Drake and Kendrick Lamar take their rivalry to the next level to be all in the family.
The rappers released dueling tracks Friday night, trading gossip and Ozempic, while raising serious allegations of abuse, addiction and another hidden child.
Drake took aim at Lamar’s back-to-back tracks “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA” with “Family Matters” and its corresponding lyric video and interlude just before midnight Friday. About 37 minutes later, Lamar had his answer: “Meet the Grahams.”
Drake alleges that Lamar physically abused his fiancée, that Lamar’s child may not be his and that the California rapper is leading a double life full of infidelity. Lamar claims Drake has a secret daughter, is a drug addict and addict, and has predators on his label’s payroll and should be in a “cell” with Harvey Weinstein.
‘Meet the Grahams’ Lyrics: Kendrick Lamar Speaks Directly to Adonis, Drake’s Mom Sandra
The 6-plus minute response sees Lamar speaking to Drake’s family: his 6-year-old son, Adonis; mother Sandra Graham; dad Dennis Graham; and an alleged daughter, whom Drake has not publicly claimed.
To Adonis, Lamar raps, “I’m sorry that man is your father, let me be honest / It takes a man to be a man, your father don’t answer,” claiming that Drake takes Ozempic and hires escorts, and referring to the rapper undergoing a Brazilian butt lift (otherwise known as a BBL).
To Drake’s parents, Lamar tells his mother that Drake “got into habits” and tells his father “you gave birth to a master manipulator.”
“I blame you for all his gambling addictions / Psychopathic intuition, the man who likes to play the victim,” Lamar raps. “He and Weinstein should ‘be’ in a cell for the rest of their lives,” Lamar says, adding, “He hates black women, hypersexualizes them with nympho fetishistic inclinations / He grew facial hair because that he understood that being bearded was right.” suits him better / He has sex offenders” on the OVO label “that he keeps on a monthly allowance.”
Lamar’s last dagger: Drake reportedly has an 11-year-old daughter. “Dear little girl / I’m sorry your daddy ain’t active in your world,” Lamar raps, later adding, “I should teach you schedules or watch ‘Frozen’ with you / Or on your 11th birthday, sing poems with you / Instead he’s in Turks, paying for sex and Percs.”
Drake rebutted on his Instagram Story on Saturday: “Wait, can someone please find my hidden girl and send her to me…these guys are ruined,” with laughing emojis.
On “Euphoria,” Lamar discussed the Toronto-born rapper’s 2019 feud with Pusha T, who revealed that Drake had a child, unbeknownst to the public at the time.
Lamar ends “Meet the Grahams” with a litany of things Drake “lied” about: “You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, huh / You lied about the other kids who are outside hoping for you to come.”
Listen to “Meet the Grahams”
Listen to “Meet the Grahams” by Lamar on YouTube.
Drake Alleges Kendrick Lamar Abuse, Targets A$AP Rocky and Rick Ross in ‘Family Matters’: Lyrics
Divided into three sections, “Family Matters” lasts 7 minutes and 37 seconds. “I dumped the clip for more friendly shots / You mentioned my seed, now take care of his father / I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad,” Drake raps at the top of the track, which picks up where his previous dissent track “Push Ups” has stopped.
Drake questions Lamar’s credibility (“But you gang of civilians, in real life, you’re PC”) and discusses J. Cole’s involvement in this affair: “Cole loses sleep over this, It is not me.”
“Still rapping like you’re about to free the slaves/You’re just acting like an activist, it’s imaginary,” Drake raps. “Don’t even go back to your neighborhood and plant money trees,” alluding to Lamar’s song “Money Trees.”
The lyric video also shows the van from Lamar’s “good kid, mAAd city” album cover (which featured Drake on “Poetic Justice”) crushed in a compactor, and shows Drake eating at the Toronto restaurant New Ho King, who Lamar rapped in “Euphoria.”
“You, the Black Messiah, make a mixed queen / And slap some vanilla cream to boost your self-esteem,” Drake asserts. “We could have left the kids out of this, don’t blame me / You’re a dog and you know it, you’re just playing nice / Your baby mama captions are still screaming, ‘Save me.'”
Drake more explicitly claims that Lamar physically abused his fiancée Whitney Alford. “When you put your hands on your girlfriend, is it self-defense because she’s bigger than you?”
“Why did you move to New York? Is it ’cause you’re living that single life? / Proposed in 2015, but I don’t wanna make her your real woman,” Drake raps, later adding, “They hired a crisis management team to erase the fact that you beat your queen.
He also questions whether any of Lamar’s children are actually fathered by Dave Free, the former president of Lamar’s label, Top Dog Entertainment. “I heard one of these little kids might be Dave Free,” Drake raps. “Don’t make it Dave Free / ‘Cause if your GM is your secret BM comic / Then it all makes a lot of sense to me.”
Drake also smokes for A$AP Rocky, who is currently dating Drake’s ex Rihanna and has two children.
“Gaszed ’cause you hit my BM first,” Drake raps, asking “do the math, who was I hitting at that time? / I don’t even know you hit yet ’cause they only talkin’ about ta’ fit again / I probably need to have a kid again before I think about dropping one again (expletive) / Even if you give up, they’ll say you should have modeled ’cause it’s halftime again, ” adding that he’s “smoking Fenty about it.”
More claims from Ozempic are sent to Rick Ross, as Drake raps “Ozempic had a side effect of jealousy” and points out Ross’s past as a correctional officer: “Rick reading my Miranda rights.”
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Drake and Lamar for comment on the allegations.
Listen to “Family Affairs”
Listen to Drake’s “Family Matters” on YouTube and stream it on Spotify.
Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s Feud, Explained
The feud between Lamar and Drake dates back more than a decade, to 2013, when Lamar rapped on Big Sean’s song “Control” about how he wanted to “murder” Drake and other top rappers .
Earlier this year, Lamar appeared on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” and dismissed the idea of there being a “big three” in rap, saying on the track: “It’s just a big Me”. The lyrics were a response to J. Cole referring to himself, Drake, and Lamar as the “big three” in Drake’s 2023 track “First Person Shooter.”
J. Cole responded to Lamar on the song “7 Minute Drill” in April, rapping, “He’s still doing shows but he fell like ‘The Simpsons.’ He also said Lamar was past his “peak.” But shortly after the song’s release, Cole apologized and said it was “lame” and “stupid” of him to do so.
“I’m not going to lie to you, the last two days have been terrible,” he told the audience at the Dreamville Festival a few days later, before calling Lamar “one of the greats.”
Drake then fired back with two diss tracks directed at Lamar, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” the latter of which was removed from streaming services after Shakur’s estate threatened to sue. (In “Family Matters,” Drake claims Lamar “called the Tupac estate and begged them to sue me.”)
Lamar references this in his follow-up “Euphoria” by rapping that Shakur is “rolling over in his grave.”
Lamar continues on “Euphoria”: “How many more fairy tale stories about your life until we’ve had enough? How many more black feature films until you finally feel like you’re black enough ?”
In “Euphoria”, Lamar compliments Drake’s song “Back To Back” by saying that he “loved that record”. The 2015 single was a diss track aimed at rapper Meek Mill, and was Drake’s follow-up to his first diss, “Charged Up.”
Next, Lamar released his own single with “6:16 in LA”. Lamar lashed out at Drake’s label and team, rapping, “Did you ever think OVO worked for me?” before calling Drake a “fake bully.” He continues: “I hate bullies / You must be a terrible person / Everyone on your team whispers that you deserve it.”
The title prompted fans to go down a rabbit hole to collect all the Easter eggs about Lamar’s Canadian opponent. The song’s title is an obvious reference to a timestamp song format popularized by Drake, but could also refer to June 16, which marks Father’s Day, Tupac Shakur’s birthday, the premiere date of the HBO series “Euphoria” and a Lamar concert in Drake’s hometown. Toronto.
Contributors: Taijuan Moorman, Naledi Ushe, Brendan Morrow, KiMi Robinson
