On May 7th, 2024, one of Drake’s bodyguards got shot outside of the rapper’s house but got out with only an injury. Many people think it’s linked to the rap battle between him and Kendrick Lamar that has been going on for a while now.
This situation started in October 2023, when Drake dropped the song ” First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole. In this song, J. Cole claimed that he, Drake, and Kendrick were the “Big 3”. Kendrick replied saying “Mother f**k the big 3, n****, it’s just big me”, five months later in “Like That”, a song made by Metro Boomin, Future, and him.
On April 13th, the song “Push Ups” by Drake leaks in which he says: ” You ain’t in no big 3, SZA got you wiped down, Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down.” In this song, he implies that the three people that he named, who are other famous rappers, are better than him and that Kendrick is not the best rapper.
6 days later, he dropped another song called: “Taylor Made Freestyle” in which he used AI to include verses of Tupac and Snoop Dog. He talks about the fact that Taylor Swift has had time to drop a whole album before Kendrick got to drop a response track. This song was removed from his channels because Tupac’s estate threatened to sue him.
Kendrick drops “Euphoria”, on the 3oth of April. In this track, Kendrick questions Drake’s entire existence: from hating the way he acts, walks, talks, and dresses, to saying he isn’t “black enough” to say the n-word. The 6-and-a-half-minute song, also called: “The Hater Anthem”, by people on social media, was first on The Billboard Hot 100 not even two days after he dropped it. Following Drake’s idea, he published “6:16 in LA”, and deleted it later. Fans had a theory that this song was made to warn Drake to let Kendrick win before it was “too late”.
On May 3rd, “Family Matters”, was dropped by Drake. During the song, he insinuated that Kendrick abused his wife and accused him of being a fake activist which made a lot of fans react. “What a time to be alive!” said one of them in the song’s commentary section on YouTube.
30 minutes later, Kendrick responded with “Meet The Grahams.” People believed that only the cover art of the song had the potential to end Drake’s career. It showed items such as a pair of black gloves, a shirt, some receipts, a visit card, and 3 prescription bottles with the name “Audrey Graham” (Drake’s real name) on them later revealed to be Ozempic ( a pill for weight loss), Adderall ( a pill used to treat ADHD) and Ambien also known as a “date-rape-drug”. Every verse of the song is addressed to a member of Drake’s family. Lamar alleges that Drake has a hidden daughter, states that he’s in contact with sex offenders, and calls him a pedophile.
Eva Kostova, a writer for the Camaradiant, said: ” I think this is the song that made the most noise in the whole battle. Drake was really in a bad position.” Because of this song, many people believe that Drake should be canceled.
On May 4th, Kendrick released “Not Like Us”, mainly making fun of Drake and saying that Drake is talking to minors regularly. His line: “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophile” is the line that made most people talk with his other line “Why you trolling like a b****? Ain’t you tired? Tryna strikes a chord and it’s probably A-Minor.”
Other rappers hoped in the battle-dropping songs to support Kendrick’s side none of them supported Drake’s. The song “BBL DRIZZY”, by Metro Boomin was all over social media and became a representative song of the battle.
On May 5th, Drake dropped ” The Head Part 6″ which uses the lyrics of Kendrick’s song “The Head Part 1,2,3,4 and 5” to attack him. He used Kendrick’s family’s trauma against him which made fans angry. “He thought making fun of a victim of sexual abuse would make him look better?” said one of them on Reddit.
“I think there’s not even hope for Drake anymore, his answer was so bad and out of context”, said Charlie Simard another writer from the Camaradiant.
The latest event that happened was Drake rapping on the “Bbl Drizzy” beat on one of the songs from Sexyy Red’s new album.
Is Kendrick going to respond? Who is going to win? Nobody knows for now.
