A track-by-track timeline of the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar

Drake.
Photo: Prince Williams/WireImage

As you may have heard, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are in the midst of an intense (and seemingly never-ending) rap battle. Although the two artists have long been at odds, this latest chapter began in March with the release of “Like That,” which quickly sparked a heated back-and-forth that can be difficult to keep up with. Here, we’ll analyze this feud, step by step, by track—the latest of which is a live version of “Euphoria” with added disses.

The powder keg that sparked this particular chapter of the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar was the song “Like That” by Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar. In it, Lamar rejects the notion that he is part of the “Big Three” with Drake and J. Cole, rapping, “It’s just big me.” He also compares himself and Drake to Prince and Michael Jackson, respectively, rapping, “Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

After several weeks, Drake hit back by mysteriously leaking “Push Ups,” with the lyrics, “You ain’t in the Big Three, SZA brushed you off, Travis brushed you off, Savage brushed you off / Like your label, boy, you’re in the crosshairs now / And you’re gonna feel the aftermath of what I write down / I’m on top of the mountain, so you’re uptight now / Just to have this conversation with you, I had to hike down / Big difference between Mike then and Mike now.” Drake also took a swipe at Lamar’s work on pop songs by the likes of Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift, and took a swipe at Rick Ross with the lyrics, “I might take your newest girl and handcuff her like I’m Ricky / I can’t believe he jump in, this nigga is turning 50 / Every song that hit the charts, he got it from Drizzy.” Just hours later, Ross countered with a diss track of his own, accusing Drake of to have undergone plastic surgery – but let’s try to stay on topic.

While waiting for Lamar’s response to “Push Ups,” Drake also released the now-deleted track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” on which he used the AI-generated voices of Lamar’s idols Tupac and Snoop Dogg to attack him — and earned him a cease-and-desist from Shakur’s estate. Following those AI verses, Drake chimed in with his own voice, accusing the rapper of not responding to his original diss because he didn’t want to hinder the release of Taylor Swift’s. The “Tortured Poets” section. “Now we gotta wait a damn week cause Taylor Swift is your new top star and if you guys are coming out soon she gotta approve,” he rapped. Swift, of course, didn’t respond – she’s famously always wanted to be left out of the narrative when it comes to being named in rap songs. Although the song has since been removed, Snoop Dogg’s response is thankfully still online.

On “Euphoria,” which shares the same title as the Drake-produced HBO series, Lamar rips his rival apart with pure hatred, leaving no stone unturned. The verses attack Drake’s upbringing (“I got a son to raise, but I see you don’t know about it”), his alleged plastic surgeries (“I didn’t tell ’em where you got your abs from”) and his rapping skills (“You ain’t no rap artist, you a fraud hoping to be accepted”). He also denounced his use of AI, appearing to confuse actor Haley Joel Osment with televangelist Joel Osteen: “Am I fighting a ghost or AI? Nigga feel like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a movie called AI”

Poking fun at Drake’s penchant for using time and place references in his song titles, “6:16 in LA” came just days after “Euphoria,” making good on that track’s promise of being “back to back.” It was notably produced by Jack Antonoff, which feels like an acknowledgement of Drake’s repeated Taylor Swift references. In the song, he claims to have agents in Drake’s label, rapping, “Did you ever think that OVO was working for me? / Fake bully, I hate bullies / You must be a terrible person / Everyone on your team whispering that you deserve it.”

Drake responded with the nearly eight-minute song “Family Matters,” which suggested that Lamar’s child was actually fathered by his manager Dave Free. He also addressed Lamar’s relationship with fiancée Whitney Alford, alleging infidelity and abuse with lyrics like, “You black messiah, build a mixed queen / And take vanilla cream to boost your self-esteem / On bobby shit, I wanna know what Whitney needs” and “When you put your hands on your girlfriend, is that self-defense ’cause she bigger than you?”

Lamar didn’t give us much time to listen to Drake’s latest diss, dropping “Meet the Grahams” just hours later — which continued the theme of attacking each other’s families from the top by telling Drake’s son Adonis he was sorry Drake was his father. Speaking of kids, the track also claims Drake has a secret daughter, a claim to which Drake responded via Instagram Story, writing, “Nah wait can someone please find my hidden daughter and send her to me… these dudes are devastated 🤣🤣🤣.” Lamar also returned to his jabs about plastic surgery, rapping, “Get disciplined, don’t do things halfway like your daddy did / Fuck what Ozempic did / Don’t pay to play with these Brazilians, sign up at the gym.”

Less than 24 hours after the release of “Meet the Grahams,” Lamar had even more to say with the brutal “Not Like Us,” which sees him make explosive accusations against Drake with lyrics like “Certified lover boy, certified pedophile,” “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better never go to cell block one,” and “Try to strike a chord and it’s probably in A minor.” He also returns to Drake’s use of artificial intelligence to recreate Tupac’s voice on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” rapping, “You think the Bay’s gonna let you disrespect Pac, nigga? I think the Oakland show’s gonna be your last stop, nigga.”

Drake responded to Kendrick’s response to his own response to Drake’s response to… “The Heart Part 6” is a reference to Lamar’s “The Heart” series, which runs through all of his albums. The last “Heart” song came on Mr. Morale and the Great Steppers and had a music video that featured AI deepfakes of OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle. So AI will apparently be a leitmotif of this feud. In “The Heart Part 6,” Drake claims that the hidden daughter rumor was started by his own team in some sort of false flag operation. “You gotta learn to check the facts and be less impatient,” he raps.

Drake is a little late with the “BBL Drizzy” challenge; preparations for an appearance at the Toronto WNBA announcement could not have The lang. On Sexyy Red’s new mixtape We trust SexyyDrake shows up on “U MY EVERYTHING” to rap about Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy,” and tries to redefine the track by making himself the Willy Wonka of body modifications, singing, “I really changed a lot of girls’ lives, they need a new body, they hit me up, ayy (BBL Drizzy)/BBL Drizzy, they want a new body, they beg me for it (BBL Drizzy).” Drake also just raps about the track… What? No saxophone?

Things have been quiet on the Kendrick/Drake front, so why not mix things up on a national holiday? At Kendrick’s Juneteenth show, he debuted a new lyric in “Euphoria” while wearing an outfit that appeared to be a tribute to Tupac. “Give me back Tupac’s ring and maybe I’ll show you some respect,” he rapped. He also changed the line “3 hour time difference” to 2 hours because Drake is currently in Houston. That’s thorough!