Got Beef?: One Final Look at Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake

I wanna preface this by saying that I'm way late to the party, but this is something I've wanted to speak on since it first started, hence the words, "one final look" in the title.

Second sidenote, Drake still has an ongoing court case, so I'd say I'm still well within the time window making this post. In addition to that, these guys been beefing since I was in middle school. I literally developed with this story.

That being said, I don't mind if you don't. If you made it this far, clearly you don't, so don't stop now. Let's get into it.

"I remember you was conflicted." - Idk, probably Kendrick before he recorded "Not Like Us" or something.

There's not a whole lot about this beef I can say that hasn't already been said. Let's go ahead and get the most obvious part out of the way: Drake lost. If this were about wins and losses, Kendrick won by a LANDSLIDE. But this is about so much more than victory and defeat.

This is about control (and I mean that with no puns intended). From the moment that verse dropped, Kendrick has been on a lyrical warpath, daring anyone to verbally spar with him IF they dare (note: Jermaine Cole).

Dating back more than a decade, this beef transcends more than just music and pop culture, now entering even the legal sphere.

It's not an exaggeration when I say the whole world was stepping at the demise of Drake's fragile ego, but in order to understand why this was such a pivotal moment in both his career and Kendrick's, you must first understand how this all started because this is simply the END of it all (or so it seems).

Kendrick and Drake both blew up at relatively similar times, but with very different starting points. Kendrick came from humble beginnings (expect to see a lot of stuff like this throughout this article. Try and catch 'em all).

Born at the peak of gang relations in Compton, California, Kendrick realized from an early age he had only two options: fall into the trap that is the "streets", be it gang affiliation or drug trafficking. Or alternatively, make it out with his athletic ability.

Unfortunately, Kendrick capped at 5'6, so making it to the league was going to be a bit more challenging than I'm sure he anticipated. What wasn't a question, though, was his MUSICAL talent.

Growing up in Compton, he often looked toward NWA, Pac, Snoop, and anyone who was someone at that time, for inspiration. With all these different influences, its no wonder why early on in his career, he was crowned the new "King of the West Coast", including moments like, but not limited to: shoutouts from his peers, his mentors, and a now timeless passing of the torch moment with Snoop and much of the very best of the west.

Drake on the other hand, grew up much more privileged. I mean no disrespect when I say "privileged", but for someone who's prided himself on starting from the bottom, Drake has done everything but. Even in his early days, long before his successful rap and budding acting career, Drake can be seen on video partying at a VERY extravagant bar mitzvah. Whether or not it was his own, I can't recall a time where I ever went to any parties like this. Even as a grown man, I still can't, and I doubt you, Kendrick, or anyone else can for that matter either.

Bro hitting dat shii doe.

Now, even with them both growing up starkly different in opposite parts of the world, they would both eventually cross paths due to their shared love of music and musical ability, but when you have two artists as talented as these two, there's always one question that everyone asks at some point: who's better? It happened with Biggie and Pac, NWA and the Wu, and for most of my generation, it's been Drake, Kendrick, and J. Cole.

In the beginning, things were cordial. Drake actually featured Kendrick on his 2011 album, "Take Care" as well as brought him out on stage. The two artists on multiple occasions could be seen showing love to one another both publicly and privately.

Drake and Kendrick Lamar in 2011. I don't know how we missed the signs. He can't stand that man.

Like Jordan and Kobe or Kareem and Shaq, greatness recognizes greatness and these two were everything great about music at that time. Young, talented, and on the rise. So, with all this good faith, all this hospitality, just how the hell did we get here?

I can't pinpoint the exact moment things got nuclear, but I can tell you where it all started.

Kendrick's verse on control was a scathing challenge to rap's very best. I won't put the entire verse on here, nor will I name EVERY instance of these two going back and forth, but just know, it went something like this: "I love your work, I love what you do, but as long as I'm doing the same thing, you'll always be number two. Try me."

What should've been taken as just friendly jabs between friends was interpreted as a direct attack on the entire industry, and I'll be honest with you: I love it. Competition feeds creativity. It makes everyone involved better. With that being said, competition also creates controversy, and boy, is there a lot of it. This is only the tip of the iceberg, though.

Drake, rather than calling Kendrick privately to address this matter, would come out and say he didn't understand where the hostility came from as he always felt the two were good friends, but it wasn't quite what he said that stoked the flames, it's how he said it. Drake never spoke from a place of genuine surprise or hurt, but more dismissive. "How can you call me out and proclaim yourself 'the greatest' when our numbers show the opposite?" Drake, in many ways, tried to essentially "li'l bro" Kendrick.

Kendrick, understandably, didn't take this well because, though he was talented, Drake was in a league of his own as far as sales and numbers, but this wouldn't be the case forever.

The verbal barbs would go on for years, but overtime just became the norm. These two guys don't like each other and want you to know it. It was no secret. It's like Alabama and Auburn: yeah, we may share a space and you may occasionally come out on top, and for those moments (far and few depending on who you ask), I salute you. But we will NEVER be cool. EVER.

For awhile, things were calm. Tense, but never reached the boiling point. That was until 2024. Things escalated DRAMATICALLY with the release of Drake's "First Person Shooter". J. Cole, flirting with the idea of a proverbial "Big Three" of rap, name dropped Kendrick in what was, looking back, just a simple shout out to one of rap's current greats from another one of its current greats.

Kendrick, wasting no time, quickly shut this down and dismissed the other two entirely, citing: "Motherfuck the big three. N*gga its just big ME."

Drake would then respond with a pair of disses of his own, not only declaring war on Kendrick, but BEGGING him to respond.

J. Cole also dropped, but what the fuck was he thinking? Like actually lmaoooooo.

Drake's confidence wasn't unwarranted, but he definitely was dealing with a far greater challenge than his previous one.

Back track almost ten years prior to this. Drake absolutely obliterated Meek Mill in their verbal joust. In one of the greatest showings in rap history, Drake delivered belt to ass in a way that hadn't been seen since 2Pac's "Hit Em Up." He would go on to perform "Back to Back" all summer into the next year and the year after that and a few more times until eventually vowing never to perform it again. It was a rare showing of humbleness from Drake in what many called a public truce between the two.

There's just one problem: Kendrick ain't no Meek Mill, and he for DAMN sure wasn't no Safaree. Drake was about to learn this very, very quickly.

Again, Kendrick Lamar is NOT Meek Mill, but he was rapping like he was HUNGRY. After a slight delay, Kendrick would drop "Euphoria" to the delight of rap fans everywhere. It's now official: we have a battle. Kendrick did what Drake does best, utilizing hard hitting trap with superb rhyming, even mocking Drake's use of Toronto slang. It was a fun little track, shortly followed by "6:16 in LA", another little poke at Drake and his use of cities and times in his song titles.

Drake would follow up with a decent response on "Family Matters", claiming that Kendrick's long time friend and manager may be the father to one of his children. Most would argue that this is the point where things became less fun and more of a smear campaign aimed towards one another. Drake at this point to MOST, was in the lead and in his heart, he believed he had already won.

Kendrick's silence was more than an indication of defeat, right?

Wrong.

Any real man knows that the greatest response one can give is no response at all. He hadn't conceded at all. He was just getting started.

On a random Friday night in 2024, Kendrick dropped his most sinister diss yet, "Meet the Grahams". Essentially warning Drake not to take it there with his 2 previous disses, Kendrick had now taken the gloves off, or rather Drake did seeing as the cover art was a LITERAL pair of gloves owned by him with a prescription bottle with HIS name on it.

At the time, this level of disrespect was crazy to see.

The time for friendly competition was long over. Competition was no longer the motivation. Disrespect was the fire and hate was the fuel.

This was a breakdown of Drake's entire life. Everything from his poor character to his shortcomings as a father which Kendrick blamed on Drake's own father, Dennis, for not being in the picture. Kendrick even dropped the revelation that Drake has a daughter he doesn't support, but no surprise there, he already said he doesn't take care of his son, why stop at one gender?

If I could describe this song, I'd have to use wrestling terms as I'm a huge fan. This was Drake's "This Is Your Life" or "Firefly Funhouse Match". A look back at all your life's greatest works, but in this scenario, it's nothing but the worst.

Drake laughed this track off as nothing more than hearsay, even later citing that it was HIS side that fed Kendrick this information. If that's to be perceived as true, then that would mean that this was expected. What Drake couldn't have prepared for was Kendrick's final attempt at assassinating his character

Less than 24 hours later, Kendrick would drop his 4th and final diss aimed at Drake, "Not Like Us." This was the song that the world was waiting for. Up until this point, the music recorded by these two had been everything but catchy. Nothing but pure, unadulterated, hostility over hooks. This one was different, though. It was catchy, it was something you could step to. It was fun, it was witty, it was so west coast, and so surreal at the time. It was so catchy, you almost forgot it was a diss. And it was done to death.

The radio, online, family reunions, bar mitzvahs, commercials, NFL, NBA, and MLB, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing that beat or the phrase "A Minor". Drake was being publicly mocked by both fans and his peers, all the while slowly being overtaken on the charts by Kendrick in every single way.

In what some would call an act of poetic justice, the man that Drake had brushed off as a threat for more than a decade was now his greatest rival. "Not Like Us" would go on to be number one on the charts and Drake would make one more sad attempt at victory with "The Heart Pt. 6" but it was universally panned by fans and critics alike (yes, HIS fans hated it too). I've tried to refrain from mentioning Drake and the whole "ghostwriting" thing because its SO played out at this point, but I do find something so satisfying about Drake getting lambasted by everyone for making such an awful song. I don't care what anyone says, he DEFINITELY wrote "The Heart Pt. 6" himself. I know he did.

The beef would slowly dissipate leaving fans to listen and make their own decisions on who won and who lost, but you would have to be a nile in Egypt to convince yourself or anyone else that Drake came out on top.

After making a mockery of Meek for the better part of 3 years, the universe had dealt Drake the cruelest of reverse cards in the form of his own comeuppance. Drake, after over a decade atop the rap game had finally taken a loss.

And in typical Kendrick fashion, just a few months later, he would put on a show like only he can, giving us one of the greatest halftime shows in Superbowl history, only matched by the likes of Michael Jackson and Prince. He still made sure to get one final jab in, though, to really punctuate his win, looking directly at the camera when reciting the "Say Drake?" part of "Not Like Us."

The REAL Boogeyman

The rapping portion of the beef essentially ended with this performance. When it comes to stages, there's none bigger than the Super Bowl and even Drake can be quoted saying this on "First Person Shooter".

At this point, Kendrick was on top of the world and sitting comfortably atop the rap game as well, but this was only the beginning of his legal troubles with Drake.

Drake did the one thing you never do in a rap beef: he called the police. There's many unwritten rules when it comes to rap beef. You never target the dead and you for damn certain don't call the police, the latter of which, probably being the more unforgivable of the two if you ask most artists.

I'll spare you the details and drama: he lost. Again.

Turns out, rap lyrics can't be used in a court of law. Your case loses all validity once you get caught in 4K telling the person your suing to do the very crime you're accusing them of: "drop, drop, drop, drop." Drake could've avoided any more ridicule and embarrassment if he had simply backed out gracefully and never spoke of this beef again. By not only suing and losing his case, but filing an appeal after the dismissal of it, Drake is only adding to his own plight.

At least he living his raps now. "Laugh now, cry later."

Drake has made a career profiting off of black artistry while discrediting the artists that craft the very culture that gave him the most success. Drake has leeched off of any and everyone who will let him close enough to do so. Whether its Houston, Atlanta, or the Caribbean, Drake has borrowed inspiration from everyone while constantly tearing down black men and women in the name of "music". But even the legitimacy of his numbers is being brought into question. Given his knowledge of how "botting" and "ghoststreams" work, even if Kendrick had theoretically used these means in order to boost his numbers, how do YOU know that? And how can you prove it? The truth is: you can't.

It's no secret that a vast majority of the industry has at some point used alternate means to promote their musical success, but I highly doubt Kendrick is one of those people. And if he is, who really cares? One loss and one song wasn't going to be the death of Drake's career, at least not this soon. This battle would've came to the same conclusion regardless of the success of any of Kendrick's songs or them making it onto the charts. Drake was simply outclassed.

I don't need to see either of their Spotify numbers to know that and in all honesty, I don't really care about them and you shouldn't either. But let the record show, no matter the way he did it, Kendrick still won in this metric as well.

As of a month ago, Drake's appeal is still pending as far as I know, but putting it bluntly, "Not Like Us", wasn't the death blow for Drake. His piss poor attitude in the face of defeat was. And something tells me that this thing is far from over on his end. Of course, at this point, he and his fans are basically talking to a brick wall, clinging onto what little dignity they have left, but this beef only makes Drake look worse the longer its drawn out.

The only possible outcome for this beef at this point.

But man, did it make for some great entertainment.

What a time to be alive.

This beef will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time, up there with the likes of Jay-Z and Nas. Love 'em or hate 'em, these two aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but only time will tell if this is truly the end of it all or not. If history is a guide, I'm sure we'll see plenty more barbs over the NEXT 10 years, but for now, I think it's safe to conclude this part of the saga right here.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this recap, and as always, I thank you for taking the time to read my many, many words.

I'll see you in the next entry.

Signed,