Kendrick Lamar Vs Drake
The Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle was one for the ages, though some will say it’s too early to tell, but without doubt this will be viewed as one of craziest battles in Hip-Hop history. Initiated towards the end of March by Kendrick’s “Like That” feature, on Future and Metro Boomin’s collab album We Don’t Trust You. No one could have predicted what would have occurred. Not the greatest film writers could have written what followed in the forty four days after Kendrick dropped his shocking verse on “Like That”. Hip-Hop fans around the world heard diss tracks from various artists being thrown out to each other, it genuinely seemed as if there was a civil war ensuing in the mainstream Hip-Hop world. But many were focusing their attention and disses towards one person, Drake, one of the biggest artists in the world and each of them with their own issue towards the Canadian artist.
It seems that the title of Future and Metro Boomin’s collab album may be a play on words from Metro’s famed producer tag, “if young metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you”, said by Future himself. However, from what we know now it could be viewed as a message to Drake, an artist that both have collaborated and produced hit songs with respectively in the past. Along with the follow up album that dropped almost three weeks later, We Still Don’t Trust You, multiple artists that were featured took aim at Drake. As mentioned, Kendrick Lamar, but also A$AP Rocky, The Weekend, Rick Ross and even Kanye West on the “Like That” remix.
However, right now we are purely focusing on the back and forth between Kendrick and Drake, as this battle was the most exciting part of this whole fiasco. The back and forth between them included the best disses out of all the disses that were dropped, the best moments, and the best bars. On the other hand, what should have been a battle to see who is the best soon became incredibly personal between the two. It seemed as if both wanted to genuinely ruin each other’s career and public image, with insane accusations being thrown out from both artists in regards to each other.
why did the battle happen?
If you follow Hip-Hop, especially since the early-2010s you know this battle has been brewing for at least a decade. In the early-2010s or essentially the “Blog era” of Hip-Hop, Drake and Kendrick Lamar became two of the biggest names to come out of their era, along with J. Cole, they were dubbed by many fans and Hip-Hop media as “The Big 3”. Essentially, if the likes of 2Pac, Biggie and Snoop carried the torch for 90s mainstream Hip-Hop. Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Eminem carried it for the 2000s. Then Kendrick, Drake and J. Cole carried it for the 2010s, and they still are. They collaborated with each other and Drake even placed Kendrick Lamar as an opening act for his Club Paradise tour. However, everything would change in August 2013, when Kendrick was featured on a song by Big Sean called, “Control”. On his verse, Kendrick called out a plethora of “Blog era” rappers and one of them being Drake. For those that know Hip-Hop and its rich history, they will know competition comes with the territory and every rapper wants to be the best. It’s easily the most competitive music genre ever. So Hip-Hop fans, were excited to hear Kendrick’s “Control” verse and fans viewed it as a callout for friendly competition. On the song, Kendrick does say “I got love for you all”, but it seems that this part is either ignored or forgotten. One of the rappers that was mentioned didn’t agree with the callout, and that was Drake.
“Yeah, and nothing been the same since they dropped “Control”, and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes”
Drake would go on to disagree and disapprove of the verse in interviews and it’s suggested that his opening line on 2013’s “The Language” was a response to the Compton rapper. “I don't know why they been lyin' but your shit is not that inspirin'“. The issue between them would become more obvious to the public with Kendrick’s 2013 BET freestyle, where it became clear that he was talking about Drake. Since then it has been a back and forth of subliminal shots thrown at each.
Fast forward to October 2023 and two members of the “Big 3”, Drake and J. Cole collaborated on the track “First Person Shooter”. After being released as an official single and with much fan fare for the music video, “First Person Shooter” became the number one song in America. It’s alleged that Kendrick was suppose to be featured on the record also, but declined. However, J. Cole still showed love to him by rapping, “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”. Likewise with Kendrick’s “Control” verse, J. Cole showed love and respect, but still showed competition by saying he is the best by comparing himself to Muhammad Ali. In response to this Kendrick dropped “Like That” and this is where we reach the beginning of what led to the Kendrick and Drake battle. Prior to Drake’s response, J. Cole responded with “7 Minute Drill” but it was sadly lacklustre, and wasn’t the greatest response. To everyone’s surprise though, Cole decided to apologise to Kendrick for the diss song two days afterwards on stage at the Dreamville Festival. At first many, including myself, were confused and disagreed, but in hindsight it might have been the best decision from Cole.
Disses Analysed
KENDRICK LAMAR — LIKE THAT (FEATURE VERSE)
Release Date - 22nd March 2024
As an overall song, “Like That” is fantastic and easily the best track on We Don’t Trust You, but for the sake of just the battle we can only focus on Kendrick’s verse and at most the production that came with it. At this point of the battle, the shots thrown by Kendrick on “Like That” do not come across personal, but more competitive. Likewise how J. Cole’s “Muhammad Ali” line is about competition, nothing personal. The production from Metro is brilliant with the Eazy-E and Miche’le sample from “Eazy-Duz-It”, which makes it so fitting for Kendrick, a Compton MC, to respond over a classic West Coast sample.
Kendrick’s delivery is really good and aggressive, and he has some memorable lines as he throws shots at both J. Cole and Drake. Lines such as, “and your best work is a light pack, ni**a, Prince outlived Mike Jack'“, and not to mention “motherf**k the big three, n**a it’s just big me”. I think the rhyme scheme from Kendrick is great, but for the most part the shots thrown were surprising yet they weren’t deadly, just enough to touch a nerve. The only line that wasn’t so great from the verse was, “Got 2Teez with me, I'm snatchin' chains”. 2Teez is Kendrick’s friend and the Director of Security at TDE, so I’m not sure if it sounds very tough when you say you are robbing chains with a security guard. Nonetheless, the verse accompanied with the production were the main ingredients for “Like That” to become a hit single, and though he doesn’t mention names, Kendrick was incredibly blatant with who he was dissing, hence why J. Cole nor Drake could ignore him.
Drake — Push Ups
Release Date — 13th April 2024
After J. Cole apologised and bowed out, we finally heard a response from Drake, and what a response it was. As previously mentioned many artists took aim at Drake and he responded to all of them with a song that clocks in under four minutes. However, as we are just focusing on the battle between Kendrick and Drake, we can only focus and judge “Push Ups” based on the shots thrown at Kendrick only. Produced by Tay Keith and Boi-1da, the production is haunting and matches well with Drake’s menacing delivery, who also flows really well on the song. Though the instrumental is good, but it’s not to the same level as “Like That”. Drake is incredibly direct on “Push Ups”, even more than Kendrick verse on “Like That”. Drake directly responds to Kendrick’s lines with high levels of confidence, such as “I'll be rockin' every fuckin' chain I own next visit”, which is a response to the “snatching chains” line from Kendrick mentioned previously.
Additionally, many of the lines thrown at Kendrick are witty and Drake’s wordplay is on display, for instance Kendrick is signed to Interscope Records, hence the line “Like your label, boy, you in a scope right now”. “How the fu** you big steppin' with a size-seven men's on?, that was a funny line. But nothing was better than “What's a prince to a king? He a son”, which is fantastic response to Kendrick saying “Prince outlived Mike Jack”. There were lines that I did believe to be untrue or hypocritical from Drake, but they do still come across in a way that could antagonise Kendrick. Similar to how Jay-Z said on “Takeover” that Nas’ Illmatic was his only good album in ten years. This was completely untrue, but it was able to receive a reaction and touch Nas’ nerve.
When Drake mentions that there isn’t a “Big 3” and there are multiple artists that are bigger or better than Kendrick. This isn’t true, and I think most people won’t believe it, but points to Drake for trying to antagonise Kendrick. Likewise with the idea of “drop and give me fifty”, here Drake is making fun of Kendrick’s previous label deal with TDE and essentially saying that Kendrick had to give up fifty percent of his revenue. I think this whole concept was funny and catchy, but you could point out the hypocrisy as Drake was signed to Cash Money Records, who have a history of being shady towards artists. There is however one part of the diss track that makes no sense to me at all and why Drake would take this stance, and that is Drake’s attempt at poking fun at Kendrick Lamar for making music with pop acts, such as Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. I’m confused, because this is coming from someone who was miming the words to a Taylor Swift song for an Apple Music advert, and someone who has collaborated with Pop artists and has made Pop centric music throughout his whole career. Other than that, “Push Ups” is a great response, and overall is an enjoyable track worth returning to.
Drake — Taylor Made Freestyle
Release Date — 19th April 2024
After the release of “Push Ups”, everybody was waiting eagerly for Kendrick’s response but after six days Drake came back again with “Taylor Made Freestyle”. Likewise as he did with Meek Mill by releasing to two diss tracks right after each other, Drake chose the same strategy again, and why not it worked for him last time against Meek Mill. Whilst “Back to Back”, Drake’s second diss track to Meek Mill was a knockout blow, “Taylor Made Freestyle” isn’t that. Much to many people’s surprise, Drake opted to use an AI voice of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg for two verses, in order to troll Kendrick. The use of AI has been a hot topic within music for quite some time, and it has been heavily criticised. It’s main criticism is that it has been shown to have the ability to use an artist’s voice without their consent.
This leaves “Taylor Made Freestyle” providing mixed feelings, on one hand you could see the humour with it, as “2Pac” and “Snoop Dogg” are begging Kendrick to respond to Drake. Additionally, there are really funny lines within those deep fake verses, however to use AI, and drag Snoop Dogg and 2Pac, the latter whom passed away almost thirty years ago can be viewed as something incredibly disrespectful. On top of that the song was taken down due to complaints from 2Pac’s estate, which doesn’t help Drake in terms of how it looks within the battle. In their statement, 2Pac’s estate didn’t like the fact that his voice was used to diss Kendrick, as they stated “The unauthorised, equally dismaying use of Tupac’s voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend to the estate who has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult”. This seems as if the 2Pac estate side with Kendrick, which makes Kendrick look good and gives him points. There is also a level of hypocrisy involved with the release of “Taylor Made Freestyle”, as last year a fake Drake and The Weeknd song title “Heart On My Sleeve” was pulled from streaming services, as the label Drake is under, Univeral Music Group, stated it violated copyright laws.
Kendrick Lamar — Euphoria
Release Date — 30th April 2024
It took a minute for it to happen, but Kendrick finally responded to Drake with “Euphoria”, a six minute track that was well worth the wait. Consisting of three beat switches, the first part of “Euphoria” starts of slow and almost sombre but soon Kendrick sounds energised as the production switches to an up-beat instrumental. As a song, “Euphoria” isn’t perfect as the second part of the track does sound quite awkward. Kendrick’s flow and delivery doesn’t seem to mesh well with the production. Though “Euphoria” was released over two weeks after “Push Ups” and over a week after the “Taylor Made Freestyle”, the second part of the track sounds as if it was rushed. On the other hand, the third and final part of the diss track is by far the best part, unlike the second part the third part of “Euphoria” has Kendrick matching perfectly with instrumental .
There are so many great lines on this track, Kendrick hints at Drake’s hypocrisy for using threatening or “gangster-esque” lyrics, but being a part of an advert for gun violence, with the line “I hate when a rapper talk about guns, then somebody die, they turn into nuns, then hop online, like “Pray for my city"“. From the middle of the second part and the third part of “Euphoria”, Kendrick raps many of the best lines throughout this whole feud. There are so many to choose from, from “f**k all that pushin' P, let me see you push a T”, as Kendrick tells Drake to leave Pharrell alone and respond to Pusha T, who Drake feuded with in 2018. This is soon followed by Kendrick listing what he hates about Drake, which is funny and is a nod to a DMX interview on The Breakfast Club. Though people may not know or have forgotten that DMX expressed regret saying he hated Drake.
The third part of “Euphoria” sees Kendrick asking Drake if he is battling a “ghost or AI”, but sadly ruins the next couple bars when he tries to mention Haley Joel Osment who starred in The Sixth Sense and Artificial Intelligence, but instead mentions the wrong name, Joel Osteen. But, Kendrick does cleverly use the “20 v 1” line from “Push Ups” by telling Drake that he is in fact the one battling 20, by teasing Drake for his past use of ghost writers. There is also the really funny line where Kendrick raps, “When I see you stand by Sexyy Red, I believe you see two bad bit**es”. Kendrick does make “Euphoria” a more personal diss track, by stating that he believes Drake to be an absent father to his son, Adonis. This is inspired by Pusha T’s 2018 diss track towards Drake, “The Story of Adidon”, where Pusha T baited to the world that Drake had a son that no one knew about.
It must be noted that Drake was the one who made things personal first, by mentioning Kendrick’s fiance, Whitney Alford, on “Push Ups. Drake rapped “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney”, some argue that this is just a reference to Whitney Houston’s 1990 film, The Bodyguard, however others believe it is a reference to Kendrick’s fiance. What if it’s both? I believe there is a chance that Drake was referencing Whitney Houston, but he knew what he was doing and the reaction it would cause by just saying “Whitney”. Additionally, it wouldn’t be Drake’s first time mentioning other rapper’s partners, for instance when he mentioned Pusha T’s wife when they were battling.
Kendrick Lamar — 6:16 In LA
Release Date — 3rd May 2024
He back to backed him, is what everyone thought of when they saw Kendrick Lamar release a second track three days after “Euphoria”. Using the time stamp for the title, which is synonymous with Drake was a good troll, but it opened the door for Drake to counter and use “The Heart Pt. 6” which he did later on. “6:16 In LA” isn’t so much a diss record, but a song that was used within Kendrick’s strategy to make Drake paranoid. Throughout this record and with lines such as “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let's see, have you ever thought that OVO is workin' for me?”, Kendrick was alluding to the idea that there was a mole in Drake’s OVO camp, feeding information to Kendrick.
As mentioned “6:16 In LA” isn’t much of a diss record, but a record this is used to taunt Drake and create narrative, to which many listeners were eating up whether it was true or not. As a song, “6:16 In LA” is one of the best records made during the beef in terms of it’s beautiful use and sample of Al Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is”. However, in terms of it being a diss record it is one of the weakest and more time the one that people may forget, but that could also be due to the fact that soon after Kendrick’s releases would become relentless. Credit however, must be given for the strategy and Kendrick does a great job at taunting Drake, as Kendrick also mentions that members of Drake’s OVO camp are growing tired of him and that Drake’s attempts to find dirt on Kendrick won’t work as he won’t find any receipts.
Drake — Family Matters
Release Date — 3rd May 2024
On the same day as Kendrick dropped “6:16 In LA”, Drake hit back with a new and lengthy diss track called “Family Matters”. On the diss track, Drake fires at not only Kendrick Lamar, but also A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd and Rick Ross. Many argued that the focus of the diss track should have solely focused on just Kendrick Lamar, but I would disagree as Drake hadn’t responded to A$AP Rocky, who dissed him on We Still Don’t Trust You and hadn’t responded to Rick Ross, who dissed him on “Champagne Moments”. Again, “Family Matters” is another fine example of Drake being able to go against multiple artists at the same time, as he did with “Push Ups”. But again, we are solely focusing on Kendrick versus Drake, so we have to judge “Family Matters” based on the shots thrown at Kendrick, and the majority of the song is based on dissing the Compton rapper.
It’s at this point with “Family Matters” and Kendrick’s next diss track “Meet the Grahams”, where the battle genuinely took a turn from who’s the best to both artists conducting a smear campaign against one another. On “Family Matters”, Drake accuses of Kendrick Lamar to be a domestic abuser towards his fiance, Whitney. He also alleges that Dave Free, Kendrick’s friend and manager, is the father to one of Kendrick’s children. These are insane accusations that if were true would hurt Kendrick’s image, especially the accusation of being a domestic abuser. However, these are just accusations with no proof or evidence being shown prior or after the release of “Family Matters”. With that being said it’s really difficult to judge that part of the track. However, there are still some great lines thrown on the track, Drake shows his funny side on the track by making fun of Kendrick’s height, “These bars go over Kenny head no matter what I say, I know you like to keep it short, so let me paraphrase”. Plus I can also see the humour with this line, “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now”.
There is however a moment on “Family Matters” where Drake makes a big mistake, and it’s with this line, “Always rappin' like you 'bout to get the slaves freed”. This line caused many to cringe and shake their heads, and for this to occur during a battle just wasn’t a good look. Additionally, soon enough this line would eventually come back to haunt Drake. The reason for the criticism towards the line were of multiple reasons, many criticised it and said that it was proof as to what they have felt about Drake, and that being Drake has never stood for anything in terms of Black issues and has distanced himself from it. Others have also pointed out the irony that a highly commercial artist who doesn’t make any form of political or socially conscious music makes fun of an artist that does. Furthermore, it’s not the first time Drake has been criticised for a line like this, as on his latest project, For All The Dogs, Drake rapped “Whipped and chained you like American slaves”.
Kendrick Lamar — Meet The Grahams
Release Date — 3rd May 2024
What could be viewed as one of the most shocking moments in a battle ever, Kendrick didn’t allow any breathing room for “Family Matters” as he dropped yet another diss track twenty to thirty minutes later. If Drake started being personal with “Push Ups and “Family Matters”, Kendrick took it up a notch with “Meet The Grahams”. As a concept, “Meet the Grahams” is both incredible and disrespectful. On the track, Kendrick dedicates a verse for Adonis (Drake’s son), Drake’s parents, an alleged 11 year old daughter and a verse for Drake himself. For the verse with Adonis, Kendrick criticises Drake as a father and tries to offer Adonis guidance himself. On the verse Kendrick references the situation where T.I.’s friend urinated on Drake, and the constant rumour that Drake has had a BBL. For the verse dedicated to Drake’s parents, Kendrick tells Drake’s father that he has raised a horrible son and tells Drake’s mother that her son should die and alleges that Drake is a sexual offender and has sex offenders employed within OVO.
If that wasn’t crazy enough, the third verse is dedicated to Drake’s alleged 11 year old daughter. As mentioned previously, Pusha T baited out that Drake had a secret child, who turned out to be Adonis. Here Kendrick is accusing Drake of hiding another child. On the verse, Kendrick is showing sympathy and feels sorry for this “girl” and finishes off the verse with a draw dropping line, saying that Drake is a “deadbeat that should never say "more life"“. On the last verse, dedicated to Drake this time, Kendrick again throws out more accusations. This time accusing Drake of having multiple addictions, from gambling and spending problems to drinking and pill addictions.
Overall, “Meet the Grahams” has huge levels of shock factor and is incredibly disrespectful even if you ignore the accusations. The production is haunting, along with Kendrick’s slow and low pitched delivery, plus the lyrics, it makes the song sound incredibly chilling. The track does suffer from the fact that though it is a shocking record and conceptually it is great, it does however lack replay value. Additionally, likewise with “Family Matters” there are accusations thrown out with no form of evidence shown, and this taints the song, as did the accusations taint “Family Matters”.
The cover art caused much controversy as well. It is a zoomed out image of the cover art on “6:16 In LA”. It showcases items that were allegedly stolen from Drake’s father’s suitcase, so this was meant to indicate that there is a mole within OVO. When released on streaming platforms, the cover art was removed due to HIPAA Privacy rules that protect individuals' medical records. Along with “Family Matters” it was at this point where the battle became incredibly personal, and the hatred Kendrick and Drake showed each was incredibly evident.
Kendrick Lamar — Not Like Us
Release Date — 4th May 2024
He backed to backed him again, is what everyone thought when “Not Like Us” was released. It had people questioning if Kendrick had a whole album worth of diss songs aimed at Drake. Produced by Mustard, sonically “Not Like Us” is inspired by the Bay-Area’s classic hyphy sound, whilst Kendrick has written an incredibly catch chorus with lines that are quotable and disrespectful. Lines such as “Certified Lover Boy? Certified ped***iles” and not to mention “Why you trollin' like a bi**h? Ain't you tired?, Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minor”. What led to Drake beating Meek Mill in 2016, was that he released a diss track that became a hit song, due to how catchy it was and how many quotable lines it had. Now the roles have been reversed and Drake is on the receiving end, because of Kendrick Lamar.
Though I mention it isn’t as lyrical as “Euphoria”, the third verse is incredible and an amazing chess move that capitalises on Drake’s mistake on “Family Matters”. As people cringed at the ““Always rappin' like you 'bout to get the slaves freed” line, Kendrick took this and dedicated a verse in showcasing how he sees Drake. Kendrick draws the comparison of white settlers using and extorting slaves to build railroads in Atlanta with Drake using various Atlanta artists for his own gain, whether that be gaining false street credibility, to learn Atlanta lingo, or to have his music played in clubs.
As mentioned previously, we waited over two weeks after “Push Ups” and over a week after the “Taylor Made Freestyle” for “Euphoria”. Between those times Drake teased Kendrick that he was waiting for a reply, but in the space of five days between the 30th April and 4th May, we received four tracks from Kendrick. “Not Like Us” was the latest, and it is easily the best track released throughout this whole battle. It may not be lyrical as “Euphoria”, or uber-offensive like “Meet the Grahams”, but it’s both a great diss track and a hit single. At the time of writing, “Not Like Us” just debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Within five days, Kendrick released four tracks that were completely different from each other, showcasing his artistry. However, “Not Like Us” would be incredibly difficult to counter as it connected with listeners immediately.
Drake — The Heart Pt. 6
Release Date — 5th May 2024
Drake responded swiftly, and made a great move by titling his response “The Heart Pt. 6”, which is a reference to Kendrick’s “The Heart” series. I would argue that this has a bigger impact than Kendrick calling his track “6:16 In LA”, as Drake can continue his timestamp series by just using a new time and city. On the other hand, Drake’s “The Heart Pt. 6” will always be associated and thought of when Kendrick decides to do his “The Heart Pt.6”. Sadly, Drake’s response was incredibly lacklustre, whilst Kendrick released the best track within the battle with “Not Like Us”, Drake released the worst track throughout the battle with “The Heart Pt. 6”. Just like he did with the “Taylor Made Freestyle” and on “Family Matters”, Drake continued to make mistakes and made more of them with his latest response.
The first big mistake is that he references Kendrick’s 2022 song, “Mother I Sober”, which is a track from Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Drake tries to reference the song to suggest that the reason Kendrick is consistently calling him a sex offender and ped**hile is because Kendrick said he was molested on “Mother I Sober”. The problem here is that Drake has clearly misunderstood the song, as on the song Kendrick makes it clear that he wasn’t molested, but his parents didn’t believe him. These are the lyrics that Kendrick raps on “Mother I Sober” - “Family ties, they accused my cousin, "Did he touch you, Kendrick?", never lied, but no one believed me when I said "He didn't"“. Even if the song was about Kendrick being molested, why on earth would Drake take this stance to get back at him?
On “The Heart Pt.6”, Drake naturally opts to defend himself from the allegations of being labelled a sex offender and a pedo**ile, however the way he does it is a complete mistake. Drake raps - “If I was fu**ing young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested. I'm way too famous for this sh*t you just suggested”. History has shown that not all criminals are arrested or imprisoned when they commit a crime. Drake suggests that he is too popular and famous to be acting inappropriately with underaged girls, however in recent years we have seen the likes of R. Kelly, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein who were famous and acted inappropriately with women. This isn’t to suggest that Drake has committed similar crimes as those names I have just mentioned, however he didn’t defend himself well.
On the diss track, Drake alleges that he plotted to give Kendrick the information in regards to the 11 year old daughter and the items within the “Meet the Grahams” cover. Again, likewise with “Family Matters” and “Meet the Grahams” there is no proof of this, and if there is why wouldn’t Drake show this. If he did, it would completely eradicate “Meet the Grahams”. The song ends with Drake just talking for a minute, and giving a monologue where he isn’t saying anything interesting at all. Instead it actually exasperates how Drake seems to have ran out of steam and ideas. I question whether he rushed this song, and quickly put it out in order to die down the hype of “Not Like Us”, to which it didn’t do. Drake doesn’t even address Kendrick’s coloniser verse, perhaps had he have taken a bit of time we could have received a much better response, or even a hit diss track from Drake himself, as he is the hitmaker and he has done it before.
Conclusion — Who Won?
Based off the scores Kendrick Lamar won, and though it may look as if he won by a distance, credit must be given to Drake as he competed well. After the release of “Family Matters”, I would argue that the battle was incredibly close, however after the release of “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” it would have been difficult for Drake to come back. Along with “The Heart Pt. 6” being really disappointing, it led to Kendrick running away with the victory. He may or may not admit it, but I’m sure when Drake heard “Not Like Us” he knew it was going to be a tough hill to climb. It seems that Kendrick throughout this battle was prepared and was strategic, and within those five days of releasing four diss tracks, he didn’t let Drake breathe and focused on overwhelming him. What led to Drake losing this battle in the end, was down to the mistakes he made. The mistakes that were mentioned above. I believe he tried to beat Kendrick, how he beat Meek Mill, by trying to tease him and out-troll him on the diss tracks and on social media. However, what worked against Meek Mill didn’t with Kendrick, because with all due respect Kendrick Lamar is a different calibre of an artist.
Though this battle was enjoyable, what taints its legacy is the sheer amount of accusations that were thrown out from both artists, and with no proof from either side. The battle became ugly, hence why many view J. Cole as a smart man for removing himself from the drama. Fans will however, look back at this battle as a moment in time, and though it may be too early to say this, the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle will be regarded as one of the greatest Hip-Hop battles of all time. Either fanbase will view the battle differently, Drake fans will say he won, whilst Kendrick fans will side with the Compton rapper. Either fanbase are incredibly incorrect if they believe either one of them was washed or defeated easily. That would be the case for when Drake won against Meek Mill, or when Pusha T beat Drake. However, with the Kendrick and Drake battle, it was a well fought out battle with two of the biggest rappers in the world.