Rap Beef: Drizzy vs K. Dot

[Mike]

Apparently the Tik Tok algorithm thinks I'd be interested in the recent (and ongoing) rap Beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. And Tik Tok's algorithm is 100% right!

For reference: Billboard's timeline of Drake and Kendrick.

Here's the highlights: Drake and Kendrick have known each other over a decade. Drake helped Kendrick at the start of his career. They've had kinda low-level beef for years.

Back in October, Drake and J. Cole released "First Person Shooter", in which Cole has a verse describing himself, Drake, and Kendrick as the Big 3 of M.C.s, and then puts himself on top.

Then in March, Kendrick raps on "Like That" by Future and Metro Boomin. Here he just slams Drake and Cole (but mostly Drake) for underhanded attacks on him.

In April Drake responds with "Push Ups" where he goes after Kendrick, but then lays into all sorts of people, Rick Ross, Metro Boomin, Future, The Weeknd, others. Shortly after, Drake goes again with "Taylor Made Freestyle" which uses A I. vocals of Snoop Dogg and Tupac to mock Kendrick. A threatened lawsuit from Tupac's estate forced Drake to pull the song though.

Let's note that in early April, J. Cole also released "7-Minute Drill" attacking Kendrick, but then later retracted it and publicly apologized. A wise move.

Because Kendrick replies to Drake with "Euphoria" which is absolutely vicious as well as brilliantly written. I dig the tracks,but many of the references and musical/lyrical tricks are beyond me. I love seeing the breakdowns and analysis, but I know I'm missing the effect it must have on someone already knowledgeable on the nuances of these men's lives and music. But anyway, 3 days after Euphoria comes "6:16 in LA" which is even smarter, deeper and meaner. It ends with a warning to Drake that he doesn't want to go where this is leading.

But Drake does. He drops "Family Matters" which talks about Kendrick's fiancee'a alleged infidelities and says Kendrick's kids are his. And within hours, Kendrick fires back with "Meet the Grahams" (Drake's name is Aubrey Graham). Where he speaks to various members of Drake's family (including a hidden 11-year-old daughter Drake denies having). As if this wasn't enough, he adds on "Not Like Us" just a day later.

I think the fun of this for me is that A. Kendrick is so good at this, and B. Drake is easy to hate on. He's long been suspected as a pedophile, something that Kendrick implies repeatedly in song after song, until eventually he just states baldly that Drake and some of his cronies are definitely pedophiles. I'm fascinated by this whole process.

[Mike]

Oh yeah, I forgot an extra bonus diss on Drake. Metro Boomin, a D.J. and producer renowned for his beats, also responded to Drake. He created a beat called BBL Drizzy, which samples a parody song of the same name about Drake's various plastic surgeries, one of which is rumored to be a Brazilian butt lift. BBL Drizzy is offered to the public for free, and Metro has offered an original beat as a prize to whoever can lay down the best verse over BBL Drizzy. The verse doesn't have to be a diss on Drake, but it seems most of them are.

[Kyle]

What's hilarious is I just read a long-read article in the Washington Post explaining all of this on Saturday. It was the whitest, boomer thing I've ever read.

[Mike]

That's part of it for me. I'm a middle-aged white guy who likes rap. I recognize most of the names involved, and Im familiar with their music. But I'm not immersed in it. I'm listening to Black creators and musicians breaking it all down for me and explaining references and such, and it feels like reading Shakespeare or Chaucer and having to rely on mountains of footnotes to even approach the intended effect of the author. Like I say, just fascinating.

[Kyle]

Fans rename Drake's Mansion "Kendrick's House" on Google Maps:

https://gizmodo.com/drakes-mansion-driz ... 1851458200

[Phoebe]

Have been following and still puzzling over why Kendrick titled the first one Euphoria. It's a trash show about ugly incidents of teen sex and addiction, and Drake was one of the producers. He worked with Sam Levinson, who is creepy in his own ways, to develop the show, which was to feature Zendaya. Drake would visit rehearsals and handed out bags of cash to the cast at a wrap party. I thought his goal was to be with Zendaya but it seems like the layers go much deeper. Printing my theories might be libelous so I'm waiting for proof, but there's a long rabbit hole of suspicious interactions on Instagram and Twitter from 2019. I'll leave it there.

Also I'm an even bigger Whitney Alford fan than I am a Kendrick fan, and I was also a Drake fan but current position is that he needs to permanently erase Whitney's name from his mouth or I'm going to fight him too. Yes I take this too seriously and don't care, life on earth is short and often makes no sense. Also Kendrick has utterly destroyed this man already yet I fear it's going to happen again soon! People are begging: it's an important week at school, kids are taking exams. Let them rest!