By Kana McNiff
Since their rise to fame, rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar have had a history of metaphorically “firing shots” at each other through lyrics and on social media. If you’ve been active on the internet at all in the past few weeks, you’re probably aware of the most recent discourse between the two artists. It all began when rapper J. Cole appeared on Drake’s song, “First Person Shooter”. In his lines, J. Cole described himself, Drake, and Kendrick as the top three rappers, saying, “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K. Dot [Kendrick]? Is it Aubrey [Drake]? Or me? / We the big three, like we started a league.” The song quickly debuted at the top of the US singles chart, becoming Drake’s 13th and J. Cole’s 1st number one song.
While all three of them amass millions of listeners and fans, Kendrick felt as though he was better than both Drake and J. Cole, and did not want to be associated with them in “the top three”. He then appeared on rapper Future’s song, “Like that” with the verse, “mother[expletive] the big three, [expletive], it’s just big me.” While Drake and J. Cole were never mentioned by name, it was a clear diss on them. J. Cole quickly apologized for his line in the song, “First Person Shooter” but Drake went even further and made a diss track on Kendrick. Kendrick immediately fired back, releasing “6:16 in LA”.
However, when Drake released his response diss track, “Family Matters”, things escalated to a new level. In it, Drake accused Kendrick of domestic abuse towards his fiance, saying, “When you put your hands on your girl, is it self-defense ’cause she bigger than you?” Kendrick then released “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” in which he made serious allegations towards Drake. He accuses Drake of abuse, addiction, being a pedophile, and having an alleged “secret” daughter.
Over the duration of this conflict, the media has been enamored by the back and forth from the two artists. Some fans are upset about the drama, due to the publicity and general “messiness” of the conflict. However, according to public opinion, the common consensus regarding the “beef” seems to be that Drake lost the diss battle.
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