Relive the Beef

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Relive the Beef: Drake v Kendrick

This Dracula Daily inspired blog will have scheduled posts on the anniversary of every track being dropped and other notable events in The Beef from the release of "Like That" (3/22/24) to the Super Bowl (2/9/25). When things are happening in quick succession I will try to get exact timestamps because some of the timing was diabolical. Turn on alerts to experience the speed at which things escalated.

I will include the song (when applicable/available), the genius link to the lyrics, and a near-real time reaction from one or more black creators.

For historical context, I have some recommended viewing from the insightful and funny F.D. Signifier.

The first 1:45 is rap history and both their careers and relationship with each other up until 2024. Even if you can't commit to watching the whole thing, I recommend checking some of it out. The same guy also made a video back in 2022 called Drake and the Death of Hip Hop. Most of what he said in that one is covered in I'm What the Culture Feeling, but I just wanna point out he was on top of the themes well before this blew up.

So, follow and turn on alerts and get ready to relive the beef!

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May 18, 2024: "Not Like Us" debuts at No. 1 on the Hot 100

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Blasts In at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Plus, Lamar’s “Euphoria” leaps 11-3 among his sparring with Drake, whose “Family Matters” debuts at No. 7.

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May 5, 2024 9 PM: "The Heart Part 6" by Drake

Two days after "Meet the Grahams" and a day after "Not Like Us", Drake drops "The Heart Part 6". Kendrick has a series of songs called The Heart Series. Before each album at this point, he's released a heart song. These songs would not be part of the album, but meditate on the path of his career and introduce important themes. The most recent entry had been "The Heart Part 5". Drake appropriating the title of the next entry for a diss track against Kendrick was genuinely clever and probably ticked Kendrick off. The cover art is a comment Dave Free left on a picture Whitney posted of her and Kendrick's children because Drake can't understand loving your friend's family without assuming it's a scandal.

This is probably the saddest diss track you will ever listen to, but Drake makes sure you don't feel sorry for him. He says the people Kendrick's been getting his stories from are all clowns, and then the very next thing he says is that HE IS that very clown and he's been feeding Kendrick false info. He misinterprets Kendrick's "Mother I Sober" and thinks it's about Kendrick being molested and thinks saying Kendrick was molested is a clever diss. He says he's too famous to get away with fucking underage girls because he thinks the audience is stupid and doesn't watch the news. He says he never fucked Millie Bobby Brown, who Kendrick did not mention. He repeats allegations that Kendrick beat Whitney, but like the beginning of this very track says, where's the proof or the paper trail?

Lyrics with annotations.

Mod commentary: This is a very overlooked track (because it's bad). People had pretty quickly moved on from the claim that he had a secret daughter but Drake brings it back up with an excuse that just makes him look like a dumbass. Along with reminding people of his creepy relationship with Millie Bobby Brown, there's a lot of shooting himself in the foot. And in the outro, he sounds like a totally broken man. I have no idea why he left that in.

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May 4, 2024 All Night Long: "Not Like Us" Sweeps the Nation

The very same night it's released, videos start surfacing of "Not Like Us" playing in clubs and parties around the country, with fans already singing along. Thus a new American tradition of calling Drake a pedophile is born.

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May 4, 2024 7:50 PM: "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar

Less than 24 hours after the obliterating "Meet the Grahams", Kendrick drops "Not Like Us". If you weren't paying attention before this point, you might not realize he'd already won the beef (and scared us all) with "Meet the Grahams". This is a victory lap.

The cover photo is Drake's enormous house with a bunch of symbols that are used to indicated sex offenders on it. This track is less boogeyman than the last, but the subject matter is still dark. Drake has a history of being creepy with underage girls which was well documented before the beef officially started.

Mod commentary: What is there left to say? Y'all know all about this one. WOP WOP WOP WOP WOP

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May 3, 2024 11:58 PM: "Meet the Grahams" by Kendrick Lamar

The fastest reactors are still in the process of uploading their reactions to "Family Matters". Those streamers Drake messaged before he dropped it are still on stream and their chats start popping off with people saying "Kendrick dropped".

52 minutes after "Family Matters", Kendrick dropped "Meet the Grahams" (according to YouTube metadata, but I swear they hit twitter within 30 minutes of each other). This is the most diabolical moment of the beef and not just because of the timing. On twitter, you're still processing the fact that Kendrick already responded to "Family Matters" and you haven't listened to it yet but you're seeing all these people say they're scared. Scared?

Let's start with the cover image. It's the zoomed out pic from "6:16 in LA". The weird background is an ugly shirt Drake has been seen in. It also shows some receipts and 3 prescriptions in Aubrey Graham's name. One of them is Ozempic, and Drake had just insulted Rick Ross for using Ozempic in "Family Matters". Along with the hypocrisy, it proves Kendrick wasn't bluffing about having people in Drake's camp.

The music is straight out of a horror movie. And the lyrics? Kendrick addresses Drake's son, parents, and an alleged 11-year-old secret daughter as he talks about all of his shortcomings as a man in a disturbingly calm serial killer voice. He gets into the sexual exploitation of women with this track. There's too much for me to get into, but it has some of the best reaction compilations like this one of people reacting to Kendrick saying Drake should die.

Lyrics with annotations.

Mod commentary: Vince Carter it's over gif. Unsurvivable. To me, bringing each others' kids into it is a two wrongs don't make a right situation, but it happened. Idk how you listen to this song without genuinely feeling sorry for Drake's kid(s) that he's their dad. Drake fans like to say that Kendrick didn't say anything "new" about Drake, but that's just it. Drake's "new" accusations against Kendrick have no credibility. They don't line up with the Kendrick we know and they're being said by one of the biggest phonies in the industry. Kendrick on the other hand is known for integrity and has slowly built his credibility as an expert on Drake specifically. So the bomb that Drake might have a secret kid actually lands. After all, he's done it before.

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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May 3, 2024 11:58 PM: "Meet the Grahams" by Kendrick Lamar

The fastest reactors are still in the process of uploading their reactions to "Family Matters". Those streamers Drake messaged before he dropped it are still on stream and their chats start popping off with people saying "Kendrick dropped".

52 minutes after "Family Matters", Kendrick dropped "Meet the Grahams" (according to YouTube metadata, but I swear they hit twitter within 30 minutes of each other). This is the most diabolical moment of the beef and not just because of the timing. On twitter, you're still processing the fact that Kendrick already responded to "Family Matters" and you haven't listened to it yet but you're seeing all these people say they're scared. Scared?

Let's start with the cover image. It's the zoomed out pic from "6:16 in LA". The weird background is an ugly shirt Drake has been seen in. It also shows some receipts and 3 prescriptions in Aubrey Graham's name. One of them is Ozempic, and Drake had just insulted Rick Ross for using Ozempic in "Family Matters". Along with the hypocrisy, it proves Kendrick wasn't bluffing about having people in Drake's camp.

The music is straight out of a horror movie. And the lyrics? Kendrick addresses Drake's son, parents, and an alleged 11-year-old secret daughter as he talks about all of his shortcomings as a man in a disturbingly calm serial killer voice. He gets into the sexual exploitation of women with this track. There's too much for me to get into, but it has some of the best reaction compilations like this one of people reacting to Kendrick saying Drake should die.

Lyrics with annotations.

Mod commentary: Vince Carter it's over gif. Unsurvivable. To me, bringing each others' kids into it is a two wrongs don't make a right situation, but it happened. Idk how you listen to this song without genuinely feeling sorry for Drake's kid(s) that he's their dad. Drake fans like to say that Kendrick didn't say anything "new" about Drake, but that's just it. Drake's "new" accusations against Kendrick have no credibility. They don't line up with the Kendrick we know and they're being said by one of the biggest phonies in the industry. Kendrick on the other hand is known for integrity and has slowly built his credibility as an expert on Drake specifically. So the bomb that Drake might have a secret kid actually lands. After all, he's done it before.

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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May 3, 2024 11:06 PM EST: "Family Matters" by Drake

Only 3 days after the brutal "Euphoria" and like 15 ish hours after "6:16 in LA", Drake drops a game changing response with a music video. He messages some popular streamers to make sure they'll be on stream when he drops it. Fans praise Drake for stepping on "6:16 in LA"'s moment and muting its impact by dropping the same day. Not gonna do a whole breakdown, but video highlights: Drake gets a van the same make and color from the cover of Kendrick's debut album and has it crushed and Drake goes to the restaurant Kendrick namedropped and eats the food he talked about eating.

Drake does not heed Kendrick's warning not to get personal. He alleges that one of Kendrick's kids was actually fathered by Kendrick's long time friend and collaborator Dave Free. He doesn't give us any reason to believe him.

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: So Drake starts out by referring to his son as "my seed" which is a miss for me and then--hold on, what's that? *holds fingers to ear* I'm getting a breaking news alert. brb

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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May 3, 2024 8 AM EST: "6:16 in LA" by Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar on Instagram: "6:16 in LA"

4M likes, 165K comments - kendricklamar on May 3, 2024: "6:16 in LA".

Three days after "Euphoria", Kendrick drops "6:16 in LA" on Instagram. This one was not put on Spotify or Kendrick's official youtube, perhaps as a message that this isn't even a real diss in Kendrick's mind, it's just a warning. The song is accompanied by a cryptic image: a single black glove lying on a weird patterned fabric. It's not a studio photo or a stock image, it wasn't taken with a good camera, so why did he pick this picture? This is presumably a message meant for Drake to understand.

The first verse is very introspective and just sorta showcases who Kendrick is as a rapper and what he can do with a pen. He recommits to his values and healing before turning his focus to Drake. The big money line is "Have you ever thought that OVO is workin' for me/Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it" OVO being the label Drake runs and the crowd of sycophants he pays to hang around him. Drake is already known for whining that he doesn't have any real friends so it's not hard to believe people close to him would sell him out. Kendrick is keeping his cards close to his chest for now though seemingly just to enjoy tormenting Drake with not knowing if he's bluffing or not.

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: It's not the obliterating character assassination that "Euphoria" is, but it's a good track. It's not a warning, it's a taunt. Kendrick wants to unload a full clip of personal shit against Drake, but he wants Drake to make the first low blow. Extremely relatable. Special shoutout to No Life Shaq's adorable and very chill baby who might have a Kendrick diss in the works.

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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April 30, 2024 11 AM EST: "Euphoria" by Kendrick Lamar

11 days after the official release of "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle" (17 days after the "Push Ups" leak), on a Tuesday at 11 AM, Kendrick drops his response. It is an over 6 minute attack on Drake's character, authenticity, parenting, and place in hip hop and black culture. It starts out with a backwards quote from The Wiz, "Everything they say about me is true", comparing Drake to the fraudulent wizard and gets better from there.

This is Kendrick's first full diss track against Drake and represents a tone shift. This is deeper than music for Kdot. He really deeply hates this man, but he also keeps this track principled. F.D Signifier says "he started the battle with this pure distillation of what hip hop diss records were traditionally meant to be".

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: Kinda a perfect track. Kendrick is such an emotive rapper that even his dry monotone delivery of the first part builds anticipation for the switch up you know is coming. "We ain't gotta get personal, this a friendly fade, you should keep it that way." Is it? Is it friendly, Kendrick? If Drake didn't get personal, what would he have done? Was there ever really a chance Drake wouldn't get personal? I think Kendrick was confident there wasn't.

Pay special attention when Kendrick says "I can even predict your angles". He's not doing the 8 Mile thing where you list a bunch of disses against yourself, it's more insightful than that. It's about what what Drake's chosen angles of attack against Kendrick will prove about Drake.

Discussion question for the class: Did Kendrick intentionally combine actor Haley Joel Osment's name with televangelist Joel Osteen's name as a layered diss or did he just get Osment's name wrong?

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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April 19, 2024 11 PM EST: "Taylor Made Freestyle" by Drake

The same day he finally officially released "Push Ups", Drake releases "Taylor Made Freestyle". In this track, he uses AI to imitate the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg, both of whom are rappers Kendrick respects and one of whom is very dead. Tupac's estate sent a cease and desist which any idiot would have expected and the song was eventually taken down. (Snoop on the other hand promoted the track. Much later, he would say it was because he was high.)

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: IMHO he should have immediately and resoundingly lost the beef just for releasing this. What a fucking bizarre thing to do. Tupac is so respected as a rapper and Drake used his corpse like a meat puppet.

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April 19, 2024 12 PM EST: Drake finally officially drops "Push Ups"

Mod commentary: Why the long wait between the leak and the release? Was it leaked intentionally? Probably, but why?

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Bonus sketch:

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April 13, 2024: Unconfirmed leak of "Push Ups (Drop & Give Me 50)" by Drake

Three weeks after "Like That", and after "7 Minute Drill" has come and gone, this track "surfaces on social media". The audio quality isn't great so a lot of people think it's AI. The next day, DJ Akademiks says it's a real Drake track, which mostly settles the debate. Drake mentions Kendrick's partner, Whitney. It's a throwaway line, though, and without anything to back it up no one really cares about an implication that she's sleeping with bodyguards.

(Sidebar: Who's DJ Akademiks? He's a streamer famous for basically being Drake's biggest propaganda disseminator. He's never met Drake, but is also more than a fan. They have a weird dynamic. It's like Drake is cucking Akademiks, but there's no wife. It's like a dom/sub yaoi relationship that's incredibly intense and toxic despite the absence of physical contact, but in a way not even tumblr users could enjoy. Point being, Akademiks has an in with Drake but people also think he sometimes bullshits to make himself seem closer to Drake than he really is. Also, Akademiks is a groomer so I will not be linking to any of his own videos.)

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: I'm far from a Drake fan, but this is a solid track. There's some good jabs. Kendrick's label having him do features for Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift is way out of sync with his image as a hip hop purist who's all about promoting black culture. This is gonna be a marathon, not a sprint, though. Does Drake have the juice to last?

(Rick Ross quickly released the response "Champagne Moments" and days later Kanye released a remix of "Like That" dissing Drake, but I honestly don't feel like either of them merit their own posts.)

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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April 12, 2024: "We Still Don't Trust You" by Future, Metro Boomin

Less than a month after We Don't Trust You, Future and Metro Boomin release a second collaborative album titled We Still Don't Trust you. These fellas are workin. Much like with "We Don't Trust You", the title line is speculated to be about Drake.

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: There's not much in the way of lyrics except reiterating their negative feelings about Drake. I have to respect the haterism of titling two whole albums after how shady a guy you used to work with is, though.

Follow and turn on alerts to relive the beef as it happened.

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April 12, 2024: J. Cole deletes "7 Minute Drill" from Might Delete Later

J. Cole Removes Kendrick Lamar Diss ‘7 Minute Drill’ From Streaming Services

J. Cole has removed his Kendrick Lamar diss '7 Minute Drill' from streaming services.

As he said he would 5 days earlier, J. Cole deletes the Kendrick diss track from the mixtape that he had titled Might Delete Later.

What do y'all think? Was Cole's heart just not in it, or was he warned he didn't want to be caught in the Drake-Kendrick crossfire?

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April 7, 2024: J. Cole tells festival crowd that "7 Minute Drill" was "the lamest shit I did in my fuckin’ life"

J. Cole Says He Regrets Kendrick Lamar Diss: ‘The Past Two Days Felt Terrible’

J. Cole explained during a headlining slot at his Dreamville Festival that he feels regret over releasing a diss response to Kendrick Lamar.

Mod commentary: ngl, he already sounded kinda conflicted in the song itself but apparently he was really going through it in the days after.

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April 5, 2024: "7 Minute Drill" by J. Cole

Two weeks after "Like That", J. Cole responds with "7 Minute Drill" on a mixtape called Might Delete Later. There had been a lot of debate about whether J. Cole or Drake would respond first and it ended up being Cole.

Lyrics with annotations

Mod commentary: Might Delete Later is such a Drake title. Best line: "He averagin' one hard verse like every thirty months or somethin'. If he wasn't dissin' then we wouldn't be discussin' him." But then he ends by teasing an album he's been teasing for several years soooooo...

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