How the West Was Won: 5 Ways Kendrick Lamar Defeated Drake
After Kendrick dropped “Euphoria,” it was clear that this was going to be different from other rap beefs. Well, except for one: When Pusha T and Drake got into their beef, Pusha worked to methodically break down exactly why he believes Drake is not who he portrays himself to be. In an interview with L.A.’s Big Boy, Pusha said his disses against Drake were “speaking about the character of a man.”
Kendrick picked up with Pusha left off, putting everything on the table, including Drake’s predictability, his relationship with J. Prince, the women he chases, his mixed race and his character. Kendrick’s message to Drake was basically: stay on the pop side of things and leave this rap s–t alone, because you’re no longer welcome. The line “Keep makin’ me dance, wavin’ my hand, and it won’t be no threat” drives that point home.
This motif was used in every song Kenny dropped on Drake’s head. In “6:16 in LA,” Kendrick plays mind games, as he not only uses a timestamp and location for the song’s title like Drake does whenever he feels like being introspective, but he plants seeds about a mole inside his rival’s camp. There’s the song’s artwork, featuring a black leather Maybach glove, and then there are lines like, “Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?” as he warns Drake about his entourage. Lamar also alludes to the Canadian rapper offering money for intel on Kendrick, something Pusha T accused Drake of doing during their spat.
And we haven’t even gotten to “Meet the Grahams,” which includes artwork that is at the center of a very weird controversy as we speak, catapulting this beef into a rabbit hole of dark web conspiracies and connections to the NYC ballroom scene. This song itself manages to be even more sinister, as Kendrick speaks to each member of Drake’s immediate family (including an alleged hidden 11-year-old daughter) over haunting Alchemist production. Yet despite all that, what will be best remembered about “Meet the Grahams” was how Lamar used the track to spoil Drake’s “Family Matters” release, by tweeting out the YouTube link about a half hour after Drake posted his song and video.
The lore behind this record will be told to generations, and it will be remembered as one of the craziest, most evil diss records in rap history. Kendrick managed to create “Ether 2.0″: Rappers must now be worried about getting Meet-the-Grahamed out here. This was Omar walking down the block with the shottie hidden in the trench coat. This was the boogeyman in the flesh.
