If you keep up with rap then you’ve most likely heard the ongoing dispute between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. This back and forth has been all that’s talked about for the past couple of months in the hip-hop community. One problem with these rap battles is the lyrics and their meaning can fly over one’s head. So, why are these artists beefing, and what exactly do their lyrics mean?

Now, this didn’t just start out of nowhere. Drake took Kendrick and A$AP Rocky on tour with him because at this point Kendrick didn’t have a big following compared to what Drake had at the time. The beef however dates back to 2013 when Kendick had a feature on Big Sean’s “Control,” along with Jay Electronica. In this feature Kendrick said that Drake and a slew of other rappers didn’t matter, and most rappers viewed this as Kendrick just being competitive and didn’t think it was offensive. However, Drake specifically did not take it as well. 

He was on a radio show where he expressed that he felt Kendrick was two-sided as when they saw each other in real life it was all love and what he had said was wrong. From that point it was back and forth between the two. They would slide disses into their songs as Drake would often claim to be the reason why Kendrick was popular. When Drake dropped his album “For All the Dogs,” where in the song “First Person Shooter,” he dissed Kendrick. That was the last straw. Kendrick responded to this diss in a feature in the song “Like that.” In this song Kendrick said that he was done with Drake’s “sneak dissing” and that he is a better rapper than Drake.

After Kendrick had his verse on “Like that” by Metro Boomin and Future it was gloves off. Drake dropped the highly anticipated diss track “Pushups,” in this track Drake goes after Kendrick, the Weeknd plus his management, and Rick Ross. A lot of people had been waiting for a track like this since the beef started. So when this dropped it found all of the hip hop community on the edge of their seat. In this track Drake raps about Kendrick being small hence the line “how are you big stepping with a size 7,” mocking Kendrick for his height and shoe size. This is just beginning as Drake then tells Kendrick to “drop and give me 50.” Referring to the fact that Kendricks label apparently took 50% of his earnings earned from his music. This same line is also mocking Kendrick because Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith was his boss at the label company and much like a drill sergeant he was bossing Kendrick around. Next Drake tells Kendrick that Maroon 5 needs a verse and so do the swifties. This line is referring to the features he had for both of these people. Speculations believe that Kendrick didn’t want to do these features but his label forced him too. In the next line, Drake circles back to the line about Kendrick being small but he also adds to that. Drake called Kendrick out by saying “pipe down pipsqueak, SZA got you wiped down, Travis got you wiped down.” Drake is calling Kendrick small again but, he is also telling Kendrick that he is not in the big three because both SZA, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage all out sold him the previous year. Most consider Kendrick to be on a higher level than the three previously mentioned. However, Drake is countering that statement by saying that all three outperformed Kendrick. Drake then asks “What’s a prince to a king?” This is referring to Kendrick’s line Prince outlived Micheal Jackson both physically and in the fact that Prince is given more respect in the hip hop community. Drake is saying Micheal Jackson, otherwise known as the king of pop, is greater than Prince and a prince is the son to the king. Drake then goes after the Weeknd and his management. He asks why claim you are from the six meaning Toronto but then when you get money you leave toronto but still claim to represent Toronto. This stems from the fact that Weeknd and his management said they represented Toronto but they later moved to L.A. Drake then goes after Future with his reference to chip ‘n Dale as they are constantly outsmarting another character named Pluto, what makes this fun is that Future also goes by Pluto. Drake is indirectly stating that he is smarter and just overall better than Future.

At this point there have been several more tracks from both Drake and Kendrick.  There will be a breakdown on these songs shortly. More songs are likely to drop in the near future, so stay alert for any more hype.