Drake versus everyone: What to know about the sprawling rap beef that won’t end

Back by popular demand, it’s time to check back in on the never-ending, ever-expanding rap beef swirling around Drake, Kendrick Lamar and an increasingly bloated number of other artists.

The last time we took a peek, rapper J. Cole had just publicly apologized to Kendrick Lamar over a diss track he released in response to Lamar’s scorched-earth verse on the song “Like That,” which took aim at both Cole and Toronto rapper Drake.

Since then, the dispute has moved far beyond the so-called “Big 3,” roping in such disparate acts as The Weeknd, Rick Ross, Kanye West, the late Tupac Shakur, Drake’s mother and more.

The whole thing has generated some mildly interesting moments, but overall feels a bit like watching a train crash in slow motion. 

Music writer Alphonse Pierre described it best in a recent “power-ranking” of the Battle Royale in a column for Pitchfork:  “What I can’t really get past is that this entire beef feels so artificial and desperate. A collective final cry for attention by a generation of artists who are attempting to fend off an unenviable descent into the nostalgia circuit.”

Here’s a quick roundup of the major updates and shots fired since Cole’s embarrassing about-face.

Future and Metro Boomin escalate things again

As you may recall, it was Future and Metro Boomin who gave Kendrick Lamar the platform to kick off this rap beef with the release of “Like That,” a single from their collaborative album “We Don’t Trust You.” 

It was on that track – which took the internet by storm at hit number one on the Billboard 200 –  that Lamar took aim at Drake and J. Cole.

“Motherf — the big three / It’s just big me,” Lamar rapped over a killer sample of Rodney O and Joe Cooley’s “Everlasting Bass,” officially throwing the gauntlet down.

Surprisingly, Drake remained quiet for weeks, even as tension continued to build. 

On April 12, Future and Metro Boomin released a second collaborative album, “We Still Don’t Trust You,” which featured several tracks that included shots at Drake.

On “Show of Hands,” A$AP Rocky – a Harlem rapper who is now better known as Rihanna’s partner – appears to boast about being intimate with a woman that fans assume is Sophie Brussaux, the mother to Drake’s child Adonis. The Star is a family newspaper, so I won’t be re-sharing the lyrics here.

Elsewhere, Toronto singer The Weeknd – who has a famously tense relationship with Drake – appears on “All to Myself,” where he sings; “I thank God that I never signed my life away,” apparently referencing his early career decision to not sign to Drake’s OVO label. 

Even Drake’s former bestie Future seems to take a few shots at Drake, but I don’t have the energy to parse through all that right now.

All of this meant the pressure was already on Drake to respond. After the release of “We Don’t Trust You,” the kettle was screaming. 

Drake’s response “Push Ups” leaks online

On April 13, Drake’s long-awaited response to *gestures widely* finally arrived in the form of a leaked track called “Push Ups.”

(Embarrassingly for Toronto’s favourite son, the fact that the track was not officially released led to widespread speculation that the track was AI-generated. Drake would eventually release the song on streaming services on April 19.)

Regardless, “Push Ups” was comprehensive in its scope, lobbing pointed barbs at Kendrick Lamar, the Weeknd, Rick Ross, Metro Boomin, J. Cole and probably others.

Drake’s main target on “Push Ups” was Lamar, who, after all, was the person who kicked this whole thing off.

• “Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty” (a reference to Lamar’s spotty history appearing as a guest feature on pop songs)

• “How the f– you big steppin’ with a size 7 mens on?” (a reference to Lamar’s apparently small shoe size)

• “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 Interscope right now” (self-explanatory) 

• “And that f–in’ song y’all got is not starting beef with us / This sh– brewin’ in a pot, now I’m heating up / I don’t care what Cole think, that Dot shit was weak as f–” (a reference to the “Like That” verse)

Drake also had some choice words for his former collaborator Rick Ross, another rapper he’s been beefing with for years. After making fun of Ross for being “old” (48), Drake also suggests that Ross owes his career to his co-signs and guest appearances: “Every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy.”

And finally, Drake responded to the Weeknd’s diss with a pretty lukewarm line calling out the artist’s loyalty to Toronto: “Claim the 6 and boys ain’t even come from it / And when you boys got rich you had to run from it.”

Oh, there’s some constructive criticism aimed at producer Metro Boomin: “Metro shut your h– a– up and make some drums,” he raps.

Rick Ross steps into the ring

(Are you still with me? We’re almost there, I promise.)

You’ve at least got to credit Rick Ross for responding quickly. The American rapper known as Teflon Don release a response to “Push Ups” a day later in the form of “Champagne Moments,” a blistering diss track that – sigh – accuses Drake of having a nose job: “That’s why you had an operation to make your nose smaller than your father’s nose.”

Following the release, Ross continued to needle Drake, releasing a photoshopped image that appears to show the latter’s face imposed onto that of a white person in a suit, and referring to his opponent as “BBL Drizzy.”

Drake responded to this diss by sharing a screenshot of text messages with his mother, apparently denying that he has had any work done on his nose. 

Drake responds again with “Taylor Made Freestyle”

Alright, moving on. On April 19, Drake released another response on social media in the form of “Taylor Made Freestyle” – a track that uses the AI-generated voices of legendary West Coast Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to question Kendrick Lamar’s street cred (Lamar is also a West Coast rapper whose work often pays tribute to Shakur).

Snoop responded to the use of his voice with a pretty hilarious video on Instagram:

Meanwhile, the estate of Shakur, who was infamously shot and killed in September of 1996 at just 25, sent Drake a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that he pull the track off streaming within 24 hours. Drake quickly obliged.

It’s all pretty cringey if you ask me, and seems like a good place to end this beef once and for all, right?

Kanye West unfortunately enters the chat

You know that meme of Squidward looking sadly out of the window at Spongebob Squarepants and his friend Patrick frolicking outside together? 

Well, never one to miss out on a chance to steal the spotlight for a minute, Ye – the rapper formerly known as Kanye West – joined the fracas on April 20 by releasing a remix of “Like That,” which he later described as an attempt to “eliminate” his long-time nemesis Drake.

Once revered as one of the greatest rappers and producers in the history of hip hop, Ye’s public standing has crumbled in recent years due to his frequent outbursts of antisemitic hate speech, his alignment with the far-right and other controversial behaviour. 

Though Ye apologized to the Jewish community in December, I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to his music, let alone what is surely a forgettable remix of “Like That” arriving way too late in this whole thing. 

“Y’all so out of sight, out of mind / I can’t even think of a Drake line,” Ye apparently raps, which I doubt is true.

That’s all for now

I’m going to go listen to the new Schoolboy Q album, as a palate cleanser.