The recent release of GNX, a surprise album by the gifted Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, comes amidst the brouhaha of the nauseating feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that began a year ago. In October 2023, Drake’s song First Person Shooter involved rapper J Cole, with the latter asserting his membership of a “Big Three” that included Kendrick and Drake, the latter’s host. And then… there followed a spiral of diss tracks, designed to denigrate the speaker and dissuade the public from his relevance.
The latter rejected the proclaimed trinity and expressed his disagreement with Like That. And then J Cole, offended by this rejection, hit back with 7 Minutes Drill, criticizing Kendrick’s To Pimp A Butterfly, a jewel in Kendrick’s crown. Drake, who certainly doesn’t think he’s an orange, added another layer, claiming in Push Ups that many hip hop/soul artists are superior to Kendrick. Kendrick followed up with Euphoria, then Drake with Taylor Made Freestyle, indirectly linking Kendrick to the rise of Taylor Swift in order to denigrate his rival. In Drake’s Taylor Made Freestyle, it gets even worse: an AI reproduction of the late Tupac Shakur attacks Kendrick… while the latter hits back with 6:16 in LA and 8 AM in Charlotte.
The verbal pugilism escalated with Drake’s Family Matters , suggesting that Kendrick’s children were conceived by his best friend. Furious, Kendrick released Meet the Grahams , in which he implied that Drake was into underage girls and that he felt sorry for his son Adonis to have such a father. In Not Like Us, Kendrik described Drake and his pals as a brotherhood of pedophiles, plain and simple. And guess what, Drake went on to suggest that Kendrick’s married life was fraught with domestic violence and that he could no longer see his children.
Legal proceedings were initiated, and the confrontation continues to this day… While the knives fly lower and lower, Drake plans to be in Australia when Kendrick triumphs at the Super Bowl LIX intermission.Legal proceedings were initiated, and the confrontation continues to this day… Just a few days ago, we read in media that the Canadian rapper was accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) of charging Spotify discounted streaming rights on condition that the Kendrick’s single Not Like Us was recommended to its subscribers, as well as installing bots to falsely increase the number of listens.
While the knives fly lower and lower, Drake plans to be performing in Australia when Kendrick triumphs at the Super Bowl LIX intermission.
One more step and the guns come out?
If we go back to the source of the problem, let’s say that the qualities of Drake, J Cole and Kendrick are different, but I’m of the opinion that Kendrick Lamar Duckworth remains the mastermind of hip-hop, while Drake can’t wish for anything better than the championship of the generic extreme-center, while J Cole must be considered an undisputed master of flow but relatively conformist in form and content. It’s obvious to me that Kendrick’s substance is richer, more innovative, more refined, in text as in music and beatmaking. I’m still surprised by his mass success, an exception that proves the rule for an artistic proposal of this scope.
That said, I’m sorry to see his thick torso bulge, or even his emotional immaturity, to lend himself to such a childish game, to blow his lungs out in such a balloon of testosterone. Such a brilliant boy couldn’t avoid this alpha-male bullshit. Shame on him and his now lifelong enemies.
