Thanks to everyone who watched the Met Gala with us last night! You can scroll through the chat here if you’re in the mood. ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith/Me. Photo: Screenshot. How much longer can Kendrick Lamar versus Drake last? This week it already reached a fever pitch: A security guard was shot outside Drake’s Canada mansion early Tuesday morning, per the CBC. (It’s unclear if Drake was home at the time or if it was related to the Kendrick Lamar beef.) With these two men, maybe it will simmer forever. This feud has brought me to my knees (I watched a DJ Akademics livestream, Drake’s bootlicking podcaster of choice). They are two opposite personalities, locked in battle: self-righteous and hardheaded (Kendrick) versus obnoxious and self-pitying and spiteful (Drake). Part of me thinks this is always where the song “Fuckin’ Problems” was headed: a “two houses both alike in dignity” thing, but it’s two rappers both alike in their refusal to accept defeat. Here’s a recap/critique of every song. It is rich that the collab that declares victory — “Big as the Super Bowl But the difference is it’s just two guys playin’ shit that they did in the studio” — is one of the worst Drake songs I’ve ever heard. A collab between Drake and J.Cole should be a layup, but it sounds like a slog. The song is in two halves: a casual J.Cole, and a bitter, snarling Drake. In the video they pantomime various battles of strength and will; Drake reveals a skyscraper-high statue of himself that is such a pathetic rendering it’s what I imagine that one pillar of salt looked like in the Bible. Choice lyrics: J.Cole: “Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? J.Cole again: “Rhymin’ with me is the biggest mistake/The Spider-Man meme is me lookin’ at Drake” Kendrick didn’t stroll into the Future-Metro Boomin joint album, he stomped. His assessment of “First Person Shooter”…? “Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it’s just big me.” And I’d be lying if I said that lyric didn’t gag me a bit: Kendrick raps with tight intensity; where Drake is all swagger, Kendrick’s rhymes pop and smack. Choice lyrics: “Fuck sneak dissin’, first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches” “Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it’s just big me” Usually, it’s only resenting a woman that gets a rise out of Drake, but a few bars from Kendrick gave him something to fuss about. “Push Ups” uses most of Drake’s skills: he’s petty and irreverent, and playfully insouciant. His wrath is in his sense of humor, the way he’ll predictably do too much. (Is that why he sounded sleepy on “First Person Shooter?”) Kendrick is his primary target, but he runs down the rolodex of haters: Rick Ross, Future, and Metro Boomin. It’s the last one that gets a perfect Drake diss: The beat drops out for Drake to sneer “Metro, shut your ho ass up and make some drums, nigga!” But despite the energy, Drake doesn’t have a whole lot to say. Kendrick has fallen off, so has Rick Ross, no one cares about Future — that’s the best he can do? That Kendrick signed a bad record deal? That Drake is the most successful rapper of the streaming era? “Push Ups” is just a good taunt. Choice lyrics: “How the fuck you big steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?” “I’m at the top of the mountain, so you tight now/Just to have this talk with your ass, I had to hike down” “Metro, shut your ho ass up and make some drums, nigga” Later Drake will claim that Kendrick pressured Tupac’s estate to threaten to sue Drake to get this song, which features an AI-generated Pac verse, removed from streaming. Or maybe Drake just heard it himself and realized how bad it was? Verses from AI-Tupac and AI-Snoop Dogg ask Kendrick to overthrow Drake. Drake wonders if the reason Kendrick’s response is taking a week is because Taylor Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department,” but really it sounds like he’s the one settling up with the Swifties, baiting her fans into investigating why her name is in his mouth and then calling her music’s biggest gangster. This is an SEO grab! Choice lyrics: “And fall back so homegirl [Taylor Swift] can run her numbers up? I woulda refused/Fuck these industry relationships, she not in your shoes” “Euphoria” is for real haters, for people who grew up gossiping on porches. I wake up and listen to “Euphoria.” I go to sleep listening to “Euphoria.” How did he start a diss track with some Teddy Pendergrass? No, you don’t understand, it’s too cold. “Euphoria” is in three parts, with three different beats; Drake is the primary target. “Push Ups” was fun, I like the beat, but “Euphoria” is grown folks’ business. It’s a feast for the ears: the way he says “Pusha T,” the song-ending “Stop,” the “What is it the braids?” Kendrick makes fun of the Toronto accent. This is a song with an annotated bibliography. It’s the most effective track of the entire back and forth. It reshapes the narrative (this is now a battle of six minute operas, not just one-off singles), and invites some deeper questions about the way Drake moves throughout the world. Rick Ross called Drake “white boy” and teased him about getting a BBL and a nosejob. Kendrick Lamar calls him a selfish culture vulture, and that’s a allegation Drake still hasn’t really replied to. Choice lyrics: “Cutthroat business, you got shit twisted What is it? The braids? I hurt your feelings? You don’t wanna work with me no more? Okay!” “Yeah, fuck all that pushin’ P/Let me see you push a T/You better off spinnin’ again on him, you think about pushin’ me” “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress” The most annoying part about this song are the fifty-leven online deep dives into all the “meanings” behind the 6:16 in the title. It’s Canadian Father’s Day, it’s the Euphoria season one release date, it’s Tupac’s birthday, it was the day of Nicole Brown Simpson’s funeral, it’s one of four Bible verses. Give it up! Who cares! It’s could be all of those details, or it could be just one of them. (My bet is on Canadian Father’s Day.) The song is better than the timestamp’s significance. Produced by Jack Antonoff (and better than any of his “Tortured Poets Department” contributions), at the start “6:16 in LA” ices some of the “Euphoria” fire. Kendrick is in a reflective mood. But then he gets even nastier than “Euphoria,” telling Drake that everyone in OVO is tired of him and hates him, too. This information — even the suggestion — would end me. My friends finding me annoying is like one of my top three fears. What an ugly thought, draped over the loveliest beat. Choice lyrics: “Who am I if I don’t go to war? There’s opportunity when livin’ with loss I discover myself when I fall short” “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see/Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?/Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it” “Your lil’ memes is losin’ steam, they figured you out/The forced opinions is not convincin’, y’all need a new route” The funniest thing about this era of Drake is the number of weird unforced errors. Why did he say “whipped and chained you like American slaves” on that one song with SZA ? Why does he accuse Kendrick of “Always rappin’ like you ’bout to get the slaves freed” in this one? I’m not sure talking about slavery like a Republican senator is the way to prove that he doesn’t use blackness just to get ahead. But Drake does his best Woodward and Bernstein impression on this seven-minute opus, digging up some dirt on Kendrick Lamar. The “Mr. Morale” rapper, according to Drake, is ashamed of sleeping with white women but does it frequently. (“You the Black messiah wifin’ up a mixed queen/And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem.”) Kendrick admitted this already on “Mr. Morale,” no? Kendrick’s partner, Whitney Alfred, slept with former TDE president Dave Free, Drake claims, and fathered Kendrick’s child. Elsewhere on the song, he dismisses A$AP Rocky for not being a good rapper (true) and the Weeknd for being annoying (also true). There’s a line shading Kanye, and he half-heartedly addresses Rick Ross. These are cursory, almost perfunctory disses. His energy would be better spent on Kendrick. The playful flow that starts in the song’s fifth minute is perfect Drake — he’s best when he goes singsongy and slippery, a hard opponent because he can be a merry prankster. I have long thought that Drake leaked that video of his dick himself. I thought it was to win back women, the fan base he has the most animosity toward, but really it’s to impress other men. Does “Family Matters” confirm it? “You right about ‘Fuck the big three,’ it’s only Big D, and there’s video proof.” Overall, well played from Drake. But it would only be 37 minutes before Kendrick Lamar stole his joy. Choice lyrics: About A$AP: “I ain’t even know you rapped still ’cause they only talkin’ ’bout your ‘fit again/Probably gotta have a kid again ‘fore you think of droppin’ any shit again/Even when you do drop, they gon’ say you should’ve modeled ’cause it’s mid again” “You right about ‘Fuck the big three,’ it’s only Big D, and there’s video proof” About Kendrick: “They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen” “Dear Adonis” is perhaps the nastiest way to begin a diss track. Kendrick Lamar really said “go find your son and put him on the phone…!” I don’t particularly care for this song, which finds Kendrick
Drake was robbed last night. No gun was involved or threat of physical harm. But The Boy not winning the award for the visual for “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole might be considered a felony in multiple states and Puerto Rico. The 2024 BET Awards went down last night (June 30), live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The event featured a number of highlights including Taraji P. Henson performing a “Not Like Us” skit, performances from Sexyy Red, Ice Spice Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Ice Spice, Latto, Lauryn Hill, Will Smith and more. In fact, the event featured more performances than actual awards given out. One person who wasn’t there was Drake. But with seven nominations, he was expected to win at least one award. He, however, went 0-7. Honestly, he should have had at least one of those in the bag: Video of the Year. Victoria Monét’s visual for the hit single “On My Mama” won over Drake’s “First Person Shooter.” Don’t get it twisted, Victoria’s video is fire. The choreography is top-notch. The song also won the BET Her Award. But Drake’s Gibson Hazard-directed video is one of the best videos in the last few years, let alone the past year. For it to have been the video presentation of Drake and J. Cole’s No. 1 hit, it had to be big and the video for “FPS” delivered. The cinematic visual is kind of epic. It has captivating visuals, features several Easter eggs and plays out like a big-budget movie fit for the silver screen. It shows attention to detail few videos not released in the MTV era have. Many fans on social media seem to agree. “Just rewatched first person shooter and on my mama music vidoes. Drake got robbed,” one person posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “On my mama video had great Chorography. First person shooter video was just better in every other Category.” “First person shooter is clearly the best video out of all this lol,” someone else posted. “B.e.t not f**king with drake.” Oppositely, it may have been a while since Drake was messing with the BET Awards as it appears the last time he attended the event was over a decade ago. Either way, a snub is a snub. Check out Drake’s “First Person Shooter” video featuring J. Cole and Victoria Monét’s “On My Momma” video below. Watch Drake’s “First Person Shooter” Video Featuring J. Cole Watch Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama” Video See the Rappers on the 2024 BET Awards Red Carpet More From XXL
Source: XXL
