The ongoing feud between superstar hip-hop artists Aubrey Graham, more commonly known by his stage name Drake, and Kendrick Lamar has swept the Internet arguably more than any other modern rap feud. With hefty allegations flying from all sides, both artists are pumping out diss tracks that hit millions of plays in mere minutes. However, besides the drama behind it, there’s another question: Are the tracks good?

 Before I overview them, I will admit my preexisting bias in talking about the two as someone who has been a Kendrick fan long before the drama started. I adore Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and DAMN. among other records and have consistently found his songwriting capabilities to be top-notch. Because of that, keep in mind that these discussions of musical quality are simply my own opinion. (I will also not be counting “Like That”, a song made by several artists featuring Lamar.)

“Push Ups”

This is Drake’s first response to Kendrick’s snide comment against him on Like That released on April 19, 2024. With a fast and aggressive beat, Drake both makes plenty of height jokes and insults Kendrick’s confidence in proclaiming himself good enough to usurp the rest of the “big three” rappers, or even to call himself one of the “big three” at all: 

“Pipsqueak, pipe down

You ain’t in no big three, SZA got you wiped down

Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down

Like your label, boy, you in a scope right now”

 This song is an enjoyable and catchy track, with plenty of clever insults. There’s not enough that I would come back to regularly, a common trend with Drake’s music for me, but it’s enough to keep numbers up and make for some competition.

“Taylor Made Freestyle”

 This was Drake’s since-deleted follow-up against Kendrick, also released on April 19. It utilizes AI-generated voices of rappers Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur, two huge rap artists Kendrick has cited as idols. It was pulled from social media after Shakur’s estate threatened to sue over copyright issues.

 To be blunt, I am not impressed with this track. I find the usage of AI-generated Tupac vocals cringeworthy at best and the deletion of the song makes it even more ineffective of a diss. For Drake’s sake, this song is better left forgotten about.

“euphoria”

 On April 30, Kendrick released his long-awaited Drake diss. A six-minute-long tear into Drake’s character and music styles with an intensely catchy beat, Kendrick says that everything about Drake makes him sick, even going so far as to mock his Toronto accent while he raps.

 The song is full of the rich lyricism and double entendres that I expect from Kendrick, criticizing Drake’s commodification and disconnection from black culture and insulting his parenting skills. It’s a fun listen that carries you through all six minutes of rapid-fire insults and character smears.

“6:16 in LA”

 A more relaxed track, 6:16 in LA is another diss Kendrick released against Drake three days after euphoria. With a calmer flow, Kendrick continues with a lot of his insults on the last track, with a few somewhat foreboding lines:

“Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see

Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?”

 This track has been somewhat less talked about during the whole Drake-Kendrick feud. While it’s not my favorite track, it’s a good more laid-back song with a lot of foreshadowing for what was to come.

“FAMILY MATTERS”

 Drake releases his response to both of Kendrick’s tracks on May 3. As a nearly eight-minute-long song, the rapper tears into Kendrick’s family life, mocks his height, accuses his fame of being unearned, and goes so far as to accuse him of wife-beating, a claim currently unproven (possibly based on old rumors that also lack definite evidence).

 This track is certainly a powerful response to euphoria. The beat is strong and the lyrics are both much more thought out than Drake’s usual display and very damning. Some of the insults are petty like the previous tracks, but there was substance present that raised eyebrows. It is some of the best music I’ve heard from Drake. However, notoriously, this song would be left in the dust faster than anyone could ever imagine.

“meet the grahams”

 About forty minutes after Drake’s release, Kendrick drops meet the grahams on his social media. Rocketing in seriousness, the song is a dark and disturbing listen, with far more alarming content on any of the previous disses and, indeed, most rap diss tracks in general.

 The cover image is a picture of various items, including Ozempic medication prescribed to Drake, something he’d mocked others for using both in the past and on FAMILY MATTERS. This personal information strongly suggests that Kendrick has people close to Drake sending information to him (that also likely made him aware of the content in Family Matters before it dropped, allowing him to drop his own track that overshadowed it almost immediately.)

 In the lyrics, Kendrick addresses Drake’s family, apologizing to his children for having a parent like him, calling him a deadbeat father, accusing him of covering for a ring of sex offenders at his record label (OVO), referring to him as a predator and a misogynist, saying the words “he should die”, and most notably, accusing him of hiding a child, an eleven-year-old daughter.

 There have been articles written in the past about an alleged daughter that matches Kendrick’s age description, but nothing is confirmed. (If the daughter is real, this wouldn’t be the first time a diss track has forced Drake to reveal a child he had been hiding from the public, with Pusha T’s The Story of Adidon doing just that.)

 This track is not something I would re-listen to casually. It’s depressing and intense, with accusations that only time can prove correct. However, this was a definite blow to Drake that was written exceptionally powerfully, how ever you may think of the morality of it.

“Not Like Us”

 Less than a day after meet the grahams, Kendrick releases another diss. Not Like Us is like a rave after a bloodbath; with an intensely catchy, almost mockingly lighthearted beat, and the cover art being a picture of where Drake lives, Kendrick mocks his enemy with slam after slam of insults, scandals, and accusations. Throughout, he focuses more on something he’d been lampshading throughout his disses: the pedophilia accusations levied against Drake.

“Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles

Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, f-ck ’em up

Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I’ma do my stuff

Why you trollin’ like a b-tch? Ain’t you tired?

Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor”

 This track is my favorite to come out of the whole feud. I find myself listening to it again and again, following along with the lyrics and getting them stuck in my head, however brutal they are. Kendrick’s flow and lyricism are powerful and condemning like he’s celebrating the dramatic takedown that was meet the grahams.

Not Like Us led a lot of people to think Lamar won the war right then and there; there was nothing Drake could come back from- or at least, it seemed impossible. However, especially with the nature of rap battles, any response is better than none.

“THE HEART PART 6”

 The most recent diss to come out as of May 7, Drake released The Heart Part 6. Claiming to have fed Kendrick fake information about his personal life, he denies the pedophilia allegations and attempts to defame Kendrick’s image once more.

 To be honest, this was nothing but a hard listen, and not in the same way meet the grahams was. Drake spends the majority of his time denying the pedophilia accusations, putting him on the defense, a severely bad state to be in when you’re rap battling. Not even the false mole claim saves it (how would it be a win to make people think you’re a pedophile and a bad father on purpose, anyway?)

 The song itself falls into the problems I have with much of Drake’s discography, being bland and flat musically. The lyrics have the cheesy flair with much of Drake’s songwriting, with a painful fumble of an attempt to rebuke Kendrick’s popular “A minor” line on Not Like Us. He also has a line that seems like an attempt at a white flag:

“I don’t wanna diss you anymore, this really got me second guessing”

 This song was nothing but a failure of a response and, if anything, just made Drake look even worse. On top of all of that, it’s not even fun to listen to.

 This feud is a fascinating pop culture phenomenon that is still ongoing as of writing. While both artists have their unbudging fans that will probably stick to the end, this battle will certainly leave a permanent mark on hip-hop history.