Topline
Social media erupted Friday after rapper Kendrick Lamar potentially dissed Drake and J. Cole in a new song from Future and Metro Boomin’s new joint album, reigniting a decade-long rap beef.
Recording artist Kendrick Lamar performs on the Samsung Stage during day two at Austin City Limits … [+]
Key Facts
Rapper Future and music producer Metro Boomin dropped their anticipated joint album titled “We Don’t Trust You” on Friday featuring artists including Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, The Weeknd, Rick Ross and Kendrick Lamar.
Lamar was featured on the song “Like That,” and sent social media in a frenzy after seemingly dissing rappers Drake and J. Cole, with lyrical references to the pair’s joint song released in 2023 titled “First Person Shooter.”
“Yeah, get up with me, f– sneak dissing/ ‘First Person Shooter’/ I hope they came with three switches,” Lamar rapped; glock switches are gun attachments that illegally modify rifles or handguns to shoot like machine guns.
Lamar continues, adding “think I won’t drop the location/ I still got PTSD, motherf– the big three, it’s just big me,” which may be in reference to a line on “First Person Shooter” in which Cole refers to Lamar, Drake and himself as the “big three” of rap.
Lamar then seemingly took a direct diss at Drake by referencing the Canadian rapper’s latest album “For All The Dogs” by saying “‘fore all your dogs gettin’ buried/ that’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see ‘Pet Sematary.’”
Big Number
402,000. That’s how many album units Drake’s “For All the Dogs” sold in its first week, according to Billboard. This gave Drake his 13th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, breaking his tie with Taylor Swift for having the third-most No. 1 hit albums. However, the two later tied again after Swift gained her 13th No. 1 in November with the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” They’re only topped by Jay-Z with 14 and the Beatles with 19.
Key Background
Drake and Lamar’s history is complicated and spans more than 10 years as the duo has collaborated on several songs and albums including “Poetic Justice” and “F– Problems.” Lamar even accompanied Drake on his Club Paradise Tour in 2012, which sold almost 750,000 tickets and grossed nearly $43 million. However, their rap beef seemingly went public after Lamar’s August 2013 verse on Big Sean’s song “Control,” in which he called out several rappers—including Drake, J. Cole, Big Sean, Mac Miller and A$AP Rocky—by saying “I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you/ Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you/ They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you.” Drake responded to the diss later that month in an interview with Billboard: ”It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me,” he said. “I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform.” After Drake dropped his fourth album “Nothing Was the Same” in October of that year, speculation about whether Lamar dissed him in October 2013 during the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cyphers grew. Lamar rapped “Yeah, and nothing’s been the same since they dropped ‘Control’/ And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.” Former NFL player Marcellus Wiley then alleged in 2016 there was “beef” between the two rappers. He claimed there was a scrapped 2013 interview that he reportedly witnessed from one of the rappers—he declined to mention who—that “would have ignited” an even bigger beef. Drake said he has “a lot of respect” for Cole and Lamar in a 2019 interview, adding he’s excited to see “who can go that extra stretch… who can transcend the generations.”
Tangent
Drake and Cole announced their joint tour titled “It’s All a Blur Tour — Big as the What?” in November, which was slated to kick off in January, but got postponed to February for unknown reasons. This is an extension of Drake’s 2023 joint “It’s All a Blur Tour” with 21 Savage. Drake is set to end the tour on April 5 in New Jersey, accompanied by Lil Wayne.
