Drake vs Kendrick Lamar: A timeline of their simmering feud

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One is a chart-dominating artist who pops streaming data as steadily as he does champagne bottles; the opposite is presumably the best rapper of all time, with a number of Grammy wins and a Pulitzer Prize to his identify.

Many followers would agree that Drake and Kendrick Lamar function in totally totally different lanes. Drake entertains with summery rap-pop jams comparable to “One Dance” and “Hotline Bling”, dabbling in lure, dancehall and R&B alongside the way in which, whereas Lamar has asserted himself as a deft lyricist succesful of mixing road smarts with a literary wit. Yet their as soon as pleasant relationship has descended into years of traded barbs and thinly veiled disses, fuelled by followers who conflict over which one is the higher artist.

In the previous week alone, Lamar managed to spark a fan frenzy together with his newest rap characteristic on Future and Metro Boomin’s new launch “Like That”, by which he instantly responds to a verse by fellow rapper J Cole on Drake’s 2023 music, “First Person Shooter”.

Then, Cole rapped: “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.” (Ok-Dot is a nickname given to Lamar, whereas Drake’s delivery identify is Aubrey Drake Graham.)

On “Like That”, Lamar appeared to dismiss Cole’s suggestion that they’re on the identical degree as artists: “Motherf*** the big three, n***a, it’s just big me,” he rapped. “N***a, bum, what? I’m really like that / And your best work is a light pack.”

Meanwhile, as Drake in contrast his business success to that of Michael Jackson, Lamar referenced the historic beef between the King of Pop and Prince in the course of the Eighties: “N***a, Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

The shock verse from Lamar is the newest second in a long-simmering feud between the 2 hip-hop titans, after they initially began out on pleasant phrases.

Here’s a take a look at their relationship over time.

2011 – Kendrick Lamar’s profession beginnings and preliminary friendship

Lamar and Drake had been as soon as on comparatively pleasant phrases, with the Canadian artist inviting Lamar out on his Club Paradise headline tour.

Lamar mentioned in an early profession interview that he and Drake “clicked immediately”, describing the man rapper as a “genuine soul” and revealing that Drake was the primary individual exterior of his fast workforce to listen to his debut album Section 80. Drake later invited Ok-Dot to characteristic on his forthcoming second album, Take Care.

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Around the discharge of Lamar’s critically acclaimed second album, Good Kid, MAAD City, on which Drake featured, stress appeared to start brewing between the pair, seemingly partially resulting from their differing attitudes in direction of wealth and fame.

Where Lamar tends to keep away from sharing particulars of his private life on social media, Drake is understood for sharing frequent posts about his lavish way of life to his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, from non-public jets to couture and luxurious automobiles. Lamar mentioned this overtly in interviews, hinting that he believed bragging about cash and fame was superficial, and his personal music tackled deeper issues.

The two additionally appeared to develop colder in direction of each other as Lamar started to expertise business and important success, scooping main awards and receiving common reward for Good Kid, MAAD City and being invited to star on tracks by different main artists.

In public, Drake continued to congratulate Lamar for a quantity of his successes, till 2013, when Lamar dropped a verse on Big Sean’s observe “Control” that made it clear he thought of himself above different rappers… together with Drake.

While rappers comparable to A$AP Rocky, who was additionally name-checked, appeared happy to be namechecked by Lamar in any respect, believing his aggressive nature to be wholesome for hip-hop, Drake appeared much less enamoured.

“Was that real or was that just for the people?” he requested in an interview on Hot 97 after Lamar’s visitor verse got here out. “Those were harsh words, right? It’s like, you can’t just say that and then see me and be like, ‘Yeah man…’ pretending like nothing ever happened. That’s not real, man.”

Drake doubled down on this stance in a later interview the place he implied that Lamar was extra a couple of “moment” than creating our bodies of work, questioning whether or not he would launch one thing that might prime Good Kid, MAAD City.

He then launched his third album, 2013’s Nothing Was the Same, by which he appeared to take purpose at Lamar on “The Language”, rapping: “F*** any n***a that’s talking that s*** just to get a reaction.”

On the identical observe, he referred to himself as “the kid with the motormouth / I am the one you should worry about.” He additionally appeared to mock Lamar’s angle in direction of wealth, rapping: “N***as downplaying the money but that’s what you do when the money down.”

On a current episode of the What’s the Dirt YouTube present, by which host Matt delves into beefs between distinguished hip-hop artists, it was urged that Drake was being contemptuous of Lamar’s rapid-fire supply, and felt that his personal music had extra substance.

“It’s clearly about Kendrick,” he mentioned, citing cases the place Lamar appeared to chortle at Drake’s expense throughout interviews and suggesting Ok-Dot may need mentioned one thing behind the “Hold On” singer’s again, which later made its strategy to him.

Drake’s resentment may need grown after Lamar seemingly mocked Drake for being “sensitive during a freestyle with ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab Soul and Isaiah Rashad: “Nothing’s been the same since they dropped ‘Control’/ And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pyjama clothes.”

Fans had been satisfied he was speaking about Drake, given he’d cited the title of the man rapper’s current album, Nothing Was the Same.

Drake then acquired private a number of weeks afterward Future’s observe “S**t”, the place he identified that Lamar performed his greatest exhibits on the time round his hometown in Los Angeles whereas supporting Drake on tour in 2012: “Took n***as out the hood like I’m from there / So you know it’s all good when I come there / I hear you talk about your city like you run that / And I brought my tour to your city, you my son there, n***a.”

By the top of 2013, the connection between the pair had grown distinctly chilly; they appeared on the identical observe for the final time with A$AP Rocky on “F**kin’ Problems”.

2014 – the general public digs develop extra frequent, at the same time as Lamar performs down the meat

A few months after Drake appeared on Future’s observe, controversy erupted on the Grammy Awards when rapper Macklemore gained Album of the Year over Lamar, who was nominated for Good Kid, MAAD City, now extensively thought to be one of the best hip-hop data of all time.

Macklemore, actual identify Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, then shared a textual content on Instagram that he despatched to Lamar after the win, by which he confessed that he felt the man rapper was “robbed” and that he’d been rooting for Lamar to win.

Drake was unimpressed by this, calling Macklemore out in an interview with Rolling Stone the place he mentioned the apology felt “cheap”.

If Macklemore was going at hand out apologies, Drake mentioned, he ought to have provided one to different nominees: “That s*** made me feel funny,” he mentioned. “No, in that case, you robbed everybody. We all need text messages!”

Lamar and Drake continued to take refined swipes at each other on visitor options, however Ok-Dot appeared to dismiss fan hypothesis and recommend they had been “digging too far” in a radio interview that aired later that yr.

In What’s the Dirt, the host notes that regardless of this, Lamar continued to make digs about what he perceived to be the distinction between his artistry and Drake’s, leaning into the general public notion that Drake was a glorified pop artist, reasonably than a reputable hip-hop star expert within the artwork of lyricism.

“Comparing these projects makes zero sense,” Matt mentioned, referring to Lamar’s Grammy-winning album To Pimp a Butterfly and Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, each launched in 2015.

“Drake’s project was great for club DJs, gym playlists, cruising in the car… whereas Kendrick’s album touched on real-world issues, was chanted during protests, and is looked at today as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time,” he mentioned.

In summer time that yr, controversy was sparked after rapper Meek Mill accused Drake of utilizing a ghostwriter for his visitor verse on Mill’s current LP, resulting in a quantity of barbed exchanges in diss tracks.

Drake defended himself in opposition to the allegations in September, telling The Fader: “I need, sometimes, individuals to spark an idea so that I can take off running. Music at times can be a collaborative process, you know? Who came up with this, who came up with that – for me, it’s like, I know that it takes me to execute every single thing that I’ve done up until this point. And I’m not ashamed.”

However, this didn’t cease followers scrambling to level out that Lamar had hinted at a fellow rapper utilizing ghostwriters in his hit single, “King Kunta”, which featured on To Pimp a Butterfly: “I can dig rappin’, but a rapper with a ghostwriter? / What the f*** happened? / I swore I wouldn’t tell…”

2016 – Drake dominates gross sales and streams, however Kendrick is the essential darling

Both artists appeared to chill down as they targeted on their respective initiatives, with Drake dropping his fourth studio album, the Jamaican dancehall-influenced Views, in April 2016. The file spawned a quantity of main hits together with “One Dance”, “Hotline Bling” and “Controlla”, resulting in the Canadian star changing into the most-streamed artist of the yr. It additionally resulted in Drake attaining his first ever UK No 1 album, because it additionally debuted on the prime of the US Billboard 200.

However, Drake couldn’t resist making a number of digs round that point, rapping with The Game on his observe “100” concerning the notion of him as a pop artist: “I would have all of your fans if I didn’t go pop / And I stayed on some conscious sh**.”

A yr later, Lamar launched his personal fourth album, DAMN, and acquired significantly extra essential reward than Drake had for Views. Where opinions of Drake’s album had been combined, critics lavished reward on DAMN, even instantly pitting it in opposition to Views. “It’s Mr Lamar’s version of the creeping paranoia that has become de rigueur for midcareer Drake,” Jon Caramanica wrote for the New York Times. “And yet this is most likely Mr Lamar’s most jubilant album, the one in which his rhymes are the least tangled.”

Drake appeared to attempt to squash any previous beef, nevertheless, the month Lamar dropped DAMN, posting a touch upon the Instagram web page of Tidal’s editorial director Elliot Wilson exhibiting that DAMN had out-sold Drake’s More Life mixtape in its opening week by 100,000 copies.

“Amazing to see our music moving!” Drake wrote, additionally liking a remark by a fan who urged he, Lamar and J Cole collaborate on a observe.

Three years after DAMN’s launch, Lamar would turn out to be the primary rapper in historical past to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, marking the primary time a non-classical or jazz artist had gained the distinguished award.

Through this time, nevertheless, Lamar goes quiet with new music releases (with the exception of the Black Panther movie soundtrack in 2018, which spawned a number of additional Grammy nominations together with Song of the Year for “All the Stars” with SZA).

Meanwhile, Drake continues to dominate the charts with a string of releases together with his Scary Hours EP and his fifth album, 2018’s Scorpion, which included the singles “God’s Plan”, “Nice for What” and “I’m Upset”.

By this level, the general public curiosity in evaluating the 2 artists was so pronounced that even the then-president, Barack Obama, was requested to declare which one he favoured.

2019 – Mr Morale & the Big Steppers to the current day

While Drake has appeared to make occasional makes an attempt at hand Lamar an olive department, the Compton rapper stays tight-lipped until he’s taking swipes on a observe. But after Ok-Dot took virtually 5 years to launch the follow-up to DAMN, his 2022 album Mr Morale & the Big Steppers, Drake apparently couldn’t resist a chance to lash out.

“I know it’s summertime, I’ve gotta give you s***!” he instructed followers throughout a present for his It’s All a Blur tour in 2023. “I don’t know about these guys that go away for three, four, five years and wanna chill out and all that s***. That’s not me.” Drake then introduced the forthcoming launch of his 2024 album, For All the Dogs.

Drake had beforehand been criticised by some for his relentless string of singles, EPs, mixtapes and studio albums, whereas Lamar is infamous for leaving lengthy gaps between releases.

Which brings us to the current day, after Lamar made a shock look on “Like That”, which seems on Future and Metro Boomin’s collaborative album, We Don’t Trust You.

Ok-Dot appeared to instantly reply to J Cole’s verse on “First Person Shooter” from Drake’s For All The Dogs, the place Cole raps: “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.”

“Motherf*** the big three, n***a, it’s just big me,” Lamar raps on “Like That”. “N***a, bum, What? I’m really like that/And your best work is a light pack.”

Drake appeared to brush off Lamar’s diss at a current live performance whereas on his tour with Cole, in help of It’s All a Blur.

“A lot of people asking me how I’m feeling… listen, the way I’m feeling is the same way I want you to walk out of here feeling tonight about your f***ing self,” Drake instructed his viewers, footage shared to social media on 25 March exhibits.

“Because you know how I’m feeling? I got my head up high, my back straight, I’m 10 f***ing toes down… and feeling like anywhere else I go… and I know no matter what, there’s not a n**** on this Earth that can ever f*** with me in my life,” he shouted. “And that’s how I want y’all to walk out of here tonight…”

“But,” he continued, “you know, you can get yourselves gassed up, riled up and move towards the future… Sometimes you’ve got to acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made in the past… right? So that’s what I want you all to do. Everybody in here.”