Hip-Hop artist in the world than even his biggest fans may have realized. Literally, this past weekend, a DJ dropped out the audio not so the crowd could chant “Certified pedophile!” but so that he could. He also created a simple, earworm hook that people have been repeating for the last few days in “They not like us, they not like us.”
Then there’s ending the first verse with “Why you trollin’ like a bi**h? Ain’t you tired?/ Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.” He elongated the final syllable of “minor” similar to how Drake elongated Dave Free’s name in “Family Matters,” (more on that later) but also turned it into a double entendre referring to his pedophilia allegations.
In the third verse, Kendrick Lamar dips back into his conscious bag by discussing slavery but makes it purposeful by bringing it back to Drake and completely breaking down his “culture vulture” and affinity for Atlanta. “You called Future when you didn’t see the club/ Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up/ 21 gave you false street cred/ Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/ Quavo said you can be from Northside/ 2 Chainz say you good, but he lied/ You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars/ No, you not a colleague, you a f**kin’ colonizer,” he rapped.
Finally, the icing on the cake was his built-in “OV-H**” chant which has caught on with the people. This song was a masterclass in execution, adapting to your opponent’s style, beating them at their own game, and getting the people on your side in an even bigger way than before. Kendrick had support throughout this battle and his lyrics were getting quoted all over the internet. “Like That” plays a lot “outside,” but it’s simply a verse. This was a solo endeavor that caught on in every single way that he intended.
It is understandable if someone would make this No. 1 on the list. It is a great record and perhaps the best example of his methodical, timely approach to this battle. Kudos, Kung Fu Kenny. That nickname, and the “certified boogeyman” label, were certainly earned with this one.
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Drake - "Family Matters/Buried Alive Parody"
Image Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images for dcp And here we are, the No. 1 song(s) to come out in this beef. We grouped “Family Matters” and the “Buried Alive” parody simply because the latter was used to promote the former via Instagram. However, even without “Buried Alive,” this would still be the No. 1 entry. Drake mocks Kendrick Lamar‘s offering to the “Buried Alive Interlude” on his 2011 album Take Care an as an appetizer before firing shots at all of his opponents with a full song and music video.
Where do we begin? Over a beat similar to “Push Ups,” he calls out the Compton rapper for slandering the women he engages with and counters with the claim that K. Dot has sex with white women to boost his self-esteem, which he admitted on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. He also questions how Dot can question his mettle as a father when he never shows the world his kids. The accompanying visual shows him towing and destroying a van that looks like the one on the Good Kid, M.A.A.D City album cover.
The biggest allegation in the first part of this song is that Lamar’s child may not be his, but rather his close friend Dave Free’s. To fully make that sink in, he elongates Free’s last name before going into a flip of Sexyy Red’s hook on “Rich Baby Daddy.” This eventually transitions into a menacing drill beat where he focuses on everyone else trying to tear him down.
A$AP Rocky gets it the worst when Drake raps “Rakim talkin’ sh*t again/ Gassed ’cause you hit my BM first, ni**a, do the math, who I was hittin’ then?/ I ain’t even know you rapped still ’cause they only talkin’ ’bout your ‘fit again/ Probably gotta have a kid again ‘fore you think of droppin’ any sh*t again/ Even when you do drop, they gon’ say you should’ve modeled ’cause it’s mid again.”
The father of one acknowledges that there is a conspiracy against him, but he doesn’t complain about it. He, in fact, savors the opportunity to take them all down and dismisses the effort: “These ni**as had a plan and they finally found a way to rope you into it/ Two separate albums dissin’, I just did a Kim to it, ni**a, skim through it.”
Last, but most certainly not least, he fulfills Kendrick Lamar’s request of bringing three switches on “Like That” by adding a more downtempo third beat. Initially, it was interesting he opted to use autotune and utilize his half-rap, half-sing vocals, but it did not take anything away from the song.
Drake opened part three with another one of the funniest lines of this beef: “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now.” It is a layered bar because the Toronto rapper has been vocal about his disdain for the Grammys over the years, whereas K. Dot is a Grammy darling and many people believe he is a shoo-in for awards even if his music isn’t up to par, like his latest album Mr. Morale.
There is also “You wanna take up for Pharrell? Then come get his legacy out of my house” all while he has an unknown man wearing the his legendary chains inside of his home. Drake cleverly flips his previous “20 v 1” line, but says he is the one who helped Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar go No. 1 simply by being the topic of “Like That.”
Last, but most certainly not least, Drake alleges that Kendrick Lamar domestically abused his fiancée Whitney Alford at the end of the song. The accompanying visual shows him speaking with a man who is meant to resemble 1090 Jake while photos of who people later believed was his secret 11-year-old daughter were hanging on the surrounding walls. If his planting a mole revelation in “The Heart Part 6” was true, this was a brilliant way to show he was several steps ahead and many people initially missed by design.
There is so much to praise content-wise here, the song is the most enjoyable of all that were released, it is some of the best rapping Drake has ever done in his career, and if not for “Meet The Grahams” coming out 30 minutes later, its impact would be even more major. Still, this is the best song to come from this beef and it will be neck-and-neck with “Not Like Us” in terms of how it ages. The thing that puts it ahead, and what people are trying to dock him for, is focusing his energy on multiple people at once and doing it better than he did on “Push Ups.”
Drake may not be viewed as the winner of this beef in the court of public opinion, but it just goes to show once again that a person can “lose” despite having the best song. “Family Matters” is that.