Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
When Kendrick Lamar took the stage at the Super Bowl, it felt like a big win for him. A lot of folks saw it as a victory lap, especially after what went down between him and Drake. You know, that whole back-and-forth thing they had.
His Super Bowl show seemed to lead right up to him doing ‘Not Like Us,’ the song that got him a Grammy and was huge last year. But, get this, that song’s now got Drake thinking about taking him to court. Something about saying stuff that ain’t true.
While Kendrick was rocking the Super Bowl, Drake was down in Australia, throwing money at his fans at a gig in Melbourne. Then, everyone switched over to watch Kendrick.
This whole thing between them? It’s been brewing for more than ten years. But, let’s take a quick look at where we are now and how we got here over the last crazy year.
The Top Guys
Last March, a record came out from Metro Boomin’ and Future, called ‘We Don’t Trust You.’ They worked together on it.
One of the songs on that record, ‘Like That,’ had a surprise bit from Kendrick Lamar. And it was intense.
In his part, Kendrick went after something J Cole had said before – that he, Kendrick, and Drake were the top three in rap. Kendrick basically said, ‘Nah, forget that. It’s just me now.’
They’d had issues for a while, but that moment? That’s when things really blew up.
Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
One Drops Out
After that, Drake seemed to respond to what Kendrick had said, while he was performing at a show in Florida. He basically told the crowd that nobody on the planet could mess with him.
Then, about two weeks later, J Cole put out a song called ‘7 Minute Drill’ where he seemed to be talking back to Kendrick. But, he quickly realized that was a big mistake.
While he was on stage at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, he said he was sorry for the song. He even talked about how much he liked Kendrick’s music, and asked people to forgive him.
Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
Things Get Hot
Things really heated up after that. Drake came out with a song called ‘Push Ups,’ and in it, he started making fun of Kendrick’s height, calling him short. He also said Kendrick was like a puppet for his record label, forced to work with pop singers.
He even joked about how Kendrick had to write songs for bands like Maroon 5 and for Taylor Swift’s fans. Drake also suggested that other rappers were now more popular than Kendrick.
At this point, other rappers like Kanye West and Rick Ross got involved in the whole drama, but Drake was really just focused on Kendrick.
He tried to get under Kendrick’s skin even more by dropping another song, ‘Taylor Made Freestyle.’ In that one, he basically said Kendrick was too scared to put out music at the same time as Taylor Swift’s new album. And get this – he used those computer-made voices to sound like Tupac and Snoop Dogg when he was throwing insults.
Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
Kendrick Lamar Strikes Back
Kendrick finally fired back with a long, six-minute song.
He called it ‘Euphoria,’ which is the name of that show Drake helps make. In the song, he said Drake was ‘easy to guess,’ someone who ‘tricks people,’ and a ‘liar all the time.’ He even talked about how Drake raises his kids.
‘Let me just say, I can’t stand you,’ he rapped. ‘I hate how you move, how you speak, how you look.’
Then, not even three days later, he dropped another song called ‘6:16 in LA.’
In that one, he said someone on Drake’s team was giving out secrets. He rapped, ‘You must be a really bad person. Everyone on your team is saying you deserve what’s coming.
Things Get Personal
Things got really personal in May. Drake put out a song called ‘Family Matters,’ and it took the whole fight to a whole new level.
In that song, he suggested that Kendrick might be hurting someone at home, which is a really serious thing to say. Kendrick’s never been accused of anything like that.
Kendrick came right back, just 20 minutes later, with another song called ‘Meet The Grahams.’ It started with a warning, basically saying Drake messed up by talking about his family.
Each part of the song was like a letter to someone in Drake’s family, pointing out all the things Drake supposedly did wrong. He even claimed Drake had a secret second kid and had problems with gambling, sex, and drugs.
Drake then went on Instagram, joking that if anyone had his ‘hidden daughter,’ they should give her back, and said Kendrick’s claims were just a mess.
But Kendrick wasn’t done yet. He dropped another song, ‘Not Like Us,’ where he accused Drake of being with girls who were too young. He rapped, ‘Drake, I heard you like young girls. You’re trying to play a tune, and it’s probably a simple one.’
Drake got mad and said those accusations were lies, telling Kendrick to show some proof. He said, ‘You won’t find my name on any list like that. And about that ‘A minor’ thing… tell people who you’re talking about.
Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
Everyone’s Song
Kendrick’s song, ‘Not Like Us,’ which had a really catchy, pop-like sound, became the big song everyone was playing in clubs that summer. It got streamed like crazy, 21 million times in just the first three days.
Later on, it hit a billion streams on Spotify and then, at the recent Grammy Awards, it won five awards, including song of the year.
Things got pretty serious when a security guard was shot outside Drake’s house. Nobody knows for sure if it had anything to do with the rappers’ fight, but Drake’s store in London got messed up, and that seemed to be connected.
At a big show in Los Angeles in June, where all the West Coast rappers were supposed to come together, Kendrick played his most famous diss track five times in a row.
Drake Files Lawsuit
Then, this past January, Drake took his record label, Universal Music Group (UMG), to court. He was suing them for saying things that weren’t true and for bothering him, all because of the song ‘Not Like Us.’
In the court papers filed in New York, Drake’s lawyers said the label was trying to make the song go viral, even though it made ‘false claims’ that Drake was doing something really bad with kids, and that it was trying to get people to take the law into their own hands.
Universal, which has been Drake’s label for over ten years, said his claims were not only wrong but didn’t make sense. They also said Drake was trying to stop Kendrick, who’s also on their label, from speaking freely by taking the fight to court.
The label said, ‘Drake has always used us to share his music and get into those rap battles to say how he feels about other artists. Now, he’s trying to use the courts to stop another artist from being creative and wants us to pay him because we shared that artist’s music.
Kendrick and Drake: This Beef Is Just Too Much
Halftime Drama
Then came the Super Bowl. A few minutes into his halftime show, Kendrick said something like, ‘I want to play their favorite song, but you know they like to take people to court.’
Leading up to the show, people were wondering if he’d even be allowed to play it, because of all the legal stuff.
Kendrick played with that idea, teasing the song during his performance, before finally giving the crowd what they wanted.
When the song finally started, Kendrick didn’t say the really controversial part. But he looked straight at the camera with a sly smile when he said Drake’s name, and he kept in that part with the double meaning about ‘A minor.’
That line filled the whole stadium in New Orleans, showing that no lawsuit could make the song less popular.
By playing it, Kendrick probably reached over 120 million people watching on TV, plus all the famous people in the stadium, like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, and Stormzy.
To make it even bigger, tennis star Serena Williams, who used to date Drake and is mentioned in the song, came out on stage. She did the Crip Walk, a famous dance from Los Angeles, while Kendrick walked around the stage.
One newspaper said Kendrick’s performance was like the final punch in the fight with Drake. Another magazine said he basically declared he had won.
The next day, Kendrick announced he’s going on tour in the UK and Europe with SZA, who was on stage with him at the Super Bowl. They’ll be in places like Glasgow, Birmingham, London, and Cardiff in July. Drake doesn’t have any UK shows planned for 2025 yet.
Niel Nathaniel