How Kendrick Lamar's beef with Drake has fuelled his big year

At this point in pop culture, Kendrick Lamar may be the most celebrated hater of all time.

The hip-hop superstar won five Grammys on Sunday, two of them in major categories for his hit Not Like Us, a diss track of fellow rapper Drake.

Lamar snagged both record of the year and song of the year for the song, along with best rap performance, best rap song, and best music video.

Notably, his was the only nomination in the song of the year category which listed only one songwriter, Lamar himself.

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Kendrick Lamar's huge year culminated in him winning the 2025 Grammy for Song of the Year. (Grammys / Stan)

The song is so popular that video of fellow superstar and Lamar collaborator Taylor Swift dancing to the hit at the Grammys went viral, as the audience could be heard singing a particularly spicy verse when the artist took the stage to accept one of his trophies.

It's just the latest achievement for the man who was the first rapper to ever be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. After the court of public opinion gave him a decisive win in his spring rap feud with Drake, a Super Bowl halftime performance days away and an upcoming tour, Lamar is on a dominant winning streak.

Here's a refresher on the dispute between the two artists to better before Lamar takes to center field in New Orleans this weekend, where chances are high he'll have an audience of millions moving to Not Like Us.

Early collaborations

There is plenty we don't know in terms of why there is apparent animosity between Drake and Lamar, but we do know that there is history.

Back in 2011, Lamar appeared on Drake's second album Take Care on Buried Alive Interlude. It was the same year Lamar released his debut studio album Section.80.

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The two men were both carving a place for themselves in the industry at the time, with Drake then best known as an actor for his role as student Jimmy Brooks in the Canadian teen TV series, Degrassi.

The pair would go on to tour together and collaborate on the track Poetic Justice on Lamar's sophomore studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.

King of New York tries to take Control

As one of hip-hop's rising stars, Lamar leaned into his growing success with the swagger one would expect in the rap game during a guest appearance on Big Sean's 2013 single, Control.

Multiple artists are name-checked in the song, including Drake. The lyrics include, "I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you," a euphemism for besting them professionally. Lamar proclaims himself both King of New York and King of the Coast.

Drake told Billboard of the verse, "I didn't really have anything to say about it."

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The rappers were formerly friends (AP)

"It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That's all it was," Drake said at the time. "I know good and well that Kendrick's not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic."

An 'Infinity War' of rappers

The pair have continued to take shots at each other on tracks over the years, but their most recent skirmish appears to have begun in October 2023, when rapper J. Cole collaborated with Drake on the song, First Person Shooter.

On the track, Cole refers to himself, Lamar and Drake as the "Big three" in rap. Drake likened his own popularity in the game to the stardom of the late singer Michael Jackson.

Lamar seemingly took exception to the comparisons and hit back on a collaborative track with Future and Metro Boomin that caught fire in March 2024, titled Like That.

Lamar makes clear on the song that there is no "Big three" just "Big me." He casts himself as Prince to Drake's Jackson, noting that the former outlived the latter.

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The two have been exchanging barbs for over a year, (Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)

Like That is a cut on the album We Don't Trust You, which many believe is filled with disses aimed at Drake. The apparent jabs surprised some listeners as Drake and Future have been longtime collaborators.

Things got even more heated when Future and Metro Boomin released the follow-up We Still Don't Trust You, which Billboard magazine declared is "filled with Drake disses, not only from Future, but from The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky as well."

With so many coming after the Canadian rapper lyrically, it started feeling like Marvel Infinity War of hip-hop superheroes battling it out. The man who helped kick it all off, J. Cole, quickly exited the battle.

Cole released 7 Minute Drill on a surprise project Might Delete Later in which he came after Lamar, only to later declare the song lame. He removed it from streaming services, publicly apologised and has gone quiet since.

Drake pushes back

In April Drake dropped the diss track Push Ups in which he poked fun at Lamar's shoe size to his past collaborations with pop stars.

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Drake in Long Beach in 2021. (Getty via CNN)

"Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty / Then we need a verse for the Swifties," Drake raps, appearing to mock Lamar's work with Maroon 5 on their song Don't Wanna Know and with Swift on her song Bad Blood.

Drake also took a swipe at Rick Ross, who was featured on We Don't Trust You. Ross then began a social media war of words with Drake, which included accusing Drake of having undergone plastic surgery.

K.Dot's onslaught

Lamar, known also as K.Dot, responded with multiple volleys.

First there was Euphoria, which is now as famous for the insults lobbed at Drake as it is for making the general public aware that the rapper was also an executive producer on the hit HBO drama. (HBO is owned by CNN's parent company.)

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Within days, Lamar followed that with 6:16 in LA, which many interpreted to be making fun of Drake's penchant for titling songs with times and locations.

Drake gets personal with Family Matters

Things got increasingly personal when Drake dropped the eight-minute diss track, Family Matters. He makes allegations about abuse and infidelity involving Lamar and his fiancée, Whitney Alford, on the song.

Don't mess with a Pulitzer Prize winner

Lamar didn't even let an hour go by after the release of Family Matters to drop a response, titled Meet The Grahams. (Drake's legal name is Aubrey Graham.)

The song gets heavy as Lamar addresses Drake's parents and Drake's parenting, accusing him of have a secret daughter. Lamar followed that within hours with another song, titled Not Like Us, in which accuses Drake of being attracted to underage girls.

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The battle got extremely personal. (Cooper Neill via AP)

Drake responds

Drake again had his say following that with The Heart Part 6. On this song, Drake claims he's the one who fed Lamar fake information about a secret child.

"We plotted for a week and then we fed you the information/A daughter that's 11 years old, I bet he takes it," Drake raps.

Taking it to court

Last month, Drake filed suit against his own record label, UMG Recordings, Inc., in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Canadian rapper and actor has accused the label of defamation in the publishing and promotion of Not Like Us and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

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Music licensing is a complicated business and artists often have different songs that move through different labels. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Lamar is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Drake is currently represented by Republic Records, a division of UMG, and Lamar is currently represented by Interscope records, also a division of UMG.

"Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist – let alone Drake – is illogical. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success," a spokesperson for UMG said in a statement to CNN when the suit was filed.

"Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth 'rap battles' to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponise the legal process to silence an artist's creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist's music."

"We have not and do not engage in defamation – against any individual. At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more that write a song," the statement concluded.

In November 2024, Drake filed a pre-action petition to a New York court, alleging that UMG conspired to artificially boost Not Like Us on Spotify. Drake met with company representatives on Tuesday," according to Variety, citing court documents.

CNN reached out to representatives for both Drake and Lamar for comment.

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