Friends, I regret to announce that we’ve reached a new, uniquely annoying era when it comes to celebrity beef. Either Drake just fired back at Kendrick Lamar with a new diss track, or AI has gotten so good that we’ll never be able to bask in a leaked song again without wondering if it’s actually real.
It all started with Lamar’s guest verse on “Like That,” from Future and Metron Boomin’s March album We Don’t Trust You. Lamar’s bars took aim at both Drake and J. Cole—whose 2023 song collaboration “First Person Shooter” declared that they and Lamar are the biggest names in hip-hop right now.
While Cole rapped that “We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali,” Lamar’s March verse countered, “It’s just big me… What? I’m really like that/ And your best work is a light pack.”
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Lamar also seized the opportunity to dunk on Champagne Papi himself by making a play on his latest album title, For all the Dogs. Lamar rapped: “’fore all your dogs gettin’ buried/ That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary.” Woof!
Drake’s purported response, a diss track titled “Drop and Give Me 50,” is scathing—and so personal that some fans doubt it could have been generated by AI. (Although, again, to reiterate, we have no way to know for sure. Representatives for Drake did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for confirmation.)
Evidently, Mr. Aubrey Graham did not take kindly to Lamar proclaiming his rap supremacy.
“Pipsqueak, pipe down,” Drake (or AI Drake) raps, “You ain’t in no big three/ Travis [Scott] got you wiped down, [21] Savage got you wiped down.”
The rest of the song attacks Lamar’s stature, including his shoe size; mentions his fiancée by name; and basically says that his pop collaborations have made him corny.“Maroon 5 need a version, better make it witty,” Drake/maybe-AI-Drake raps. “Then we need a verse for the Swifties.” In the words of Ms. Taylor herself, this is some bad blood.
As we already saw, J. Cole was not a big fan of Lamar’s remarks, either. In his song “7 Minute Drill,” released on his surprise album Might Delete Later on April 5, he came back swinging: “The rap beef ain’t realer than the shit I seen in Cumberland/ He averagin’ one hard verse like every 30 months or somethin’/ If he wasn’t dissin’, then we wouldn’t be discussin’ him.”
J. Cole also came after Lamar’s albums, which might be where all of this went wrong for him. “I came up in the Ville, so I’m good when it’s tension,” Cole rapped. “He still doin’ shows, but fell off like The Simpsons/ Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic/ Your second shit put n***s to sleep, but they gassed it/ Your third shit was massive and that was your prime/ I was trailin’ right behind and I just now hit mine.”
Although J. Cole talked a big game on that song, he backed down less than a week later with an on-stage apology.
Last Sunday at Dreamville Fest, Cole called his song “the lamest fucking shit I’ve ever done in my fucking life.” In his rush to get the music out, he said, “I moved in a way that I feel, spiritually, feel bad on… That shit don’t sit right with my spirit, that shit disrupts my fucking peace.”
With all these shots getting fired left and right, it looks like there will not be peace for anyone, anytime soon. (But seriously, Team Drake, could you please let us know if this is for real? Because if not, heaven help us all whenever the computers decide to wage lyrical warfare.)
