a Complete In-Depth Guide to the Hip-Hop

The internet has been buzzing with the rap beef between the American Pulitzer-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar and Canadian hitmaker Aubrey Drake Graham. The rap beef has led to a frenzy of diss tracks, with iconic rappers like Kanye West dissing Drake.

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Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s relationship has been rocky, with subliminal disses in their past music projects. But Future and producer Metro Boomin’s recently dropped albums, “We Don’t Trust You” and “We Still Don’t Trust You,” have split the hip-hop community into Drake supporters and Kendrick supporters.

Diss tracks like “Not Like Us” and “Family Matters” may make it seem like their feud has existed since their career began, but this is far from the truth.

The Collaborations

Drake had blown up by 2011, becoming a fully-fledged celebrity, but Kendrick Lamar was still an underground rapper. Drake has always had a knack for recognising new talent, as evident in his recent signing of 4batz to his label OVO. Similarly, Drake recognised Kendrick Lamar’s potential and collaborated with him on his “Take Care” album.

In 2012, Drake also took Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky on his “Buried Alive” tour, where the duo opened for Drake. Drake also rapped about this in his song “4 PM in Calabasas,” recalling, “When they told me to take an R&B singer on the road, and I told ’em no and drew for Kendrick and Rocky.” Drake was also featured on the hit track “Poetic Justice” from the album “Good Kid, m. A.D. City” by Kendrick Lamar.

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The Souring

In 2013, Kendrick Lamar took shots at Drake and the entire rap game in his verse on Big Sean’s “Control”. In his verse, Kendrick Lamar said that he loved the whole rap game but was trying to “murder” them, which indicates that Kendrick Lamar dissed the entire rap game to keep the scene competitive.

In later interviews, Drake acknowledged this by stating that he had no hard feelings for Kendrick Lamar and that Kendrick’s actions differed from his words in the song. In 2013, Drake, in his song “Language”, addressed Kendrick Lamar’s shots at him, which instigated Kendrick Lamar to reply on BET award’s fifth cypher, sowing seeds for the over a decade-long beef between the 6God (Drake) and the K. Dot (Kendrick Lamar).

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The years from 2015-2022 were marked by subliminal disses from both parties but nothing significant. Kendrick’s album “To Pimp a Butterfly” was aimed at the life of African Americans, a song from the album “King Kunta” became the anthem for the Black Lives Matter protest, but what most people missed were subliminal shots taken by K. Dot on Drake, confirming the ghostwriting allegations made by Meek Mill on Drake via X (formerly Twitter).

The beef between the two rappers had faded into oblivion, but so did we think until Drake and J. Cole dropped the mega-hit single “First Person Shooter”.

First Person Shooter

In 2023, Drake and J. Cole collaborated to create their first No.1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 together. In the track, J.

Cole mentioned that he, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake were the three biggest rappers in hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar did not receive this well, prompting him to diss both J. Cole and Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s album “We Don’t Trust You” in the track “Like That”.

This led to a frenzy in the hip-hop community, especially after Kanye West previewed to the public his diss, “Like That-remix”, for Drake in an interview. J. Cole responded to Kendrick Lamar by dropping “7-Minute Drill”, which he later deleted, citing his respect for Kendrick Lamar as the reason for it.

20 vs 1

Metro Boomin and Future took it one step further by dropping an entire diss album on Drake called “We Still Don’t Trust You,” which featured all the artists Drake had beef with dissing him, including A$AP Rocky and The Weekend. Drake responded by dropping “Push Ups,” which countered all the shots being taken at him. Rick Ross also got involved in the beef by dropping a Diss track on Drake called “Champagne Moments.”

Drake also acknowledged that the entire rap community had turned against him via Instagram stories and lyrics like “Is this a 20 v 1” on the track Push-ups. Drake later dropped another Diss track on Kendrick Lamar called “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which accused Kendrick Lamar of pushing the release of his album due to Taylor Swift dropping “The Tortured Poets Department.” The track has since been taken down due to legal notice by Tupac’s estate, as it featured an AI-voiced verse of the rapper late Tupac Shakur.

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Kendrick’s Response

Kendrick Lamar responded by releasing “Euphoria”, which went viral as it accused Drake of getting plastic surgery, and Kendrick Lamar publicly stated that he had nothing but hatred for the Toronto-based rapper.

Kendrick Lamar also mentions another famous rapper, YNW Melly, saying that if Drake weren’t his real friend, then Lamar would be YNW Melly, as a reference to YNW Melly’s ongoing trial for killing two of his close friends.

The biggest shock was when Kendrick Lamar dropped “6:16 in LA” which was produced by Jack Antonoff, the same producer who produces Taylor Swift’s tracks. In “Meet The Grahams”, Kendrick Lamar stated that Drake’s label OVO was working for him by feeding Lamar information about internal matters of the label.

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Family Matters and Meet the Grahams

Drake responded to “6:16 in LA” by releasing “Family Matters”, which referenced Kendrick Lamar’s relationship with his fiancée Whitney Alford, which he claimed was filled with infidelity and domestic abuse.

Drake also responded to Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky and all the other rappers who have dissed him. Kendrick had not involved Drake’s family yet, leading him to release “Meet the Grahams”, in which K. Dot addresses every person in Drake’s family, including his son Adonis and an alleged daughter of Drake.

The Finale

Kendrick dropped “Not Like Us”, a track which has been going viral and accuses Drake of engaging in pedophilia. In this track, we get an insight into a possible reason for Kendrick Lamar dissing Drake, which is a constant criticism of Drake. Drake has been accused of being a “Culture Vulture,” which means that he exploits Atlanta-based and African American rappers like Future, 21Savage, and Lil Baby to build his image and profit.

In response to this, Drake released “Heart Part 6.” In this track, Drake claims that one of Kendrick Lamar’s kids was actually fathered by Dave Free. Although this track wasn’t well received by the public, it marked a pause to the long ongoing conflict, as confirmed by Drake’s Instagram stories, where Drake stated that he’d be taking a break due to personal matters.