One of rap's longest simmering cold wars erupted into chaos over the past week. And the sports world is among the interested parties.
Kendrick Lamar and Drake, two of the biggest voices in rap music, turned their longstanding dislike for one another into a game of Dirty Dozens at the start of May.
The pair — who have 22 Grammys between them, 17 for Lamar and five for Drake — traded stinging verses. Lamar accused the biracial Drake of ripping off Black American culture and engaging in inappropriate relationships with underage girls, while Drake suggested that Lamar physically abused his longtime romantic partner.
Sports figures are not exempt from mention on the diss tracks, either, with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Serena Williams among the athletes to have their names brought up in the war of words.
Still, sports teams and figures are more than willing to promote the tracks, despite the weighty accusations leveled by both men through their music.
Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux put one of Lamar's diss tracks — the Bay-area fueled "Not Like Us" — to use as his walkup song. USC football used the same song in a hype video on social media.
"Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar is now an MLB walk-up song pic.twitter.com/k1h6UbnBHX
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 7, 2024
Meanwhile, NBA on TNT used an interpolation of the track behind highlights from the Timberwolves' Game 2 win over the Nuggets on Monday night.
TNT plays ‘Not Like Us’ by Kendrick Lamar pic.twitter.com/uZMyBkfyr4
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 7, 2024
How did we get to this point? And what's next in Lamar and Drake's rap beef — one that authorities were prompted to ask about after Drake's security guard was shot outside his Toronto mansion?
The Sporting News fills you in on the history and recent flashpoints in Kendrick Lamar and Drake's longstanding quarrel.
Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef, explained
As two of the music's industries biggest figures, Lamar and Drake have been on each others' radar for more than a decade. The two first came together for a collaboration back in 2011, when Lamar featured on "Buried Alive Interlude" off Drake's 2011 album "Take Care."
The pair were pitted as competitors. But the collaboration continued for former Top Dawg Entertainment standout Lamar and his October's Very Own (OVO) counterpart, with Drake returning the favor on Lamar's 2012 track "Poetic Justice." The duo also lended their voices to A$AP Rocky's "F—in' Problems."
Things were copacetic ... until they weren't. The first real signs of conflict between the two parties came back in 2013, when Lamar asserted that he wasn't worried about any of his rap contemporaries, including Drake.
Many of the rappers Lamar named alongside Drake were honored to be considered by Lamar as among the present and future of rap. Drake, however, is believed to have been less-than-pleased with Lamar's comments, brushing them aside subsequent interviews.
. @Drake speaking on the Kendrick Lamar “ Control” verse w/ @ElliottWilson (Sept. 13’) pic.twitter.com/YVPcWNHoDi
— djyounglegend (@djyounglegend) March 22, 2024
Lamar is also believed to have unleashed some thinly-veiled shots at the Canadian rapper with a verse during the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards:
“Nothing’s been the same since they dropped ‘Control’ and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.”
After that, the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud went quiet for the better part of a decade. This year, though, the two were back to locking horns.
In March, Metro Boomin and Future — one of Drake's most famous longtime collaborators — dropped "Like That" with Lamar. In the track, Lamar claimed that rap's Big Three — himself, Drake and J. Cole — did not actually exist. Instead, there was but one man who held the keys to the industry: Lamar himself.
Drake was none too pleased. In fact, he responded with a bevy of diss tracks, first releasing "Push Ups," which threw shade towards Lamar, Future, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky and The Weeknd.
In his track, Drake criticizes Lamar's collaborations with pop artists Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift, claiming that such affiliations run contradictory to his stature as a purported stalwart of "real" hip-hop. He also name-dropped Lamar's fiancee, a no-no in rap beef's rules of engagement.
Drake doubled down on his insults towards Lamar, reportedly mimicking Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg's voices (via AI) in "Taylor Made Freestyle." Lamar is from Compton and cites fellow West Coast icons Shakur and Snoop as pivotal influences in his career. He included both in his critically-acclaimed 2015 tape "To Pimp a Butterfly."
Drake also stated that the reason why Lamar was taking so long to respond to the Canadian's claims was because he didn't want to interfere with the release of Swift's new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," which debuted on April 19.
But when Lamar did respond, it was biting. On April 30, Lamar released "Euphoria," a nearly seven-minute elegy calling out Drake's confidence, self-image and more. He also promised he had more in his arsenal if Drake were to send shots his way.
Drake failed to respond in a timely manner, giving Lamar free rein to drop his next diss track on May 3, "6:16 in Los Angeles," a play on Drake's longtime series of songs marked by a time and location. In the track, Lamar enlists the services of Sounwave and Jack Antonoff — both frequent collaborators with Taylor Swift — to produce his effort.
In the track, Lamar continues to warn Drake that he has more dirt he's willing to unveil at the drop of the hat. Perhaps most pointedly, Lamar suggests that someone from Drake's own team — OVO — could be sending him information in the hopes of seeing the the Canadian crumble.
“Have you ever considered OVO is working for me?”
Drake fired back with a vengeance on "Family Matters" later that day. Over the course of seven-and-a-half minutes, Drake repeatedly accuses Lamar of abuse toward his romantic partner. He also insinuates that Dave Free, one of Lamar's closest confidants, is the biological father of Lamar's child.
Yet mere minutes after Drake's diss dropped, Lamar released another one of his own, titled "Meet the Grahams." In the track, he proceeded to spit game to various members of Drake's family, including his son and a supposed daughter Lamar claims Drake is hiding.
Lamar also accuses Drake of inappropriate relationships with underage girls, telling NBA stars James and Curry — two of Drake's closest athlete friends — to keep their families away from the Canadian.
Lamar wasted little time doubling down on his assertions. The very next day — May 4 — he released "Not Like Us," a menacing ditty tinged with producer Mustard's signature Bay Area flair.
On the track, Lamar calls Drake — a Toronto native — a "colonizer," not a rap colleague. He also takes aim at Drake's feud with Serena Williams, with whom Drake had a brief romantic fling with during the 2010s. And Lamar uses a John Stockton bar to compare Drake to Karl Malone, who reportedly impregnated a 13-year old when he was 20.
Lastly, Lamar tells Drake he has more information at his disposal, should his rival continue running his mouth.
The most recent addition to the still red-hot squabble was Drake's "The Heart Part 6," which dropped Sunday. Much like Lamar's "6:16" track, Drake's single plays off of Lamar's "The Heart" series. Drake denies any inappropriate connection to underage girls, namely "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown, who recently referred to the rapper as "a great friend and a great role model."
Drake also attempted to paint Lamar as a hypocrite, highlighting how Lamar advocated for Spotify to keep R. Kelly and XXXTentacion on playlists despite numerous accusations of abuse against the artists.
