After more than a decade of subliminal messages and sneak disses, Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar and the biggest rapper of the modern era Drake have initiated rap nuclear war and have both released a torrent of songs over the weekend littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, child neglect, generational trauma and more. Producers and other musical artists have picked sides in this beef, with artists such as Rick Ross, ASAP Rocky, The Weeknd and Metro Boomin all aligning themselves in opposition to Drake.
After Drake and J. Cole released “First Person Shooter,” in which a guest verse from J. Cole referred to himself, Drake and Lamar as “the big three” of modern MCs. Kendrick took issue with this and released a verse on the song “Like That” which was on Future and Metro Boomin’s collab album “We Don’t Trust You.” Since then Drake released two songs, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” in response to Lamar’s verse on “Like That”. In both songs, Drake mentions Lamar’s longtime fiancé. This is where Lamar said the line was crossed and he wouldn’t hold back on subsequent diss tracks.
Since then, both sides have slung haymakers at each other, each one rife with allegations and insults ranging from juvenile and funny to moral black marks on their public personas. In real-time, this is a historic moment in music history as both sides are attempting to dismantle their opponent and hopefully end each other’s careers.
There is almost too much to cover in terms of who said what in this beef, if you can even call it a beef. This much more akin to a war, both Lamar and Drake are throwing everything at each other with no regard for their own future. But I will say this, whatever happens, this is potentially the most pivotal point in not only rap history but music as a whole.
I realized how insane of a spectacle this beef was when Lamar released a song early in the morning on “6:16 in LA” where he warned Drake he had a mole who would rely on him for information and that he should stop speaking about his family. Drake then released “Family Matters” talking about, you guessed it, Kendrick Lamar’s family and within thirty minutes Lamar released “Meet the Grahams” where he penned an open letter to each of Drake’s family members saying Drake should die, including his alleged secret daughter.
This beef is messy, it is personal and it is violent. But if you are a fan of rap, a fan of music in general you need to turn your attention to what is going on between these two titans of music. It is not hyperbolic to say that the winner of this beef will change rap forever if there is even a winner at all. We are in real-time seeing a genre throw both of its heaviest hitters at each other. We might never get another opportunity to witness this kind of history again.
