Kendrick Lamar and Drake | 51

A listener note, this episode contains strong language.

All right, Matt. Uh I'm curious, how much do you know about the current beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Oh Aubrey Gray. Aubrey, yeah. I know that they're beefing. Um, I feel like that clip of like Donald Glover walking in from community where he walks in on everything's on fire and he's got the pizzas. Like that's how it feels like vlogging on the internet to me. I know the girls are fighting. I don't really know why, where it started, how they know one another. Well, I can fill you in.

On most of that. Okay, good. But yeah, in the words of Azealea Banks, the girls are fighting. Yeah. So I'm gonna give you a little peek into this feud around when things started to ramp up. Okay. I'm gonna get into the history, but this is like a pivotal moment of it. Got it. So

At this point, Drake has released two diss tracks about Kendrick Lamar. And he's posting online, he's goading a bit, he's like, who wants to come for me? You can't. You know, very high school girl about it, to be quite honest. 'Cause a lot of it is on Instagram. Kendrick has not responded at this point. You know, he's not gonna be rushed by anyone, especially Drake. Right. If I had to imagine, I think Drake.

Is sort of sitting pretty. He thinks that he has Kendrick on the ropes. He thinks, you know, he's afraid to come after me. But then Kendrick finally responds with a song called Euphoria. Uh-huh. And I don't know if you know this. Drake is an executive producer on Euphoria, or he was at least, so I think that's a little nod. Right. I think I did know that, yeah. And in this song, Kendrick

tears into Drake. He goes after his character, he makes fun of him being an actor, he calls him a fraud, and he undermines his blackness. Okay. That's going to be a big thing in this feud, accusing Drake of being a culture vulture. Right. But most notably, Kendrick draws a line in the sand and he's like, Look, Drake, you can come after me, but do not talk about my family, or this will get ugly. Okay? At one point of the song he says

You don't talk about me, I won't say any truths about you. He's like, look, I have a lot I could say, don't come after me. Right. But here's a different part of that song where he's making a clear boundary. your family, Crody. Crody is a slang term in Canada. Okay. That that was going to be my question. I was like, is that a slur? The word does not have great origins, but it is a slang term in Canada. Got it.

Kendrick won the Pulitzer Prize, right? Correct. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper. So it's a little like You're going up against a real pro here. Yeah, Drake um bit off a lot more than he could chew. Mm-hmm. And we're gonna see that. Uh so four days later, Drake drops a song called Family Matters, which is

Pretty bold for a man who was just told downtown. Do not talk about my family. Yeah. So he calls it Family Matters. And he is about to venture directly into the territory that Kendrick told him to stay the hell out of the way. A song about From Wondery, I'm Sydney Battle.

Okay, so the Kendrick and Drake beef is obviously very fresh in our minds. It just sort of ended, but in a sort of détente it seems. It's very current, it's very fresh, and that's what makes it different than a lot of the feuds that we normally talk about. So this episode is going to be a little different because it's active Felt a need to talk about it obviously.

to get it into your little ears. So we're going to try our best to give you the broad strokes of the Kendrick and Drake feud. I'm excited to kind of learn about this because I The general kind of gist, but I want to hear more specifics of like what is happening. a clash of old school values versus new values and also I don't know, women are kind of collateral damage in this feud. They're just used as ammunition and we're going to see that.

It's basically two men accused of mistreating women, calling each other out for mistreating women. Uh but another big part of this is that I saw some people Uh uh This is like Girl at high school that everyone hates trips down a set of stairs and everyone's kind of God Okay, because I am sensing that you might need it, let's just give a little background on the two players in this feud. Sure. I appreciate that.

So as you said, Kendrick is a Pulitzer Prize winning rapper. He's also won seventeen Grammys. Really? Yeah, seventeen. And I think it's safe to say, like it or not, Drake and Kendrick are two of the biggest names. In hip hop right now. Yeah. It's not just them, but they're part of that echelon. They both have songs with Beyoncé, so obviously I'm clued in. The biggest crowning achievement. Mm-hmm. So Kendrick comes from the West Coast and he is seen kind of as

As the new leader of West Coast rappers. Okay. He was actually knighted by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at a concert years ago. Love that. So, you know, he's accepted by the old heads in the industry. Like they can get behind Kendrick. He's more of a classic example of a rapper. Right, right. Drake, meanwhile, comes from Canada. And as we all know, he Which just automatically is funny. Yeah. But he got his start, as many of us know, on Degrassi. Uhhuh. And he had success

pretty early into his foray into rap, you know? Okay, yeah. And so while Drake sort of represents this new idea of hip hop and rap, you know, he's a bit more pop. In the words of Yassin Bey, formerly most deaf, if you go to a mall, you're probably gonna hear Drake's music. The emotions of a lot of rappers towards Drake. Um he's not

the type of rapper they're used to. Right. Culturally, I feel like everything I see about Drake is that he basically is like a suburban teenage girl. It's that he like wears Uggs.

He certainly acts like one a lot of the time. Yeah. So this whole thing kicked off. Back in October 2023. Now, obviously, they had a very long history before that. They collaborated together, they would be on each other's track. They would um consult each other on albums. Okay. Were they like actually friends or were they just kind of collaborators? They were friends. Okay. It's actually Drake kind of

gave Kendrick a leg up in the industry and helped launch him. Like that's not to question any of Kendrick's talent or work ethic. It's just that Drake sort of helped him get in the door. Got it. So they were friends, but they clearly had some kind of falling out behind the scenes. Okay. So back in October 2023, Drake releases a song called First Person Shooter, and Jay Cole. Another rapper is featured on it. Two biracials coming together to maximize their joint sleigh. I'm kidding.

So in the song, they start bragging about their dominance in the hip hop industry. And J. Cole, you know, he decides to throw Kendrick in there. He's like Me, Drake, and Kendrick, we're the big three of rap. Okay, that's a good thing. Yeah, this did not start with like. anyone coming after Kendrick, it was more so that Kendrick was insulted to be in that category, I think, with them, because

Five months later, in March 2024, and this is when things like really truly kicked off. Right. Kendrick responds to Drake's song by dropping like that. Okay. Now, this is a song he releases with Future and Metro Boomin, and that's important because Drake will come after them later as well. And in this song, he slams Drake and J. Cole for sneak dissing him. That's a quote, sneak dissing. Yeah, he quite literally is like, fuck the big three, nigga, it's just big me.

You're telling me this whole thing started over what is essentially a compliment. Yeah. That he just takes as an insult. Yeah. But by taking it as an insult, he is In turn insulting Drake and J. Cole. Oh, exactly. Exactly. I don't. Once again proving that the messiest person you know.

is a man. Very true. But I I if I had to guess, there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes. There's gotta be. There's gotta be it reads like they must have talked about something behind the scenes. Who knows? Right. But J. Cole fires back almost immediately. He drops a diss track called Seven Minute Drill. Uh-huh. And he has lyrics about Kendrick like He averaging one hard verse like every thirty months or something. If he wasn't dissin', then we wouldn't be discussing him.

And that's just about how Kendrick doesn't just drop music all the time. He takes a lot of time between albums. He's a very intentional artist. Yeah, uh again, doesn't really seem like a compelling insult against someone, especially if that person has seventeen Grammys. Exactly. And J. Cole must have known that he misfired because two days later

He publicly apologizes to Kendrick while on stage. He's like, I'm so embarrassed that I did that. And he says that the whole thing just didn't sit right with his spirit. and takes the song off of all streaming platforms. Wow. I'm proud of him, uh, for knowing when to step back. He was like, You know what? I don't wanna be in this actually. I think he knew how lethal Kendrick could be. Yeah, smart. Smart choice. Yeah. So

That is how this whole thing started. With a sneak diss and Kendrick firing back five months later. That is wild. That's how we got here. And unlike J. Cole, Drake is not gonna back down. So before Drake responds to Kendrick formally, he is on stage doing a concert in Florida. Okay. And he decides to address the elephant in the room to the audience. He says a lot of people asking me how I'm feeling.

I got my fucking head up high, my back straight, I'm ten fucking toes down in Florida or anywhere else I go. And I know that no matter what, there's not a nigga on this earth that could ever fuck with me in my life. So he's like, I'm not bothered, I'm feeling good about this actually. Right. Yeah. Which nothing says that you're not bothered more than loudly saying how not bothered you are. Yeah. So six days later, on April 13th, 2024, Drake's unreleased song, Push-Ups, is leak. Online.

So this is his response to Kendrick. And it leaks? I'm doing quotation marks around leaks. Got it. So it doesn't officially come from him, but No. Da. But it's out there. Yeah. And the main insult or the main dig in this track is just about Kendrick being short. He's 5'5. Uh and yeah, it's about his shoe size and his height and it's like okay. Okay. I had no idea he was five five and that is a little guy embarrassing, unfortunately. Embarrassing. You can't control that.

Well, I think we do far too much in our culture to lift up these short men and I'm getting sick of it. That's coming from a 6 3 man, by the way. That is true. Did everyone hear that? He's extremely prejudiced. Just so the listeners know. I'm just letting my bias show. Also, Drake decides to call out Kendrick for working with artists like Taylor Swift and Maroon Five. He says Maroon five need a verse, you better make it witty. Then we need a verse for the Swifties.

Which is interesting because Drake. Sang along to Bad Blood in an Apple music commercial in like twenty sixteen, so it's like okay. Yeah, ev everyone's sort of playing around in the same soup. Yeah, now Kendrick is not the only one in the line of fire in this song because Drake also goes after Rick Ross, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Future. and more. So he's just kinda spraying bullets. Why? Why is he so antagonistic? We can't fully go into it, but basically he's had little

skirmishes with all of these people in the past. Got it. So it's like what we said, where like there's this popular girl. Right. And she didn't get to the top by being nice. Right, right. And now she's deciding to lash out. But Kendrick doesn't respond, at least not yet. So six days later, Drake decides to egg him on even further and releases another disc track. This one is called Taylor Made Freestyle. And Taylor is spelled like Taylor Swift. Right. So

Clearly another jab in that direction. Uh huh. And this is where Drake really and pardon my language, but fucks up. Because he decides to use AI generated voices of Snoop Dogg and Tupac. That seems like a really bad choice. An idiotic idea. Basically like TikTok. Right. Again, it kind of sounds like you're just loudly saying how not bothered you are and then just immediately following that with two distracts in a row about yeah how you are kind of bothered. So true.

By the way, Tupac's estate threatens to sue him if he doesn't take the song off of like every platform. I would have thought that it would be the living m member of that duo. Snoop. Yeah, who would have been the first at it but Ja. Don't mess with someone's estate. Snoop is too busy using his new vape.

He's like, wait, what's happening? Yeah. And I love that for him. So finally, eleven days later, on April thirtieth, Kendrick hits back with his own diss track. Now this is where we started our story. The song is called Euphoria. Right. And it is six minutes of Kendrick just eviscerating Drake. Uh-huh.

As we said, he calls him out as a fraud and basically says that he's a poser who's just imitating black American culture. For what it's worth, Drake's mother is white Canadian, but his father is black and from America, but Not to quote Christian Walker, but that father was not in the home. So let's not quote Christian Walker. I don't know how much of an influence his dad could have had. And at the end of the song, Kendrick, as we've said, warns Drake about bringing his family into this.

There's this line that I think is very prescient. Know you a master manipulator and habitual liar too, but don't tell no lie about me and I won't tell no truths about you. So that's what I mentioned up top. Right. It's kind of this threat of like mutually assured destruction. It kind of feels like they're both like

Let's not open that box. Yeah. I mean this is literally what real housewives do when something they get close to mentioning something on camera, they're like, Oh, you wanna open that box in front of everyone? Then I'll go there. And then Bethany Frankel Spreads her legs and goes, Mention it all. Mention it all. Um, and that's what ends up happening. So the next day

Drake decides to post an Instagram story. Uh it's a clip from Ten Things I Hate About You. And it's he's so teenage girl coded. Yeah, not beating those allegations. It's the scene where Julia Stiles is like reading her poem like, I hate the way you blah blah blah. And he's comparing this to Euphoria because there is a solid chunk of euphoria where Kendrick is just like, I hate the way you walk. I hate the way you breathe. I hate the way you talk you know, just Right.

He hates Drake. Also, Joe Biden decides to use euphoria in a TikTok campaign video. Oh no. Oh absurd. Yeah. Ugh, we're really in the depth. But you know, it's sort of like the full lifespan of a meme. Uh yeah. So both songs actually get on the Spotify chart. you know, for America at least. Euphoria goes to number one and push-ups reaches number eleven. Sure, sure. But at this point the feud is still relatively light. You know, they're both hesitating.

Because of what you said, that mutually assured destruction. But just a few days later, this is going to go.

Yeah. Okay, so at this point in the story, we have Drake who has dropped a couple diss tracks. And then we have Kendrick who has just dropped the behemoth of euphoria. You know, there's a lot in there. And then on the early morning of May 3rd, Kendrick decides to drop another diss track. This one is called 616 in LA, and it is clearly a play on how Drake titles his songs. Uh-huh. And in it, Kendrick basically implies that he has informants inside of Drake's camp. Like his own people are

are turning on him and feeding him information. Oh so now it's getting psychological. Yes. He's like, are you sure you can trust your guys?'Cause they're telling me a lot of stuff. Yeah. It's very mean girls. That is twisted. It is very mean girls. Army of Skanks. Yeah. So Drake decides to fire back that same night with a new song called Family Matters.

Now, we mentioned this up top. It is not about Steve Urkel. It is in fact about Kendrick and his family. Okay. Which is, yeah, the very thing that Kendrick was like, don't go there. Yeah. Now, this is where things really start to escalate and it goes from being like this fun little fight between boys to, oh We're taking real swings and they are not good. That is an unfortunate tie-in to what we're about to talk about. Okay. Because Drake goes on to accuse Kendrick

Of not only cheating on his fiancee, but physically abusing her. Oh God. Yeah. He also claims that one of his children with his fiance is actually the child of one of his frequent collaborators, Dave Free. Yeah, so here are some of those lyrics. You the black messiah wifing up a mixed queen and hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem on some bobby shit. I wanna know what Whitney need. Just so you know, Whitney is also the name of his fiance. So it's a tie into Bobby and Whitney, who

Famously in abusive relationship. Right, right. And then he goes on to say, when you put your hands on your girl, is it self-defense because she's bigger than you? Nice Drake. Really nice to make a joke out of domestic violence. Yeah, I'm not supposed to laugh at that, but No, I mean I came still stuck on the fact that he's only bi five. That should be the least of your concerns. It is the least of my concerns, literally. Now, Drake makes a big mistake in the song in another way, in my opinion.

with one specific bar where he says always rappin' like you bout to get the slaves freed, you just actin' like an activist, it's make believe. So Oh, okay. Now personally If I was a biracial man, having my blackness called into question Would I put in a line saying that Kendrick is rapping for the slave? Uh I don't know. Uh I don't think it was a wise decision because we'll go on to see how that horrible clap back smacks him in the face. Right. I promise this will make sense.

Now, I would be remiss if I also didn't mention that he brings up the big three again and says You write about fuck the big three. It's only big D and there's video proof. Okay. Well unfortunately I do know that reference. You know that reference, of course. Obviously I know that reference. Referencing your own leaked jacking off video in a diss track? Have some cooth, sir. Yeah. He was really floppin' it around. He didn't even look like he was doing it right.

Like to be honest, like Yeah, I didn't yeah. Now in a very funny move because so much of this feud has been about Drake going, come on, come on, respond to me. Kendrick responds in 30 minutes. Family Matters is only out for 30 minutes. before Kendrick releases his response. Oh my god. Yeah, I saw many a funny sketch online of like Kendrick just being this like supervillain sitting in a lair, like just knowing

'Cause it seems like he just had this ready to go. Yeah, he must have, right? You can't make a song like this in thirty minutes. So Kendrick releases a track called Meet the Grams. Which if you'll remember is a reference to Drake's legal name. Sure. Now, this song starts with a bang. He's just shooting right out the gate. Okay. Here's that clip. It's not responsive. Yikes. Now, I don't know how much you know, but Adonis.

is Drake's son that he kept hidden from the world until he got into a beef with Pusha T back in twenty eighteen. And push a T revealed to the world that Drake had this secret son on a track called The Story of Adaddon. If I had uh as many skeletons in my closet as Drake apparently does, I would probably just keep shit to myself. Exactly. That is what I don't understand. And that's why Kendrick was so right with being like, look. Do you really want to do this? Yeah. Um Jesus.

He then goes on to rap directly to Drake and Drake's parents, Dennis and Sandy Graham. His parents are getting brought into it? Absolutely. Everyone gets their own verse in this song. Wow. So here's Oh my God. He's going for the jugular and he is nowhere near done. So when the song is released, the cover art has this box of Ozempic that is supposedly prescribed to Drake, although they later changed this to just a black square, probably for legal reasons.

Was it like a a photo, supposedly, of like literally the box that is prescribed to Drake? We actually don't know. We have no way of knowing if it was a prop made or if someone went through his trash. I will say of all of the This is it feels like accusing someone of being on Ozempic is is the weakest cause it's like, okay, you and everybody else in Hollywood, I guess. Yeah. I think what's more damning for him is the amount of plastic. Surgery allegations. We must mention the alleged BBL. Right.

That I'm aware of. Yeah. This is a very very big on the internet. The rumors that Drake has gotten a BBL, the rumors that Drake has fake abs. I believe he got a nose job, but the rumors that he's gotten a nose job. There's a lyric where Kendrick says Don't pay to play with them Brazilians, get a gym membership. So Yeah. Brazilian butt lift for those who are Listening. Right. So on the song, Kendrick also accuses Drake of employing sex offenders at his record label OVO. More on that later.

Okay. And he claims that Drake is hiding another child, an eleven-year-old daughter. And this is all this is all in the same song? Matt, you are not ready. So quote. Dear baby girl, I'm sorry that your father not active inside your world. He don't commit to much but his music, yeah, that's for sure. He a narcissist, misogynist, living inside his song.

And then he goes on to say that Drake should be watching Frozen with his daughter. Okay. Shout out Frozen. Shout out Adene Menzel, Adele Dazim, you make an appearance. Um he also says that instead of watching Frozen, Drake is paying for sex in Turks and Keikos and popping perks. Sure. So Sure. Drake responds to this on Instagram, writing, Na, hold on. Can someone find my hidden daughter, please, and send her to me? Oh no. I'm not sending you another teen girl Drake.

I uh I desperately hope there's not actually a daughter, cause that would be incredibly sad. The funniest part of this song. And it really does make me laugh, is that Kendrick decides to claim that he is not a hater. He's like, Look, I know it seems like I'm a hater. What? I'm really not. I don't have a hatin' bone in my body. Well uh I know you probably think that trick, but I don't. You just

smashed his entire life with a sledgehammer. You can't claim that you're not a construction worker. Does that m does that metaphor work? Sure. So Kendrick is not done, obviously. He decides to drop another diss track, and this is his third diss track in 36 hours. What's so 616 in LA? So he drops 616 in LA, Meet the Grams, and then this third track called Not Like Us.

in the span of 36 hours. Oh my god. And this one is I remember seeing tweets after this drop that was like, Kendrick, he's bleeding on the ground. Please stop. Kendrick, he's dying. This is Right. This is overkill. But I do, I do respect that Kendrick was like, do not go after my family. And then Drake put his pinky toe over the line and Kendrick just brought out the tanks.

He fucked around and he found out. Yeah. So on this newest track, he says, certified lover boy, certified pedophiles. My God. Drake calls himself a lover boy. Um, and Kendrick is like, absolutely not. याँ The cover art for this track is also very telling. It is a Google Maps image of Drake's home. And it has a bunch of red markers on it. Oh no. I assume the kind you would find on like a look for sex offenders in my area map. Oh. And it has a bunch of them on Drake's house.

So he is making it clear he thinks there are a bunch of pedophiles in there. Yeah. Yeah. Um There are a lot of lines on this track that stand out. I mean, one of them is about how Drake allegedly Had sex with Lil Wayne's girlfriend while Lil Wayne was in jail and then as an apology got Lil Wayne's.

face tattooed on him. There is something like Freudian about that. I don't know. That needs to be studied. Lil Wayne was also Drake's mentor. Yeah. So it's even more messed up. Uh there's a lot happening with that one. And then Kendrick decides to respond directly to that claim that he is rapping to free the slaves. He says Once upon a time all of us was in chains, homie still doubled down calling us some slaves.

And then he says fast forward twenty twenty four, you got the same agenda, you run to Atlanta when you need a check balance. And he says you run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars. No, you not a colleague, you a fucking colonizer. So this is Kendrick doubling down on that culture vulture accusation, basically saying that Drake exploits black American culture and is sort of a tourist of it. Right. Only stopping in when it's

advantageous or when it can get him a new check and he claims to have struggles that they do when he can't actually relate to anything like it. Right. Right. Yeah. The accusation in Drake's diss was like Like, oh, Kendrick is kind of a poser and that he's pretending to be this kind of activist with his songs. Right. But it's like you are not saying that from this place of

Being a champion of black culture. No, especially black women. His whole thing with Kendrick is like, oh, you claim that you're this. black power activist, but you're engaged to a mixed woman and you like to have sex with white women on the side, like

I guess you don't really care about black women. It's like I don't think either of you do, actually. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously Drake now needs to respond. I mean You can't bow out at this point. Though He has a lot to respond to, right?'Cause there are a lot of accusations hurled his way. Yeah, I don't even know how you start going about responding. I'm gonna be honest here, he does not do a great job. Yeah. The next day, he releases a new song called The Heart Part Six.

And there are two main parts to this one. First, he has to defend himself against the pedophile accusation. So he decides to say Drake is not a name that you gonna see on no sex offender list. Sure. That almost sounds legal. Yes, like Sir. Like, okay. Um And then the second part of the song is establishing this revisionist history where Drake and his team, uh, apparently they actually came up with fake stories to trick Kendrick into writing about them.

Yeah, here's a little clip that might help that make sense. I don't I don't get how that is a good idea at Exactly. It's like okay, so you're claiming that you were in on it and actually You created this lie? Right. Like you're dealing with public opinion here. Yeah, and not only that, but he's like, Yeah, we planted that pedophile stuff too. It's like why in what you do that in what world would someone do that?

He also and I think this is a big red flag, he brings up Millie Bobby Brown unsolicited. Oh no. If you remember, that's one of the teenage girls that Drake was inexplicably texting for years. Yeah. That's kind of the one that I know about where I'm And Billy Eilish. Oh. So he's like I'm only fucking with Whitney's, which is another way to bring up Kendrick's fiance. Right. And he says, not Millie Bobby Brown's, I never looked twice at no teenager. Now, sir, why would you bring up

The girl that you were texting in this context. Who it's like confirmed that you were messaging. Yeah. I'm seeing a lot of Unforced errors on Drake's part. Exactly. Exactly. This song is sort of seen as Drake's white flag. He basically ends the song with saying that he's done with the beef and that this has just been a really good lyrical exercise. Okay. He's like, well, wasn't that funny? We're all playing pretend. Right.

I mean like any notion that this was just for fun Or even if cynics are like, oh they're doing this for publicity or something, no way. That anyone would take this kind of damage just for the sake of publicity. Like I can understand people believing that at the beginning, that this was just to sell records, but the places that it went to, it's like Oh no, I don't think so actually.

Yeah, absolutely not. Not believing that at all. So even though Drake has sort of waved his white flag, unfortunately the damage is already done. Yeah. And those lyrical shots are soon going the safety of the studio and become very, very real. Okay Matt, so at this point Kendrick has released several diss tracks. Drake has released a few diss tracks and things have sort of reached a detente or they've both sort of set their weapons aside. Oh, sure.

Now, remember how the cover art for Not Like Us was a Google Maps image of Drake's house with the sex offender pins sticking out of it? Yeah. Well, two days after Drake's The Heart Part Six response, someone shows up at that Toronto estate with a gun. Oh no. Yeah. It's a drive by shooting and one of Drake's security guards is shot. Yikes. Yeah, not great. Now, neither Drake nor Kendrick have publicly reacted to the shooting, so we don't even know if it was related to the beef, like

It could be some random thing happening, but the timing is certainly suspicious. Yeah. Yeah. It's it seems like an awful coincidence for someone to do that like hot on the heels of This beef. Then the next day, authorities show up at Drake's property because someone else has tried to break in. Oh my God. This person ends up being apprehended under Ontario's Mental Health Act, and so they're taken to receive medical assistance. But the day after that,

There's a third incident at Drake's house. There's another trespasser. And this one gets into an altercation with security guards before ending up in the hospital. What if this is just Drake and his team planting actors? Drake's like this is my plan all along. All the while, Drake and Kendrick's beef took over social media and the Billboard charts.

Kendrick's Not Like Us debuted at number one with more than seventy million streams, while Drake's Family Matters entered at number seven. So Kendrick sort of won the The chart war so far. He did. And I remember the biggest criticism of Kendrick when he was releasing these songs was well, at least from Drake's fans, they were like, You can't even dance to them. It's like, do you guys know what a diss track is supposed to be?

I can't throw my ass back to this in the club. Yeah. It's worth the listen, at least not like us, in full and meet the grams, simply because like the amount of insults coming at you at s at that rate is just crazy. I mean No, no, I feel like they should be teaching this in like college courses. Like we need to be printing these lyrics out and studying them. Kendrick won that Pulitzer for a reason. The lyrics are

Dense. Right. It's a rich text. Exactly. A rich text. So you might be wondering who won. I mean, I think you can tell it's pretty generally accepted that Kendrick walks away from this with the win. Right. It it's it sort of seems like that's what the public has decided. Yeah, and there's this excerpt from a BBC article that sort of explains it in a really succinct way. Which is Kendrick Lamar was calculated and deliberate.

The Compton rapper refrained from posting on social media unless it was to drop a song and didn't leak records or information to popular streamers. is is offering this very astute. Analysis. Yeah. Yeah. And even though the music that came out of this is fun and you know I liked seeing them go back and forth, it is difficult to ignore that You know, ultimately

this is a feud between two men who are accused of mistreating women laying into each other. I mean, women and their pain are used as clapbacks, jokes, digs. Uh and if you really stop to think about it, you know If Kendrick really cared that much about Drake and his crew being predators, then he probably wouldn't have worked with Kodak Black. who has been accused of sexual assault multiple times,

And if Drake gave a single shit about women, then he wouldn't have championed Tory Lanez after he shot Meg the Stallion. Yeah. Neither of them are coming from a very good place. No and Drake led the smear campaign against Megan when she was accusing Tori of shooting her. Yeah. And this is also the same man who hasn't stopped being weird since Rihanna publicly rejected him.

at the VMA's. Like Yeah. I feel like that was his Joker moment. That's when he really went dark sided. Yeah, it hasn't been the same since. Yeah, like the takeaway is this music is fun, but ultimately we're all kind of losing. Yeah, it is it is kind of sad at the end of the day. Yeah. If you stop to think too hard about it. Right. Right. But if you kind of turn off your brain before you start getting too deep, it's

A blast. Yeah. I think that can be said about a lot of things in this world, unfortunately. Yeah. To go back to that sort of like popular girl thing. it there's this theory going around that a lot of people in the rap industry might have seen this as like Drake having it coming. And they were just like waiting for someone to take a jab at him that was really impactful. Right. Um because Drake is a messy, messy man. And he has pissed off a lot of people, allegedly, over the years. Yeah.

Each side has their their supporters, I guess. But it it sounds like more more people are on Kendrick's side. I think more people are on Kendrick's side because he he's pissed off fewer people. And because he's pretty regarded as like a genius when it comes to lyrics when it comes to his music. I think they wanna root for him more than Drake because a lot of them see Drake as

These are not my words, but like ruining rap almost. Like if you haven't watched that interview with Yassine Bey, where he talks about Drake's music, it would not surprise me if a lot of people in the industry held that opinion of him. where he's sort of this pop version of rap that's accessible to all the masses. But it sort of waters it down. Exactly. Yeah. Matt, do you feel like you know a bit about this now? Do you feel able to like wrap your head around it?

I yeah, I need to go home and really ruminate on all of this, but I feel like I have learned so much. Yeah. And A lot that has upset me. Yeah, unfortunately. Most notably that a five five man has this much power. Hey, Napoleon conquered entire continent. But you know what? I'll never underestimate a short man ever again. Yeah, that can be the one takeaway from this. From Wondery, this is Dis and Tell, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The show is hosted by me, Sidney Battle. And me, Matt Belisai.

We used many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Vox's The Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar feud explained. By Kendall Cunningham and Forbes's Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud timeline. Lamar dominates Billboard Hot 100 with Not Like Us. By Connor Murray and Mary Whitfill Roloffs. Our associate producer Jake Dvorsky wrote this episode. Kate Downey is our lead producer. Yasmin Ward is our producer.

Our senior story editor is Alex Burns and our story editor is Greg Castro. Sound design is done by Jamie Cooper, with additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze on Sync. Sophia Martins is our managing producer, and Joe Florentino is our coordinating producer. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelo, Stephanie Jens, Marshall Lewey, and Arano Flarity for Wondering.