Benjamin Jones
Kendrick Lamar and Drake released several nasty diss tracks against each other last week, attacking height and style and making claims about each other’s children and other disturbing accusations. Here is a timeline of Kendrick and Drake beef and a breakdown of his new diss tracks.
Kendrick was featured on “Like That”
Kendrick and Drake began as cordial collaborators, with Drake featuring Kendrick on his 2011 song “Buried Alive Interlude” on his second studio album “Take Care” — shortly after Kendrick released his debut studio album, “Section.80.”
In 2012, Kendrick opened for Drake during his Club Paradise tour. Drake sings about it on 2016’s “4PM in Calabasas,” saying when he was told to take an R&B singer on tour, “I told them no and drew for Kendrick and [A$AP] Rocky.”
But over the years, Kendrick and Drake have attacked each other.
On 2023’s “First Person Shooter,” a collaboration between Drake and J. Cole, Cole calls himself the “big three” of Drake and Kendrick rap.
But it seems Kendrick doesn’t buy into that belief. He appeared on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” released in March, saying there are no big three, “it’s just me big.” This appears to have sparked what is now a massive feud with back-to-back diss tracks released by Kendrick and Drake.
Drake’s ‘Pushups’ Disdains Kendrick’s Height and Talent
On April 13, Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, released “Pushups,” a diss track about Kendrick in which he calls him a “pipsqueak” and says he wears a size seven men’s shoe.
He also says that Kendrick is not among the “Big Three”, listing other artists who are better than Kendrick and referencing Kendrick’s collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift. Drake also attacks other artists such as the weekend.
Kendrick’s name is not mentioned by Drake, only in DJ Akademiks’ introduction. But as the fight heats up, Kendrick and Drake start to get more blatant in their attacks on each other.
Drake releases “Taylor Made”
On April 19, Drake, 37, released a second diss track about Kendrick called “Taylor Made,” again poking fun at Kendrick’s height, talent and closeness to Taylor Swift.
He claims that Kendrick didn’t release a diss track in response because he was allowing Swift to release her album”The Department of Tortured Poets” on April 19th and gain prominence.
“The first one really only took an hour or two, the next one is about to bring out the coward in you, but now we have to wait a week, because Taylor Swift is your new Top, and if you’re about to fall, she has to approve,” Drake sings.
Drake, however, praises Swift as the “biggest gangster in the music business” and admits he also changed the album’s release date to allow hers to come out first.
“Taylor Made”, however, featured AI-generated vocals from the late rapper Tupac, and after Tupac Shakur’s estate sent Drake a cease and desist, Drake removed the song from all platforms, according to Billboard.
Kendrick responds with “Euphoria”
On April 30, Kendrick, 36, responded to Drake’s tracks with “Euphoria.” In it, he takes merciless jabs at Drake, who is the executive producer of the HBO show “Euphoria.”
Kendrick criticizes Drake’s parenting of his 6-year-old son, Adonis, rapping, “I got a son to raise, but I can see you don’t know shit about it.” He says he teaches his son “morals, integrity, discipline,” but says Drake doesn’t do that for his own son.
He also attacks Drake’s team – OVO, or October’s Very Own – and criticizes Drake, who is half white, for appropriating black culture.
“6:16 in LA” by Kendrick produced by Jack Antonoff
Drake is famous for having several songs with times in the title, including “9AM in Dallas”, “4pm in Calabasas”, and “6PM in New York”. The song’s title is a direct reference to these Drake tracks and the inclusion of producer Jack Antonoff appears to be a direct response to Drake’s song “Taylor Made.”
Antonoff is a frequent collaborator with Swift, producing “Reputation”, “Lover”, “Folklore”, “Evermore”, “Midnights” and her newest album “Department of Tortured Poets.”
Kendrick was featured on Swift’s 2014 song “Bad Blood,” which was on her album “1989.”
On May 3, Kendrick, aka K.Dot, released “6:16 in LA” on social media. In the song, he alleges that people who work for Drake’s OVO record label and clothing company don’t like Drake and may be secretly working for Kendrick.
Drake Digs Deeper With “Family Matters”
On the same day that Kendrick released “6:16 in LA,” Drake released “Family Matters,” a nearly eight-minute song in which he alleges that one of Kendrick’s children with his longtime girlfriend, Whitney Alford, was in true father of his manager, Dave Free.
He also alleges that Kendrick alerted Tupac’s estate to Drake’s use of an AI-generated Tupac verse. And, in another scathing line, he alleges that Kendrick pays for sex.
He also attacks the Weeknd again and rapper Rick Ross, saying that using Ozempic gave him a side effect of jealousy.
‘Meet the Grahams’ Alleges Drake Has a Secret Son
In what is one of the most scathing diss tracks, Kendrick addresses Drake’s family members on “Meet the Grahams,” later released on May 3. He raps to Drake’s son, saying, “Dear Adonis, I’m sorry that man is your father.”
He gives Adonis advice and raps, “And you’re nothing like him, you’re going to behave like a king, can’t you understand me now? Just play this when you’re 18.”
He also has verses that address Drake’s mother and father. “Dear Sandra, your son has some habits, I hope you don’t harm them,” he sings. “Dear Dennis, you gave birth to a master manipulator,” he says.
In the most surprising verse, Kendrick opens with the line “Dear girl,” claiming that Drake had a daughter 11 years ago and kept her hidden from the world. He gives his supposed daughter advice and describes Drake as a deadbeat dad who allegedly pays for sex.
“I want to tell you that you are loved, you are brave, you are kind, you have a gift to change the world and you can change your father’s mind,” he sings to Drake’s supposed daughter.
He also has a verse addressing Drake, making more damning allegations about Drake’s alleged gambling and drinking habits and saying that he responded the way he did because Drake talked about his family.
Kendrick releases “Not Like Us”
In a May 4 release, “Not Like Us,” Kendrick makes disturbing allegations about Drake allegedly engaging in inappropriate conduct with minors. He also makes similar claims about Drake’s friends and continues to question Drake’s talent.
In his newest diss track, Drake denied these accusations, as well as claims of having a daughter.
Drake responds to accusations in “The Heart Part 6”
On his most recent album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers”, from 2022, Kendrick has a track called “The Heart Part 5”. Drake’s newest track, released on May 5, plays on this title and in the song, he responds to Kendrick’s bombshell allegations.
“The Pulitzer Prize winner is definitely spiraling,” he begins, referring to Kendrick, who in 2017 became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The track’s cover art is a social media comment from Dave Free, the man Drake claims is the real father of one of Kendrick’s children, with two heart emojis.
In the song, Drake says that the people Kendrick is getting information about Drake from are “clowns,” and that Drake’s team planted false stories about an 11-year-old daughter to see if Kendrick would take the bait.
He also directly addressed allegations that he engaged in inappropriate conduct with minors. “I’ve never been with anyone underage, but now I understand why that’s the angle you really get into,” he sings, saying he would have been arrested if the accusations were true.
Fans are now awaiting more surprise tracks from Kendrick, a 17-time Grammy winner from the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Drake, a five-time Grammy winner from Toronto, Canada.
Caitlin O’Kane
