Kendrick and Drake have been long term enemies. It was common knowledge that the two never liked each other, however no one would’ve ever guessed the lengths to which Kendrick would go to diss Drake.
J Cole also did take part in the beef initially, but felt it was wise to drop out of it later given the gravity of the situation which had Stephen A Smith realizing that it was time to take a break from sports and address the two gentlemen for putting their drama to the side.
Background
Drake was already an established star during 2011 when he decided to support Kendrick Lamar by featuring him in ‘Buried Alive’ which was part of the ‘Take Care’ album released in 2011.
Kendrick for some reason though wasn’t really happy with Drake and decided to clap back at him when he called him along with others like Meek Mill, J Cole, Pusha T etc out in his guest verse on Big Sean’s ‘Control’ claiming that he loved them all but was out to murder them in the music business.
Drake was asked about it to which he replied that he only thought of it as an ambitious thought and nothing more than that.
I know good and well that [Lamar]’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.
Drake
Fast forward, the two did exchange jabs over the years but it was light matter and nothing all that serious.
J Cole collaborated with Drake in a track called ‘First Person Shooter’ which was part of Drake’s eighth album called ‘For All The Dogs’.
Now, Cole intended the lyrics to be a call for a union claiming that he, Drake and Lamar were the big three of the rap business.
But Lamar later responded in ‘Like That’ a track he collaborated on with Metro Boomin(who also had a falling out with Drake) claiming that there was no big three with ‘it’s just big me’. He even referenced Drake’s album ‘For All The Dogs’ as dogs getting buried in the cemetery.
I think that was all it took for the world to witness one of the fiercest rap battles in history which J Cole initially thought he wanted a piece of when he released ‘7 Minutes’ but deleted it later when he realized it was incredibly personal between Drake and Lamar.
Cole even apologized for the track he had created in Dreamville Festival in North Carolina saying that it was a huge mistake.
But, Drake decided to go after Lamar when he dropped Push Ups aiming towards Kendrick Lamar and also Metro in a way. He even tagged Rick Ross, The Weeknd and Future in the song.
This invited a lot of backlash from all sides with Rick Ross firing shots at Drake with ‘Champagne Moments’ where he claimed Drake had done plastic surgery.
Kanye wanted a piece of the battle too when he decided to create a remix of ‘Like That’ which didn’t get much attention at least from Drake who had his focus on Lamar.
Drake came back with Taylor Made Freestyle which had AI delivered voices of Tupac Shakur and SnoopDogg. The song was removed later following complaints from Tupac’s estate.
Kendrick was all set to fire back at Drake and came in full force with the ‘Euphoria’ which expressed blatant hatred towards Drake followed by 6:16 in LA.
Drake fired back with Family Matters claiming Lamar to be a perpetrator of domestic violence which was an allegation that Lamar had never been associated with before.
Lamar then went on to produce ‘Meet The Grahams’ which was Lamar addressing Drake’s family members about the failure of a person that Drake is.
He accused Drake of being addicted to drugs, gambling and sex. One of the claims was also that Drake had fathered a second child.
To top it all, Lamar fired again with ‘Not Like Us’ when he accused Drake of things I wouldn’t dare talk about. He told LeBron and Steph Curry to keep their families away from Drake because he was a predator.
Its interesting to note that Kendrick was absent for almost the entire year but went on to produce 3 diss tracks within a very short period of time .
Drake later answered back with ‘The Heart’ Part 6′ which was Drake trying to prove Kendrick’s allegations as false.
As of now, people have gone tired with the continuous back and forth between the two and things seemed to have calmed down.
