There's a Dizzying Rap Feud Going On

Kendrick Lamar and Drake keep releasing new tracks dissing each other
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2024 2:03 PM CDT
There's a Dizzying Rap Feud Going On
Rapper Kendrick Lamar, left, and Canadian rapper Drake.   (AP Photo)

Drake and Kendrick Lamar really don't like each other very much. The evidence is in seemingly nonstop barrage of tracks the rappers have been releasing about each other. Over the weekend, their lyrics "exploded into full-bore acrimony and unverifiable accusations" over "race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more," writes Joe Coscarelli in the New York Times. His piece breaks down the long-simmering feud.

  • Track by track: Vulture has a chronological list of diss tracks the two have released since March 22, along with the accusations in each. Settle in, because there are nine in all.

  • Drake: His latest is "The Heart Part 6," and USA Today has a sample from the lyrics: "Speakin' of anything with a child, let's get to that now / This Epstein angle was the (expletive) I expected / TikTok videos you collected and dissected / Instead of being on some dis-direct (expletive), you rather (expletive) grab your pen and mis-direct (expletive)."
  • Lamar: His latest is "Not Like Us," with lines like, "You think the Bay (gonna) let you disrespect Pac, (expletive)? I think that Oakland show (gonna) be your last stop." It's a reference to Drake's use of artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of Tupac Shakur.
  • A winner? Rolling Stone is coming down on the side of Lamar in what it calls the "great rap war." In Andre Gee's assessment, Lamar's "shots hit harder." Gee does have praise for Drake however: He "deserves credit for stepping out and taking the risk of battling a seasoned lyricist like Kendrick, but he'll have to take this one on the chin."
  • What Snoop says: If you find all this a little hard to track, Snoop Dogg can relate. "I'm going back to bed," he declares in this Instagram post about the feud.
(More Drake stories.)

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