Kendrick vs. Drake battle from the POV of an honest Kendrick fan

Alright, the first thing to get out of the way is for me to be clear that this is not an objective look at the course of the rap battle, but one that I hope will provide some context and insight as to why I loved this battle so much. As the battle was underway, I largely limited how much I spoke about it because I thought that a majority of the discourse was just noisy fanfare that didn’t actually utilize many reasons behind the stances they took and I didn’t feel like adding my opinions to that stew would mean much, especially until there was some sense of conclusion to the battle.

Now that we have arrived at that place, I would like to say that I am happy with who I chose to win it, but I am even happier to discuss how he actually went about this undertaking because recency bias aside, I do think that this battle has the potential to age the best out of all previous battles, and hopefully, even if you disagree with that statement I can make a convincing enough argument by the end of this that you will at least understand where I am coming from. 

J. Cole will be discussed at certain points of this because he is a part of this story, but his bowing out of the rap battle has made it so he will only be discussed peripherally for the most part. I also want to make it clear that there is much that I will miss, skip over, or maybe even straight up not understand. This is a very long and murky rivalry that is difficult to track. It’s like trying to write a history book based on the accounts of two heavily biased poets. 

I also want to be clear that this paper's primary objective is a celebration of music, so I will be linking songs and reactions throughout with the hope that you, the audience, will listen along and indulge in this battle for the immense entertainment value it has. There’s no need to attempt to consume this paper, or this battle, in one sitting. Listen to them at your own pace, form your own opinions, and engage with this as the special event it is, rather than a research assignment. And if you have any thoughts or feelings that are sparked by this paper, don’t hesitate to let me know! It is my absolute pleasure to talk about this battle. 

I’ve considered a couple of different ways to actually begin talking about this battle: chronologically? By relevance? From the moment I first listened to both or either of these artists? I think that approaching this battle from any of these angles would produce fairly differing stories, but I have decided that the best way to cover this battle is to start from its official beginnings, and then trace backwards from that point, taking several detours and digressions to provide context and perspective to how I late. So, without further ado, let’s get this shit! Let’s get this shit! Let’s get this shit!

Judgment Criteria and Important Notes

Alright, that was a fun transitory sentence to launch into the rest of this, but I unfortunately have to cover some background information before we embark on this. In order to understand the course of this battle, we are first going to have to understand some of the elements that they each carried with them into this battle, both positive and negative. 

First of all, one of the biggest contentions in this battle had to do with how people were scoring it. The two most prominent ways that I saw this battle get misunderstood were by people who were trying to judge the battle purely through either who had the best lyrics or who was being the most truthful with the things they revealed about their opponent. 

The former of these was irritating because it seeks to strip the character and humanity from the rap battle. It is not only what you say, but how you say it, something that will be discussed more later. 

The latter of these was a particularly annoying aspect of this battle because the audiences of both artists were often so biased that few people took the time to try to weigh the arguments of the opposing sides. In addition to this,  the public not being privy to decades of background information regarding these two often led to arguments of conjecture between fandoms, leaving no solid ground for argument.

The reality is that rap battles are judged on both of these aspects, and more. Rap battles are an exchange of art, and like all art, the purpose is to promote an idea to its audience, which for rap battles means your music needs to alter the audience’s perception of your opponent. If you go and watch traditional battle rap, you will find countless of these rappers bringing in additional, real-life information about their opponents to use against them in a battle, but these things they bring to the battle are often rumors and hearsay at best. It is then the job of the battle rapper to take this information and frame it in such a way that the audience believes or at least is inclined to believe what the battle rapper is claiming, a large part of which is tied to whether the audience thinks the rapper believes it themselves.

This is important because the inclusion of facts is important for the judgment of this battle, but it is not required. Facts aid in our ability to believe in things, but if you can paint a good enough picture without them it doesn’t matter. The reverse is true as well, regardless of how well you word something, if it rings off as a blatant lie, it will probably not land or age well. This will all be important later. 

The Power of Tone 

It is important for me to mention the impact of Kendrick’s tone now because it is one of his greatest tools as a performer, and it will often help to pay attention to it in order to understand the intent and meaning behind a lot of Kendrick’s music. 

My hope in writing this is not that you just take my word for this battle, nor is it for it to be a detached examination of this music. I implore you to listen to all of this music because there is a lot to love about both the music and the story it tells.  I write this because I love it, and I am hoping this will help some others who aren’t as engulfed in it as me to begin to understand it and enjoy it as much as I do. So I will be linking all these songs, and I will even link some good reaction channels that are good at providing context, explaining lyrics, and providing energy and a sense of what it felt like during the battle. 

Shot Fired!

So this all brings us to March 22nd when Future and Metro Boomin released their album “We Don’t Trust You” which held on it the monumental track that is contention for song of the summer for 2024 “Like That” that spent several weeks at the #1 spot on Billboard (important for the numbers and sales conversation that occurred regarding this battle). There are numerous reasons why this song spent so long at the #1 spot: it is the best beat on the album, but what truly made it stand out was the secret Kendrick Lamar verse that it carried where he addresses both Drake and J. Cole directly. Here is a very fun first reaction to the song. I will also be linking the lyrics here, and will continue to do so where I can. I recommend listening to it at least the first time without the lyrics though because they are not always 100% accurate.

The Big Three

The big three is a phrase that has been in mainstream circulation to refer to the top three modern-day rappers of the current age, and those being Kendrick, Drake, and Cole. This distinction was judged through a combination of their different styles, levels of mainstream success, and lyrical abilities, which saw them constantly running into each other at the top of the charts. This is also why artists like Future and Kanye weren’t originally included in this conversation, because while both have an abundance of style and success, neither is known as a lyricist. This is also why the ghostwriting claims that have been levied against Drake throughout the years are still an effective shot during this battle, regardless if you believe they pertain to this battle or not (if you don’t know about ghostwriting claims, look it up.)

While this distinction may seem like a form of praise, Hip Hop is a culture that is deeply steeped in competition, and being lumped in with J.Cole and Drake for the title of the greatest obviously didn't sit too well with Kendrick, prompting him to give the full-throated rebuttal of “Motherfuck the big three, nigga it’s just big ME!” on "Like That".

While that was the most remembered line from Kendrick’s verse, there are many more important lines from this verse that frequently get overlooked, the first being near the beginning where he states “D.O.T, the Money, Power, and Respect, the last one was better, say there’s a lot of goofies with a check.” Aside from being a neat double-entendre near the end, this line also signals a core component of this battle that Kendrick will maintain for the rest of the battle, which is the importance that he places on respect, both given and received from the rap game. 

One of Kendrick’s main arguments against Drake that got largely overshadowed was his assertion that Drake is more of an exploiter of hip-hop music than he is a pioneer or contributor. These allusions to black culture and authenticity will be maintained throughout the course of this battle, and we will also see that it is also a major component of his disses towards Drake prior to this battle. Later in his verse, he says “Niggas cliqueing up, but cannot Be Legit, no 40 water.” Waving his culture card by referencing Be Legit and E-40, two rappers from the Bay Area who are cousins and formed a group called The Click, but also alluded to the fact that he viewed the bond between J.Cole and Drake as inauthentic and one rooted in industry marketing.

The last line I will touch on is one that comes near the end of the track where Kendrick says “Your best work is a light pack, nigga prince outlived Mike Jack.” This is a comparison that will be referenced by both artists in a variety of contexts, so it is important to mention. What Kendrick means by this statement is a couple of things. First, Drake has compared himself to Michael Jackson multiple times, specifically on the track First Person Shooter where he says

“Niggas talkin' 'bout when this gon' be repeated

What the fuck, bro? I'm one away from Michael

Nigga, beat it, nigga, beat it, what?”.  

Drake; "First Person Shooter"; For All the Dogs

If you know anything about the rumored rivalry between Michael Jackson and Prince, there are multiple accounts that claim that the two fostered an intense distaste for each other, or at the very least Prince did for Michael Jackson. Through the lens of art, as well, many would consider Prince to be the superior artist, a multi-instrumentalist, industry rebel, boundary-pushing, hyper-perfectionist, while Michael Jackson was many of these things as well, but to a lesser degree but overall the more mainstream accessible and successful artist.

The full discussion on these two would take far more time and knowledge than I care to inject here into a tangential paragraph, but that is essentially what is being said by this line. It is also an early hint that Kendrick drops to one of the angles that he was potentially willing to take against Drake,  which is that of Drake being a pedophile. I say potentially because I don’t think that Kendrick would’ve taken this angle without a few key moments occurring, but I do think he wanted to take it and fully expected this battle to go there, but we will return to that later on. 

Just to be clear as well, as I’ve heard plenty of Drake stans complaining to me that Kendrick was corny for “jumping” Drake with a lot of other rappers, but I think this is such a flimsy argument for two distinct reasons: though Kendrick was the first to directly address the beef, the first shot that initiated this battle was actually a result of Drake’s song “First Person Shooter” off his album For All the Dogs. An album that was also full of subliminal and straightforward shots towards many of the rappers that end up responding: Future (the song is What Would Pluto DO), ASAP Rocky and Rihanna (Fear of Heights), and many more people. This is especially true if you want to talk about his Scary Hours 3 deluxe version of the album that he later released that included even more shots on songs like” Red Button” and “Stories about My Brother” that take shots and even more people.

So in the words of Kendrick on one of his diss tracks we will be discussing later, "euphoria",  “I don’t care about no reaper, nigga I’m reaping what I sow, okay?” Drake is the one who has cultivated this hostile environment and prompted all these responses. To cry out now would make him no better than J.Cole, in fact, it would make it far worse because Drake takes some quite personal shots whereas J.Cole just wanted to call himself the best rapper, which all rappers do.  

7 Minute Drill

I almost considered not including J.Cole in this report because his inclusion in this battle was a brief and feeble flame, that blew out before it even had life. I am not including it to shit on J.Cole, but rather because the way that he went out very much contributes to the legend of Kendrick in a manner that truly makes me wonder as an audience member if the universe conspires with Kendrick to ensure that his music ages immaculately. 

Just to provide quick context, most rap fans after hearing Kendrick’s “Like That” verse were far more excited to hear a response from J.Cole, who in recent years has experienced a sort of self-revival, with him dropping some of his most widely well received musical projects, going on historic feature runs with prominent rappers and not only walking away with the best verse most times but very clearly stating that he was coming for the #1 spot in the rap game. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think that J.Cole has the absolute hunger that is required to claim that spot, which isn’t an inherently negative thing. In this rap battle just because I believe Kendrick won in spectacular fashion, Drake fans tend to think that I view Kendrick as some infallible God, when in reality I appreciate him because he is the opposite, and in keeping with that, I think that both he and Drake have internalized inferiority complexes that heavily influence their competitive natures. I could digress into lyrics of both of theirs that lead me to this conclusion, but there are enough tangents in this paper as in so it’s up to you whether you take my word for this or not.

In either case, I think that J.Cole doesn’t quite have this same chip on his shoulder as these other two emcees, which made it so that when the battle began in earnest, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his peace for that top spot, something that you have to acknowledge both Drake and Kendrick were more than willing to do.

As timing would have it, all of this occurred while J. Cole is in the midst of crafting what he has been heralding as his Magnum Opus, which has meant that he has been very active as of late in order to slowly roll out this final project. Part of that rollout included dropping an EP called “Might Delete Later”, which he had been promoting with singles and snippets right before this battle occurred. With Kendrick’s public challenge against him, and with the world believing that J.Cole had been looking for an opponent, I believe that J.Cole felt very pressured to respond, especially since he needed to be in the public eye to promote his project, leading him to release his Might Delete Later project on April 5th, 2024 with an extra track at the end of it called “7 Minute Drill” where he directly fires back at Kendrick. Linked here is a good reaction video. Lyrics here.

The overall reception of this diss track was mixed, but I won’t go into all the reasons behind that. What I will say is that the consensus on both sides was that J.Cole didn’t go hard enough on it: those who didn’t like it thought that J.Cole didn’t go far enough, and those who liked it agreed with that sentiment but viewed the track as a decent return jab that was going to lead into more. 

Sadly, these fans would be disappointed just two days later when, on the main stage of his very own festival, Dreamville Fest, J. Cole apologized to Kendrick for making a diss track. One of my favorite reactions to this is here. 

This is something that may have never happened before in rap, but if it has, it has certainly never happened on such a large stage, from someone who many considered as the best technical rapper of these three, and it is a moment that will go down in the history books. It wasn’t just that J.Cole apologized, it was the manner in which he did it, saying things like “I couldn’t sleep well because of this” and “If you want to diss me back, go ahead, I’ve got my chin out, I’ll take it on the chin.” Things that most rappers would be hesitant to say on an ordinary day due to how it could be weaponized against them, and J.Cole spoke these words freely, on stage at his own festival, and then got the crowd to cheer for Kendrick…the look was bad. Worse than this though, is the added element of real-world foreshadowing that seems to foretell this happening years prior. 

An early harbinger of this moment occurred nearly a decade ago on November 27, 2015, when Kendrick Lamar and J.Cole ended up creating a song together called “Black Friday” in which the two rappers took turns rapping over an iconic beat from the other’s discography, Kendrick on J. Cole’s Tale of 2 Citiez beat (one of my favorite J.Cole beats ever), and J.Cole over Kendrick’s song “Alright.” The Lyrics here. I'm only linking Kendrick verse though, cause that's what is being discussed, but you can find the full version on Youtube.

Let me be clear, both of these rappers came to play on this track, and J.Cole by no means got washed on this track, however, just from the beat selection between the two, as well as the tone and approach of both rappers you can tell the two came with different agendas: I believe Cole’s intention was to make a great song and to make a version that could stand up next to the original “Alright”, while Kendrick’s was to absolutely annihilate J.Cole over his own beat, even stating on the track “I’ll kill this whole fucking beat if Cole let me” multiple times.

I could write a whole paper on this song alone, but instead I just highly recommend that everyone go listen to it. Even if you don’t understand all of the bars, Kendrick’s flow and tone are absolutely hungry in this song, and it just ages better with each listen. What is worth mentioning about Kendrick’s verse though, is a line that states “And now we look at the competition as quick submission, they tappin' out before we even get a chance to miss 'em,” which to listen in hindsight feels almost clairvoyant now that we see it play out before our eyes. 

A stretch, I know.  However, we are now going to take a look at another track that plays into this narrative, Kendrick’s "The Heart Part 4" which was released on March 23rd, 2017. Lyrics here. As this track is full of subliminals, it takes work to identify who he is talking about directly, however, the level to which his lyrics foretell the fall of Cole is genuinely creepy. The first thing that stands out is a section that occurs during a dramatic beat change where Kendrick states 

“Tiptoein' around my name, nigga, ya lame

And when I get at you, homie, don't you just tell me you was just playin'

‘Oh I was just playin' with you K-Dot, c'mon

You know a nigga rock with you, bro’

Shut the fuck up, you sound like the last nigga I know!

Might end up like the last nigga I know!

Oh, you don't wanna clash? Nigga, I know!”

"The Heart Part 4"; Kendrick Lamar

Using context, this line was most likely directed toward Big Sean with whom there existed some tension between him and Kendrick ever since Kendrick used his song “Control” as a Trojan Horse for one of the most impactful rap verses of the last decade wherein Kendrick announces himself as the new king of the rap game,  taking a shots at his peers in the rap game. Because there is no name specifically attached though,  there exists the possibility that these bars were meant for more than just one rapper. 

Regardless if it was meant for J. Cole or not, it hardly matters at this point because time has made it difficult to apply it to anyone else after heading the final line of the song where Kendrick states “Y'all got 'til April the 7th to get y'all shit together!” as if he is reaching 7 years into the future to smack some sense into J. Cole because the day that J. Cole ends up apologizing on stage is, you guessed it, April 7th. Tada!

Control

Before we fully depart from here, I want to talk a bit about Kendrick’s verse on Control, (lyrics here, Kendrick is the 2nd verse) and his 2013 BET Cypher that followed it (lyrics here, Kendrick is the last verse). Though Kendrick named many different rappers on Control, as is often the case with Kendrick, paying attention to his tone, he puts a strong emphasis on Drake’s name, who was also the forerunner of his peers in the rap game at the time. It is around this time that people think that the schism between Drake and Kendrick truly began, whether or not it was directly related to Kendrick’s “Control” Verse, or something behind the scenes the audience will never know. Control was first released in August of that year as a promotional single for Big Sean’s “Hall of Fame” album (though it ultimately was cut), which sparked a wave of responses from other rappers, one of which was Drake who expressed that he didn’t appreciate what Kendrick did, which Kendrick would later respond to. 

As the legend of this verse has grown over the years, many people try to downplay it, claiming that most of the hype around it had to do with him naming names, and not to do with his rapping ability. To that, I say that Kendrick absolutely rapped his ass off, and his use of tone on this track is an important aspect of why it has the hair-raising quality to it, and something that I think adds to its greatness rather than detracting from it. 

A few months later, Kendrick’s label at the time, Top Dawg Entertainment, performed a cypher on BET in which Kendrick used to spit yet another vicious verse, most of which seemed to be directly addressing Drake. 

The line that is often referred to from Kendrick’s verse is when he says “Nothing’s been the same since I dropped Control and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes” because it is the only place that you can be sure that he is talking about Drake by referencing the album Nothing Was the Same, but now that we have somewhat of a rubric for how to read Kendrick disses, I am confident is saying that most of the verse is about Drake, if not the entirety. 

Much like is the case with Kendrick’s verses on “Like That” and “Control,” or even some songs that we will later be covering like “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM,” “Rich Spirit,” and “6.16 in LA,” Kendrick has a tendency to start off his verse talking about whoever he’s dissing, but doing so in a way that makes it difficult to read them as disses, or who they are aimed at. His opening lines for the cypher were “I hate y’all, do anything to replace y’all” which sounds pretty general (like his Control verse does as well) until a few bars later he continues

“I kick asses then kick knowledge, 

I’m way more polished 

than 99% of the scholars you thought had graduated. 

I’m the master that masturbated on your favorite

emcee until the industry wanted me assassinated.

You are either corny or an opportunist. 

I let you eat, now go back to church, there’s still crackers at communion.” 

2013 TDE BET Cypher; Kendrick Lamar

…whew…he hates this man. Even without the Nothing Was the Same bar that comes later in the verse, now that we know Kendrick’s perception of Drake, it is easy to see where who he is describing, and how long this has been on Kendrick’s mind. The lines about being corny and/or an opportunist is in direct alignment with how Kendrick painted Drake in his most recent diss tracks as he calls him a culture vulture. And now that we have arrived here, I think it is a good time to talk about the famed Drake Stimulus Package…no Diddy. 

The Drake Effect

The Drake Stimulus Package is a term that is used to explain the phenomena of Drake’s features on songs having the ability to instantly break a new or lesser-known artist into the mainstream spotlight. This is a topic that plays an important part of this battle for both sides and one that I feel often gets confused when I am debating it with people. Now, the first thing to acknowledge is that the Drake Stimulus package aka the Drake Effect is a very real thing that has impacted many people’s careers, including Kendrick Lamar’s, which even Kendrick himself admitted to. Major acts like the Migos, Rick Ross, Lil Durk, Giveon, The Weeknd, are among these artists as well, and the list goes on and on. 

However, because of how success and talent are often weighed through money, people often overlook the fact that Drake has gained just as much as he has taken by hopping in on a sound early on and riding it up through the charts. The ability to hear what will be hot next in music and emulate it well enough to join the wave in an incredible talent, and why Drake has maintained such a hold on the charts over the years, but that doesn’t negate the validity of some people viewing him as an exploiter of the Hip-Hop culture. In fact, the fact that Drake generates so much money, and has heavily contributed to the monumental stage that it has today can actually hurt him in this argument. I’m a hater, I know. But listen because my hate is well-crafted, let me cook. 

Hip-hop’s current-day popularity has kinda split its identity in two because it originally spawned as a rebel genre that was an outlet for people who were shut out of society in various capacities.  That element of hip-hop still exists today, but to a much lesser degree, especially since it is now connected to large businesses and big money that controls what is promoted and pushed. These founding elements of hip-hop are why there is so much focus in rap on “realness” and authenticity, even as it progressively becomes less so. It is also why Drake’s unparalleled success represents an alignment with big money and the powers that be, leaning into rap commodification and the dilution of its artistic currency. It is in this way that rap can actually represent a strike against him when it comes to the older generation of rappers that inspired Drake and of whom he desires the acceptance from, like Pusha T, Yasiin “Mos Def” Bey , and Joe Budden.

I would explain myself further here, but I will refrain in order to stay on topic. Instead, here is a quick clip of a relatively recent  interview with Yasiin Bey, where he responds to a question about whether Drake is “hip-hop.” This is an important thing to note because this focus on Drake’s “fakeness” is something that Kendrick will zero in on further throughout the years, and become a huge component of his current attacks against Drake.

All the Stars

All the Stars (lyrics here) was a single that was released to promote the soundtrack for the soundtrack to the 2017 Blockbuster film Black Panther (I was attending Howard University when this was all going on, so this was a monumental time in my life, iykyk) and is an absolutely beautiful song. It is also a song that I, as well as many others, have come to believe is a Drake diss track in disguise. And I must say here now before we continue, that Kendrick makes some of the calmest, loveliest, most peaceful-sounding diss tracks I’ve ever heard lol. It would take too long to sit down and dissect each bar, but I implore you to just listen to the song and keep Drake in mind while Kendrick is talking, and you will see that he touches on very much the same themes: that Drake is selfish("corrupt a man’s heart with a gift, that’s how you find out who you’re building with"),  narcissistic ("look at me crazy cause I ain’t invite you…"), fake and manipulative ("I recognize your false confidence and calculated promises"). 

This theme is matched in "The Heart Part 4" when he chants “Don’t tell a lie about me, and I won’t tell the truth ‘bout you” which Kendrick will later reference again in his more recent Drake diss “euphoria”, which will become particularly important later. For now, let us continue with the next song in the actual rap battle, “Pushups”. 

Pushups

"Pushups" (lyrics here) was the first Drake response to both Kendrick and the bevy of other entertainers that had dissed him on or in the midst of the releases of Metro Boomin and Future’s two albums that dropped within weeks of each other, We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You. Linked here is a reaction video if you want to listen with a fun audience. It is important to note that this song is a good song, and performed as such when it was first released. Though Drake splits his attention between about 5-10 different people, his attitude and lyrics were good enough to satisfy most fans, including me.

With Kendrick only releasing his “Like That” verse so far in the battle and then going radio silent (as Kendrick is known to do), and with the novelty of all the different people dissing Drake still in the air, it made it so that Drake didn’t have to spend an entire track dissing and dismantling Kendrick alone.  This is important to note because this will not be the case once we get around to Drake’s second to last release in the rap battle, “Family Matters”, and “Pushups” is the first clue that we get that Drake might not have been as prepared for this battle as he believed himself to be. When you really sit down to look at what it is that Drake actually criticizes about Kendrick on this track, it can be boiled down to

1. Kendrick is short. Which I want to make sure that even though I am using this to represent a lack of depth over the course of the battle, I think that the repeated short jokes were actually funny. The issue comes with there not being enough beyond them to win this battle.

2. Kendrick isn’ the boss he things he is, and is in fact getting financially extorted and creatively controlled by his former label owner Punch (something he will later double down on on Taylor Made Freestyle)

3. That Kendrick's wife was having an affair with her bodyguard. This is the part of the record that has aged the worse because while it was the most effective shot he took on this record, it is also the first step to him losing this battle because it marks the start of this battle getting very personal and ugly. 

4. The record also ends with a snippet of his future track "Family Matters" that shows Drake taunting Kendrick’s to respond, chanting “Drop, drop, drop, drop!” This taunting attitude of Drake’s is something that will come back to haunt him later in the battle, and actually contributed significantly to the consensus of him losing as his tone changes drastically as a result of Kendrick's diabolical strategy, but we will get to that later. 

5. He says Kendrick isn’t in the Big Three because he doesn’t sell as well as SZA, 21 Savage, or Travis Scott, which is a typical Drake flex that worked well with his audience, but ultimately didn’t hit as hard considering part of Kendrick’s critique of Drake is that he is purely profit and fame-focused, with no real authenticity behind the art he creates.  It also rings much more hollow because aside from 21 Savage, he didn’t name anyone that takes lyricism too seriously (chill SZA fans, I mean in a rap sense, with bars and entendres and such, I’m aware that SZA has good lyrics). 

I don’t point these things out to take anything away from this track, like I said I enjoyed it, but it’s important to acknowledge that these tactics were only really effective while Kendrick was silent. Now, the surface level of these digs at Kendrick don’t make the song bad by any means. As one of the openers to the battle, it was really Drake just getting warmed up into the battle and sending some jabs Kendrick’s way. This is where the strategy of the battle truly gets interesting because it is at this point that both Kendrick and Drake are attempting to bait the other into dropping what they would consider their battle-ending record first, so that they would have the benefit of being able to rebut or mitigate its damage. 

In hindsight, this was mostly an illusion though, because while Kendrick sent the first official jab to start the battle off, there is a very high likelihood that he had a mole in Drake’s camp that was feeding him information about Drake. This is a claim that Kendrick will make in a later track 6.16 in LA, that became a major point of debate between the fandoms at the time.

As the viewing public, we may never know. However, there are certain clues that happen throughout this battle that leaves only two options: either Kendrick really had some insider information,  the universe just loves Kendrick so much that it will do whatever it can to make him win, or Drake is just that predictable to Kendrick that he was able to anticipate how he would approach this battle (which is also something that Kendrick alleges in his track Euphoria, saying  “why calculate? You’re not as calculated, I can even predict your angle.”) Honestly, I think it could be a mix of all three considering what happened to J.Cole.

  The line above by Kendrick was also in response to probably the biggest mistake in “Pushups”, which is when Drake raps “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney.” referencing Kendrick’s longtime romantic partner, Whitney, as well as a 1992 movie called “The Bodyguard” which starred Whitney Houston, in which her character has an affair with her bodyguard, all insinuating that Kendrick’s wife was cheating on him with her bodyguard. Let’s also take a moment here to appreciate and acknowledge that though Drake’s approach to this battle didn’t resonate with me as much as Kendrick’s, he was definitely rapping well, which I think this line is great indication of with both its brevity and depth…Great, now that the moment is over, let’s talk about why this line was also a terrible terrible decision. 

As it pertains to rap battles, the general consensus is that there is nothing that people can say that would be considered “too far” or “out of bounds” but there is also an acknowledgment that however sinister or underhanded a rapper’s approach to a battle is, they have to be prepared for the consequences of their words if they cross certain lines. One of the most widely accepted indicators of such a line being crossed is the inclusion of a rapper's family or significant others. 

This is something that rings especially true when it comes to Drake because he famously lost only one rap battle prior to this, the infamous Pusha T vs. Drake battle where he revealed that Drake had a child no one knew about,  and it occurred after Drake made the exact same mistake by mentioning Pusha T’s wife in a seemingly offhand bar, saying “I told you keep playin' with my name and Imma let it ring on you like Virginia Williams.”  Him mentioning Kendrick’s wife had two distinct effects: some thought it meant he had learned from his Pusha T battle and was ready for absolute war, and other thought he was making the exact same mistake as last time. 

Taylor Made Freestyle

Due to the absolute hunger of the audience for this rap battle, as well as a few key media players, primarily Akademiks, response time between diss records was a huge highlight for this battle. An unofficial version of Pushups originally debuted on April 13th as a “leaked” track. There is a lot of speculation whether this was leaked intentionally or not, and it was a big point of contention in the moment because there eagerness of people to hear response tracks became a breeding ground for AI opportunists who released fake tracks by both Kendrick and Drake, but again, we will talk about the AI angle a bit later. It wouldn’t be until a week later on April 19 that “Pushups' ' was officially claimed by Drake when he put it on streaming sites, at the same time he released his next diss record…the “Taylor Made Freestyle”(lyrics here). Here is a link to a reaction video.

Of all the tracks over the course of this rap battle that has aged like a dead carcass in the hot desert sun, none has aged worse than Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle”. The reasons why this aged poorly are numerous, but it is important to remember that at the time of its release, it was quite effective for many of the same reasons it aged poorly.

To start, considering that Kendrick still had not responded at the time, it helped to foster the illusion that Kendrick was scared to engage directly with Drake now that Drake was officially addressing him, and capitalized off the narrative that Kendrick takes a long time to write music, a narrative that has been cultivated by people judging the time between Kendrick’s album releases. 

To really hammer that point home, Drake used AI technology to disguise his voice as both Tupac and Snoop Dogg, imitating them as they begged Kendrick to respond to Drake and not run away from the fight. The main purpose of this track was to irritate Kendrick and get under his skin, as well as get ahead of one particular angle he thought Kendrick would use, though it ultimately did nothing to help. While using the voice of Tupac, Drake raps “talk about him liking young girls. Heard it on the Budden podcast, it’s gotta be true.” which is a reference to one of the largest current Hip-Hop discussion platforms, the Joe Budden Podcast. 

Sadly for Drake, no matter how much steam you try to remove from them, allegations that you prey on young girls is something that will always have a strong punch to them, especially with the very public dating life that Drake has had. Knowing now how badly this attempt at saving face ended up, it makes it hard to hear Drake’s arrogant tone on the track when he mentions it, but that’s not the only reason this aged like raisin atop the surface of the sun. 

Drake’s choice to use AI to puppet the voice of a dead Hip-hop legend Tupac was one that left a bad taste in my mouth when I first heard this track, and time has only made me feel more vindicated in those feelings. There are many who thought that regardless if it was a moral move, it was a smart and innovative approach for Drake to take when dissing Kendrick. With Kendrick being a huge symbol and ambassador of West Coast hip-hop, using two of the greatest figures to antagonize him is a clever move, and I agree with it to a certain degree.

However, for me, it also highlighted exactly what Kendrick was painting Drake to be. A user of culture. To engage with technology that is already currently controversial for its attempts at removing humanity from the creative process to varying degrees, using it to disrespect two legends of the hip-hop game while fighting culture vulture allegations is a bold and risky move, and one that makes this track sour x10 now that Drake was defeated. 

Beyond the cultural aspect, it was also a bad move for Drake because another one of Kendrick’s points is that Drake’s music is more entertainment than art, saying in his diss track “euphoria”  “I make music that electrify ‘em, you make music that pacify ‘em.” Now, this line was a double entendre, with Kendrick sending an early warning to Drake that he was willing to play dirty and mention Drake’s past with young girls if Drake continued to mention people close to Kendrick. 

Additionally, when the wave of AI tracks first really hit the internet in 2022 and 2023, Drake was the most frequently imitated artist. Now, on one hand that is because of how popular and integral Drake’s music is to the current generation, but many others, including Kendrick, attributed it to his simplistic, very “pop” approach to making songs in recent years. 

This is a point that Kendrick makes back in 2023 with another sneaky diss verse that he placed on Beyonce’s “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM remix"(lyrics here). There are many things that Kendrick addresses in this track, including one of my favorite lines “truthfully I be lyin’ in my rap songs, cause I always fail to mention I’ll slap homie” but the one that is important for this discussion is the line “Hey boo boo. Too much complexity to learn me from Google” and later “even AI gotta practice cloning Kendrick.” hammering home on this theme of authentic vs. artificial when comparing him and Drake. The fact that Kendrick laid all these breadcrumbs for years and years, each one compounding and supporting one another in creating this full picture, is absolutely incredible to me. 

The last thing that aged poorly about this track is just its tone. Drake’s dismissive tone is one of the best aspects of all his diss tracks to me. He has a way of delivering lines that are both biting and dismissive, like the “Metro shut your hoe ass up and make some drums!” line that is probably the biggest win that Drake pulled out of this battle with. However, much like is the case with Duppy Freestyle, that arrogant tone doesn’t hit the same once you back out of the battle later. Unlike Duppy Freestyle, however, Taylor Made Freestyle isn’t particularly lyrical or bar-heavy. What it had going for it was attitude and disrespect, and both of those things flipped quite drastically in this battle. My favorite part of the song was when Drake plays up the narrative that Kendrick is afraid by saying “Naw, naw, naw, you following through.” and now that Kendrick has truly followed through, that line just makes me give an ironic laugh today. It was also later taken down due to a  cease and desist sent by the Tupac estate, but if you want to find it online you definitely still can. 

Euphoria

"euphoria" (lyrics here)was finally released on April 30th  and  is the first direct and official Kendrick diss, and the more I listen to all of the diss tracks, I think it was the best written track and the one that will age the best because in it Kendrick basically lays narrates the course of the entire rap battle. A reaction to it can be found here. In it he foretells his strategy dropping back to back diss tracks when he says “back to back, I like that record. Imma get back to that for the record.” He hints at the later angles he will take with the pacifier line I mentioned earlier, but also in the title itself, which is a reference to the TV show Euphoria for which Drake served as a producer, and follows  is a show about the chaotic life of a teenager struggling with addiction, and heavily featured sex scenes. 

The track begins with a backwards message that is taken from The Wiz, a black musical that is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story that was a huge milestone in African-American culture when it came out, with legends like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in the main cast. The line that is actually referenced is said by the Wizard of OZ (played by Richard Pryor)  when he is revealed as a fake and he cries out “Everything they say about me is true!” In this way, Kendrick attacks Drake’s identity as an actor, relevant because Kendrick is alleging that “Drake” is just a character that Aubrey Graham is playing, while also finding angles based in culture to diss him. 

I could go on and on, line by line with this song. That’s how well-crafted I believe it to be. There are just as many obscure disses as there are great one-liners like “When I see you stand with Sexxy Red, I believe you see too bad bitches.” which has aged soooo well after Drake’s recent future on her song “U My Everything.” I hear more each time I listen to this track, and I encourage you to listen to this track if you don’t listen to any of Kendrick’s others.

6.16 in LA

There are so many theorized meanings behind this title that I will leave that to you all to look them up and decide which ones you agree with. On a very base level, however, it is a reference to what are known as Drake’s “timestamp” or “time and location” tracks like 8am in Charlotte, 4pm in New York, and 7am on Bridle path, that usually sees him rapping at a high level and sending subliminal disses. 

"6.16 in LA" (lyrics here) is the spiritual counterpart to Taylor Made Freestyle, a taunting track that was released on May 3rd, just four days after he released Euphoria. While I think Euphoria is the best-written track, this often-overlooked track is my personal favorite, containing some of my favorite lines “there opportunity when living with loss, I discover myself when I fall short.” and “I know that this type of power is gon’ cost, but I live in  the circadian rhythms of a shooting star. The mannerisms of Raphael, I can heal and give you art, but the industry is cooked as I pick the carcass apart.” Simply beautiful. A reaction to it can be found here, which I recommend watching at least the beginning of because it shows them finding out about the song in real time (which will happen again for Kendrick's next song).

The first half of this record is so clever to me because it sounds so gorgeous and poetic, but when you hear what Kendrick is talking about, they are subtle digs at Drake's character. Kendrick’s freedom, peace of mind, spirituality, connection to black culture, and lyrical skill are all angles that he has highlighted throughout the battle, and he does the same in this first half with lines like “off-white sunseeker at the marina” and  “ remember when, picked up a pen, lyrics that I can trust'' and subtly rebutting narratives that Drake attempted to paint with lines like the one about the shooting star that basically states that Kendrick’s artistic rhythm is like a shooting star, causing him to return to the public eye every couple of years, and continue a spectacle each time. 

The second verse is where Kendrick really gets to business though, calling out a lot of the internet and media games that Drake had been playing during the battle: posting pictures of kendrick’s crew and memes and cryptic messages, as well as flooding the internet with bots to support him (something that he has done in the past in other situation). The biggest thing that Kendrick said on this track, though, was him alleging that Drake had some traitors in his crew, saying “are you ready to play have you ever? Let’s see, have you ever thought that OVO is working for me? Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person. Everyone in your circle is whispering that you deserve it.” This line is cool because it references back to a line in Euphoria that says “have you ever played ‘Have you Ever’? Okay nigga, let’s play!” which is a reference to a game that is essentially about trading secrets. 

Further enhancing this is the cover art for this song which shows a cropped picture of a glove, which the world would later find out was a cropped version of the cover art for Kendrick’s following diss track Meet the Grahams! So while referring back to euphoria Kendrick was also hinting towards the future once again, making all his tracks tie too well together narratively. As was the case with the title, I won’t break down the image of the track for time’s sake, but they were all items that either were or did at some point belong to Drake, which Kendrick was using to underline the fact that someone close to Drake was betraying him, which after the next two tracks, it’s hard to imagine was a lie.

Family Matters 

"Family Matters"(lyrics here) and away Drake’s best track of this rap battle, and under other circumstances, with a different opponent, it might have been enough. Sadly, it does still suffer from the same thing that "Pushups" did: too many of its bars, and its most aggressive beat is focused on other people, none of which anyone particularly cared to hear Drake respond to at this stage of the battle, and none that rap anywhere as well as Kendrick does. I’m torn between thinking that Drake was too arrogant to dedicate a whole diss song to Kendrick, or if he simply didn’t have that much to say about Kendrick. Unlike Drake, Kendrick lives the majority of his life out of the public eye, and when we look at all the breadcrumbs Kendrick laid out throughout the years detailing his distaste for Drake and the reasons why, it’s not crazy to assume that Kendrick was just far far far more detailed and prepared in this beef. The reaction video can be found here.

This track contains two of Drake’s biggest shots at Kendrick, the first being a claim that Kendrick’s longtime friend and business partner, Dave Free, was the real father of Kendrick’s second child, and that Kendrick beat on his romantic partner, Whitney. Now once Kendrick responds with his claims that Drake has a hidden daughter and is a pedophile on the next track, all of these narratives get trampled over pretty quickly, but when I talk to Drake fans about the battle now, they are always so adamant that Kendrick only won because everyone was too quick to dismiss claims against him because everyone likes him. This is an exact flip of what was said at the start of the battle while everyone was clowning his discography and rate of release, but I understand that Drake fans are hurting right now so I won’t twist the knife. Instead I will give a real response to this statement, because people who have been defending Kendrick on this point have irritated me as well. 

First off, if Kendrick hits his partner, that would be a very serious accusation and one that would very much make me look at Kendrick differently. Somehow, over the years, Kendrick fans have gotten stuck with the stigma that we place Kendrick on a lofty moral pedestal that makes us unable to look at him in a bad light, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. My appreciation for Kendrick comes from the fact that he constantly criticizes and critiques himself, again harkening to the line “I discover myself when I fall short.” Many of Kendrick’s most impactful songs, “Swimming Pools”, “Sing About Me”, “I’m Dying of Thirst”, “FEEL”, “U”, “Blacker the Berry”, “Father Time”, “Savior”  etc. are rooted in Kendrick’s struggle to be a better person as he acknowledges his shortcomings. I say that Kendrick’s music is about looking at the dark corners of the world and ourselves in order to heal them.

So when I hear something like “Kendrick hit his partner Whitney'' about someone who sings about having to elevate himself out of an environment that promotes killing, drug dealing and addiction, home invasions, gang wars, prostitution, and a whole host of other bad influences, it’s something that I feel is definitely probable with his upbringing and past, but I find it extremely hard to believe that it is something that he still does. In one of my favorite songs by Kendrick ``Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” Kendrick spends the second verse speaking from the perspective of a prostitute and when speaking on her life experience says the line

“This is the life of another girl damaged by the system

These foster homes, I run away and never do miss 'em

See, my hormones just run away and if I can get 'em back

To where they used to be then I'll probably be in the denim

Of a family gene that show women how to be woman

Or better yet, a leader, you need her to learn somethin'

Then you probably need to beat her, that's how I was taught

Three niggas in one room, first time I was tossed”

"Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst"; Kendrick Lamar; G.O.O.D kid, MAAD City

Showing the type of lessons that were internalized even by the women in his area. Now, there is no proof that Kendrick ever laid hands on Whitney, but it is much easier for me to look at someone who has been upfront about the struggles they carry and their fight to unlearn those traumas rather than look at someone like Drake when the behavior he is accused of actually has a lot of circumstantial evidence that can easily be seen all over the internet. It is interesting because it almost feels like Kendrick’s last album , Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers, was released with the intention of eventually being involved in this feud with Drake. It sounds crazy, but this rap battle also proved to me that Kendrick is crazy as well, and super obsessive when it comes to music. 

With Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers being his most personal album to date, detailing his relationship with his family before they came under fire and scrutiny, addressing his infidelity over the years, including Whitney and his children on the album, making a song telling his audience not to idolize him or other musicians (Savior), and even placing a secret diss track (Rich Spirit) in the middle of the album,  it all seems like it lined up perfectly for this battle. By the way, "Rich Spirit" is another one of the clandestine Drake disses that has aged amazingly, especially the hook where he states “stop playin’ wit me ‘fore I turn you to a song.” As for the assertion that Kendrick’s child was actually Dave Free’s, with no proof it just didn't hit hard enough.

With all that said, there were a couple mistakes that Drake made with this track, and they would have some dire consequences later. First, he misunderstands Kendrick calling him a culture vulture as an attack on him being light-skinned or biracial, when what Kendrick is actually critiquing is the way that Drake code-switches for profit, and often inauthentically. Something that shows its head in his second mistake, saying the line “why you always rappin’ like you tryna get the slaves freed' ' which was a bar that did not land well with his black audience because it basically equates us to slaves. Drake is no stranger to bars like this either like his line “whip done changed you like American slave” from his song “Slime You Out” or his weird outro to his classic song Marvin’s Room where he says “Throw up while I hold your heart back, my white friend said ‘you niggas crazy’ I hope no one heard that. I hope no one heard that. Cause if they did we gon’ be in some troubllllleeee.” I beg your pardon, sir? What did that have to do with anything else in the song? I digress though, because it’s time to discuss the record that won the battle. 

Meet the Grahams 

“Meet the Grahams”(lyrics here) is the culmination of all the foreshadowing and warnings that Kendrick had been laying out with the previous songs. The reaction to this can be found here. On this track, the cropped photo of the glove is expanded to show a swathe of other memorabilia, supposedly from Drake’s suitcase, which showed things like jewelry store receipts and prescriptions for Ozempic. I won’t go into the meaning of the image because I am focusing on music, but the art added an additional layer of creepiness to this drop. Something else that added to the ominous vibe of the track was the fact that it was released not even an hour after “Family Matters" dropped, with a title that referenced Drake’s track, implying that Drake truly does have some leaks in his camp feeding Kendrick information. This is one of the most sinister lyrical deconstructions of a person I have been witness to, and it's honestly uncomfortable enough at times that I rarely listen to it.

With that said, it was an absolute vicious blow on various levels. The biggest moments of this track are Kendrick claiming that Drake has a secret daughter and that Drake is a pedophile, or at the least a groomer and a pedophile enabler. These are two particularly serious accusations, but if you listen to the track, you will notice that it’s savage from beginning to end. We won't go down the pedophile rabbit hole at this time without any concrete evidence, but what I will say is this: do I think Drake is a pedophile? Without more proof? No. Are Drake’s dating habits creepy and would I want my daughter far away from him? Yes. But that is no breaking news. 

As for the secret daughter bit, Drake fans are constantly asking why people believe more in Kendrick’s assertion that Drake has a hidden daughter than Drake insisting Kendrick beats his wife, and the answer is simply track record, which Kendrick makes sure to hammer home at the end of the track, hauntingly screaming “you lied!” as he rattles off a number of things Drake has lied about over the years, chief among them being the first time he hid a child. 

Kendrick also speaks to Drake’s son, Adonis, directly telling him “Never code switch,  you’re a Black man, even if it don’t benefit your goals” which is either another wild coincidence, or a clever rebuttal to the narrative Drake tried to spin about colorism in the track that released mere minutes before! With his thorough evisceration of Drake’s family and character, his quick release time, and his clever approach, Meet the Grahams was the haymaker that truly ended the battle. 

Not Like Us 

If "Meet the Grahams" was the killshot, then "Not Like Us"(lyrics here) was the celebration afterwards where you get to roast and eat your kill. Once again, a reaction can be found here. Released only a day after “Meet the Grahams", this track marked the moment that the world, Drake and Kendrick fans alike, could not escape the fact that Kendrick absolutely cooked Drake.  On this song Kendrick states “how many stocks do I really got in stock? One, two, three, four, five plus five.” indicating that after his 5 disses, he has at least 5 more ready to go, and at this point nobody doubted it. Linking up with iconic West Coast producer, DJ Mustard, “Not Like Us” was the hit song that was needed to conclude the battle in the best way: with a west coast bop to drive home his point about being the king of Hip-hop culture, to rebuke the assertion that he only makes “scare the hoes” music, and to synthesize all of his previous points into a catchy tune that will be repeated all summer long. If you have only engaged with this song as a pop song, I implore you to pay attention to the three verses because they are all still very well-crafted.

There’s not much I have to say about this track specifically because it is a victory lap, and as such is mostly a doubling down on previous statements rather than making any new ones. It is still a very well-crafted track with plenty of easter eggs, one-liners, fun onomatopoeia, double entendres, clever acronyms and jokes, history lessons and storytelling, it truly is a masterpiece for the role that it played in the battle, and I definitely recommend checking it out. I think Kendrick put on a good showing when it comes to rap, and I think I would have had him winning regardless when it comes to straight rapping, but where I am most impressed is in Kendrick’s ability to strategize and execute an artistic vision to this degree. 

The Heart Part 6 

After "Taylor Made Freestyle", "The Heart Part 6"(lyrics here) is number two on the list of tracks that aged poorly from this beef, which is sad because the beat on this song is incredible, and on a technical level Drake’s rapping is pretty good. You can find a reaction video here. Unfortunately, his angle of response was to claim that his team didn’t have any leaks, which is already hard to believe with how the battle played out, but that also that they knew who the leaks were and used them to feed Kendrick false information about Drake having a secret daughter which…okay? 

Drake stans were really trying to push this angle hard at me, to which I have to answer that even if Drake is telling the truth, all he is doing is revealing that he walked into this battle with the worst battle plan known to man. He didn’t record any evidence to expose Kendrick for taking fake information or anything, and he thought that feeding Kendrick plausible angles to attack him was a good idea? Ultimately, I think that Drake is lying about this claim, in fact, I hope he is for his sake, which sours half of this track. 

The other half is him attempting to say that he is not a pedophile, to which he spits the utterly tone-deaf line “ If I was fucking young girls, I promise I’d have been arrested. I’m way too famous for the shit you just suggested” which is an odd way to word that bar beyond it being a terrible response considering there is a long line of girls that he has associated with in the public view that weren’t underage, but definitely young at the time, like Jorja Smith. 

He goes on to double down on Kendrick beating his wife and having an illegitimate son, as well as digging into a track called “Mother I Sober”(lyrics here) from Kendrick’s last album where Kendrick tells the story of his family asking him if he was molested by his cousin and not believing him when he said no because of the trauma they had already experienced. 

He uses the story as a way to suggest that Kendrick was molested and repressed it, and that’s why he’s so obsessed with using that angle to attack Drake. I honestly think this would’ve been a solid and painful return blow if Drake hadn’t fumbled his reply to the pedophelia allegations already, and if he didn’t end the track with a speech where he is clearly stating that he will no longer engage in this battle with Kendrick. He hints at this earlier at the end of Family Matters, but it was so brief that most fans hoped he meant it metaphorically. With the release of this track, however, it became clear that Drake’s tone had shifted, turning his own line from Taylor Made Freestyle back on him “your tone changed a little, you not as enthused. How are you not in the booth? You feeling kinda removed. You tryna let this shit die down, nah, nah, nah, not this time nigga, you following through!”

Conclusion

To end, I will like to state that I am not a Drake hater, and you will probably find me dancing and rapping to Drake songs regularly. Drake’s positioning in this story doesn’t have to do with my personal relationship to him or his music necessarily, but rather his place in the larger tale of this decade-long brewing storm that finally hit. Drake fought hard, but ultimately he lost. I think that people’s focus on being “unbiased” in this discussion has made a lot of people miss the fun of actually indulging in what an incredible exchange this was, especially as it pertains to strategy.

My hope in writing this is that no matter what side you fell on for this battle, you would be able to follow and appreciate this incredible saga at least a fraction of the way that I experienced it.  Thank you to anyone who read this piece, and if you would like to support or just stay abreast on what I have going o, you can find my Patreon here. It's a bit empty at the moment as I am just starting it, but you can expect more in the future in the way of music review, book reviews, short stories, audio dramas, and more! I am also starting up a book club soon, and you'll be able to find updates regarding it there in the future as well.