Kendrick and Drake. Two names which have completely taken control over the music scene with their intense, borderline petty, rivalry. Now I’m sure you’re wondering where this beef spawned from. Two months ago, there was barely any mention of grievances between the two and all of a sudden, they’re throwing egregious accusations at each other? Well, this rap battle has been brewing behind the scenes for years now, finally bursting with Drake and J.Cole’s song ‘First Person Shooter’. So let’s delve into the timeline of the legendary rivalry between these two music industry giants, from start to finish (unless they drop another song by the time this article is published).
In 2011, fresh after the release of Kendrick’s very first album, Drake, seeing the potential in Kendrick, approached him and invited Kendrick to be an opening artist on his tour (Surprising these two were on friendly terms, even 13 years back). Reciprocating, Kendrick had Drake featured on his next album. However, in 2013, Kendrick, in a song named ‘Control’, openly challenged the top artists at the time: J.Cole, Pusha-T, Tyler The Creator, Drake to name a few. None of the artists thought much of this declaration, except for one. Taking bets on who it was? It was Drake. Surprising, I know. Perhaps, this was the moment Drake subconsciously began seeing Kendrick as an enemy rather than an ally.
Fast forward to 2023, in the aforementioned ‘First Person Shooter’, J.Cole called himself, Drake, and Kendrick the Big 3–The current top dogs in the rap game, being relatively equally influential in the industry. In March 2024, Kendrick responded to Cole in ‘Like That’, essentially saying that there is no Big 3 in Hip-Hop, it’s only him at the very top. J.Cole countered Kendrick with a diss called ‘7 Minute Drill’, but later deleted the song and apologized to Kendrick (In hindsight, this is perhaps one of the smartest decisions I’ve seen a celebrity make).
Drake did not take the insult like J.Cole though. He dropped ‘Push-ups’, a song calling Kendrick out for being a slave to record labels and…being short (He’s my short king). Trying to pour salt on the wound, he released ‘TaylorMade Freestyle’, a song criticizing Kendrick for delaying songs so Taylor can top music charts undisturbed. This was a very controversial move on Drake’s part, however. The song consisted of the AI generated voice of the deceased Tupac, Kendrick’s idol, and led to a cease-and-desist from Tupac’s family. It also included Snoop Dogg’s voice and he took it like he always does—laughter and weed.
For the next few weeks, there was radio silence from Kendrick’s end. People mocked and doubted him, thinking he was unable to come up with a comeback or too much of a coward to actually do it. There were some rappers who defended Kendrick, like the goated Kanye, He’s got you Dot! Finally, on April 30th, Kendrick dropped ‘Euphoria’, my personal favorite song from this feud, and man was it a doozy. Perhaps named after the Tv Series Drake is a producer of, this 6 minute song absolutely drilled into Drake. Kendrick told Drake he’s yet to take him seriously and warned Drake not to take it further. 3 days after, Kendrick cemented this claim with ‘6:16 in LA’, a song that could be taken as a warning shot. A shot that Drake would soon ignore.
A day afterwards, Drake would release ‘Family Matters’, a vicious song which would tear Kendrick apart and throw some serious allegations on him. Yep, Drake did in fact ‘take it further’. Once again, odds shifted in Drake’s favor…for about 30 mins. In an absolute power play by Kendrick, he dropped a nuke called ‘Meet The Grahams’, within an hour of Drake’s release. This song is the most vile diss I’ve ever heard, a song that left Drake fans holding their heads. The song acted as a letter to each of Drake’s Family members and Drake himself, throwing equally incriminating allegations onto him. The song had lyrics mentioning Family matters, and fans realized Kendrick had spies amongst Drake’s camp. Deciding to beat the corpse, Kendrick released ‘Not Like Us’, a catchy upbeat song that further called out Drake. No wonder Kendrick was silent for weeks, he dropped 3 days in a row!
Metro Boomin jumped on the Drake-hate train, having been told by Drake to shut up in ‘Push-Ups’. He released an instrumental diss track called ‘BBL Drizzy’, based on the rumors that Drake had cosmetic surgery done in Brazil and was willing to give it to anyone who made the best Drake diss. The diss was a major blow to Drake. Countless artists dissed Drake, incentivised by Metro’s beat giveaway. Social media took to the beat like a moth to a flame, with YouTubers like Yuno Miles joining in, and it wasn’t Drake vs. Kendrick anymore. It was Drake vs. Social media (Metro be cold with it).
Drake tried to recover with ‘The Heart Part 6’, stating that Drake had planted false information and allegations for Kendrick’s mole to pick up, but at this point it was too late, and the onslaught of social media slander was too much for him. The dust settled on the feud for a while, until Drake was featured on a song called ‘U my everything’, in which he comically raps over the very diss instrumental Metro created, BBL drizzy. Quite bold. The song was mostly Drake trolling the internet for their insults, barely having any mention of his beef with Kendrick.
And thus, the curtains close on this amazing rap battle. Hopefully this article doesn’t get outdated with more drops (or copyrighted). Honestly speaking, it doesn’t really matter who won. Kendrick fans will support Kendrick. Drake fans will support Drake. Music is entirely subjective, and people will assume what they want about the victor of this beef. The real winners of this beef were the fans, who ate great for the past few months, getting Kendrick and Drake to drop banger after banger.
By Ali Haziq
Editor in Chief (2024-2025)