THIS LEAGUE! It Appears Drake Has Responded To Kendrick Lamar With A Diss Track Of His Own, and It’s Fire. Rick Ross Then Immediately Got Involved Dropping A Drake Diss He’s Been Sitting On. EVERYTHING Explained.
This week was a WILD one in the soap opera that is the hip-hop scene in 2024.
We had a buzz heading into the weekend that Drake had cooked up a response to the Kendrick Lamar diss, we had a demo version of it leaking online that had people thinking it was once again the work of a slick AI model that has replicated Drake down to a T. We had Rick Ross coming from the clouds and going all out, full-throttle at Drake, accusing him of having a nose job AND a Brazilian butt lift. We had 50 Cent stirring the pot and chiming in from the courtside seats egging everybody on. And we even had NBA stars getting caught in the crossfire.
XXL - On Saturday (April 13), audio of an unconfirmed Drake diss track taking shots at Kendrick Lamar and many others surfaced on social media. The song has left fans believing it's the real thing, but many others think it's generated by Artificial Intelligence. Drizzy blasts his rap rivals K-Dot, Future, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross and The Weeknd. The song features a sample of Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s 1995 classic song "Get Money."
In one verse aimed at Kendrick, Drake raps, "Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty/Then we need a verse for the Swifties/Top say drop, you better drop and give 'em 50/Pipsqueak pipe down, you ain’t in no Big 3/SZA got you wiped down/Travis [Scott] got you wiped down/[21] Savage got you wiped down/Like your label boy, you Interscope right now."
In another acidic verse, The Weeknd catches a stray. The alleged Drake spits, "Claim the 6 and boys ain't even come from it/And when you boys got rich you had to run from it/Cash blowin' Abel bread, out here trickin'/S**t we do for b***hes he doing for n***as."
Drake also lyrically slaps Young Metro in one lyric that goes, "I get more love in the city that you're from, n***a/Metro, shut yo h*e a*s up and make some drums, n***a."
He also blasts Future, rapping, "I could never be nobody number one fan/Your first number one had to put it in your hand/You p***ies can’t get booked outside America for nan/I'm out in Tokyo because I'm big in Japan."
This unconfirmed Drake diss track comes after The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky delivered subliminals at the 6 God. They did so on Future and Metro Boomin's newest songs "All to Myself"
and "Show of Hands," respectively.
Both tracks appear on Future's and Young Metro's second joint album, We Still Don't Trust You, which dropped on Friday (April 12).
Drake and The Weeknd have had grievances in the past, which are believed to have originated from Weeknd's refusal to sign with OVO, despite Drake's early support. (He basically discovered, then introduced Weeknd to the world).
A$AP Rocky and Drake have recently been engaging in lyrical battles. Rocky's verse in a recent song may be seen as a response to Drake's diss of Rocky's girlfriend, Rihanna, in his 2023 track "Fear of Heights."
One of the verses finds A$AP Rocky using Rihanna's "bad girl RiRi" moniker to allude to Drake, 37, still having feelings for her.
"Call up Pluto, Metro, should've put me on the first one / N----s swear they bitch the baddest, I just bagged the worst one/ N----s in they feelings over women, what, you hurt or somethin'? / I smash before you birthed, son, Flacko hit it first, son," raps A$AP Rocky.
The rapper continues by attacking Drake's latest album, For All the Dogs, rapping, "Still don’ trust you, it’s always us, never them / Heard you dropped your latest s--- / Funny how it just came and went (Ha-ha-ha).”
For All the Dogs also featured the track "Another Late Night," in which Drake seemingly took his own jab at A$AP Rocky, as he wrapped, "I ain’t Pretty Flacko, bitch, this s--- get really Rocky/ Damn, what? Dirty how I did him in the Wraith.”
Last year Drake and Cole released a track entitled ‘First Person Shooter’ in which the latter claimed that he, Kendrick and Drake were at the top of the rap game.
“Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/We the big three like we started a league,” Cole rapped.
However, that suggestion did not go down well with Kendrick Lamar. At all.
Kendrick responded with his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That’ last month. In the song Kendrick launches insults at both J. Cole and Drake, dismissing talk that they are on the same level.
“Yeah, get up with me, fk sneak dissing/ ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they came with three switches,” Kendrick responded. “Think I won’t drop the location? I still got PTSD/ Motherfk the Big 3, na, it’s just big me.”
J. Cole then fired back on his surprise album Might Delete Later, with his own diss track directed at Kendrick - "7 Minute Drill".
“Your third s**t was massive and that was your prime/ I was trailing right behind and I just now hit mine/ Now I’m front of the line with a comfortable lead/ How ironic, soon as I got it, now he want somethin’ with me.”
The song, like the album, was meh. For how insanely talented J. Cole is a lyricist, us fans of his have much higher standards at this point. And this didn't meet them.
Days after releasing the record, J. Cole then APOLOGIZED, inexplicably.
Rap guru John Rich even disapproved heavily, calling the move, "the softest he'd ever seen".
Failed white rapper Kevin Clancy declared, "Hip hop is officially dead."
Word then began to percolate that Drake had something cooking. And that it was his best work since he ended Meek Mill's career on "Back 2 Back".
Let’s not forget, Kendrick and Drake have been at this cat and mouse game for a decade. They've had their moments of bro hugs and back-pats, with Kendrick once riding shotgun on Drake’s early tours and even featuring on the track “Poetic Justice” from Kendrick’s groundbreaking album, good kid, m.A.A.d city. But things turned frosty real quick post-“Control,” where Kendrick namedropped Drake among others, essentially kicking the hornet’s nest. Drake, in his style, managed to both nod respectfully at Kendrick and slap him down in interviews and cyphers soon after.
And where does Future fit into all this? Well, he’s practically the ringmaster here, watching the lions he’s invited into his circus go at it. Despite Future’s own tangled history with Drake—including collaborations that have defined a chunk of the past decade and the occasional sour note like a scrapped video project, Kendrick's diss was a clear signal that he’s letting Kendrick take the wheel, at least for this round.
As Joe Budden alluded, Drake went scorched Earth on his response. The track, titled "Drop and Give Me 50", which erupted onto the scene with the subtlety of a fireworks display at a library, was nothing short of a blitzkrieg. In a track that dropped in the wee hours, causing a stir that the internet could barely keep up with, Drake unleashed a barrage of lines that didn’t just cross lines, it destroyed them.
Drake dove headfirst into the fray, not just targeting Kendrick but swinging at anyone within arm’s reach. Rick Ross got a mention not for his bars, but for how he allegedly rode Drake’s coattails to chart success. Then there was a dig at The Weeknd's associate, Cash, accused of frivolous spending, painting a picture of loyalty bought and sold.
But the centerpiece of Drake’s wrath was aimed squarely at Kendrick Lamar. Drake didn’t hold back, mocking Kendrick’s physical stature with a disdainful "pipsqueak" and criticizing his business dealings, suggesting Kendrick was manipulated into less than stellar collaborations for the sake of profit. It’s the kind of personal attack that turns a rap battle into a saga, hinting at deep-seated issues far beyond competitive spirit.
Drake and/or his ghost writers took a minute to fire back at Kendrick, but it was worth it because once again, Drake didn't hold back in the slightest, and brought a lot of personal and made a lot of things that weren't public, very public.
The savagery didn’t stop with the lyrics. Drake even had something to say about Kendrick's label dynamics, implying that Top Dawg, Kendrick’s label head, had a stranglehold over his creative output. He sardonically suggested Kendrick was at the beck and call of commercial demands—whether it was dishing out verses for Maroon 5 or catering to Taylor Swift’s fanbase.
(Kendrick famously recorded a verse for Taylor's "Bad Blood Remix" which was horrible.)
The audacity of Drake’s track was its clear intention not just to respond, but to dominate the conversation. He redefined the boundaries of their rivalry, suggesting a new "Big Three" in rap, positioning himself at the apex with perhaps a nod towards J. Cole and sidelining Kendrick to a less influential role. His words were designed to not only sting but to resonate, ensuring the rap community, and fans, would be dissecting his verses in the days to come.
But Drake’s masterstroke was the dual nature of his challenge to Kendrick- to drop the long-rumored "nuclear" diss track he's been sitting on, (allegedly for 4 years now) or to stay silent forever. This wasn’t just a verse- it was a gauntlet thrown with the force of Drake’s entire discography behind it. (Just as he did to Meek with "Back to Back"). The undercurrent of his message was clear. If Kendrick didn’t respond with equal or greater force, the silence would speak volumes.
Drake's buddy Lebron felt the need to chime in.
But he wasn't the NBA star that was in Drake's crosshairs. That unlucky guy was Ja Morant.
Complex- In his diss track, Drizzy had a bar reserved for the Memphis Grizzlies All-Star, referencing his griddy dance move and an issue between them that has Morant upset. "Shoutout to the hooper out here busting out the griddy. I know why you mad na I ain't even tripping," the 6 God rapped on the track.
The shot came out of left field, but people are speculating it's in response to a tweet that Morant posted in support of Metro Boomin and Future's We Don't Trust You collaborative album, which many believe has several shots aimed at The Boy. "Stay on dat side," Morant tweeted in response to Metro tweeting "once you pick a side stay there.."
Almost instantaneously after dropping his response, Rick Ross pretty much hit "send" on a track he's clearly been sitting on for a while, just waiting to drop.
Billboard - Drake then turns his attention to Rick Ross and puts his correction officer past on blast and takes credit for lending him plenty of Hot 100 hits with their collaborations like “Gold Roses,” “Money in the Grave,” “Stay Schemin'” and more.
“I might take your latest girl and cuff her like I’m Ricky/ Can’t believe he jumpin’ in, this n—- turnin’ 50/ Every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy/ Spend that lil’ check you got and stay up out my business,” he spews.
Rick Ross didn’t waste any time in returning fire with his “Champagne Moments” diss coming at the OVO boss. Akademiks premiered the record which finds the MMG mogul saying Drake stole Lil Wayne’s flow and alleged that he got a nose job in the past.
“That’s why you had an operation to make your nose smaller than your father nose,” he raps.
Ross didn’t stop there as he continued to clown Drake by posting side-by-side photos of his face to his Instagram Story while referring to him as “BBL Drizzy.”
Drake responded by sharing a text message conversation with his mom on Sunday (April 14) regarding the alleged nose job while calling Ross a “nosey goof.”
Rick Ross came hard from the top rope on this one, almost too quickly. His camp says he "got in the booth" seconds after hearing Drake's diss, but this seemed far too thought out and calculated. On Ross’ diss track, he calls Drake a “white boy,” claims he stole his flow from Lil Wayne, says he employs ghostwriters and alleges he had cosmetic surgery.
Drakes response seems like his takedown will be fired directly at Ross: “Don’t worry we’ll handle it.” And just to make sure Ross saw the warning, he tagged Rick’s @richforever and said “You’re one nosey goof.”
Then, in the wee hours of the night, Metro dropped a reference track showing Drake had copied a flow from Lil Yachty basically bar for bar on his "Jumbotron Shit Poppin" track.
(The drama wasn't even close to being over)
Then Rick Ross said he's going after Birdman as well.
I think the funniest part of all of this is this entire time 50 Cent (king troll) has been standing on the sidelines trying to instigate and rile everybody up even more.
What a ridiculous series of events.
It seems Drake is taking on all comers, and they're coming out of the woodwork with a lot of vendettas they've been harboring for a while. Which is crazy because aside from Pusha T, Drake has pretty much destroyed anybody who's stepped to him so far.
I am dying to know where J. Cole stands on all of this now and how pissed Drake was for him apologizing and standing down last week. Hopefully we find out.
---- UPDATE ----
We've now got another Kendrick track that's allegedly leaked.