There have been many different rap beefs throughout the years. There has even been a few in 2024 already. Some major that resulted in violence, and some small that were for fun or publicity.
As of now, there is a huge rap beef going on between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Their drama is spreading all over the country right now. Everyone is fighting on what side to pick. This by far has to be the most interesting beef this year though, everyone is on the edge of their seats trying to see who will win.
The drama technically started in October 2023, but it didn’t get to the back-and-forth pace that it is now until March 22, 2024.
In October 2023, when Drake released a song with JCole called, “First Person Shooter.” In a verse of the song, Cole suggested that he, Drake and Kendrick were the “big three” of the current era of hip-hop.
It seems as though Kendrick didn’t take well to being in a “big three” group with Drake and JCole. He went and put out a song on March 22 called, “Like That,” featuring Metro Boomin, and Future. In the song, Kendrick disses Cole and Drake’s notion of him being in a big three along with them. In the song, Kendrick raps, “it’s just big me,” in one of his verses on the song. He then compares himself and Drake to Prince and Micheal Jackson. He raps, “Prince outlived Mike Jack.” implying that his music will outlive Drake.
The song then went viral on multiple social media platforms. Everyone was now fully invested in the rap beef, wondering if Drake was going to release a diss track back or if he was going to apologize. Drake didn’t respond to Kendrick’s song for weeks. There wasn’t just pure silence from him and his team though. Drake was just posting trolling things on his Instagram stories. People had just assumed that Kendrick won the beef and had led Drake to silence and shame because there was no song on top of Kendrick’s song.
After Kendrick dropped this song, fans were wondering what was going to be the next move of Drake and Cole. People were surprised to see when Cole publicly apologized to Kendrick on social media. There were lots of different opinions on this. On one hand, fans think that Cole should’ve fought back and possibly stood up for Drake. On the other hand, fans think that Cole was smart for apologizing to Kendrick because he knew that the beef would end up getting too serious and he didn’t want to be a part of it.
Surprisingly though, Drake ended up dropping a diss song back towards all of the people on, “Like That,” a few weeks later. Drake fired back with the song, “Push Ups,” on April 13. In the song, Drake disses Kendrick extensively. He says, “You ain’t in no Big Three, SZA got you wiped down…and you gon’ feel the aftermath of what I write down … I’m at the top of the mountain, so you tight now.”
Throughout this rap beef that is mainly Kendrick and Drake, there are also side beefs with everyone pretty much teaming up against drake. Drake also ends up throwing a shot at Metro Boomin as well. In his song, Drake tells Metro to just, “shut up and make some drums.” I definitely think that Metro got the short end of the stick and didn’t even get a proper diss. They also feel as though Drake won against him because regardless of what Metro decides to do, he would technically be listening to Drake, or being silenced by him. Drake then throws out a diss to Rick Ross in the same song. He says, “I might take your latest girl and cuff her like I’m Ricky…every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy.” Ross fired back just hours later with a diss track of his own accusing Drake of getting plastic surgery.
While Drake, along with the fans, were waiting for Kendrick’s response, Drake dropped another song less than a week later. On April 19, Drake released a song called, “Taylor Made Freestyle.” In the song, he used the AI-generated voices of Kendrick’s idols Tupac and Snoop Dogg to go after Kendrick. The track has now been deleted, but it still gained lots of popularity.
The people invested in this rap drama seem to think that the freestyle from Drake is what really set Kendrick off. After a few weeks, Kendrick finally responded to Drake with a diss track. On April 30, Kendrick released a song called, “Euphoria.” It matches the title of the HBO series, “Euphoria,” which Drake so happens to produce. This was the full on turning point in this beef and the moment everyone was waiting for. Drake fans are now conflicted and switching which side they should be on.
This is the most popular song put out throughout the whole rap beef. It reached 9.2 million streams on its first day out. The song started many microtrends all over TikTok, specifically the part when Kendrick was going off about everything he absolutely hates about Drake. Kendrick came for Drake’s fatherhood and his overuse of his blackness, when it only benefits him. “Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish guy, the crown is heavy/ I pray they my real friends, if not, I’m YNW Melly,” Kendrick raps, referring to the “big three” statement but also YNW Melly is on trial currently for allegedly killing two of his close friends.
After not getting a response back from Drake, Kendrick released another diss track three days later. “6:16 in LA” arrived on Kendrick’s Instagram on May 3 and the title references Drake’s timestamp series. Kendrick then called Drake out for being a bully and inferred that the ones around him aren’t loyal. “You must be a terrible person/ Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it,” he raps. Kendrick then continues to call Drake a bully and says everyone is out to get him.
Now this is the point where everyone thought Drake was finally silenced. The beef started to die down a bit because fans thought it was the end, and was starting to get annoyed with it overall. Although it’s entertaining, it is dumb to see men who are almost 40 go back and forth like this. It started to get repetitive. That is until Drake decided to drop a song called, “Family Matters” on May 3. In this song, Drake talked about Kendrick’s wife, Kendrick cheating, says that Kendrick’s kids aren‘t actually his kids at all, and suggests that Kendrick is physically abusive. While those are the main lines he addresses Kendrick with, he also takes shots at The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Future, Metro Boomin, and Rick Ross.
I thought that it was going to be over for drake when “Euphoria,” dropped, then I thought it would be over for Kendrick’s career when “Family matters,” dropped because of the serious allegations in it against Kendrick. Fans were all over the place and arguing amongst each other with Drake’s side or Kendrick’s side. This was seemingly all settled when less than an hour later, Kendrick dropped a song in response to Drake called, “Meet The Grahams,” Like the title suggests, Kendrick addresses Drake’s family including his son Adonis, his mother Sandra, and his father Dennis.
The next day, Kendrick released, “Not Like Us.” I think that this is the song that fully annihilated Drake. In this song, Kendrick talks about the pedophile allegations against Drake, Drake’s team, and Drake being a deadbeat dad who’s hiding his 11 year old daughter. This is the song that fully turned most of social media against Drake. It got deep when people started looking for Drake’s “hidden kids” and found two kids who resemble Drake. It also stirred up his controversy with Milly Bobby Brown again. Drake was ended on social media by Kendrick’s songs.
Drake did release a follow-up song denying the hidden child, but people weren’t very interested in what he had to say anymore because he didn’t deny the serious allegations and he brought up Kendrick’s past trauma. It was a low blow on his part. The rap beef didn’t fully end with Kendrick or Drake though. It technically ended with Metro Boomin and social media. Metro Boomin released a beat in response to Drake. In the beat, it constantly says “BBL Drizzy.” It makes fun of the allegations that Drake got body work done and possibly a BBL. The media ran with this and started making outlandish jokes on Drake and even said that Megan Thee Stallion should hop on the beat because she is one of the people who talked about Drake’s BBL allegations a while back.
