The beginning of May in the rap genre was a whirlwind of lyrical violence and drama. It personified the “I don’t want peace, I want problems” meme. Kendrick Lamar unleashed the Drake diss track “euphoria” on April 30 and intensified the beef with “6:16 in LA” early on May 3. Drake retaliated with “Family Matters” that same night. Before you could even take a breath, Kendrick was back within THE HOUR with “Meet The Grahams.”
But K-Dot wasn’t satisfied and dropped “Not Like Us” on Saturday, May 4, applying even more pressure on the Toronto native. Drake replied on Sunday, May 5, with “The Heart Pt 6,” and you’re finally caught up.
Four diss tracks within 48 hours are the rap equivalent of the NBA finals. It was game 7, and each song was a new quarter. History books could be written about this war if someone tried to recap all the different ways to hate (the beef even has its own Wikipedia page).
If there was any debate about the role regions play in the beef, Kendrick’s West Coast anthem “Not Like Us” made it clear he speaks for the West and is not only defending his legacy but those who came before him, like Tupac, and put respect on the West Coast name.
It’s only fitting to break down the East (Team Drake) vs. West (Team Kendrick) battle as if it were the NBA finals. There were four diss tracks leading up to the champion reveal and four quarters in an NBA game. See the wins and losses and recurring allegations plaguing each side below.
First Quarter: “Family Matters”
Drake took the lead by dropping “Family Matters” first but wasted too many minutes on poor defense matchups—coming for Rick Ross, The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Future, and Metro Boomin—when his focus should have been on Kendrick. His offense, however, was strong in beat selection and cadence.
Foul Call: Kendrick’s infidelity and alleged physical abuse of his partner
One of the main plays Drake relies on is picking apart Kendrick’s holier-than-thou persona. He mentions Kendrick’s infidelity towards his longtime girlfriend Whitney Alford and suggests their home is not as happy as it seems.
He accuses Kendrick’s right-hand man and pgLang partner, Dave Free, of fathering one of his children and insinuates that Kendrick had laid hands on Whitney before and hired a crisis team to cover it up.
Foul Call: Kendrick’s hypocrisy
Drake suggests that Kendrick’s “rapping for the slaves” and black “activist” persona isn’t in line with how he lives his life, drawing attention to the fact that Kendrick’s girlfriend is mixed-race.
He questions why Kendrick doesn’t publicly embrace his son, hinting at the Dave Free scandal because Kendrick’s son is lighter-skinned. He hypothesizes that a light-skinned son conflicts with Kendrick’s strong alignment to his black heritage.
Drake takes the lead
Drake’s offense on “Family Matters” takes the lead at the end of the first quarter. Aside from the “D” bar (“It’s only big D, and there’s video proof”), it’s a solid song with hard beat switches and a high-quality music video. Drake antagonizes Kendrick like he’s the Celtics fans berating Kyrie Irving every time he touches the ball in the TD Garden.
Second Quarter: “Meet The Grahams”
Over the ominous Alchemist beat that sounds like it should score a serial killer movie, Kendrick starts the second quarter swinging. He addresses each of Drake’s family members and doubles down on the “pacify” bar from “Euphoria,” officially calling out Drake’s alleged preference for underage girls.
If the 11-year-old daughter reveal were proven to be true, it would have been a “Story of Adidon” beef-ending track, but as it remains, Drake denies this major allegation. The lack of proof is equivalent to an overturned 4-point play from Kendrick’s offense.
Foul Call: Drake’s deadbeat dad tendencies
Kendrick pleads with Adonis not to grow up like his father, using Ozempic and surgeries to cut corners, picking up gambling and substance abuse addictions, and engaging with escorts. Tapping on the deadbeat father allegations, he says Drake’s an absent father because his father’s absence modeled that behavior to him.
In NBA terms, imagine something incriminating was revealed about Celtics’ star Jayson Tatum, and fans warned his son Deuce not to end up like him.
Drake’s underage skeletons
Speaking to Drake’s parents, Kendrick exposes their son’s similarity to Harvey Weinstein for preying on minors. He suggests Drake’s Toronto home is used to hide various sex crimes and highlights a “sex offender” on the OVO payroll, which may be Baka Not Nice, who was charged with prostituting a 22-year-old woman in 2014.
Mentioning Kat Williams’ explosive truth-telling interview, Kendrick warns Drake’s reckoning will come with his home being raided and investigated like Diddy. He advises athletes like LeBron and Curry to keep their kids away.
Halftime: The score is tied
Drake’s run with “Family Matters” was short-lived, Kendrick responded quickly in the second quarter, picking apart Drake’s defense and tying up the score to level the playing field going into the second half.
Third Quarter: “Not Like Us”
Kendrick LeBall played the third quarter like he had ice in his veins. “Not Like Us” was the sound of the West Coast crip walking on Drake’s grave. He pulled a Drake on Drake, responding with a club banger that has everyone bopping to “wop, wop, wop, wop” and chanting “OV-Hoe” while the disses slap just as hard as the beat (which Mustard bodied).
Foul Call: Drake’s relationship with minors
K-Dot flexed his pen, passing on Drake’s underage girls like he’s NBA player John Stockton (who holds the record for most assists). His most clever play was this double entendre, “Why you trollin’ like a bitch? Ain’t you tired? / Tryna strike a chord, and it’s probably A minor.”
But that’s not the only cash shot Kendrick makes, flipping the word fan into the acronym “freaky ass n*gga, he a 69 god” and asking listeners to “Lemme hear you say, “OV-Ho / Say “OV-Ho / Then step this way, step that way.” Witty and hilarious—no notes.
Foul Call: Drake’s OVO crew
Kendrick spits what the cover art illustrates, calling Drake’s crew a pack of predators moving like a flock that needs to be placed on neighborhood watch. He addresses Chubbs, Partynextdoor, and Baka Not Nice directly for their transgressions and flips Certified Lover Boy into Certified pedophiles for another game highlight-worthy shot.
Drake’s colonizer tendencies
The only new angle Kendrick takes is by giving a history lesson on Atlanta, which was built on the backs of black slaves employed by white colonizers. He accuses Drake of using Future for club credit, borrowing slang from Lil Baby, and getting street cred from Young Thug, Quavo, and 2 Chainz.
The punchline comes when he says Drake’s not a colleague to these rappers but a colonizer—using them to appropriate black culture.
Final Score: Kendrick wins
Sparing you the airballs Drake makes on “The Heart Pt 6” in the fourth quarter, Kendrick took a 35-point lead with “Not Like Us” that there was no coming back from.
In the few days following its release, the culture quickly embraced Kendrick as the champion. In the WNBA, the Chicago Sky DJ played “Not Like Us” to echo the team’s win at the end of their May 7 game. TNT played it during the NBA playoffs’ halftime, and the MLB used it as a walk-up song.
Its prolific use in sports media right after its release speaks to the song’s winning energy in a competitive atmosphere.
Kendrick’s “The Pop Out” show on Juneteenth was the equivalent of the NBA championship parade. It was the strongest display of West Coast unity and culture the world has ever seen.
Bloods and Crips were dancing together on stage, Dr. Dre popped out, Black Hippy reunited for a performance, and Long Beach’s Russell Westbrook and Compton’s DeMar DeRozan looked happier on stage than they did playing basketball.
Drake said Kendrick’s gang affiliations are fake, and his support of Compon is performative. Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” run proved that not only is he Compton, but he’s also the entire West Coast, and they just won the 2024 rap championship.
