According to Joe Budden, Drake and Kendrick Lamar had a private conversation before their highly publicized rap beef even began. Budden claimed on his podcast that Kendrick reached out to Drake, saying, “Hey, how do you want this to go? What are we doing? Are we rapping? OK, then let’s keep it there,” implying they had agreed to keep their rivalry strictly on wax.
However, Budden noted that Kendrick didn’t uphold his end of the bargain, leading to an all-out lyrical war between the two rap titans. The culture critic speculated that Kendrick likely called Drake to “make sure” they were “doing this for real” before unleashing a barrage of diss tracks.
The beef was seemingly ignited by J. Cole’s verse on Drake’s “First Person Shooter,” where he questioned who the best MC is between himself, Drake, and Kendrick. Lamar then fired back on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” declaring “Motherfuck the big three, n**ga, it’s just big me” and referencing Drake’s album.
Over the following weeks, Drake and Kendrick traded shots with a series of diss tracks, including Drake’s “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” and Kendrick’s “euphoria,” “Family Matters,” “6:16 in LA,” “meet the grahams,” “Not Like Us” and “THE HEART PART 6”.
Budden has been vocal with his opinions on the beef, at one point disputing Kendrick’s claim that Drake doesn’t have a classic album, stating “That’s a lie, Kendrick.” He also expressed his enjoyment of witnessing Drake “get his ass kicked” in the feud.