A Complete Track-by-Track Timeline of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s Feud

As you may have heard, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are in the throes of an intense (and seemingly never-ending) rap battle. Though the two artists have long been at odds, this latest chapter ignited in March with the release of “Like That,” which quickly kicked off an incendiary back-and-forth that can be difficult to keep up with. Here, we break down the play-by-play of the beef Drake still isn’t entirely over on new album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.

“Like That,” by Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar

March 22, 2024: The powder keg that set off this particular chapter of the Drake–versus–Kendrick Lamar beef was the song “Like That,” from Future, Metro Boomin, and Lamar. On it, Lamar dismisses the notion that he’s in a “Big Three” with Drake and J. Cole, rapping, “It’s just big me.” He also compares himself and Drake to Prince and Michael Jackson, respectively, rapping, “Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

“Push Ups,” by Drake

April 13, 2024: After several weeks, Drake fired back by mysteriously leaking “Push Ups,” which featured the lyrics, “You ain’t in no Big Three, SZA got you wiped down, Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down / Like your label, boy, you in a scope right now / And you gon’ feel the aftermath of what I write down / I’m at the top of the mountain, so you tight now / Just to have this talk with yo’ ass, I had to hike down / Big difference between Mike then and Mike now.” Drake also went after Lamar’s work on pop songs from the likes of Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift, as well as throwing a stray dig at Rick Ross with the lyric “I might take your latest girl and cuff her like I’m Ricky / Can’t believe he jumpin’ in, this nigga turnin’ 50 / Every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy.” Ross fired back just hours later with a diss track of his own accusing Drake of getting plastic surgery — but let’s try to stay on topic here.

“Taylor Made Freestyle,” by Drake

April 19, 2024: While waiting on Lamar’s response to “Push Ups,” Drake also put out the since-deleted track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” on which he used the AI-generated voices of Lamar’s idols Tupac and Snoop Dogg to go after him — earning a cease and desist from Shakur’s estate. After those A.I. verses, Drake came in with his own voice to accuse the rapper of not responding to his original diss because he didn’t want to interfere with the release of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. “Now we gotta wait a fucking week cause Taylor Swift is your new top, and if you boutta drop, she gotta approve,” he rapped. Swift has of course not responded — having famously always wished to be excluded from the narrative when it comes to being name-checked in rap songs. While the song has since been taken down, Snoop Dogg’s reaction is thankfully still up.

June 19, 2024: It’s been quiet on the Kendrick/Drake front, so why not stir things up on a national holiday? At Kendrick’s Juneteenth show, he debuted new lyrics in “Euphoria,” while sporting an outfit seemingly in homage to Tupac. “Give me Tupac’s ring back and I might give you a little respect,” he rapped. He also changed the line “three-hour time difference” to two hours, because Drake is currently in Houston. That’s thorough!

“Not Like Us (Music Video),” directed by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free

July 4, 2024: Kendrick rode his hate train all the way from Juneteenth to the Fourth of July. He rang in another bank holiday with more disrespect, releasing a music video for standout diss track “Not Like Us” after playing it a fitting six times at the Pop Out last month.

The video asks fans to gather many an Easter egg. He does a brand-new freestyle in the video’s intro before the needle drops on a C-walk beat. A new line about Kamasi Washington refers to Zack Fox’s viral tweet that prophesied Dot calling Drake a pedophile over free-jazz beats (the comedian and rapper got that first part right). Kendrick even wears a similar outfit to that viral skateboarder who made a diss video that calls his nemesis’s hair “wack.”

September 8, 2024: Elsewhere in the video, the Compton rapper uses a similar black-and-white shot composition reminiscent of Drake’s music video for “Family Matters.” In Kendrick’s version, Drake tries to sneak up on him from behind, only to get blasted away down the dark alley. It also alludes to “Push Ups,” one of Drake’s more well-received disses that calls Kendrick short. In the “Not Like Us” video, the fun-size artist does push-ups over two cinder blocks. Most disrespectfully, Kendrick beats an owl-shaped piñata, the symbol of Drake’s label, OVO, and poses with a real-life owl behind bars. Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop.

Super Bowl Announcement Video

January 23, 2025: After months of Lamar’s goading, Drake reopens the book with a somber freestyle over a Conductor Williams beat. “The world fell in love with the gimmicks, even my brothers got tickets / Seemed like they loved every minute, just know this shit is personal to us and it wasn’t just business,” he raps. Drake appears to wink at his legal moves against Lamar, rapping, “I hate to see the empire crumble on judge’s convictions.” If not Kendrick, it may have to do with his questionable admission that he said a “prayer that morning for Sean, but it wasn’t religious” — but is he talking Big Sean, Sean “Diddy” Combs, or Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter?

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show

February 9, 2025: Ahead of the Super Bowl, some wondered just how much Lamar would lean into “Not Like Us” now that it’s the subject of a defamation lawsuit. Oh, did he. Lamar didn’t just perform his hit Drake diss fresh off five Grammy wins. First he performed another, more vicious Drake diss, “Euphoria,” then teased “Not Like Us.” When he finally got around to it, toward the end of his set, Lamar stared directly at the camera as he rapped, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” while strutting the stage in flared jeans. He had Drake’s rumored ex Serena Williams crip-walking onstage. By the time he capped the set with “TV Off,” that’s surely all Drake wanted to do.

$ome $exy $ongs 4 U, Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR

February 14, 2025: Drake’s new project, an album of party R&B with OVO’s PARTYNEXTDOOR, sure makes it look like he’s moved on from the beef. “Fuck a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit / Tryna get the party lit for the bitches,” he sings on “Gimme a Hug.” But, no, Drake’s not entirely over it yet. “Broski just hit me, said, ‘Put all the beef on the side,’ I can’t,” he sings on “Brian Steel,” a song named after Young Thug’s attorney (which Steel did not appreciate). And “Celibacy” even features a reference to Kendrick’s Grammy winner: “We’re not like them, baby, and they’re not like us, either one.”