Translated material
Great rap bit. The most exhaustive guide for the bifa Drake and Kendrick Lamara
One accused the other of pedophilia, and in response received reproaches in domestic violence. It came to shooting. What was it?
For several weeks, the Western musical industry has been discussing the “rap bit of the century”-Bif Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Former friends and colleagues in the spring of 2024 suddenly began to exchange disits in which they not only humiliated each other and switched to personalities, but also concerned family problems. Kendrick, turning in his track to Drake's parents, said that pedophile. Drake several times accused Lamara of being beating his wife. Judging by the indicators of streaming, Kendrick Lamar won. But perhaps the victory went to him too much price.
How BEF developed. Short (as far as possible)
- In the early 2010s, Drake and Kendrick Lamar performed and recorded together. Soon their relationship worsened. For many years, the conflict was limited to rare injections in tracks to each other.
- In October 2023, Drake and Jay Cole released the track “FIRST PERSON ShOOTER”. In it, they stated that together with Lamar, they make up the “large three” rappers. A few months later, in March 2024, Lamar in the song “Like that” said that he was not included in any three-he is one.
- On April 5, Jay Cole recorded Diss on Lamara “7 Minute Drill” . Two days later, he apologized for him and removed the track from the streams.
- On April 13, Drake himself recorded Diss on Lamara - “Push Ups” . Among other things, in the text, he hinted that his wife Whitney Alford is cheating on Kendric. Without waiting for an answer, on April 24, Drake released another Diss “Taylor Made Freestyle” , where he urged Lamara to answer.
- On April 30, Lamar published the track "Euphoria" , where he said that he hates Drake. He also stated that he had fake cubes on the press, and also that bad father. And he warned that Drake should not touch his family.
- On May 3, Lamar published another Diss “6:16 in LA” , where he argued that someone from Drake’s entourage merges information about him.
- Drake answered the same day: on May 3, he posted Diss "Family Matters" . According to Drake, Lamar beat his Whitney bride, and the father of one of the children of Lamar is a friend of Kendrick, the manager and producer Dave Free.
- Lamar answered instantly-an hour later he laid out the disse “Meet the Grahams” , where he stated that Drake had sex traffic and sex with adolescents, and also hides that in addition to his son he also has a daughter.
- The next day, May 4, Lamar published another “Not Like US” Diss, which again accused Drake of pedophilia. He also said that Drake parasitizes on other musicians. And that Kendrick has ten more such disks on him.
- On May 6, Drake released The Heart Part 6 , in which he denied all the accusations.
- On May 7, the Toronto police reported that his guard was seriously wounded near Drake's mansion. It is not known whether Drake was at home and whether it was connected with the conflict.
The rappers themselves did not declare the completion of the confrontation, although there were no new tracks after May 6. Judging by the number of auditions, Kendrick Lamar won in Rap-Bveta. We agree with this in the industry.
And now this whole story is with details
Friendship
Kendrick Lamar and Drake did not always hate each other.
They met in June 2011 - after Kendrick’s first concert in Toronto, where Drake lives. “We were returning to the hotel. <...> Drake found out that I was in the city. He worked there on the album ["Take Care"]. He said he wants to meet. We met, talked, looked at each other and immediately found a common language, ”Lamar recalled their first meeting. Moreover, Drake was the first to hear Kendrick's debut “Section.80” - and called the album “amazing”.
As a result, Drake invited Lamara to participate in the Take Care album, they had Fit Burved Alive Interlude .
Having lit up on Take Care, Lamar stood on a par with Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 from Outkast and other stars, which also participated in the records of the record. Before Kendrick’s breakthrough album “Good Kid, Maad City” was left for another year. To say that the duet with Drake, where Lamar prophetically read about his future popularity, somehow fundamentally changed his career path, would be an exaggeration. But, of course, the song influenced its popularity - like performances on the warm -up of Drake in the 2012 Club Paradise tour.
Not for the exchange of courtesy, but for the sake of recording a good track, Drake in 2012 also performed on the album of Lamara, which became rotary for that. The President of the Top Dawg Entertainment label, which released the record “Good Kid, Maad City”, Punch noticed that Drake was the best suited for performing the most romantic song by Poetic Justice .
In the same year, both rapper recorded the track with Asap Rocky - Fuckin Problems . Drake, among other things, read about what he does not trust those who do not know . Later in Battle, Lamar will use this and say that Drake is paranoia.
In the wake of the superuspect “Good Kid, Maad City” (the album is called one of the best in the 2010s) in 2013, Kendrick called himself the king of both coasts-Western and Eastern. In the “Control” track, Big Sean, he read : “I love you all, but I try to kill you. Make sure that fans never hear about you. They no longer want to hear a word from you. ” In the text, he turned to eleven rappers by name, among whom was Drake , as if calling them to a friendly, but battle.
The unprecedented level of self -love that Lamar demonstrated, then already seemed quite justified. This verse in Control is recognized as one of the most important in the decade - for the top straight and frankness, as well as for the skill with which Kendrick read it. One of the addressees ( Lupa Fiasco and Jay Cole ) undertook to answer Lamaru, while Drake dismissed and stated that it was just ambitions, and Lamar could not “kill” him; In addition, they recently saw at the MTV VMA ceremony, and everything went there peacefully.
Kendrick did not think so. In the same 2013, he “attacked” Drake on the presentation of the Bet Hip-Hop Awards awards, calling him “sensitive rapper”, whom the track “Control” “put back into my pajamas”. After that, Drake said that Lamar provokes him to conflict - and puts him in a position when everyone is waiting for an answer from him. But he was not going to succumb to provocations.
According to one of the theories , Lamar changed his attitude to Drake, learning that he hates the rapper DMX , who said: “I don’t like anything in Drake. I don't like his fucking voice. I don't like what he is talking about. I don't like his face. I don't like his gait. I don't like anything about him. ”
Kendrick is silent. Tupak and snap dogg enter the game
In subsequent years, the war between Drake and Lamar was rather cold. With the exception of the episode in 2015, when Kendrick in the hit “King Kunta” read about Drake: “The rapper with Gostostariter? What kind of garbage happened? ", Hinting that third -party authors write texts to Drake. Drake answered Fit “100” with The Game: “I would have taken all your fans if I had not left for a priest, but would continue to write serious shit .”
The conflict again began to flare up in October 2023, when Drake and Jay Cole released the overtime track “First Person Shooter” -he debuted in the Billboard Hot 100 chart immediately (for Cole this was the first such success, for Drake-the thirteenth). Cole read out:
I love when they argue, who is the coolest MC
Is this K-Dot ? Is this Aubrey ? Or me?
We are a big three , as if we had created a league,
But right now I feel like Muhammad Ali.
Drake directly compared himself to Michael Jackson (“I was left alone [the song in the first place in the chart] to Michael”). After the success of FIRST Person Shooter, it really was equal to Jackson in the number of songs No. 1 in the history of the Billboard Hot 100.
Kendrick answered only five months later.
In March 2024, in the track “Like that” from the album of the rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin “We Don wrote, he read out:“ Shut your mouth the same coffin ” -probably in response to the line“ We will make your funeral song ” From FIRST PERSON SHOOOTER.
Kendrick continued: “Fucking your disits, fucking a large three - I am so alone. And in general, Prince experienced Michael Jackson . ”
Jay Cole took to answer. On April 5, in the solo disce “7 Minute Drill” he walked through the discography of Lamar, saying that his first album “Section.80” became a classic, the last “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a failure, and the second “Good Kid, Maad City” “euthanized” everyone, although it was praised. “But if it comes to the case, I will humiliate him behind this microphone ,” Cole boasted.
Two days after the release of the track, he suddenly apologized . From the stage at the Dreamville festival, Cole explained for six minutes why “7 Minute Drill” is one of the most stupid things that he had ever done. Allegedly, friends raised him to answer and he acted in a “morally unacceptable” way, releasing the track. Kendrick added Cole , - one of the greatest Emsey in history. A few days later, 7 Minute Drill disappeared with striming platforms. This apology in the rap environment was perceived, to put it mildly, controversial.
For example, Kanye got angry
On April 22, Kanye West joined the conflict. He released a remix on the track Future and Metro Boomin "Like that". Kanye supported Kendrick in him. Most of all, the track did not get Drake, but Jay Cole, who had already apologized by that time.
In particular, writes The Flow , he read out that Rap Jay Cole "All the Pussy has dried up." And Kanye has all the achievements of Drake for a long time, he reminded him of the track. Together with the track, Kanye laid out a meme that girls do not like rap Cole.
More in Kendrick and Drake, Kanye did not participate.
Following the fight, Drake himself joined.
On April 13, he published the track “Push Ups” , in which he laughed at the growth and size of Kendrick's shoes. As for the big three - according to Drake, it includes SZA ,Travis Scott and 21 Savage, because Lamara’s last album “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers allegedly failed . The hardest line in Drake’s disce: “I go with bodyguards, like Whitney ” - either a reference to the film “Bodyguard” with Whitney Houston, or a cruel poddle: does his wife Kendrick, Whitney Alford, and bodyguards, because he allegedly is her allegedly hits?
Drake did not wait for an answer to “Push Ups” - and simply continued Dissit Lamara. On April 24, the Canadian released the track "Taylor Made Freestyle" . In it, Drake was involved in artificial intelligence - the neural networks in two verses remade his voice in the voice of Tupac Shakur and Snup Dogg.
Both rapper play an important role in Lamar's life: he even wrote a letter of thanks to Tupak for inspiration into the anniversary of his death, and Kendrick’s album “To Pimp a Butterfly” was originally called “Tu Pimp a Caterpillar” , and in his last track the rapper extended the conversation with Tupak Using an audio recording of interviews 1994 years.
Snup Dogg Kendrick called his “mentor” - in 2013, it was Snup that was one of those who proclaimed Lamar “the king of the western coast”.
The voice of Tupak Drake provoked Kendrick:
I will not lie, people are confusing.
Are you going to wait another week [before the answer]?
Or back so that this girl is in the top?
I would not agree to this .
By “this girl”, Drake had in mind Taylor Swift, who at the same time came out of a new album - in fact, he accused Kendrick of that he did not release the dissens, because he was afraid of competition for listening to the singer.
With the voice of Snup Doga, he continued to push: "And yet, you must show this fucking owl who is the host in the West ." Drake read the third verse in his voice. His main punch sounded like this:
Now we will have to wait a whole week
Because Taylor Swift is your new boss.
And if you are going to release something,
She should approve this .
The correspondence "participants" of Dissa reacted differently to him. The heirs of Tupak threatened Drake by the court for using the rapper’s voice - “Taylor Made Freestyle” had to be removed from official sites. Snep Dogg did not understand what was happening: “What did they do? When? How? Are you sure? <...> I went to sleep. Good night, ”he said in a response video.
Kendrick woke up
On April 30, Lamar still answered Drake. He released the track “Euphoria” , which immediately after the exit brought down the site with the texts of the songs of Genius - the fans rushed to read the text and decipher the references .
In the track, Lamar also walked through the appearance of the opponent (for example, he stated that Drake made his stomach plasticity so that he had cubes). And he also called him a bad father: “My son needs to be brought up, but it seems that you don’t understand anything ” and criticized that Drake uses N-word , although he has mixed ethnic identity .
Along the way, he called Drake a “miserable manipulator”, “pathological liar”, “fraud”, and also said that he simply hates the gait, manner of conversation and Drake's clothes (as DMX once said). In the final, he warned that Drake should not talk about Lamar's family in his texts.
In response, Drake posted a monologue of the heroine from the romantic comedy “10 reasons for my hatred” on Instagram: she lists for a long time, for which she hates the guy, but it is clear from the monologue that she is in love with him.
On May 3, Kendrick published another Diss - “6:16 in LA” . Producer Jack Antonoff worked on music, a longtime co -author Taylor Swift.
The toughest punch in it is that, surrounded by Drake, someone works for Kendrick and merges the information to him: “Everyone in your team whisper that you deserve it ”; Allegedly, his associates are tired of him - and they want him to lose the bif. Some, Lamar claims, can no longer bear the unbridled lifestyle of Drake, but are afraid to say about it.
Drake answered with disse “Family Matters” , and Kendrick instantly - an hour later - laid out the track “Meet the Grahams” . In both songs, the reperns did not limit themselves to mutual accusations, but began to read about the most personal - families of each other. And they brought the most serious accusations.
At the end of his 7.5-minute track, Drake claimed that Kendrick beat his Whitney bride-and the Lamar team had to make efforts to hush up this situation. The real father of one of the children of Lamar, said Drake, is Dav Frei, the right hand and friend of the childhood of Lamara. “The image that you drew is false. You are dead , ”the Canadian read. In the video for this song, someone takes to a landfill and destroys the car from the cover of Kendrick’s album “Good Kid, Maad City”, where they had a joint track.
Lamar, however, turned in his track directly to the five -year -old son of Drake Adonis: “I look at your dad and I think: in vain your grandfather did not put on a condom .” And then to the parents of Drake, saying that their son is a pedophile and is engaged in sex traffic: "Each one who listens to him <...> You sell your nieces to strange people, not among the good ones."
Where does the accusations of pedophilia come from
The media has repeatedly written that Drake corresponded with minor colleagues. For the first time, they started talking about this in 2018, when the 14-year-old actress Millie Bobby Brown (“Very strange things”) told about correspondence with the 30-year-old rapper: “I met him [Drake] in Australia, and he, frankly, is such a fantastic ! We corresponded with each other the other day, and he said "I miss you so," and I replied: "I miss you even more." He is magnificent, ”Brown said in an interview with Access Hollywood. The public criticized Drake, but Brown defended him on Instagram, saying that it was just a correspondence with a senior colleague and inspirer.
In 2019, 17-year-old Billy Ailish told Vanity Fair that she also corresponded with Drake. “This is the most pleasant dude that I have ever talked with. I only wrote him messages, but he was so sweet. ” Ailish later emphasized that there was no sexual connotation in their communication.
Critics of Drake also recalled the old video with him, in which he, 23-year-old, hugged on stage with his fan and kisses her in the neck, pulling the gates of her T-shirt so that it would be more convenient to do. Upon learning that she was 17, he was surprised why she was already so “casual” and said: “Damn, I'm still early in jail!”
In the third piece, Lamar addresses Drake's daughter, whom he, as Kendrick claims, hides:
I'm sorry that your father is not nearby.
He certainly does not care anything but his music,
He is Narcissus and Mizogin, living with his songs,
Trying to ruin other people's families, and not take care of his own .
And the fourth verse is a message to Drake himself: “It could be a good show inside the rap games / but you ruined everything by talking about my family .”
To the surprise of the public, of all the serious accusations made by Lamar, Drake commented only one thing-that he has a daughter, whom he hides: "Can someone find her and send her to me?" - He wrote on Instagram.
Kendrick - Rolling Stone on May 4 called it a dance on the grave of Drake - released another Diss Not Like Us , where he continued to accuse the opponent of crimes. The name of the album "Certified Lover Boy" Drake, he reinvented to "Certified Pedophiles" ("Certified pedophiles"). On the cover of the single depicts the Drake mansion in Toronto, on which there are 13 marks-such in the United States in various applications indicate registered sex-criminals.
Even Kendrick called the Canadian rapper a colonialist parasitizing on the legacy of rappers from Atlanta. According to Lamar, he recorded ten such disks, although only five came out: "The rabbit hole is still deep." The track “Not Like us” immediately led the streaming tops, becoming, perhaps, the most successful compilation recorded during this bifal.
The end of the battle
The last track in the bifa is today - the answer of Drake The Heart Part 6 released on May 6. He begins with Sampla from the song of Arieta Franklin “Prove it”: “Just show how you will prove it .”
Drake asks Kendrick to double-check the facts and recalls Lamar's track “Mother I Sber”, in which he spoke of his childhood injuries-Drake believes that it was because of them that Lamar is so focused on the theme of pedophilia. В треке канадский рэпер неоднократно отрицает обвинения в том, что спал с подростками, и дважды устало говорит, что не хочет продолжать биф (в том числе потому , что боится за жену Кендрика).
Заканчивает Дрейк тем, что у него с фактчекингом все в порядке — и этот биф дал ему хороший повод в нем поупражняться.
Прошло несколько дней, Кендрик не ответил — и публика начала подводить итоги. В соцсетях Дрейка его фанаты пишут, что победил их любимец, в соцсетях Кендрика картина ровно противоположная.
Издание The Ringer назвало шесть причин, «почему Дрейк проиграл»: по мнению журналистов, он был недостаточно собран, выбрал негибкую стратегию, публика изначально не относилась к нему серьезно — из-за поражения в бифе с рэпером Pusha T в 2018 году. Его аргументы, пишет издание, шли вразрез с публичным образом Кендрика, тогда как Кендрик со своей стороны подкреплял уже существующие претензии к Дрейку. Дрейк неправильно прочитал оппонента, считает автор The Ringer, тогда как Кендрик грамотно использовал приемы психологического давления.
Rolling Stone тоже признает Кендрика победителем — просто потому, что его диссы били жестче. The New York Times опубликовала колонку Лоренса Ральфа, профессора антропологии в Принстоне, под названием «Победитель — Кеднрик Ламар. И олдскульный хип-хоп» . По его словам, победа Ламара означает возвращение жанра к своим корням — и возрождение многослойных, сложных текстов, которые поклонникам интересно расшифровывать (настолько, что обрушивается Genius).
Количество прослушиваний Кендрика Ламара на стримингах выросло на 49%, показатели Дрейка упали на 5%. Дисс Ламара «Not Like Us» дебютировал на первом месте Billboard Hot 100, а дисс Дрейка «Family Matters» — на седьмом.
Но, как отмечает The Guardian, оба рэпера серьезно подпортили репутацию друг друга. Обогатились за счет конфликта прежде всего лейблы, ведь диссы принесли им миллионы прослушиваний и просмотров. Pitchfork замечает , что весь этот биф в итоге превратился в отвратительное зрелище, подогреваемое вниманием медиа и пользователей соцсетей. Да, выиграл Ламар, Дрейк раздавлен. Но победа досталась Кендрику слишком высокой ценой, пишет издание: «Выдвинутые обвинения настолько серьезны, что навсегда останутся висеть над ними дамокловым мечом».
Nikita Velichko
Фото на обложке: Kevin Winter / Getty Images; Joseph Okpako / WireImage / Getty Images