Well, it wasn't exactly "Ether." But for rubberneckers who were curious to see what kind of response Drake and J. Cole might offer to the sudden broadside issued by Kendrick Lamar last week, Drake did offer a few words -- though only a few -- on the subject at the May 24 date of his It Was All a Blur Tour in Sunrise, Florida.
During his headlining set at the Amerant Bank Arena, Drake took a pause between songs for a short statement. Although he mentioned no names, judging by the response from the crowd it was safe to assume that most interpreted it as a response to Lamar's verse on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That," on which the Compton rapper aimed some provocative lyrics at Drake and his tourmate, J. Cole.
“I got my head up high, my back straight, I’m ten f--kin’ toes down," Drake began. "And I know no matter what there’s not another n---a on this earth that could ever f--k with me.”
For anyone who was expecting a full-throated battle verse from the MC, the statement had to register as something of an anticlimax. Drake has rarely been one to let such opportunities slip in the past, having engaged in widely-publicized tit-for-tat battles with Meek Mill and Pusha T over the years.
Drake's father, Dennis Graham, also offered an indirect response on his son's behalf, albeit a funnier one, writing on Instagram: "Yo I am about to drop some new music and I am not sure if it’s going to sell, but I am going to call some of my homies and get them to start a beef with Drake and get them to unfollow him and that’s going make my s--t shoot up to number 1. I’m sure this is going to work so let me get some people on board for this and watch what kind of attention this gets!"
(Several hip-hop figures apparently unfollowed Drake after Lamar's verse landed, for those who like to read deep meaning into such things.)
Kendrick Lamar's verse on 'Like That' set social media alight last month.
To recap, the whole brouhaha began with the release of Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That" late last week, which featured a surprise verse from Lamar. In his verse, Lamar takes repeated aim at the song “First Person Shooter,” a Drake and Cole feature from the former’s October release For All the Dogs. On that song, Cole grouped himself and Drake with Kendrick, rapping: “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K. Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three, like we started a league.” Later in the song, Drake seemed to pointedly exclude Lamar from that group.
On “Like That,” Lamar responded: “Yeah get up with me, f--k sneak dissing / ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they came with three switches.” He later adds: “Motherf--k the big three, n---a, it’s just big me.”
Elsewhere on the song, Lamar seems to take up another of Drake’s lyrics from “First Person Shooter,” in which he compares his sales records to those of Michael Jackson (Drake even dons a bedazzled glove and breaks into an MJ-esque spin in the song’s video). “Prince outlived Mike, Jack,” Lamar rapped on the track, going on to nod to Dogs' album title with a combative Pet Sematary reference.
Drake has yet to respond to the Lamar track on record.
Drake and Lamar have often been rumored to be less than fond of one another, though theirs has largely been a cold war until recently.
The two did not start as rivals: Drake had a guest feature on Lamar’s 2012 major label debut, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, following Lamar’s appearance on Drake’s Take Care a year earlier. The two have taken wildly divergent paths since those days, when both were among rap’s hottest emerging stars. Drake spent the next decade releasing enormous amounts of music, breaking decades-old Billboard chart records and becoming one of the most ubiquitous pop stars of the current century. Lamar, on the other hand, has carved out a more esoteric trajectory, becoming the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize on the strength of adventurous, provocative albums like To Pimp a Butterfly. (Lamar’s last album, 2022’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, was arguably his least-commercial work yet, though it still debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.)
Drake and Lamar each featured on one another's albums early in their careers.
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Lamar famously called Drake out by name on “Control” — amidst just about all of his most prominent peers, Cole included, and seemingly in the context of healthy competition — but any bad feelings the two might have expressed about each other since then were usually cloaked in heavy layers of plausible deniability.
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