Kendrick Lamar and Drake's very hateful beef is gonna end up as being one of the most iconic moments in the history of hip hop.

And I don't think that's a bold claim either, two of the biggest pound for pound artists going at each other, I think it deserves a title.

And with the release of both Kendrick's Not Like Us and Drake's The Heart Part 6, we seem to be close to the tail end of this part of their story.

If not, then we already are.

But how did we get here?

How do we get to a point in which it's seemingly so obvious who came out this as the winner?

Well, if it wasn't obvious enough, it all starts with Drake.

Drake and Kendrick's beef with each other spans a decade's worth of songs and subliminals.

From Kendrick's iconic control verse.

Drake's comments on the 2014 Grammy debacle.

Kendrick smothering Drake's 2017 album More Life.

And much much more.

There's plenty of content covering that, so let's bring it to October 2023, when Drake releases his 8th studio album For All The Dogs.

Not the most notable album, but it did include a track that featured J. Cole on it, titled

First Person Shooter, one of the very few positively received songs on the LP.

But in it, Cole says.

Which blatantly and obviously refers to Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Cole himself being dubbed the Big 3 in hip hop, at least in the 2010s when this was widely used.

Now, this would really be a nothing burger.

Drake has had a very conflicted opinion when it comes to Kendrick.

Some days he respects him, other days he doesn't.

And while he doesn't really know where to stand, Kendrick himself definitely knows.

Through the years and past decade, it's become glaringly obvious as to what Kendrick thinks of him.

And I tell you what, he's been incredibly consistent in that regard.

He has no love lost for that man.

And this bottled up hatred comes to blows with Future and Metro Boomin's 2024 collaborative album We Don't Trust You.

While positively received, no track on the album is as talked about as Like That, which features Kendrick Lamar.

Directly referencing J.Cole's verse on First Person Shooter.

If that isn't a warning shot, then I don't know what is.

In turn, this prompts J.Cole to drop 7 Minute Drill two weeks later.

The track would receive mixed to poor reception as people didn't feel like he really went in on Kendrick, sometimes coming off as he has too much respect for him to really dig deeper.

This leads him to remove the track from streaming services and publicly apologize two days later, saying

But it being a lukewarm diss track isn't the only reason he pulled it down.

This leads to April 13th, when a leaked song by Drake would hit social media.

And for the very first time, at least as publicly as it can get, Drake fires shots at Kendrick

Lamar.

The song would be later released across all digital streaming platforms on April 19th, with the final title being Push-Ups, firing shots not only at Kendrick, but Future and

Metro Boomin as well.

The same day, he'd also upload on his Instagram, TaylorMade Freestyle, an outright disrespectful diss track that included both Tupac and Snoop Dogg as features through the help of AI.

But with that, we've got what many people wanted for so many years.

Kendrick vs Drake, two incredibly different artists with very different mindsets occupying the same genre, live and in living color.

And this is where we really get to dissect strategy from both camps.

First off, as a short summary of the type of fighter Drake is, he's incredibly in tune with his public perception and persona, only often pushing so far as his opponent is willing to go.

Meaning, his offense tends to come off as surface level and petty at times, striking what's in the public eye such as their character, because that's what really matters at the end of the day as it lines their pockets.

As he says on his 2019 song Amarta, he used this pettiness in 2015 to not only go at Meek

Mill once, but twice, going quite literally back to back, giving Drake a decisive victory over Meek Mill.

He attempted to use the same tactic in 2019 on his record Duppie Freestyle, which was a response to a track from Pusha T's album Daytona.

Pusha T would respond four days later with his ever so iconic The Story of Adidon.

Not only does he dig deeper than Drake would ever want to do, but he also attacks his character and his person as well, completely attacking Aubrey Graham's ego and who he is as a person.

And on top of that, the icing on the cake and the bombshell being Drake's, at the time, hidden child.

Completely washing him, making a stain on his legacy.

But hey, you live and you learn.

And learning is the most crucial, because the day he gets into another dispute, especially with someone who has a lot more star power, he's gonna get armed and ready, right?

Right?

Euphoria.

On April 30th, Kendrick Lamar would drop his response track, Euphoria.

The single starts off with his prediction on Drake's part and gameplan and all this.

Later in the track, he absolutely goes at Drake's neck and Aubrey Graham, the person, bringing up culture vulture discourse, as well as critiquing his lifestyle and him as a father figure, ending it on a very crucial warning shot.

A properly constructed track that peels the layers back on Drake, but nothing too major that he'd walk away from looking very differently.

The track was incredibly well received, a sentiment that's shared with Drake's pushups, making it, at this point at least, a very fair fight.

On May 3rd, Kendrick Lamar would go back to back with 6ix6ine in LA on Instagram, using not only Drake's own tactic to knock him down a peg, but also biting off his anonymous timestamp track that he'd often use.

Not only being petty once, twice, but three times, stealing his track titles, his own playbook, and posting it on a platform that he's most active on.

Later that night, Drake releases Family Matters, probably his strongest effort in the entire beef.

The track not only reveals scathing information regarding Kendrick and his family, but it also shoots on Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, and Dave Free, who

Drake would accuse as being the real father to Kendrick's children.

A track that, if directed at anyone else, could be a career ender, that no one can really come back from.

No fucking way, no fucking way, no way!

Not even an hour later, Kendrick would release Meet The Grams.

Scathing isn't a word to describe it, despicable and downright heinous would be more applicable.

Attacking Drake by proxy through his entire family, further attacking Drake and who he really is, what he stands for, and the people he surrounds himself with.

The final verse is through Aubrey himself, not only further twisting the knife, but completely taking him down, and might I add, very aggressively.

If it wasn't apparent already, this was THE kill shot, especially when you consider this really took the wind out of Family Matters, and the allegations brought up there, which was Kendrick's smartest move throughout this entire back and forth.

You could clearly see, while they occupy the same space, they are at two entirely different lanes.

While Drake was able to dig further, he came at it, this entire time, with a lot of pettiness, not really taking it as serious as he should've.

While Kendrick, who had his petty moments as well, had an incredibly different strategy, and energy.

He wasn't only taking it seriously, he wanted to take him down.

Both their careers were on the line, and while both of them have cemented their legacies, one is walking away from this being viewed very differently than the other.

This leads to the release of Not Like Us, a West Coast inspired single, that not only further attacks Drake, but also buries him in the public eye.

And again, that's all Drake cares about.

His image in the public eye, his perception.

And through Drake's own game plan, Kendrick nukes him in every major category.

Lyrically, sonically, and commercially with Not Like Us being the most streamed track out of all the tracks so far.

Drake would respond to both Meet The Grahams and Not Like Us on May 5th, with The Harp Part 6, directly mocking Kendrick's own synonymous title tracks.

In it, he does address the allegations and further pushes his own against Kendrick, albeit through very questionable ways.

The track would be negatively received, and seemingly for now, giving an end to their beef.

Even through public defeat, Drake's using the same playbook that blew up in his face against Pusha T.

And just like that moment in 2018, it blows up in his face here as well.

And if this really is it, it's fitting that it ends on Drake getting back to back by Kendrick.

Not only ending the beef, but potentially ending Drake, his brand, his image, and his career forever.