The ongoing feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake has escalated significantly, marked by the simultaneous release of two blistering diss tracks.
Following weeks of verbal jabs, the latest tracks take aim at personal matters, including allegations involving domestic violence and undisclosed paternity.
Drake’s offering, “Family Matters,” insinuates that one of Lamar’s children may not be his biological offspring.
In response, Lamar’s track, “Meet The Grahams,” accuses Drake of addiction to vices like gambling, sex, drugs, and alcohol.
Drake vehemently denies these allegations, dismissing them as baseless accusations.
Both songs, released almost simultaneously on Saturday morning, take a notably darker tone compared to previous exchanges in their ongoing feud.
Drake, recognized as the world’s most streamed rapper, implies in his lyrics that Lamar may be involved in domestic abuse, rapping: “They hired a crisis management team/To clean up the fact that you beat on your queen.”
It’s worth noting that Lamar has never faced any accusations of domestic violence.
Drake also addresses the legal fallout from his earlier diss track, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which utilized AI to replicate Tupac Shakur’s voice. The track was removed following a complaint from Shakur’s estate.
In “Family Matters,” Drake suggests that Lamar exerted influence behind the scenes to ensure the removal of the contentious track.
“You called the 2Pac Estate/And begged ’em to sue me and get that [expletive] down,” he says.
Lamar wasted no time in retaliating. His song, Meet The Grahams, arrived 20 minutes later, along with the warning: “You [messed] up the minute you called out my family’s name”.
The Compton-born rapper proceeded to call out Drake’s parents, and his six-year-old son, by name.
“Dear Adonis, I’m sorry that that man is your father,” he raps in the opening bars. “Let me be honest, it takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive.“
He proceeds to label Drake as a “deadbeat” and implies that Drake may have fathered another child without public acknowledgment.
In response to this allegation, Drake took to Instagram, humorously addressing the accusation with a post stating, “Hold on, can someone find my hidden daughter and send her to me pls… These guys are in shambles,” accompanied by laughing emojis.
Elsewhere in “Meet The Grahams,” Lamar reiterates claims that Drake has relied on ghostwriters for his verses instead of crafting them himself, and suggests that Drake has undergone plastic surgery.
Lamar also insinuates that individuals associated with Drake’s record label OVO are “sex offenders.”
This lyric seems to allude to Canadian rapper Baka Not Nice, formerly a security guard for Drake, who faced charges in 2014 related to coercion into prostitution. Although Baka Not Nice, whose real name is Travis Savoury, pleaded guilty to assault, the prostitution charges were ultimately dropped.
The rivalry between Drake and Lamar traces back to 2013 when Lamar, a rising star at the time, made a boastful remark during a performance at the BET Awards, which was interpreted as a jab at Drake’s vulnerability in his music.
The tension flared up again last year when J Cole and Drake, alongside Lamar, referred to themselves as the “big three” of rap in the song “First Person Shooter.” In response, Lamar asserted his dominance in the rap game in a fiery verse on the track “Like That,” asserting that there is no “big three – it’s just big me.”
Since then, both artists have exchanged diss tracks, intensifying the feud with each release.
Despite the contentious atmosphere, the feud has proven beneficial for both artists commercially, with each side landing hits in the Top 40 charts this week.
