Kendrick and Drake: A rivalry between rappers

BY LINDSEY HUGHES

Art Director

As many of you may know, Kendrick Lamar and Drake (Aubrey Graham), have been involved in a long and drawn out rivalry for years. It recently came to a head during the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, where Lamar performed his diss on Drake titled “Not Like Us,” but the beef between rappers has been brewing since roughly 2013. 

The drama between the two started with the release of “First Person Shooter” Ft. J. Cole by Drake. This song was not originally intended to be a diss, however, Lamar disapproved of the message being sent by the line “Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We the big three like we started a league,” making it clear in his response that rather than being part of the “big three,” he stands alone.

Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar released “Like That” in March of 2024, where Lamar not-so-subtly refuted the “big three” line, singing, “Mother f*** the big three, n****, it's just big me.”

In April of 2024, J. Cole clapped back at Lamar with the release of his diss track “7 Minute Drill.” The main goal of the diss seemed to be to criticize Lamars’ album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” 

Outside of dissing one particular album, J. Cole also implied that Lamars’ recent releases are a cry for attention, but with said attention, comes violence, singing,

“It's a cold world, keep the heat under your seat
I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissin'
You want some attention, it come with extensions.” 

Genius lyrics contributors have related his use of the word “extensions” to magazine extensions, as well as suggesting that “heat” is most likely slang for a gun.

J. Cole ended up removing the song from all streaming platforms on April 12, 2024, just seven days after its release. The deletion of the diss was following a public apology to Lamar at the Dreamville Festival.

Drake, finally responding to the drama, released his song “Push Ups” on April 19, 2024. This was a direct response to Lamars’ “Like That” and seemed to be the song that escalated the situation.

In “Push Ups” Drake rapped, “How the f*** you big steppin' with a size-seven men's on?” and “Pipsqueak, pipe down,” — both pretty direct jabs at Lamar, who is of smaller stature. He also makes several comments in the song about other artists “wiping out” Lamar and takes several harsh shots at his past and current labels. 

On the same day that “Push Ups” was released, Drake also came out with yet another diss track directed at Lamar called “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The lyrics hinting at domestic abuse were slung in Lamars’ direction, as well as rebuttals to the alleged activity between Drake and younger women. This was a highly controversial diss, not necessarily just because of the lyrics, but because of who sung them. 

Drake used AI generated vocals of the late rapper 2pac and Snoop Dogg in this particular song, which turned out to be a very disliked decision. PEOPLE obtained a letter from lawyer Howard King that claimed the use of Tupac Shakur’s (2pac) voice was a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights.”

Snoop Dogg also responded via Instagram, with a video of him laughing about the song, stating “They did what? When? How? Are you sure," and "Huh. Y'all have a good night... Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the f***? What happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Goodnight."

Due to the threat of legal action from Shakur’s estate, the diss was taken down on April 26, less than a month after its release.

Lamar clapped back once again with his song “Euphoria,” the title of which is already a subtle dig at Drake, who was a producer on the famous show that shares the name. This is regarded as possibly one of Lamar's most hate filled songs directed at Drake.

In the diss, Lamar came at Drake hard, rapping, 

“It's always been about love and hate, now let me say I'm the biggest hater
I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress
I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it's gon' be direct." 

Three days after the release of “Euphoria,” Lamar dropped “6:16 in LA,” once again making good use of his song title, seemingly parodying Drake's song “8am in Charlotte.”

It is widely speculated that the release of “6:16 in LA” was merely to bait Drake into speaking about Lamars’ family, and if so, it worked.

Drake dropped “Family Matters” on the same day as “6:16 in LA” came out. In this diss, Drake came at Lamar about the domestic abuse of his wife, his use of ghostwriters and infidelity in his relationships with lines like the following:

“Your baby mama captions always screamin’ ‘Save me’

You did her dirty all your life, you tryna make peace.”

Within an hour of “Family Matters” dropping, Lamar clapped back with his harshest diss yet, “Meet the Grahams,” where he delivered personal messages to each member of Drake’s family. Lamar also alleged several things that had never been brought up regarding Drake before.

Lamar began the diss by addressing Drake’s son,

“Dear Adonis
I'm sorry that that man is your father.”

He then continued to imply that he wished Drake had never been born, eventually ending verse one by telling Adonis to “play this when you're eighteen” to understand it. 

Verse 2 was a message for Sandra and Dennis, Drake’s parents. He started off fairly tame, calling Drake a horrible person and a master manipulator, but the diss became dark quickly when Lamar rapped, 

“Mm-mm, your son's a sick man with sick thoughts, I think n***** like him should die,” as well as, “And we gotta raise our daughters knowin' there's predators like him lurkin'
F*** a rap battle, he should die so all of these women can live with a purpose.”

These lines and many more strongly imply Drake’s alleged involvement with minors. 

In verses 3 and 4, Lamar addresses a daughter and Drake himself. He implies that Drake has a secret daughter that he has been hiding. 

He sings,  “I wanna tell you that you're loved, you're brave, you're kind

 You got a gift to change the world, and could change your father's mind” and 

“But I would like to say it's not your fault that he's hidin' another child.”

After the release of “Meet the Grahams,” Lamar dropped the wildly popular, Grammy award winning diss “Not Like Us,” where he once again claims that Drake is a pedophile, amongst other accusations. 

The diss blew up on social media platforms, primarily TikTok, and was recently performed by Lamar at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.

In “Not Like Us,” Lamar calls Drake out directly in the famous line, “Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young,” as well as the songs most popular section, 

“Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, f*** 'em up
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I'ma do my stuff
Why you trollin' like a b****? Ain't you tired?
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor.”

Drake released “The Heart Part 6,” a diss in which he went on the offensive and denied all allegations that were alleged by Lamar in both “Meet The Grahams” and “Not Like Us.” He reveals the fact that the existence of a secret daughter was information fed to Lamar from his team, and denied all claims about his alleged pedophilia.

After Lamars’ recent performance of “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl, despite threats of legal action from Drake’s team, not much else has happened in this rap rivalry. 

When talking with fans of both Kendrick and Drake about the drama, there were definitely contrasting feelings. 

Ryan Kneebone, a Tarleton State University student, who also happens to be a longtime fan of Drake, had a lot to say. 

“As a Drake fan I feel like he handled the beef as well as he could,” Kneebone said. “The first two tracks Kendrick dropped weren’t anything too crazy. However, following ‘Family Matters’ by Drake, I believe Kendrick overstepped. ‘Meet the Grahams’ completely changed the narrative of the beef. I lost a lot of respect for Kendrick that day.”

Gabriel Rodriguez, a business major, had a different take on the drama. 

“I mean, recently it was pretty underwhelming considering all of what Kendrick has said about Drake and vice versa… I think many of the disses were reaching, as it's mostly speculation,” Rodriquez said.

While the decade-long battle between the artists will most likely not end here, it is definitely insightful to look back on all that has happened since 2013.