Kendrick Lamar and Drake, image credit to LunaEclipse, licensed under Creative Commons

The feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar is currently one of the most prominent events taking place in the music industry, with the two rappers taking shots at one another through an ongoing series of diss tracks.

The two artists actually have a history of working together, with Lamar being featured on Drake’s “Buried Alive” in 2011, Drake being featured on Lamar’s track “Poetic Justice” in 2012, and both artists taking part in the A$AP Rocky song “F***in’ Problems” in 2013. However, the first hint of bad blood between the two rappers took place not long after, when Lamar referenced Drake along with other successful rappers in Big Sean’s “Control” in 2013, stating “I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you/Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you.”

Drake effectively shrugged off the take, claiming in a Billboard story that “I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform.”

In October of 2023, rapper J. Cole suggested that himself, Drake, and Lamar were the “Big Three” of modern hip-hop artists in a song called “First Person Shooter,” leading Lamar to come back in “Like That,” a collaboration with artist Future and Metro Boomin released at the end of March 2024, where he claimed there was no “Big Three,” stating “it’s just big me.” J. Cole responded at the beginning of April with “7 Minute Drill,” attacking Lamar’s past work, but almost immediately backpedaled and removed the song from streaming services and apologized publicly after facing polarizing responses and criticism.

Drake finally responded formally on April 19 with “Push Ups” (which was initially leaked on April 13), where he claimed artists like SZA, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage were better than Lamar, and took aim at Lamar’s short stature with the lyrics “How the f*** you big-steppin' with a size-seven men's on?”

The same day, Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” with the title suggesting that Drake believed Lamar didn’t want his reply to be overshadowed by Taylor Swift’s new album, also released on the 19th. The song includes AI generated verses from 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, but Drake was forced to remove the track from all platforms, following the threat of artist Tupac Shakur’s estate to file a lawsuit, with the estate saying they would not have allowed Drake to use the AI generated vocals, that it violated Shakur’s personality rights, and that the use was disrespectful as Lamar held Shakur in high esteem.

On April 30, Lamar released his response with “Euphoria,” a six and a half minute track where he made multiple allegations against Drake, attacking his ability as a parent, calling him a “scam artist,” and stating he hates the way Drake walks, talks, dresses, and “sneak disses.” The title of the song is a reference to the TV series Euphoria, which Drake is an executive producer of.

A writer for Pitchfork, Alphonse Pierre, reviewed Euphoria, stating “There’s not much here that’s not been said about Drake before, but the appeal is that it’s shocking to hear jokes about Drake’s plastic surgery abs and Blackness from Kendrick’s mouth. He gets his hands dirtier than I ever thought he would.” Pierre went on to say that it seemed Lamar was waiting years for this moment, but also that the punchlines were not particularly memorable and that Lamar was lacking a “knockout blow.”

Drake replied with “Family Matters” on May 3, a seven and a half minute song where he suggested Lamar abused his fiancée Whitney Alford and was unfaithful to her.

Less than 30 minutes later, Lamar released the next chapter in the saga, another six and a half minute track called “Meet the Grahams.” In this song, Lamar says he is sorry that Drake is the father of his son, Adonis, alleges that Drake is hiding a secret daughter, and labels him a predator, suggesting his sexual attraction to underage girls. News media has brought up the question of whether Drake has groomed minors in the past, with some considering his relationships and interactions with girls before they were 18 to be inappropriate, including actress Millie Bobby Brown and singer Billie Eilish.

The following day, Lamar continued the feud, releasing the single “Not Like Us,” taking the accusations of pedophilia further, suggesting that others close to Drake are complicit. He also claims Drake has been exploiting and culturally appropriating other artists for his own gain. The song broke the record for most streams of a hip-hop song in a single day on the U.S. Spotify charts.

The latest stage in the series is Drake’s “The Heart Part 6,” where he denies that he is attracted to minors and said he expected Lamar to bring it up because of its prevalence on social media, claims those close to him intentionally fed Lamar false information about his alleged secret daughter, and doubles down on his accusations of Lamar’s abuse.

George Murray, a professor at Brooklyn College who teaches Sociology of Hip-Hop, comments on the feud.

“I guess I’d say in general, by the end of this first phase, I’ve definitely gained a bit more appreciation for [Drake] as an artist just in terms of those diss tracks. And I think I’ve lost a bit of respect for Kendrick Lamar, just in terms of the extent to which the whole battle got so ad-hominem, just hitting below the belt, name-calling without any receipts, but I was also happy Kendrick won, or is widely judged to have won.”

Murray also talked about what has made this battle unique compared to other feuds.

“There were a lot of songs for a short period of time, and everyone feels a little punch-drunk about that, I guess. But, I mean just the level of gamesmanship and psychological warfare and all of that was kind of interesting.”

The feud has been slowing down in recent days, but it is still too early to say whether it is truly over.