What Does the Kendrick/Drake Beef Taste Like? These Detroit Chefs Have an Idea.

What exactly does a rap beef taste like? On Sunday, May 26, Jermond Booze and Amber Beckem will strive to answer that question through their music-centric pop-up Vinyl Tasting. It’s not unusual for rap beefs and their cultural impacts to reach far beyond the songs, but it’s less common for them to inspire a six-course tasting menu. Nodding to the recent feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake (also known as Aubrey Graham) that took over much of the internet and created countless memes, the duo has developed a food remix, of sorts, for Movement Weekend.

Booze says that as the beef was picking up momentum about a month ago, he and Beckem were planning a pop-up based on a different artist, but quickly shifted gears in recognition of the moment. “Amber and I are both huge hip-hop heads.” Booze says.

The pair decided to split their menu so that each chef could maintain free rein over half of the menu. For Booze, that meant centering his dishes on a term essential to both the culinary and rap communities: Smoke. But he’ll get into that later.

To start, Booze challenged himself to capture the calm but gradual tension in Lamar’s sometimes fiery, sometimes measured but always scathing lyrics on “Euphoria,” much of which dissects Graham as an artist. The chef settled on a smoked shrimp and crab pasta salad made with Cajun hollandaise, herbed avocado, and Nashville hot sauce topped with a pickled onion ring. As diners listen to K-Dot sound off with allegations about Drake’s habit of adopting accents and personas that contrast with his lived experiences — as well as more internet-beloved digs at Graham’s parenting skills, suspiciously acquired abs, and his dependence on ghostwriters — Booze wanted diners to experience the roast secondhand. The seafood pasta salad hits the palate first, hot sauce and Cajun spice bringing searing heat only dampened by the richness of hollandaise.

Booze’s menu won’t be as one-sided as many have claimed the original beef was. Booze will include a play on elote by swapping corn for carrots as his canvas. To coincide with Drake’s track “Push Ups,” Booze will pickle and smoke the carrots to create a light, refreshing course that still bears an undersung depth akin to Drake’s performance on the song, written in response to Future, Metro Boomin’, and Lamar’s “Like That.”

Booze closes out his portion of the menu with his interpretation of Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a seething critique of Drake’s masculinity, alleged infidelities,, and accusations of sexualization of minors. What dish could capture those wide-ranging accusations and anxieties?? For Booze, it’s obvious: grilled chicken tsukune.

“Push Ups,” like many of Lamar’s other songs focuses on identity and insecurities, using Graham’s words and past songs to jab at Graham’s admissions of not feeling Black enough and his alleged sexualizing of minors (“High school pics, you was even bad then,” from Drake’s “Nice for What”).

“This [dish’s name] is translated as chicken balls, so I thought it was a fun play,” Booze says.

For this course, Booze makes Japanese-style meatball skewers that rest on a pea puree topped with plum sauce, shishito mayo, pickled microgreens, and smoked pecans. Once formed, the meatballs are smoked and then grilled.

Throughout his portion of the menu, Booze incorporates smoke, a reference to the term often used in battle rap. “Inside the hip hop community, when you’ve got beef, you’ve got smoke with somebody.”

Beckem comes out swinging for her portion of the menu by hitting back against Kendrick’s jabs at Drake’s Canadian heritage. Beckem draws inspiration from Toronto’s sizable Indian diaspora with a potato-and-pea-samosa ravioli, covered in a coconut curry sauce, charred corn, tomato chutney, and micro cilantro to accompany Drake’s song, “Family Matters.” Lamar has previously made fun of Drake’s Canadian roots, and Beckem wanted a dish that challenged the LA rapper’s notions about Canadian culture.

“I was thinking of Drake clapping back at Kendrick for talking about his family and being Canadian. There are lots of cuisine types in Canada, and I wanted to get inspiration from the Indian culture there,” Beckem says.

Born from Lamar’s “6:16 in LA,” Beckem offers an elegant and compact chorizo breakfast tostada topped with a collard green mole, quail egg, cotija, and finished with chili-lime salt. Drawing inspiration from the Mexican staple huevos rancheros, Beckem tells Eater that she wanted to recreate the kind of dish that she would want to eat at 6:16 a.m. in Lamar’s Los Angeles. In the song, Lamar hints at having a spy on Drake’s team. Beckem felt this would be a plan best devised over an early morning meal.

“The whole song, [Lamar] was talking about having [an informant in] the OVO crew, and I pictured Kendrick going to a diner and talking to his informant over breakfast,” Beckem says.

Beckem closes out the meal with “Meet the Grahams,” a dessert of saffron graham cracker crumble, sweet corn custard, blueberries, and vanilla cream playing off of Drake’s last name, and incorporates seasonal ingredients into a delicately sweet finale.

While tensions still run high in the rap world, Booze and Beckem wanted to create a dining experience that both Drake and Lamar fans could enjoy. Even if their music preferences don’t align, the duo is sure that other “rapheads” will enjoy being in a space where they can share their passions with others who feel as strongly about music. Although they can’t speak for what comes next for Kendrick and Drake, the duo believes every dish at this pop-up will surely be in good taste.

As for who the chefs say won the rap battle, it’s not even close. Kendrick Lamar’s on top.

Vinyl Tasting’s Kendrick Lamar Vs. Drake event will take place on Sunday, May 26, at the Norwood at 6531 Woodward Avenue. Separate seatings are scheduled at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are required and start at $80 per person.

Additional photo illustration credits: Photography provided by Vinyl Tasting/Valaurian Waller.