Kendrick Lamar Might Have Ruined Drake’s Career

The genre of Hip Hop celebrated its 50th birthday last year, and one of the things that makes Hip Hop so different from other music genres is its ability to settle disagreements through artists’ music. Hip Hop has been used by artists to diss each other since the 1980s, starting with the Roxanne Wars. The most famous of these disses or “rap beefs” was in the 1990s with the rappers The Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur, which ended when both rappers were tragically killed. Hip Hop Literature teacher Desmond Spann can remember rap battles influencing him as a child: “ I remember looking at my peers, and looking for their flaws … as I was doing this I remember how it felt for me, and it didn’t feel good.”

The current beef in Hip Hop is between extremely influential rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The beef is said to have started years ago, but really picked up during producer Metro Boomin’s release of the album, “We Don’t Trust You.” Lamar was featured in the song, “Like That,” and used his verse to say how he is miles better than the “Big 3.” The “Big 3” is a term used to describe the artists J. Cole, Drake, and Lamar, as they are three of the biggest rappers in the world right now. Drake and Cole had previously used this term to talk themselves up in their hit song, “First Person Shooter.”

Lamar isn’t the only one who has attacked Drake either; rappers Rick Ross and Pusha T have also made diss tracks about the Canadian. Hip Hop Literature teacher Ms. KB doesn’t know why Lamar attacked Drake, but she thinks she knows why others did: “I’m not sure if Lamar is doing what everyone else is doing, which is coming at Drake because he feels it’s an easy target.”

J. Cole was the first to respond, with the release of his album, “Might Delete Later,” and specifically in the song “7 Minute Drill,” where Cole described Lamar’s music as boring with lyrics like “Your second shit put n****s to sleep, but they gassed it.” Not a great recovery and with the public thinking the same way, it led to Cole apologizing to Lamar in his Dreamville Fest set, shortly after.

Drake’s long awaited comeback was dropped a couple weeks after, with the release of his single “Push Ups.” What I personally didn’t enjoy was how Drake leaked the diss to the public to see what people thought of it before officially releasing it. With that being said, I think the diss did its job in making the point that Drake wasn’t going to let Lamar say whatever he wanted without a response. “Push Ups’” main disses called out how physically small Lamar is despite him talking such a big game. Drake also took some shots at other artists and producers that joined Lamar in dissing him, including Metro Boomin and Rick Ross.

Lamar responded two weeks later with his single “euphoria.” This was when I felt the beef really start to take a turn. “euphoria” was six minutes of what felt like warning shots at Drake. One thing that stood out to me about the diss was how Lamar really hates how Drake tries to act “tuff,” saying, “I like Drake with the melodies, I don’t like Drake when he act tuff.” This was also the first time that Lamar pointed out his opinion on Drake as a father when he says, “I got a son to raise, but I can see you know nothin’ ‘bout that.” Lamar references how Drake uses ghostwriters —people who are paid to write songs for artists — and artificial intelligence in his songs, so he’s not really rapping against just Drake. Although the diss was very good, and in my opinion the best one up to that point, Lamar had yet to say something that would change people’s perspectives about Drake.

With rappers dropping their songs one after another, Lamar was the first to break that streak and drop back-to-back tracks with the drop of “6:16 in LA.” The song was hard to understand at some points due to it being very deep lyrically, but after doing a little research I began to think more highly of it, and think it’s the most underrated song in the feud. Lamar was acknowledging that he feels more spiritual than Drake, and how he gives back to his community for the greater good, instead of for clout as he believes Drake does. Lamar also talked about Drake manipulating his fans to change other people’s perspective about him, while Lamar lets people make their own decisions.

Drake’s highly anticipated comeback came out later that day with “Family Matters.” Drake tried to defend himself against everything Lamar said in “euphoria,” however, the song felt a bit predictable. There were a couple of good bars, but for the most part, it didn’t move me as much as it did the rest of the public. The diss did have a shock effect though, which is why most people thought the diss gave Drake the lead, but I personally felt Lamar was still winning.

The media didn’t have a lot of time to process Drake’s diss though, as soon Lamar dropped his third song, “meet the grahams.” Lamar dropped this song 45 minutes after Drake released “Family Matters,” meaning he had a song completely ready to be posted and purposefully waited until Drake dropped his song to post his. The song itself may have been the greatest diss track I have ever heard. When I gave it a listen, it immediately made my stomach turn. It made me feel like I was the one getting dissed even though I was just listening from a third-person perspective. 

Lamar starts the song with “dear Adonis,” aimed at Drake’s son Adonis, and begins to talk about how bad of a father Drake is, rapping the song like he’s speaking to Adonis personally. Lamar proceeds to throw some crazy allegations at Drake, and even mentions that he abandoned a daughter of his that we don’t know about. Lamar raps each verse like he’s writing a letter and begins the verse with “dear.” He talks to Adonis, Drake’s mom Sandra, and the daughter that Lamar says Drake abandoned. According to RapTV on Instagram, a rap news source, Lamar accused Drake of being all of the following: “a predator, liar, narcissist, misogynist, master manipulator, gambler, pill popper, bodyshamer, and a nympho.”

Lamar wasn’t even done yet, dropping “Not Like Us” the following day. A more upbeat song, it throws more shade at Drake, saying he likes minors in the catchy bar, “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.” Lamar also points out that people working with Drake are the ones giving him all the information about Drake and the allegations Lamar made in his songs.

Drake responded with “The Heart Part 6.” The song was essentially just him denying all the allegations Lamar previously made, and saying he and his crew set up Lamar, who fell for the trap. It feels like Drake has been playing too much defense during these last disses, and that to me is a sign that Lamar has the advantage overall. 

Although it’s unclear when this beef will end, I know this will go down as one of the most monumental moments in Hip Hop history, and I believe if it ended now people would remember Lamar pointing out the flaws in Drake’s life.