Designed in Canva

A photo illustration of Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

The Hip-Hop world has been in a frenzy recently—and it’s not for the reasons most fans would anticipate.

Popular hip-hop artist Future and producer Metro Boomin dropped their highly anticipated album We Don’t Trust You on April 22.

The album includes high-profile collaborations with The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and Playboi Carti. However, the song that captured the most attention from fans was “Like That,” featuring hip-hop heavyweight Kendrick Lamar.

Kendrick went on the track with full force, taking a jab at Drake and J Cole, two of the world’s most popular artists. Kendrick has feuded with Drake for almost a decade, as they have both been fighting for the biggest name in hip hop.

Kendrick also called them out for sneak dissing and snuck-in jabs such as using their song “First Person Shooter” in one of his lyrics, saying there’s no “big three, it’s just big me.”

Kendrick wasn’t the only artist on the album with grievances against Drake. Metro Boomin and Future also took subtle shots at him throughout We Don’t Trust You. This ongoing tension follows Drake’s veiled digs at Future on his track What Would Pluto Do, which was released last year.

This public rap feud had fans in a frenzy, as it exposed the competitive edge and issues that these rappers had against each other. Fans knew that both J Cole and Drake would have strong reactions to these public disses, and it was only a matter of time before the two would jab back.

J Cole was the first to diss back to Kendrick on his song “7 Minute Drill “on his new album, Might Delete Later. J Cole claimed that Kendrick’s music had fallen off, by calling his last album “tragic.” Cole later deleted this track from all streaming platforms and apologized for taking shots at Kendrick at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina on April 7.

Drake was the next rapper to enter the feud, releasing his single “Push Ups” on April 19. Drake took direct jabs at the likes of Kendrick, Future, and Metro Boomin. Drake claimed he gave Kendrick his first number-one hit, and took shots at Kendrick’s Mr Morale and the Big Steppers album he released in 2022. He also released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which was taken down due to an AI-generated Tupac Shakur verse that the late artist’s family threatened to sue him for.

Drake also took a straightforward shot at Metro Boomin and told him to ‘be quiet and stick to making beats.’

Kendrick responded to these tracks on April 30, with his new single “Euphoria,” which was directed back toward Drake and J Cole for the songs they released. Kendrick directed a series of bars toward Drake, claiming he made Tupac turn in his grave, and that he should stick to his melodic style because his other styles are lackluster.

This isn’t the only competitive beef happening in the hip-hop world, as renowned R&B artist Chris Brown released his diss track Weakest Link on YouTube directed towards rapper Quavo Huncho on April 19, 2024.

This feud started over Chris Brown’s relations with rapper Saweetie, who used to date Quavo Huncho. Brown mentions this in his diss track along with Quavo’s right-hand man Takeoff, who passed away in a shooting in November of 2022. Quavo then followed back with a song directed at Brown, taking shots at some of the controversy he has had in the past.

As of this article’s release date, these feuds are still ongoing and are providing a competitive edge to the hip-hop world that fans are very fond of. Many of these upper-echelon emcees could get complacent with their high-status position, but the issues between these artists ignite their competitive drive to be considered the best at what they do.

Society loves drama as well, and the beef between these rappers has caused nothing short of it. The stories each of these artists are sprinkling into their records make listening to their music much more exciting as a fan. Complications between two top-tier individuals in the rap game don’t roll around often, so as fans it is important to enjoy the competitive edge these artists are bringing to their music.

While we want to see every artist get along, in the highly competitive and controversial world of hip-hop it is highly unlikely. Many of these rappers want to be known as the best in their field and are willing to go to the extremes for that recognition.

As fans, these controversies have been extremely entertaining, and have raised the quality of music from these popular artists. It will be compelling to see how these controversies develop and provide new hits for avid fans.