Can someone break down the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud for me?
May 21, 2024 2:32 AM Subscribe
As I age I find myself more and more behind when it comes to key pop culture moments. We seem to have to reached one re Drake and Lamar and I am completely, 1000% in the dark. Please shed some light. Thanks
Here's Tom Hanks' son explaining it to him.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:02 AM on May 21 [14 favorites]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:02 AM on May 21 [14 favorites]
Did anyone post this yet? Gift link to Defector.
Everybody Hates Drake: A Guide To Millennial Rap’s Midlife Beef Crisis
By Israel Daramola
posted by Suedeltica at 11:41 AM on May 21 [2 favorites]
Everybody Hates Drake: A Guide To Millennial Rap’s Midlife Beef Crisis
By Israel Daramola
posted by Suedeltica at 11:41 AM on May 21 [2 favorites]
1. Drake and Kendrick are rappers of roughly the same era (breakthrough albums in 2010 and 2012, respectively). They appeared together on songs and Drake was on the K-Dot song "Poetic Justice."
2. In 2013, Kendrick's verse on Big Sean's "Control" was a big old competitive boast about being the best, aimed at everyone including Drake.
3. Cue 10 years of subliminal back and forths between the two artists.
4. In 2018 there was a little back and forth between one-time Kendrick collaborator Pusha T ("Nosetalgia" by Push and Kendrick rules) and Drake, which included the Pusha T song "The Story of Adidon," where Pusha T outs Drake as a deadbeat dad with a secret child. Kendrick, a family man, files it all away as ammunition.
5. In 2023 Drake releases a song featuring boring rapper J. Cole called "First Person Shooter," where J. Cole calls the three rappers "the Big Three," and Kendrick is conspicuously missing from the track because, we sort of learn later in the back and forth, he refused to be on it.
6. Boring rapper J. Cole releases "7 Minute Drill" criticizing Kendrick in a kind of halfhearted way, probably for not being on "First Person Shooter," and in an all-time unique rap move, quickly publicly rescinded and took the song off streaming.
7. Kendrick has a sort of surprise verse on the Future/Metro Boomin song "Like That" where he basically says, you guys aren't on my level, there is no big three.
8. Drake releases "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle" where he basically says, Kendrick you are corny, there are lots of better rappers than you, and also weirdly has AI voices for 2pac and Snoop Dogg.
9. Kendrick takes it to a whole other level by releasing "Euphoria" and "6:16 Freestyle," and it becomes immediately clear that he viscerally hates drake, no gamesmanship about it.
10. Drake responds with "Family Matters" where he accuses Kendrick of assaulting his partner and sort of being estranged from her.
11. Kendrick responds with "Meet the Grahams" which is an open letter to all of Drake's family members calling Drake a horrible person.
12. Kendrick releases another song called "Not Like Us" where he accuses Drake and his circle of being pedophiles.
13. Drake responds with "The Heart Part 6," which is kind of trolling Kendrick with an antagonistic entry into Kendrick's "The Heart" series. (I never heard this one, it came down off streaming immediately but I think it's on YouTube.)
(14.) (I won't even get into the various subtextual stray threads about Taylor Swift, but they're sorta fun.)
Anyway, it's fun until it gets dark and actual uninvolved people become named parties. The overall thing slots very comfortably into a time-honored paradigm for rap beefs, the pretty boy crossover act versus the auteur (LL versus Kool Moe Dee, to some extent Pac vs Biggie, surely Jay vs. Nas and Ja Rule vs 50 Cent and later 50 Cent vs everyone and even later Drake vs. Pusha T.)
In terms of the music, I'd say that for my taste, these are the best:
1. "Like That" is a great song with an execrable verse by Future. The song itself though really rewards being a fan of the genre. When I listen to it I hear an Eazy E sample, maybe the bells from the original 12" mix of LL's "Rock the Bells," and an interpolation of E-40's late 90s song with the Hot Boyz, maybe even a pitched up sample from it, unless it's sampling a bounce track I don't know or remember.
2. "Euphoria," to me, is a blast. If you like Kendrick's voice it's just a fun song.
3. "Push Ups" is the best Drake song I've heard in years.
4. "Not Like Us" is an instant classic.
posted by kensington314 at 1:49 PM on May 21 [13 favorites]
2. In 2013, Kendrick's verse on Big Sean's "Control" was a big old competitive boast about being the best, aimed at everyone including Drake.
3. Cue 10 years of subliminal back and forths between the two artists.
4. In 2018 there was a little back and forth between one-time Kendrick collaborator Pusha T ("Nosetalgia" by Push and Kendrick rules) and Drake, which included the Pusha T song "The Story of Adidon," where Pusha T outs Drake as a deadbeat dad with a secret child. Kendrick, a family man, files it all away as ammunition.
5. In 2023 Drake releases a song featuring boring rapper J. Cole called "First Person Shooter," where J. Cole calls the three rappers "the Big Three," and Kendrick is conspicuously missing from the track because, we sort of learn later in the back and forth, he refused to be on it.
6. Boring rapper J. Cole releases "7 Minute Drill" criticizing Kendrick in a kind of halfhearted way, probably for not being on "First Person Shooter," and in an all-time unique rap move, quickly publicly rescinded and took the song off streaming.
7. Kendrick has a sort of surprise verse on the Future/Metro Boomin song "Like That" where he basically says, you guys aren't on my level, there is no big three.
8. Drake releases "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle" where he basically says, Kendrick you are corny, there are lots of better rappers than you, and also weirdly has AI voices for 2pac and Snoop Dogg.
9. Kendrick takes it to a whole other level by releasing "Euphoria" and "6:16 Freestyle," and it becomes immediately clear that he viscerally hates drake, no gamesmanship about it.
10. Drake responds with "Family Matters" where he accuses Kendrick of assaulting his partner and sort of being estranged from her.
11. Kendrick responds with "Meet the Grahams" which is an open letter to all of Drake's family members calling Drake a horrible person.
12. Kendrick releases another song called "Not Like Us" where he accuses Drake and his circle of being pedophiles.
13. Drake responds with "The Heart Part 6," which is kind of trolling Kendrick with an antagonistic entry into Kendrick's "The Heart" series. (I never heard this one, it came down off streaming immediately but I think it's on YouTube.)
(14.) (I won't even get into the various subtextual stray threads about Taylor Swift, but they're sorta fun.)
Anyway, it's fun until it gets dark and actual uninvolved people become named parties. The overall thing slots very comfortably into a time-honored paradigm for rap beefs, the pretty boy crossover act versus the auteur (LL versus Kool Moe Dee, to some extent Pac vs Biggie, surely Jay vs. Nas and Ja Rule vs 50 Cent and later 50 Cent vs everyone and even later Drake vs. Pusha T.)
In terms of the music, I'd say that for my taste, these are the best:
1. "Like That" is a great song with an execrable verse by Future. The song itself though really rewards being a fan of the genre. When I listen to it I hear an Eazy E sample, maybe the bells from the original 12" mix of LL's "Rock the Bells," and an interpolation of E-40's late 90s song with the Hot Boyz, maybe even a pitched up sample from it, unless it's sampling a bounce track I don't know or remember.
2. "Euphoria," to me, is a blast. If you like Kendrick's voice it's just a fun song.
3. "Push Ups" is the best Drake song I've heard in years.
4. "Not Like Us" is an instant classic.
posted by kensington314 at 1:49 PM on May 21 [13 favorites]
I have to correct myself -- I looked it up and that whole piece of "Like That" that sounds like "Look At Me" by E-40 is the original sample used in the E40 song, which is "Everlasting Bass" by Rodney O and Joe C, which makes more sense and is amazing. Amazing work, Metro Boomin.
posted by kensington314 at 4:19 PM on May 21
posted by kensington314 at 4:19 PM on May 21
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posted by Klipspringer at 2:48 AM on May 21 [2 favorites]