What’s worse than someone writing a diss track about you? That diss track winning a Grammy.
The Drake and Kendrick Lamar song battle started on March 22, 2024. On Future and Metro Boomin’s album, We Don’t Trust You, Kendrick threw shade at Drake and JCole stating, “Motherf*ck the big three, n*gg*, it’s just big me.” As an avid music fan myself, I know the history of this beef started much before 2024.
Drake and Lamar started out as collaborators and worked on different songs in Drake’s album with ASAP Rocky. But they soon had a fallout when Lamar essentially rapped about “murdering his competition” and wanting the fans to never speak of them again. This turned their relationship from collaborators to competitors.
Many people argue that Lamar was not as big of a rapper as Drake, but I think this point falls short. Lamar and Drake have very different rap styles as Drake tends to make “trendier” music and Kendrick tends to write about struggles/fighting for rights etc. Of course, most songs tend to hold an underlying meaning, but Lamar is more open about these meanings.Â
Drake was the first one to use the phrase “the big three” but he also stated that he felt like “Muhammad Ali” reflecting his status as the top dog in the rap industry of this generation. This is what inspired Lamar’s retaliation which eventually started the rap battle in 2024.
Many songs were then made back and forth between the two. From “Family Matters” to Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” soundtrack, these diss tracks were the hot topic throughout the pop culture world for weeks. But none of the songs truly stuck with listeners except “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.
In “Not Like Us,” Lamar states that Drake and his whole crew are pedophiles. With lines such as “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles” and “Tryna strike a cord and it’s probably A minor.” Throughout the song, he also discusses how Drake’s relationships with other rap artists are only to make himself feel like he belongs in the industry. But these two lines stuck with the public.Â
“Not Like Us” then hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart and a viral song that was played worldwide. Lamar then took it a step further at his Juneteenth concert where he performed “Not Like Us” five times and brought people out who grew up in Compton such as Steve Lacy and DeMar DeRozan. He also brought out aspiring artists to give recognition to the West Coast hip-hop scene and to support black culture.Â
Lamar was then named the halftime show performer at the Superbowl for 2025 in collaboration with SZA after their co-joined album and songs had been hitting the charts. This past week, Lamar walked out of the Grammy’s with five awards. All of these awards were for the song “Not Like Us” including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. This is the first-ever diss track to win a Grammy Award, breaking records for music history.Â
It’s fair to say that Kendrick Lamar officially won the diss track battle and has come out with many achievements. All in all, it is important to recognize never to start beef with a rapper (even with a SoundCloud rapper) because you never know who is going to get a Grammy on your behalf.