The moment every rap fan has been waiting for finally happened: on Friday, Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s battle came to a climatic explosion of songs. The day started with Lamar’s “6:16 in LA,” which was followed by Drake’s seven-minute barrage “Family Matters,” which Lamar quickly chased with a six-minute gut-punch called “Meet the Grahams.” The songs gave us rap’s two biggest stars at their most biting, most determined to win and most nasty. The feud has gotten more personal than anticipated, and Kendrick’s execution feels like he landed the most impactful blows. The night would mark one of rap’s most unprecedented moments and a fight we’ll discuss for years. But due to the devastating nature of each rapper’s allegations and lyrics, it’s probably time for the diss records to stop — or at least go back to the type of rhyme battle this started as, if that’s even possible.
We’ve been waiting for Kendrick Lamar and Drake to air out their grievances for a decade, ever since Lamar called out Drake on Big Sean’s “Control” in 2013. The two have been trading subtle jabs since, and it was only a matter of time before we got a full-on battle. The fight would always happen — think Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, which boxing fans demanded for years — the two best in the world circling each other with rap fans anticipating the eventual matchup. But unlike the boxing match, Drake and Kendrick are meeting in their prime. Their jabs are as crisp as ever, and their haymakers are still to be feared.
At the start of this battle, it was clear Kendrick Lamar had a plan. Each song he dropped left a breadcrumb for a later one and a hint that a big left hook was waiting. Drake’s responses, especially his poorly executed “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which used artificial intelligence to mimic Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices, have felt more off-the-cuff and reactive. That tension between calculation and spontaneity played out on Friday as the day started with Kendrick’s “6:16 in LA.” He posted the song to Instagram along with a zoomed-in picture of a pair of Maybach driving gloves and spent three minutes alleging Drake can’t trust his friends and he has leaks in his camp. The song, again, was precise and sent the internet on a scavenger hunt to find hidden meanings: did 6:16 refer to Tupac’s birthday, Father’s Day, the date Euphoria aired, Bible scriptures or any other theory hip-hop Reddit could uncover? The song made it known that Kendrick at least had an idea of what Drake was planning, and it was all because his inner circle wasn’t so inner: “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see/ Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?”
“6:16 in LA” dropped days after Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” making it two records in a row. This flipped Drake’s most famous victory, his 2015 “Back To Back” moment where he released two consecutive songs dissing Meek Mill. Lamar also continued his deep character analysis and deconstruction of Drake. Still, it felt like he was holding something back, promising there was more he wasn’t saying.
As the day went on, it seemed inevitable that we’d hear Drake’s response sooner rather than later. DJ Akademiks, the Brian Windhorst to Drake’s LeBron James, alluded to something happening. And as we crept closer to midnight, the response felt inevitable.
In Friday’s late hours, Drake unveiled a seven-minute music video called “Family Matters,” where he unloaded on everyone from Rick Ross to The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky. In a vacuum, this song would be one of the strongest diss records of all time as each of those artists caught serious heat from Drizzy (“I ain’t even know you rapped still ’cause they only talkin’ ’bout your ‘fit again,” he hilariously tells Rocky). But those were appetizers. The song would always be made by what he would say to and about Kendrick Lamar.
“Family Matters” is some of the best rapping Drake’s done in his career. He knew he was up against the premier lyricist of our era, and he stepped up tremendously. “They shook about what I’ma say, but textin’ your phone like, ‘We already won,’” he raps with a command of the beat that flexes why he’s more than the singing and dancing pop act Kendrick Lamar has tried to portray him as. The song isn’t without some cringeworthy moments, not the least of which is the line, “Always rappin’ like you ’bout to get the slaves freed,” as a pejorative. It’s just an odd line to employ, especially as many of the jabs aimed at Drake focuses on his relation to Blackness. It’s also reminiscent of his “whipped and chained like Black American slaves” line from last year’s “Slime You Out.”
That line was buried, though, by so many of the other noteworthy moments in the song. Drake used “Family Matters” to levy some major accusations at Kendrick, namely that he abuses his partner and that his child’s father is supposedly Kendrick’s long-time collaborator and business partner, Dave Free. The song had everything that a knockout blow in 2024 requires, for better or worse: accusations, tea, lyricism, wittiness and vitriol. The song should have been the talk of the weekend.
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