A lot has happened over the weekend with Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and if rapping was boxing, both heavyweights have shown up to compete for the belt.
After finally responding to Drake’s “ Drop and Give Me 50,” with the cryptic “Euphoria,” K. Dot followed up days later with “6:16 in LA,” keeping the pressure on Drake’s neck. Over an Al Green sample, Kendrick alludes to Drake having moles in his camp that are feeding him info, “ Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see, have you ever thought that OVO is working’ for me?… Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person. Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.” Kendrick honed in on the OVO team’s disloyalty and their dislike for their cash cow.
K. Dot’s pressure did not last long as Drake’s “Family Matters,” dropped fourteen hours later. The track is accompanied by a video where the same minivan Kendrick’s mom drove, and he featured on the cover of good kid, m.A.A.d city album was crushed to pieces. And Drake is seen eating at the restaurant Kendrick recently brought attention to on “ Euphoria,” in Toronto, New Ho King, trolling Kendrick. The track is sonically pleasing as Drake changes rap patterns over three different fire beats from Boi-1da, Tay Keith, and Mark Ronson.
In my opinion, this is the best complete and radio-friendly song that came off the battle series this weekend. With allegations that Kendrick is abusive to the mother of his children Whitney Alford, and that one of his children may be fathered by K. Dot’s general manager Dave Free. He even adds that J Cole is losing sleep over battling K Dot but he’s stepping up to the challenge. And he takes a shot at Rick Ross, “body after body, Ricky reading me my Miranda rights,” an assertion to Ross’s former employment in law enforcement. Drake is taunting and showcasing his dominance over K Dot and the rap universe over this 7-minute-plus track.
Drake’s response did not get much time to settle. An hour later Kendrick responds with “ Meet the Grahams,” over eerie piano chords, he recites a toxic letter to Drake, his parents, his son Adonis, and a mystery eleven-year-old daughter.
The track is straightforward and disrespectful as he questions Drake’s existence and expresses that K . Dot would be a better father figure to Drake’s son than him. As Kendrick reads, “ Dear Adonis I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive I look at him and wish your grandpa would a wore a condom I’m sorry that you got to grow up and then stand behind him.” The song has its moments of providing shock value and describes Drake as a man with several vices including gambling and pill popping. However, Kendrick has to lose some points if he is wrong about Drake having a hidden daughter. It shows a level of desperation or bad intel. Drake has denied hiding his daughter on an Instagram story.
Less than 24 hours later, Kendrick dropped his 4th song this week “ Not Like Us, “ where he claims Drake and his OVO camp are pedophiles. One of the OVO artists Baka Not Nice, was charged with prostitution and human trafficking in 2014, the charges were later dropped. In addition, K. Dot accuses Drake of using artists from Atlanta like 21 Savage and Future for credibility and that he was not a colleague but more of a “colonizer.” This was definitely a moment for K. Dot Fans, with the personal and comedic content such as “‘scream OV HO.”
With Kendrick’s output of four tracks in a week gave him advantage, but Drake has the better song with “Family Matters,” and Kendrick may have reached with the accusations of hidden children. I had Kendrick in the lead because of all the music he’s put out the last week, as he keeps applying the pressure, but the fact that Drake is holding his own is a win within itself, as Kendrick is more revered for his lyricism in the court of Hip Hop popular opinion.
With the release of “The Heart Part 6,” Sunday night, reactions began to shift to Drake being up in this battle. On the song, he talks about setting Kendrick up with false information to trick him to thinking he had a daughter, and about Kendrick being sexually abused as kid. He also reveals that the mother of children is not following him on Instagram, but is following the manager Dave Free, adding to the idea that Kendrick and her are on the outs, and her and Free may be romantically involved.
At the moment it feels like Kendrick won lots of the mini battles with his heavy onslaught of content over the last week. But Drake is currently winning the bigger contest, the one of truth. And Hip Hop fans are getting the best of this war of words.
Written By David Lopez
