Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s Bitter Battle Defines 2024

With just a single guest verse on a song from Future and Metro Boomin, Kendrick Lamar ignited a very public, increasingly personal beef with Canadian rapper Drake.

The pair have a complicated history, to say the least, but this year reached a breaking point. In October 2023, Drake released his album For All the Dogs, featuring a lyric referring to himself, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar as the “big three.”

That didn’t sit well with Lamar, who chose to start a rap battle for the ages in March 2024. That’s when Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” was released, making his stance known. What followed were months of diss tracks exchanged between the two artists, starting seemingly harmless, with Drake taking jabs at Lamar’s height.

A couple of diss tracks later, Drake released the now-deleted “Taylor-Made” freestyle, which included AI-generated voices of some of Lamar’s icons—like Tupac and Snoop Dogg—earning him a cease and desist from Shakur’s estate.

After another track from Drake, Lamar responded with “Euphoria,” where he came for Drake’s parenting and rapping abilities. Days later, he struck again, alleging he had operatives within Drake’s label.

Drake clapped back with “Family Matters,” which claimed Lamar’s child was actually fathered by his manager, Lamar replied with “Meet the Grahams,” saying Drake had a secret daughter. Drake’s son, Adonis, was famously revealed in a diss track in 2018. Not even 24 hours later, “Not Like Us” was dropped, which has since become the most popular track to come out of this battle.

This came just days before a security guard was shot outside Drake’s Toronto mansion. Drake did come out with one more song to clear his name, saying the rumors about the “secret daughter” were actually started by his team.

At the end of the year,  Drake sought legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group in November, alleging the two organizations used bots to boost streams of Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

Drake has been a busy this year, and Kendrick Lamar isn’t the only one he’s had beef with. When former Toronto Raptors player DeMar DeRozan returned to Scotiabank Arena as a member of the opposing Sacramento Kings, He didn’t exactly welcome him back with open arms.

Basketball icon Vince Carter had his jersey retired. DeRozan, a six-time NBA All-Star who played for the Raptors from 2009 to 2018, could receive the same treatment at some point.