Back in 2011, Drake was already a powerhouse in the rap industry, while Kendrick Lamar was a rising star. To boost Lamar’s momentum, Drake allowed him to be featured in Buried Alive Interlude on his album Take Care, which later won the 2012 Grammy for Best Rap Album. Drake later fought for Lamar and rapper, A$AP Rocky, to be the opening acts of his tour in February of that year. The trio would collaborate again. Everyone was happy. 

After Lamar’s release of MAJOR album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, he took shots at other major artists in the industry on rapper, Big Sean’s track Control: "I got love for you all, but I’m trying to murder you *expletive*/ Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you *expletive*/ They don’t want to hear not one more noun or verb from you *expletive*.

Drake responded, saying that he respected the competition but he did not see Lamar as a threat. There was no clear animosity, however, it likely did strike a nerve.

Throughout 2015-17, subtle disses were fired from both sides, but nothing very significant except for Lamar’s diss on King Kunta, jabbing at Drake for using ghostwriters (people hired to write lyrics accredited for others). Safe to say, neither of them considered the other “friends” anymore. 

Drake dropped the hit album, For All the Dogs (previously reviewed in the Dedham Mirror) in early October of 2023, resulting in he and notable rapper, J. Cole, shooting up the Billboard 100 with the #1 song First Person Shooter: " Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/ We the big three like we started a league/ but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali ”

All of sudden, in late March of 2024, Lamar went feral on producer Metro Boomin’s album We Don’t Trust You, the name deriving from Metro’s famous producer tag saying, “If young Metro don’t trust you, he gon’ shoot you.” On the track Like That with Future (rapper), Lamar gets a verse where he attacks Drake and J. Cole’s statement regarding “the big three” and utilizes Drake’s projects to diss him: "*Expletive* sneak dissin’, first-person shooter/ I hope they came with three switches/Mother *expletive* the big three, *expletive*, it’s just big me/For all your dogs gettin’ buried/ That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary”

The media went wild, awaiting for Drake’s response, while in the meantime debating on who would theoretically win if they were to battle it out in what people called the “Rap Civil War.”  J. Cole would be the first to respond with 7 Minute Drill, basically attacking Lamar’s discography. Within less than 2 days, J. Cole took down the diss and officially apologized in a performance at Dreamfest 2024, saying that attacking another rapper was out of character for him and was disrupting his peace. With J. Cole withdrawing his hat in the ring, the media was back to waiting for Drake to act. 

The wait was over when on April 19th, almost a month later, Drake dropped his first retaliation, Push Ups an insult on Lamar having to give up 50% of his earnings to his record label and him “giving up 50” like “some push ups.” Other lyrics include him being short and how he shouldn’t even be in the “big three” conversation since artists like SZA, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage are all better. The cover of the track is a 7-shoe size label, insulting Lamar’s height.

Five days later, Drake doubled-down, dropping Taylor-Made Freestyle, using AI to create verses from the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, icons of hip-hop on the West Coast. The use of AI was considered controversial and uncreative, and was considered somewhat disrespectful to the now-deceased Tupac. The track was ultimately taken off Drake’s social media pages after Tupac’s estate threatened to file a suit. The intention of the verse was to mock Lamar, as the AI-ran rappers question his belief of being a representative of West-Coast rap, yet saying that he has ultimately failed them. 

Almost a week later, Lamar responded with a six-minute long track, euphoria, in which he calls Drake a manipulator, scammer, and a fraud as he fabricates stories and changes his personality to better fit “the black culture.” He also notably lists off how he hates the way Drake walks, talks, and dresses. Three days later, Lamar models his opponent’s “double-down” by dropping 6:16 in LA, a title that is a response to Drake saying that Lamar would need a “quintuple entendre” to win. The track is considered a warning, as Lamar warns Drake that perhaps there is an informant within Drake’s OVO circle that is feeding him information. The cover is an ambiguous picture of a glove. 

In the most pivotal point in the “battle,” Drake releases a music video to new track, Family Matters, where Drake again insults his height and questions Kendrick’s abuse allegations on his ex-Fiance. In the music video, a van that was used as the cover art for Lamar’s good kid m.A.A.d city album was crushed followed by Drake eating in New Ho King, a Chinese restaurant in Toronto Lamar has previously name-dropped. However, this is immediately followed with Lamar’s track, Meet the Grahams, which was released within an hour after Family Matters. The cover for this track is the expanded version of the cover for 6:16 in LA, allegedly featuring items from Drake’s house. The track starts off with Dear Adonis, addressing Drake’s son who Drake only knew about through a separate diss track by Pusha T. The track addresses Drake’s son, father, and mother, talking about Drake having no integrity, is not a “real man”, and is a child predator. Lamar then reveals that Drake has ANOTHER child that he has not provided care for, this time an 11-year old daughter. 

Even after that powerful response, Kendrick drops AGAIN the same day, with Not Like Us, a re-establishment of Drake being a pedophile while using a beat produced by DJ Mustard, incorporating elements of West-coast melodies, acting as a direct response to Drake’s mockery of Lamar’s inability to capture that style of rap. The cover for the single is a picture of Drake's house with multiple red pins, signifying a sex-offender warning. 

Notably, Metro Boomin, the producer of the album that Lamar initially shot at Drake on, produced an instrumental beat: BBL Drizzy. The beat pokes fun at the situation, with him offering the beat to ANYONE that can rap the best Drake diss with the instrumental. This is response to Drake’s diss on Push Ups, when he said: “Metro shut yo *expletives* up and make some drums, *expletive*”

Drake would finally respond with The Heart Part 6 the following day which was not accepted by the general public with approval. Fans consider the track a defense rather than a diss. Drake raps about how he is NOT a pedophile and attempts to shift the spotlight onto Lamar’s ex-fiance and how she potentially is having a child with someone other than him. Drake blames Lamar for being so obsessed with Drake being a pedophile because he was likely sexually assaulted as a child, a misinterpretation of Lamar’s track Mother I Sober on the album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, where he talks about his mother’s trauma from being sexually assaulted, a very personal piece. Drake ends the track with a minute-long outro talking about how Kendrick would’ve been a worthy competitor if he were actually a pedophile and that the battle was simply “good exercise” for him and that he’s glad Lamar had put out music for his own fans. 

The world went berserk, talking about the evil and ominous nature of Kendrick Lamar’s Meet the Grahams and the potential of Drake having ANOTHER child be brought to the public spotlight. Drake, however, responded by saying that he would quit rapping and work for whoever finds out that Lamar has a daughter. The OVO team also claims the photo was fabricated and none of the things within the photo, including the Ozempic bottles, legitimately belonged to Drake. Days later, Drake claimed that they in reality planted the story of the alleged 11 year-old daughter and that he intended on baiting Lamar into rapping about a rumor that the OVO team actually made up, even though in previous days, he would consistently deny the daughter’s existence. 

This, however, was proven to be false when DJ Akademkis, a prominent streamer and personality in the hip hop industry, admitted in mid-May 12th, that the OVO team had no idea where the daughter allegations have come from, meaning Drake lied about planting the story to trick Kendrick. Three days before THAT, a video surfaced on X of the items allegedly belonging to Drake from the Meet the Grahams cover. This is followed by security footage of the artist in a hotel lobby. The X user, @EbonyPrince2K24, says in the post that Lamar did NOT lie about the items belonging to Drake and that @EbonyPrince2K24 did not steal these items but somehow retrieved them after Drake tried to discard them, which is shown in the security photo of Drake in the lobby. 

Lamar, as of publication deadline, has not responded to The Heart Part 6, possibly signaling an end to the “beef.” However, some fans don’t believe Lamar really NEEDS to. Leaked photos surfaced on the internet supposedly showing emails from the OVO team, asking Lamar to end the conflict, but that has not been officially proven to be true or not. Around the same time DJ Akademiks talked on stream about the two conflicted artists, Drake posted on his Instagram story a drawing of a lone samurai standing across from an army, following his stance that the conflict has truly been between him and the entire rap industry, “a 20v1.” Above the drawing, Drake says “Good times. Summer vibes up next,” hinting that the rapper is moving on from the battle. Lamar, however, has remained silent. 

Whether or not the “beef” has truly ended, both rappers created history within the industry. The conflict was entertaining for the world and the future perceptions of Kendrick Lamar and Drake will, for sure, be seen in a different light.