The Drake-Lamar rap battle: What happened — and who was the real winner?

Here is a look at how the beef between Lamar and Drake began, who came on top, and what is the history of such rap battles in hip hop.

How did the beef unfold?

It all began in March with the song ‘Like That’ from the album, We Don’t Trust You, by American rappers Future and Metro Boomin. The song featured a guest verse by Lamar in which he said, “… it’s just big me.” This was seemingly in response to the song ‘First Person Shooter’ by Drake and another rapper J Cole, released in November 2023, where they claimed that the “Big 3” of the rap world were Drake, Cole, and Lamar.

In April, Drake hit back by releasing ‘Push Ups’. He discredited Lamar’s declaration, and rapped, “You ain’t in no Big Three… I’m at the top of the mountain, so you tight now / Just to have this talk with yo’ a**, I had to hike down.”

A few days later, Drake put out ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ in which he used AI-generated voices of rapper Snoop Dogg and late Tupac Shakur to diss Lamar. But he was later forced to take it down due to a cease and desist from Shakur’s estate.

Lamar followed up with ‘Euphoria’ on April 30 and ‘6:16 in LA’ on May 3.

On the same day, Drake released his next track, ‘Family Matters’ , in which he claimed that the real father of Lamar’s child was his manager, Dave Free. He also alleged cheating and abuse — Lamar has publicly admitted to being disloyal, but has remained silent on allegations of domestic abuse.

The next diss track that Lamar delivered was nuclear. ‘Meet the Grahams’, released only hours after Drake’s ‘Family Matters’, began with the Compton rapper addressing Drake’s son, “Dear Adonis / I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest / It takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive… / Let me be your mentor since your daddy don’t teach you sh*t”.

He proceeds to address Drake’s mother Sandra, his father Dennis, his daughter (who Drake hasn’t accepted as his) and then Drake himself — through his birth name Aubrey: “I know you probably thinkin’ I wanted to crash your party / But truthfully, I don’t have a hatin’ bone in my body / This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game / But you f**ked up the moment you called out my family’s name”.

Less than 24 hours later, Lamar came out with ‘Not Like Us’, which debuted at Number 1 on US Billboard Hot 100. Considered to be the ultimate slam, it doubles down on allegations of pedophilia against Drake and calls him a “coloniser”. It suggested that Drake is not self-made and mentions older rappers who “falsely” hyped Drake up: “21 gave you false street cred / Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head (ayy, what?) / Quavo said you can be from Northside (what?) / 2 Chainz say you good, but he lied”.

This diss track was also the most popular at the Pop Out concert with Lamar repeating it six times over and the audience singing along.

So, who won the beef?

That depends on how one looks at it. Observers seem to have crowned Lamar with GQ calling ‘Not Like Us’ a “a triumphant battle cry” and Rolling Stone saying, “overall, Lamar’s shots hit harder”. The fact that this track was also played as part of the pregame mix at the Dodgers Stadium, which is the baseball team Los Angeles Dodgers’ home ground, indicates that at least LA has banded behind Lamar.

However, Drake’s commercial success and casual fans still far outweigh that of Lamar. Until May, the Canadian rapper’s songs were streamed 4.5 billion times in the US, which was three times more than those of Lamar. Drake has also historically been a chart topper with 13 Number 1 hits, including ‘Nice For What’, ‘God’s Plan’, ‘Work’, ‘One Dance’ and others under his belt, while Lamar stands at four.

But Lamar is the only rap artist to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. His 2017 album DAMN won the prize in 2018 with the Pulitzer board calling it “a virtuosic song collection… that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” Also, in terms of being true to the art of hip hop, Lamar takes the cake with songs ranging from racism, abuse, gender reassignment surgery, infidelity, growing up in Compton and much more. Drake then, essentially, is the pop counterpart to Lamar’s rap.

What is the history of such rap battles in hip hop?

Rap beefs have been a significant part of hip hop culture. They signal dominance, encourage wordplay and urge artists to sharpen their skills and push them to continue to prove themselves.

The art form itself was a tool of empowerment for the Black community. But there is also a history of gang violence that is difficult to discount. While clashes in the industry have been of various kinds, from friendly displays of dirty laundry to outright violence, some have allegedly even led to death. For instance, the rivalry between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G (Biggie) led to both rappers being shot dead — Tupac at the age of 24 and Biggie one year later, at 25.