As of this writing, Kendrick Lamar has officially dissed Drizzy Drake five times, including one guest verse and four songs that, for awhile, got darker by the release. October’s Very Own has countered with five disses himself, including four songs, one Instagram teaser and ghostwritten AI bars from beyond the grave. This piece must be prefaced with “as of this writing” because these dudes are firing round after round at each another at a rate and scale never before seen in hip-hop.
That 72 hour stretch last weekend alone are enough to rival some of the most notorious rap beefs. Never have we seen two emcees at the top of the rap game deploy such thorough shots at one another in such a short time frame. (For perspective, Tupac dropped “Hit ‘Em Up” a full 16 months after Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya?”) Clearly, this is primarily a reflection of the times, but with that comes additional changes we as consumers may not even realize we’ve undergone. In the old days, we didn’t care nearly as much about timing, rollouts or cover art. It was strictly about bars and impact (and possibly a music video that may have accompanied the diss record). But just as basketball evolved to make the Euro step a central part of every hooper’s game, rap beef has evolved to encompass so much more, to the point it’s muddied the scorecards for Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
As stated on The Preseason Podcast of the Year, the people ultimately decide the winner and loser of rap beefs. It’s out of the hands of the labels and media, in spite of what could be the latter’s best second-level agenda setting efforts. Lyrically, each artist’s attack are on par with the other, however as of today, Kendrick is viewed as the clear-cut winner. By dropping “Meet the Grahams” literally 30ish minutes after Drake released the “Buried Alive Pt. 2″/”Family Matters” combo platter, Kendrick seemed to have plotted out exactly how he would navigate Drake’s most damaging record. It’s quite clear that Drake approached this as a rap battle, while Kendrick Lamar approached this as a battle—he was more lieutenant than lyricist.
Apart from Drake seemingly making a concession speech on his most recent record “The Heart Pt. 6”, the people genuinely connected with KDot on every level. From his willingness to abort the subliminal disses he and Drake traded for years in favor of a direct hit on his “Like That” feature, to his varied song styles (friend of podcast Jon Rivera said Kendrick went from Griselda to Mac Dre in 12 hours), to his trademark cleverness as demonstrated by the “6:16 in LA” title, and his ultra-aggressive accusations (each one more lethal than the last), the streets fucked with it all. And that’s before you explore the lyricism, something Kendrick never leaves the crib without.
That’s funny though: The people “genuinely” connected with Dot. Authenticity (or a lack thereof) once again stands at the crux of a rap beef. While Kendrick claimed to have metaphorical hollow point slugs in the tuck for the Toronto native, there’s been little to no evidence of his claims that Drake:
- Has a 12-year-old daughter he’s been hiding
- Is a neglectful father
- Has leaks in his OVO crew that are feeding him information, or worst of all…
- Is a pedophile
Sidebar: It’s worth noting, as one HHSR follower put it, assuming Kendrick did have proof that Drake was a pedophile but hoarded that information for any length of time just to use it as ammunition in a silly rap feud, rather than he or his camp contacting the authorities, what does that say about him? Taking it a step further, you can defend it under the guise of “not snitching” if you want, but nobody is viewed with more contempt in our society than pedophiles. So it stands to reason Hip-Hop would cut Kendrick a break. Or because he didn’t dime out Drake, does that mean it’s a complete fabrication? In which case, what does THAT say about Kendrick? See, that authenticity thing is a slippery slope.
All of this points rap fans back to one existential question whether they realize it or not: On what grounds exactly were we to judge this battle? Does victory reside with the man who had the most creative forms of attack? Was it a contest to see who dug up the most dirt and hurled the heavier claims of being an awful human towards the other? (Shades of an old Parks & Recreation episode.)
Is it memes or music? Cover art or couplets?
One can theorize that Kendrick Lamar bested Drake in every facet, including rhyme scheme. But acting like this was an unmitigated lyrical beatdown, which many are doing by the way, is incredibly disingenuous. Although, it’s not uncharted territory for Drake.
Pusha T is also viewed as having defeated Drake in a battle, but it had far less to do with the quality of the songs or bars, and far more to do with Push’s ferocious attacks on Drake as an absentee father, and of course this unforgettable picture he surfaced. Lyrically though? “Duppy Freestyle” was at least on par with “The Story of Adidon”, if not better.
Currently, Drake is closing in on 100 billion streams on Spotify alone, making him the most streamed artist ever by a Canadian country mile. You don’t get to be that popular without making a few friends and a shit ton of enemies along the way. It’s no coincidence that there was a certain pound of flesh hip-hop heads were determined to get out of this conflict—look no further than the “BBL Drizzy” movement that’s sweeping through social media thanks to Metro Boomin, another former Drake colleague turned adversary. If there was downside of this Kendrick/Drake debate, it’s this.
Perhaps Kendrick earned the W (his colonizer bars were eye-opening), or maybe it’s just sour grapes from less successful artists, but a whole segment of rap mobilized against Drake and brought their fans with them. This backlash set up an all-too-familiar feeling of bias people engaging in social discourse, leading to partisanship masquerading as objectivity. In some ways, this was Jordan vs. LeBron repackaged.
The people with the loudest opinions either love Drake, love Kendrick or hate Drake. Kendrick has no haters, and the anti-Drake establishment seemed to make it their business that he’d take this L. Maybe that, mixed with the attacks on his Blackness, calling out Drizzy for having ghostwriters (a claim that has grown in irony over the last seven days), and the variety of diss records along with the frequency and calculated nature of assault, is why everybody was Crip walking to “Not Like Us” last Sunday night. And the larger group of consumers that made Aubrey Graham the most streamed musician of all-time frankly doesn’t care enough to opine on rap beef.
Although Kendrick Lamar’s seemingly endless bag of diss records and stinging punchlines were enough to carry the day on their own, this battle — contextualized in that manner — was and is closely-contested (FWIW, “Family Matters” was the best overall track by either artist). But apparently, we were never keeping score based on that criteria alone and nobody knew that more than Kendrick Lamar.