Music
It’s become the defining hip-hop beef of the 21st century. When Kendrick Lamar entered the booth to guest on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That’ he ignited a colossal battle in rap’s upper echelons. Coaxing Drake – and, albeit briefly, J Cole – into the field with some subtle, complex bars, the beef would go on to witness music from Rick Ross, a Ye remix, and social media commentary from virtual anyone associated with North American rap music.
Since then, Drake has fired back – first with a somewhat awkward AI enhanced, ghost-of-2Pac aided track, and then with something more substantial. K Dot bobbed and weaved, but the past 24 hours have seen the gloves well and truly come off.
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Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Euphoria’ drew first blood, reinforced by subsequent drop ‘6:16 In LA’, before Drake hit hard on ‘Family Matters’. The Canadian icon is battling on multiple fronts, and the track contains barbs for A$AP Rocky and others, but Kendrick is the focus of his ire. Once more referencing the Compton rapper’s long-time partner Whitney Alford, he claims that Dave Free allegedly fathered one of Kendrick’s children, that K Dot frequently cheats on his partner at a New York apartment, and that Kendrick has physically abused her.
Within minutes, Kendrick Lamar shared a diss track of his own. Somehow directly responding to ‘Family Matters’, his own Alchemist-produced ‘Meet The Grahams’ is a darker-than-dark, ruthlessly effective diss track. Perhaps the most potent moment of the clash so far, it is unflinching in its hatred, directing a series of letters to Drake’s family. Speaking to Drake’s mother, he calls the rapper “a sick man with sick habits”, compares him to Harvey Weinstein, says that he “hates Black women”, protects “sex offenders on ho-VO”, and says The Embassy – Drake’s HQ – is “about to get raided”. Finally, he reveals – or should that be claims – that Drake has another secret child, this time a daughter.
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For the internet, it’s been an astonishing period of gargantuan tea-spilling. For Drake to attempt to peel back Kendrick Lamar’s reputation is one thing; for Kendrick – a Pulitzer winning aesthete – to virtually cripple the Canadian is another.
Amid the jousting, however, one thing is being lost. Women’s pain and trauma isn’t some bartering chip that can be used to take down the reputation of another artist – in turn, bolstering your own. Drake has little right to act as a defender of women – he showed public support for Tory Lanez, long after the full details of his appalling crimes against Megan Thee Stallion had been verified. Kendrick Lamar isn’t completely clean, either – when Spotify revealed it was considering removing the material of convicted abuser R Kelly, Kendrick Lamar controversially stood against this. Equally, if K Dot is concerned with Drake protecting or platforming abusers, why did he include a feature from Kodak Black on ‘Mr Morales & The Big Steppers’?
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For all the drama, gravitas, and – yes – entertainment offered by this battle, there is also a darker stain. The songwriter Kara Jackson comments on Twitter/x: “It’s very disheartening that at the center of this ‘beef’ is real women and girls trauma and lives. Like at the end of the day our pain is always the punchline.”
She continues: “Y’all do not give a fuck about victims. these are real peoples lives and stories and y’all sitting over here acting like it’s entertainment for you. Think about the real girls whose stories these are.”
Nitty Scott adds: “One day we’ll talk about how the suffering of women is reduced to punchlines and clapback material, and how we catch the majority of strays in rap beef.”
Honing down on the pair’s hypocrisy, she adds: “Most of these rappers only care about who’s being ‘problematic’ when it’s time to trade insults. never see ‘em in the field with those same communities they use to virtue signal, usually ‘cause they’re busy somewhere being a part of the problem.”
The war between Kendrick Lamar and Drake isn’t over – at the time of writing, fresh material is being speculated upon, with new releases widely expected. It’s not without cost, however – and it’s predominantly women paying the price.
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Words: Robin Murray
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