The conflict emerged from Drake and J. Cole’s song “First Person Shooter”. In the record, J. Cole refers to Lamar, Drake and himself as the “Big 3”, expressing the idea that they are the biggest rap artists and are on the same level, with the line “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”. J. Cole’s line caused disagreement with Lamar and the music community, prompting further comments.
Lamar’s feature on “Like That” addresses J. Cole’s comments on “First Person Shooter” about the “Big 3” idea and his dislike of Drake. The “Big 3” references what many hip-hop fans believe are the three most influential artists in the genre; Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. Lamar first brings up Cole’s comments with the line, “F*** sneak dissin’, first person shooter I hope they came with three switches”, stating that the track was a directed diss at Lamar, and projecting his belief that Drake and J.Cole are not in fact on the same level as him. He then reveals his true emotions with the line, “Motherf*** the big three, n****, it’s just big me”, which startled the hip-hop community and erupted the beef. He also relates himself to Prince and Drake to Michaell Jackson saying, “Prince outlives Mike Jack”, claiming that Prince, who to Lamar was more influential, both physically and through memorabilia with pop culture was more memorable while Michael Jackson, seen as the king of pop, is less relevant and is dead to pop culture.
“Push Ups” came out as a response to Lamar’s verse on “Like That”. The song consists mainly of Drake demeaning Lamar’s argument, while also calling him small, weak and not important. The song cover is a shoe size label of a Mens size 7 shoe. The line “How the f**** you big steppin with a size seven mens on” addresses Lamar’s 2022 release “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers”, while also joking that Lamar isn’t necessarily a “big stepper” due to his relatively shorter height of 5’5”. The record’s consistent line of “Drop and give me 50”, is a double entendre, as it references Lamar’s former music label Top Dawg, to which Lamar gives 50 percent of earnings as part of his deal with them, while simultaneously referencing the viral 2023 video of Lamar doing prison pushups. Drake also references his opinion on Lamar and his commitment to the industry, referencing songs Lamar has written with artists like Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift.
The consistent use of Michael Jackson and Prince as comparisons to Drake and Lamar is brought up again in “Push Ups”, with Drake’s line “[There’s a ] big difference ‘tween Mike then and Mike now”, explaining that Michael Jackson when he was alive would not involve himself in rap conflicts like this, but “Mike now” i.e., Drake, would. “Mike now” may also refer to boxer Mike Tyson and his violent nature that Drake and Lamar are both channeling in the battle.
Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” is now taken down due to legal concerns surrounding the use of an AI Tupac Shakur’s and AI Snoop Dogg voice. Drake uses Shakur’s voice to taunt Lamar, as he uses snippets of Tupac interviews on his record “Mortal Man” from “To Pimp a Butterfly”. Lamar is also a representative of west coast rap, same as Shakur. The song essentially acts as a way for Drake to taunt Lamar into responding to his diss “Push Ups”, and make fun of him for taking so long. Both Shakur and Snoop Dogg are the pioneers of west coast rap, and famously “passed the torch” to Lamar; Drake’s use of their fake voices was to mock Lamar for not living up to these legends. AI Snoop Dogg’s line “ I know you never been to jail, orange jumpsuits and shower shoes, Never shot nobody, never stabbed nobody, Never did nothing violent to no one its the homies that empower you” poking at the fact that Lamar often glamorizes and romanticizes the criminal lifestyle in his music, yet he himself has not faced any form of imprisonment so is inauthentic in his comments.
Drake’s belief that Lamar was conflicted on how to respond is further expressed when he mocks Lamar for possibly delaying his response out of fear of Pop artist Taylor Swift’s, recent album “The Tortured Poets Department”, charting instead. Drake’s “Tailor-made” homophone is a pun joking that Lamar’s music releases are dictated by Swift’s music schedule.
Lamar responds to Drake’s “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” with multiple beat switches and allegations, dissecting Drake’s life with a terrifying overtone. The track starts out calm, with Lamar cutting at Drake calmly by saying, “You’re not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted,” and “But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell truths ‘bout you”, insisting Drake not to falsely label him, otherwise, Lamar will reveal Drake’s dark secrets to the world. The beat then transitions to a more macho and dynamic beat, as Lamar switches his tone and flow to sound more provoked. Lamar quickly responds to “Taylor Made Freestyle” by saying, “ I’d rather do that then let a Canadian n**** make Pac turn in his grave,” showing his disgust with Drake, who received a lawsuit from the Tupac estate for his actions due to Drake using the late Californian hip-hop artist 2Pac to diss Lamar with AI, . Lamar talks about the “Big 3” again as he states, “It’s three G.O.A.Ts left and I see them kissin’ and huggin’ on stage,” then he reveals, “ I pray that they my real friends if not I’m YNW Melly,” implying that if J. Cole and Drake are not his friends, he will kill them, which connects to YMW Melly allegedly murdering his friends in 2019.
Kendrick elaborates on his bottled up distaste for Drake with the lines, “Now let me say I’m the biggest hater, I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress, I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct. We hate the b***** you f***, ’cause they confuse themself with real women. And notice, I said “we,” it’s not just me, I’m what the culture feelin,” claiming that Drake’s character is hated not only by Lamar, but by the whole hip-hop community and culture accusing him of being a glorified pop star pretending to be a rapper by featuring with black artists, such as Rick Ross and Lil Yachty. Lamar also calls Drake a horrible parenting figure to his son, Adonis, due to Drake’s use of drugs and his use of ghostwriters, making Drake up to be unoriginal and fake.
Kendrick uses this track as a premise for “meet the grahams” by releasing “6:16 in La” only on Instagram, such as Drake did for “Taylor Made Freestyle”. The track has a calm and serious tone with Lamar being more relaxed, although still dissing Drake and bringing recurring symbols such as bad parenting and lying in the track. Lamar goes for Drake’s friends as well, stating, “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I could see the vibes on Ak’, Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back.” Kendrick also says that Drake is a, “Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person, Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it,” claiming that DJ Akademics, a hip-hop producer known for supporting Drake, is nervous that Drake is losing the battle and his team believes that as well, implying there are multiple rats and moles leaking Drake’s info to Lamar.
He also uses this track for quintuple entendre songs to Drake with the number 616 representing the time Lamar released the track, the 16th of June being Father’s Day in Canada, the 16th of June, 1972, rapper Tupac Shakur was born, the 16th of June, 1994 was when the late OJ Simpson’s allegedly murdered his ex-wife and her friend and June 16th, 2016, the American TV show Euphoria was released, the show Drake acted on.
In Family Matters, Drake addresses some of the claims made in Lamar’s track, essentially rendering them false without any proof, along with his anger with his son, Adonis, being mentioned on the tracks. As seen in the line “you better have some paperwork or that s*** fake tea, can’t be rappin’ ‘bout no rattin; that we can’t read”. Drake attempts to expose Kendrick for his alleged tendency to spend money on prostitutes, as featured in the line “drop a fifty bag, twenty nine for the t***”. Similar to the later line “We know the girls that you actually like, your darkest secrets are coming to light, It’s all on your face like what happened to Mike”. This line again references the Michael Jackson/Prince metaphor the two rappers have been using, but here Drake mentions Jackson’s surgery, in which he had dark patches turn to light, i.e. what he describes is happening to Lamar.
Drake claims that he was “tryna keep it PG”, referencing his disapproval of Lamar’s involvement of children and family in the beef. Yet, he is now saying that he is longer keeping the content as “PG”- later in the record he references more vulgar topics regarding Lamar’s supposedly beating of his wife, e.g. “your baby mama captions always screaming ‘save me’’ adding on with the lyric “Hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen, the picture you painted ain’t what it seems”. Drake furthers the idea that Lamar is not as good as he is making himself seem and is hiding things that are now coming to light.
Lamar’s “meet the grahams” was released about an hour after Drake’s “Family Matters” to the surprise of many fans, who were still digesting Drake’s track. Lamar raps over a menacing and terrifying beat using an off-tune piano chord, exposing Drake’s lifestyle and his secrets. Lamar structures the track by writing letters to each of Drake’s family members, including an alleged 11-year-old daughter he had been neglecting and hiding from the world.
Lamar starts the track by talking to Adonis Graham, Drake’s son, expressing his pity for Adonis claiming that his dad is not responsible and is a horrible father, claiming that Lamar can teach Adonis the lessons Drake will never teach him and to avoid his father’s bad habits, such as Drake’s alleged use of Ozempic, a weight-loss drug, and to not resent other alleged mothers and children. Lamar says in the line, “Can’t understand me right now? Just play this when you’re eighteen”.
Lamar then moves onto Sandra and Dennis Graham, the parents of Drake, to address his alleged problems and condemn them for raising Drake to become this way. Kendrick uses lines such as, “Dear Dennis, you gave birth to a master manipulation”, and, “I’m blamin’ you for all his gamblin’ addictions. Psychopath intuition, the man that like to play victim. You raised a horrible f******’ person, the nerve of you, Dennis” to illustrate his hate toward Drake and his entire bloodline for creating this sick culture of manipulation Lamar sees from Drake. Lamar also claims on this verse that Drake and his partners on OVO are sex offenders and leak videos of themselves sexually assaulting women to, “push an agenda”. He encourages anyone who encounters Drake, such as basketball superstars Lebron James and Stephen Curry, to keep their family away from Drake if they value the safety of their families.
Lamar uses this third verse to talk to Drake alleged 11-year-old daughter and pity for her with lines such as, “I’m sorry that your father [is] not active inside your world. He don’t commit to much but his music, yeah, that’s for sure. He a narcissist, misogynist, livin’ inside his songs. Try destroy families rather than takin’ care of his own”. Lamar encourages the alleged daughter to become independent and great, and to hopefully change her father’s mind and have him care about her family. He also brings up Drake’s failures as a father and a person as he says, “I’ll tell you who your father is, just play this song when it rains. Yes, he’s a hitmaker, songwriter, superstar, right, And a fuckin’ deadbeat that should never say “more life”, implying that Drake may be a famous celebrity and hip-hop artist, but is really a lifeless person. He also says that Drake shouldn’t say “more life” due to hiding children and ghosting women, connecting to Drake’s 2017 album “More Life”.
In the final verse, Kendrick straightforwardly addresses Aubrey Graham, Drake’s real name, claiming that Lamar doesn’t really hate Drake for who he is, only targeting him because he dissed his family in his previous tracks. Lamar suggests that Aubrey should seek therapy for his alleged, “gamblin’ problems, drinkin’ problems, pill-poppin’ and spendin’ problems,” while asking him to commit more as a father. Lamar ends the track using repetition of “you lied” to create a strong statement of guilt towards Drake with the lines, “You lied about your accent and your past tense, all is perjury. You lied about your ghostwriters, you lied about your crew members,” and, “You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, You lied about them other kids that’s out there hopin’ that you come. You lied about the only artist that can offer you some help. F*** a rap battle, this a long-life battle with yourself”.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” uses a cover of Drake’s mansion in Toronto with red markers representing child predators all across the mansion. Along with this, “Not Like Us” broke the most streamed rap song in one day on Spotify gaining 12.8 million streams and breaking Drake’s record with “Girls Want Girls”. The track uses a catchy and energizing beat by DJ Mustard, elevating Lamar’s energy throughout the song.
Lamar employs the same alleged topics on his other disses so far, but makes them witty and more assertive with lines such as, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young. You better not ever go to cell block one,” and “Why you trollin’ like a b****? Ain’t you tired? Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor,” further pushing the claims of Drake and OVO’s alleged activities with grooming minors and being child predators.
Lamar also provides his insight on Drake’s misuse of black culture by partnering with hip-hop artists from Atlanta and using them for profit as well as his use of AI for the late Tupac Shakur. Lamar offers proof of this with the lines, “You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect Pac, n****? I think that Oakland show gon’ be your last stop, n****”, and “You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars. No, you not a colleague, you a f*****’ colonizer,” emphasizing some of his criticism on “euphoria” and creating a new narrative on Drake’s endeavors.
“The Heart pt.6” starts off with Drake admitting that he fed Lamar fake information, in order to make a fool out of him. The line “we plotted for a week, and then we fed you the information … we thought about givin’ a fake name or a destination but you so thirsty, you not concerned with investigation” explains this. He later backed up this information with his producer, DJ Akademiks making a statement. Drake follows up on what he mentioned in Family Matters, about rumors concerning Lamar’s fiance Whitney Alford, and Lamar’s alleged beating of her and how Lamar’s son may actually be Dave-Free’s, Lamar’s long time collaborator and partner. The line “why isnt Whitney denyin’ all the allegations? Why is she following Dave Free and not Mr. Morale?”, refers to this.
The diss also responds to Lamar’s comments on Drake being a child-predator, claiming tha the expected that Lamar would say this and that it’s a weak angle e.g. “This Epstein angle was the s**** I expected” and “ I feel disgusted, I’m too respected, If i was f****ing young girls, I promise i’d have been arrested, I’m way too famous for this s****”. Further claiming that Drake is above this, and if the information was true he would have been caught by now, due to his fame and prestige. Drake has been previously called out for being controversially close with younger girls, specifically stars like Millie Bobby Brown, he latter mentions this specifically in the line “Only f***ing with Whitney’s, not Millie Bobby Brown’s, I’d never look twice at no teenager”. Drake jokes that he wouldn’t be interested in girls like Millie Bobby Brown as he is interested in women like Lamar’s fiance, Whitney.
Drake also responds to Lamar’s “A-minor” double-entendre, with the lyrics “You mentionin’ A-minor but n***** gotta B sharp… you thought you left D-flat, D-major”. During this sequence, the chords are playing in the background as their said, except not for A-minor, which could be Drake addressing the fact he doesn’t actually “strike” it. D-major is also Drake referring to himself, as he did in previous songs as well (i.e. “Big D”).
