Wonderland.

Wonderland.

TEA TIME

Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Metro and Future… are you lost? Worry not. Here, we dissect the beef and explain once and for all what’s going on in the rap world.

@champagnepapi

@champagnepapi

Unless you’ve been snoozing under a rock lately, you’ve surely felt the rap world heating up — with all sorts of chatter stirring the pot on social media. Suddenly, household names such as Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, alongside producer Metro Boomin’ and rapper Future, are everywhere you look. But amidst this frenzy, what’s the real story? As someone diving into the beef headfirst today, I’m here to serve up a piping-hot breakdown of the latest tea brewing in the rap scene. Stick around as we dissect what’s been bubbling up this week…

Where do we start?

Taste aside, it seems to be a consensus between rap enthusiasts that the players in this story are the biggest ones out there. And the origins of the beef go back to their early days in the game. When Kendrick Lamar was just starting off, Drake saw potential in him and invited him to be part of his 2011 album, Take Care, and him an opening spot on his 2012 tour, Club Paradise.

But when Kendrick started to fly high with his own wings, he made it clear he was coming for the pole position and would take no prisoners, calling out Drake, J Cole, and other big names on a guest verse in Big Sean’s track “Control”: “And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Pusha T, Meek Millz, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller / I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you n*****,” he rapped.

Ungrateful? Maybe. Ambitious? Very much. And it’s, perhaps, a much-needed personality trait to have in such a competitive field. And Drake didn’t seem to be much bothered. When asked about the topic in interviews, he told Billboard Magazine, “I know good and well that [Lamar]’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.”

But what changed, then?

Well, as it seems, rappers have a tendency to be quite bitter and… resentful?

Last October, Drake released his eighth album, For All The Dogs, featuring (you guessed) J Cole in the track “First Person Shooter”. Back then, rumours had it that Kendrick was also supposed to be part of the track, but it didn’t turn out to be the case. Still, Cole makes a reference to him in the song, as they brag about the three of them (Cole, Lamar, and Drake — still following) being the “Big 3” in hip-hop.

But, Lamar is like, “Hun, don’t try to compare us. The Big 3 are me, myself, and I”. Not exactly like that, but he was very eager to make a point that his ride is a solo one — a message delivered earlier this month in, let’s say, a cheeky way…

What’s next?

Two new characters unlocked: producer Metro Boomin’ and rapper Future. In the early days of April, Metro and Future released a collaborative album called We Don’t Trust You. And hidden in the tracklist was a song called “Like That” with an uncredited verse by… Kendrick Lamar. Metro, for context, used to be Drake’s collaborator, producing a handful of his 2015 bangers, but the two powerhouses have reportedly fallen out.

“Like That” is intoxicating, and feels right from the heart of an artist that has nothing to hide. “M*** the big three, it’s just big me,” says Lamar, calling Cole and Drake’s best work of a “light pack”, and referencing Drake’s latest album, For All The Dogs: “Fore all your dogs gettin’ buried /That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary (Yeah).”

And where do we stand now?

Well, it seems to be a neverending story. A week after the song dropped, Drake seemed to respond to Lamar during a concert in Florida, speaking directly to the crowd. “A lot of people ask me how I’m feeling. I’mma let you know I’m feeling,” he said in a video shared on X. “I got my fucking head up high, my back straight, I’m 10 fucking toes down in Florida and anywhere else I go. And I know that no matter what, it’s not a n**** on this earth that could ever fuck with me in my life!”

J Cole, on the other hand, decided to once again hit back with bangers — or fans speculate, at least, as a verse of his new track “7 Minute Drill”, on his surprise album Might Delete Later, seems to be a direct message to Lamar. “I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissing / You want some attention, it come with extensions,” he rapped. “He still doing shows but fell off like The Simpsons.”

But, maybe he didn’t mean it… two days since the release of the album, he apologised at his Dreamville Festival, saying the only reason he responded was because he felt pressured to do so. “I was conflicted because, one I know my heart and I know how I feel about my peers, these two n***** that I just been blessed to even stand beside in this game, let alone chase they greatness,” Cole said. “So I felt conflicted ’cause I’m like, bruh I don’t even feel no way. But the world wanna see blood.”

And if the tea wasn’t hot enough, now the rumours are also pointing to a fallout between Cole and Drake, following his feature on Future and Metro’s new album — the same one as Lamar, yes, you heard it right. Although J. Cole doesn’t explicitly reference the recent drama on the single “Red Leather,” many took his cameo on the album as a betrayal to Drake, given that both Kendrick and Future took the chance to aim at the Canadian rapper throughout the project.

Well, while we wait for reconciliation, one thing we can forecast — chances are we’ll soon have more spicy bangers coming our way.

12 April 2024
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