Two rap giants have been at odds for over a decade. To many, it wasn’t general knowledge until Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s song “Like That” shook up the 2024 rap game. But Drake and Kendrick Lamar have an extensive range of lyrical exchanges, and it wasn’t until the iconic “Like That” verse where the melting pot finally spilled over to become of the most discussed rap beefs of the year.
We bring you a comprehensive breakdown of the duo’s history, equipped with extra context surrounding lyrics and related events.
2011-12: Collaborative beginnings
In July 2011, an up-and-coming Kendrick Lamar released his debut studio album, Section.80, and was yet to sign to a major record label. At the same time, Drake was a major label artist signed to Birdman’s Cash Money and a part of Lil Wayne’s Young Money roster. The pair met at Lamar’s first show in Toronto, Canada—Drake’s hometown—a month before the release of Lamar’s album. On the night of release, Kendrick emailed Section.80 to Drake, who enjoyed the album and invited him to record a song for his sophomore album he was working on, Take Care, released in November 2011. The song ended up being “Buried Alive Interlude”, track 7 on Take Care that is entirely performed by Lamar. On the song, he raps from his perspective of a rapper transitioning from underground to global fame, anxious around the toxic effects the ascent to fame comes equipped with.
In early 2012, Drake kicked off his Club Paradise tour and invited Kendrick Lamar to support him during the tour’s first leg alongside ASAP Rocky and others, further building their relationship.
In March 2012, it was announced that Kendrick Lamar signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath and Interscope Records. His second album and major label debut was released in October, titled Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Drake returns the guest appearance favour by featuring on the song “Poetic Justice”, and is granted a released as a single in early 2013 equipped with a music video.
Around the release of Good Kid M.A.A.D City, Drake and Kendrick collaborated on another song, “Fuckin’ Problems” by ASAP Rocky. The song was originally a collaboration between Drake and 2 Chainz, with the former passing on the track and handing it to ASAP Rocky for his debut album, Long Live ASAP.
As of April 2024, this was the last time Drake and Lamar collaborated on a song together.
2013: The “Control” Verse
At this point so far, Kendrick and Drake have had plenty of mainstream success both with and without each other. But one verse changed their entire dynamic.
In August 2013, Big Sean releases the song “Control” featuring Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica. The 7-minute track was intended for Big Sean’s second album, Hall of Fame, but left off the tracklist due to “sample clearance issues”. On the track’s second verse, Kendrick namedrops several fellow rappers, including Drake, stating he aims to be the best rapper amongst all his peers.
I’m usually homeboys with the same n****s I’m rhymin’ with
But this is hip-hop, and them n****s should know what time it is
And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale
Pusha T, Meek Millz, ASAP Rocky, Drake
Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller
I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you n****s
Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you n****s
They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you n****s
What is competition? I’m tryna raise the bar high
Who tryna jump and get it?
In an interview with Angie Martinez, Drake responded to the “Control” verse, commenting: “It just wasn’t real to me […] Let it be real, cause those were harsh words.” He responded further in separate interviews with Billboard and Elliot Wilson, stating: “I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. In a talk with the latter, Drake categorises the verse as “shock value”, saying: “He’s giving people moments. Are you listening to it now, at this point in time? It was real cool for a couple weeks. If I asked you, for example, how does that verse start?”, while clarifying he felt “No malice” by it.
A month later, Drake released his third album, Nothing Was the Same. The song “The Language” contains lines directed towards Lamar and the drama surrounding “Control”, most notably: “I don’t know why they been lying but your shit is not that inspiring”, discrediting Lamar’s attempt to inspire fellow rappers to get competitive. A further bar included is: “I got to kill off the weak shit that’s got all you n****s excited”, a reference to the “Control” verse being the topic of discussion by rappers on social media, interviews and songs. Last but not least, Drake raps: “I am the kid with the motormouth / I am the one you should worry ’bout”.
In October, Kendrick Lamar joined fellow Black Hippy rappers Schoolboy Q, Jay, Rock, Ab-Soul and Isaiah Rashad at the BET Hip Hop Awards to represent their label Top Dawg Entertainment in the show’s annual cyphers. Over a classic Mobb Deep beat, Lamar responds to Drake’s “The Language” during the cypher, namedropping Drake’s recently-released album during the lines:
And nothing been the same since they dropped “Control”
And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pyjama clothes
Ha ha, joke’s on you
High-five… I’m bulletproof
Your shots’ll never penetrate
Pin a tail on the donkey, boy, you been a fake
Shortly after, Kendrick featured on the remix to Jay Rock’s “Pay for It” and responded to Drake’s “motormouth” bar off “The Language”, rapping: “Been dissectin’ your motormouth, ’til I break down the engine”.
Drake rounded off this back-and-forth with a verse on the remix to Future’s “Sh!t”, opening up with the lines:
Took n****s out the hood like I’m from there
So you know it’s all good when I come there
I hear you talk about your city like you run that
And I brought my tour to your city, you my son there
As far as peaks go, 2013 was the most heated the rift would be for the foreseeable future.
2014-22: Era of the subliminals
The next ten years saw a series of subliminal lyrics exchanged from track to track. We include the most notable and clear-cut examples.
After a quiet 2014 for the beef, 2015 began with Drake releasing the mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late in February. The Lil Wayne collaboration “Used 2” opens up with the lines: “They gon say your name on them airwaves / They gon’ hit you up right after like ‘it’s only rap’.” Drake refers to radio interviews where Kendrick downplayed his lyrics being jabs towards Drake.
The same mixtape’s final track is “6PM in New York”, with a few more lines aimed towards Kendrick:
Oh please, take it ease, where’s the love and the peace?
Why you rapping like you come from the streets?
I got a backyard where money seems to come from the trees
Drake is rebuking the claim that Kendrick has gang affiliations, a topic that has cropped up across a majority of his albums. He also refers to Lamar’s song “Money Trees” off of Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.
The following month, Kendrick Lamar releases his third album To Pimp a Butterfly to critical acclaim. On the song “King Kunta”, Kendrick dropped the cryptic lines: “But a rapper with a ghostwriter? What the fuck happened? I swore I wouldn’t tell.” On the same album, Kendrick refers back to his “Control” verse on the song “Hood Politics” by using a famous Jay-Z line (“It’s funny how one rap verse can fuck up the game”).
Unbeknown to the public at the time, Kendrick was referring to Drake using ghostwriters in his music. A few months later, Meek Mill fell out with Drake and tweeted that Drake uses ghostwriters. This further unravelled by DJ and radio host Funkmaster Flex leaking reference tracks recorded by the “ghostwriter” Quentin Miller, many of which were songs from Drake’s mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late which dropped a few months prior. Suddenly, the Kendrick Lamar line made much more sense.
In June 2015, Drake returns jabs in his verse on The Game’s “100”, rapping: “I would have all of your fans / If I didn’t go pop and I stayed on some conscious shit”, making light of the fact Lamar’s album To Pimp a Butterfly was developing a reputation of being socially-conscious. The song’s music video was also shot in Compton, California—The Game and Kendrick’s hometown.
In August, Dr. Dre released his first album in fifteen years, Compton, loaded with three Kendrick Lamar appearances. On the song “Darkside / Gone”, Kendrick rapped: “But still, I got enemies giving me energy, I wanna fight now / Subliminal, sending me all of this hate”, referencing Drake’s song “Energy” and the subliminal bars on his recent songs. Off the same album, Kendrick raps on “Deep Water” that “They liable to bury him, they nominated six to carry him”, referencing Drake’s nickname for Toronto (“the 6ix”). The verse ends with the following: “The beef is on his breath, inheriting the drama better than a great white, n***a, this is life in my aquarium”.
In March 2017, Kendrick released the fourth instalment to his “The Heart” series, including lines targeting Drake and Big Sean. While several lines could be interpreted at either rapper, the Drake-centric lines are inclined to be as follows:
Tables turned, lesson learned, my best look
You jumped sides on me, now you ’bout to meet Westbrook
Go celebrate witcha team and let victory vouch you
Just know, the next game played I might slap the shit out you
Kendrick paraphrases a line from Drake’s “Pound Cake” to note his disloyalty (“Tables turn, bridges burn, you live and learn”).
Later in the verse, Kendrick raps: “Ho, JAY-Z Hall of Fame, sit yo’ punk-ass down”. While this is directly referencing Big Sean’s album Hall of Fame, it could also be referencing Drake’s “Hall of fame, hall of fame” line from his 2016 song “Grammys”. On his 2016 single “Summer Sixteen”, he states that “I turned into Jay”. Kendrick refutes Drake’s comparing himself to Jay-Z, who notably features on the aforementioned “Pound Cake” that Kendrick references.
In May 2017, Kendrick Lamar featured on the remix to Future’s “Mask Off”, responding to Drake’s “conscious” line from 2015: “How y’all let a conscious n***a go commercial while only making conscious albums?”
On his 2018 song “Diplomatic Immunity”, Drake raps: “They try to compare us, but like a job straight outta high school there’s no you and I / I taught you everything you know, now you got student pride.” Drake references two songs from Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, “U” and “I”, while downplaying the notion that Kendrick is comparable to himself.
Drake’s 2018 album Scorpion also contains the following shot on “Sandra’s Rose”: “I walk in godly form amongst the mortal men”. Here, Drake references Kendrick Lamar’s song “Mortal Man”, the final track on To Pimp a Butterfly.
Kendrick Lamar returned from a five-year solo hiatus in 2022, dropping the album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. On the song “Father Time”, Kendrick references the Drake-Kanye beef:
When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused
Guess I’m not mature as I think, got some healin’ to do
As the album is focused on therapy, Lamar is wondering whether he is able to drop his grudges. The line also implies he is not willing to end the feud.
2023-24: The battle turns to war
In April 2023, Drake previewed an unreleased song with Lil Uzi Vert on his Sound42 radio station. His verse included the lines:
Fake woke, n****s fake deep
You ain’t know fame before me
Gave yo’ ass a lil’ sneak peek, yeah
Now you gotta take a back seat
In these bars, Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar’s conscious persona of being a facade and takes credit for propelling Kendrick to the mainstream. He also plays with the name of Kendrick’s 2012 song, “Backseat Freestyle”.
After a few quiet years on the subliminal side, this is arguably the most direct Drake has been.
In October 2023, Drake released his highly-teased album, For All the Dogs. It featured album highlight “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole, the pair’s first song together since 2013. On the song, J. Cole mentions the famous “Big Three” label that has encapsulated Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar for over a decade.
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
A month after the release of For All the Dogs, Drake released a trailer for his Scary Hours 3 EP, featuring a monologue that began with: “I know I could go and disappear for six months, a year, two years. Even though I’m not really into the super-lengthy disappearances for the sake of mystery.” Kendrick Lamar is famously known for his lack of public appearances and going years without releasing material.
Five months after “First Person Shooter”, Future and Metro Boomin release their first of two collaborative albums, We Don’t Trust You on 22 March 2024, initially hiding the album features. It is also worth mentioning that Future and Metro Boomin are also at odds with Drake, having fallen out with the rapper during 2023. A surprise Kendrick Lamar verse appeared on track 6, “Like That”, after the song was previewed at Rolling Loud before the verse could play. Kendrick directly responds to “First Person Shooter”, directly dissing Drake while slighting J. Cole’s “Big Three” reference.
Fuck sneak dissing, first-person shooter
I hope they came with three switches
The final bars of the song reference Drake’s album For All the Dogs and his self-comparison to Michael Jackson, while Kendrick refers to his own likeness to Prince, something he has mentioned earlier in his career on songs such as “Mask Off (Remix)”.
Motherfuck the big three, n***a, it’s just big me
N***a, bum
What? I’m really like that
And your best work is a light pack
N***a, Prince outlived Mike Jack
N***a, bum
‘Fore all your dogs gettin’ buried
That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary
N***a, bum
At the time of release, Drake was finishing the final dates of his It’s All a Blur tour. He addressed the drama on stage a few days after the song debuted, as well as referencing it on social media posts. “Like That” went on to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Three weeks later on 13 April, a leaked appeared online dubbed as a Drake diss track towards Kendrick Lamar. Due to the low quality and unofficial nature of the track, many speculated it was AI impersonating drake. It was shortly later confirmed to be authentic by DJ Akademiks, who premiered the official version. The track sends shots towards Future, Metro Boomin, J. Cole, The Weeknd Rick Ross and Ja Morant, while Kendrick Lamar is accused of having a 50-50 royalties split with Top Dawg founder, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. Further disses include Kendrick appearing on pop records and discrediting his placement in the “Big Three”. Drake put the song on streaming services on 19 April, titled “Push Ups”.
Extortion baby, whole career, you been shook up
Cause Top told you, “Drop and give me fifty,” like some push-ups
[…]
Your last one bricked, you really not on shit
They make excuses for you cause they hate to see me lit
Pull your contract cause we gotta see the split
The way you doing splits, bitch, your pants might rip
On the same day, Drake uploaded a second diss track titled “Taylor Made Freestyle”, using his own voice to generate AI verses in the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg; two of Kendrick’s West Coast idols and inspiration. The third verse accuses Kendrick Lamar of having his upcoming album delayed due to Taylor Swift’s album being released in April, with rumours existing that Kendrick is gearing up to drop an album outside of the track as well. A week later, Drake removed “Taylor Made Freestyle” from his social media after the Tupac Shakur Estate threatened to sue Drake for his usage of Tupac’s voice in the song.
On 30 April, Kendrick Lamar responded to the Drake disses with a 6-minute diss titled “Euphoria” via YouTube, before distributing it to streaming services hours after. In the diss, he takes digs at Drake’s fatherhood, racial identity, ghostwriting allegations, contractual obligations and lack of response to Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon” diss, while hinting that he could take the beef further based on information that he knows. Kendrick takes multiple comical angles, including cultural references to the late DMX’s iconic anti-Drake Breakfast Club rant, and Kanye West’s line “We don’t wanna hear that weak shit no more” from 2004’s “Get Em High”.
Yeah, my first one like my last one
It’s a classic, you don’t have one
Let your core audience stomach that
Then tell ’em where you get your abs from
[…]
Ain’t twenty-v-one, it’s one-v-twenty if I gotta smack n****s that write with you
Yeah, bring ’em out too, I’ll clean ’em out too
Tell BEAM that he better stay right with you
Am I battlin’ ghost or AI?
The song’s artwork depicts a dictionary definition of the song title. When peering closely, the second example of the definition reads as follows: “They had almost a week to recover from the euphoria of Tuesday’s series-winning victory.” With “Euphoria” dropping on a Tuesday, Kendrick is hinting at another diss track incoming, giving Drake ‘under a week’ to ‘recover’ from “Euphoria” in the meantime. Kendrick also references Drake’s “Back to Back” diss track towards Meek Mill in the song, further hinting he aims to release two disses in succession just like Drake did with “Charged Up” and “Back to Back” in 2015.
Mic Cheque 