Drake–Kendrick Lamar feud

Canadian rapper Drake and American rapper Kendrick Lamar have been involved in a rap feud since 2013, when Drake responded to Lamar's verse on the Big Sean song "Control". It escalated in 2024 with Lamar's lyrics in the song "Like That".

The two began on favorable terms in 2011. In 2013, Lamar dissed Drake, among many rappers, on "Control", but claimed his verse was "friendly competition". Over the next decade, the two denied speculation that they had dissed each other on various songs. In 2023, on rapper J. Cole and Drake's song "First Person Shooter", Cole claimed that he, Drake, and Lamar were the "big three" of modern hip-hop; on "Like That" in March 2024, Lamar rejected the notion, saying the top spot in hip hop was "just big me". In April, Cole dissed Lamar on "7 Minute Drill", then apologized, and Drake dissed Lamar with "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle".

On April 30, Lamar responded to Drake in "Euphoria" and, on May 3, in "6:16 in LA". Later on May 3, Drake released "Family Matters", accusing Lamar of domestic abuse and claiming that Lamar's creative partner Dave Free biologically fathered Lamar's son. Twenty minutes later, Lamar released "Meet the Grahams", accusing Drake of sexual predation (including sex trafficking), lying about Lamar's family, and having fathered a second secret child; rapper Pusha T had previously revealed in a 2018 track that Drake secretly had a son named Adonis. On May 4, on "Not Like Us", Lamar accused Drake of pedophilia. On May 5, Drake released "The Heart Part 6", which denied Lamar's accusations and claimed Drake's team fed Lamar false information about a second child.

In 2025, Drake sued Universal Music Group (UMG)—the label he and Lamar are signed to—in a New York federal court for releasing "Not Like Us", alleging the song is defamatory and that UMG promoted it with illegal tactics; the lawsuit was later dismissed. Drake reflected on the feud on "Fighting Irish Freestyle"; and Lamar won five Grammy Awards for "Not Like Us", performing it and "Euphoria" at Super Bowl LIX. Media outlets like The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine have broadly declared Lamar the winner of the feud.

2011–12: Collaborations and favorable terms

Drake and Kendrick Lamar's relationship began on favorable terms. The pair's first collaboration was "Buried Alive Interlude", a two-minute interlude performed entirely by Lamar from Drake's 2011 studio album Take Care, slotted on the tracklist directly after the hit single "Marvins Room". Both artists are about the same age, but at the time, Drake was already a chart-topping success (having first achieved mainstream success with his 2009 single "Best I Ever Had"), while Lamar was viewed as a relatively unknown up-and-comer, having recently appeared on the 2011 XXL Freshman list.

Lamar complimented Drake after their initial meeting and collaboration: "We met up, chilled out, got to vibe, see where each other was at and shit. Sometimes you like a person's music but you definitely don't like the actual artist when you sit down and you talk to them. That's a real good dude. He got a real genuine soul. We clicked immediately." Lamar also shared that Drake had been the first to hear his debut independent album, Section.80 (2011).

In the track, Lamar shares how his initial meeting with Drake had felt like an introduction into the tempting, but potentially harmful world of celebrity, luxury, and fame. Lamar explores his complex feelings about fame — both desiring and fearing what it might bring into his life, especially upon getting a peek into Drake's life of luxury — and shares his "impatien[ce]" when finding out that himself and Drake were the same age. This fraught relationship with fame would become a theme in Lamar's music throughout his career, and often stood in contrast with Drake's celebration of luxury. This first collaboration foreshadowed themes that would lead to their eventual rift and feud, more than a decade before its explosion.

Still, Drake and Lamar's relationship continued to develop amicably. Following a strong critical reception towards "Buried Alive Interlude", Lamar opened for Drake (alongside another up-and-coming contemporary, ASAP Rocky) during Drake's Club Paradise Tour in early 2012. The tour followed Take Care, a smash chart success. Around the time of the tour, in March 2012, Lamar was officially signed to major label Interscope Records.

That fall, Lamar released his first major label album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, which catapulted him to superstardom. The album featured a Drake verse on the track "Poetic Justice", which later became a hit single. In December 2012, both Lamar and Drake also made an appearance on ASAP Rocky's hit single "Fuckin' Problems", released in advance of Rocky's major-label debut.

2013–14: First indirect confrontations

On August 14, 2013, Big Sean released the track "Control", featuring Lamar and Jay Electronica, which was initially intended for Big Sean's album Hall of Fame, but had to be left off due to sample clearance issues. Lamar's verse on the track called out many popular rappers of his generation by name, including Drake, claiming that he "had love" for all of them, but was trying to figuratively "murder" them, to the point of making their fans forget about their existence. The verse quickly went viral on social media, and was widely discussed by hip-hop's biggest names and the public at large.

In an interview with Billboard two weeks later, Drake dismissed Lamar's verse, stating: "It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That's all it was. I know good and well that [Lamar]'s not murdering me, at all, in any platform". In September, Drake joined Elliott Wilson's live interview series #CRWN. When prompted about the "Control" verse, Drake replied that Lamar's in-person attitude contradicted the sentiments of his "Control" verse. "I saw him five days later at the VMAs and it was all love... If it's really 'fuck everybody' then it needs to be 'fuck everybody'. It can't just be halfway".

On September 24, 2013, Drake released his third studio album Nothing Was the Same. Multiple outlets interpreted the first verse on "The Language", the album's fifth single, as a response to Lamar's "Control" verse, with Drake insinuating that Lamar's music was "not that inspiring" despite popular and critical acclaim. Birdman, head of Drake's then-label Cash Money Records, stated the song was not about Lamar.

In October, during a cypher performance aired on BET as part of the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards, Lamar responded with a line that was widely interpreted as a diss towards Drake: "Nothing's been the same since they dropped 'Control' and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes".

On December 17, 2013, a remix of Future's "Shit" featuring Drake and Juicy J was released. Hip-hop fans and outlets alike speculated Drake's verse on the remix was a diss targeted towards Lamar. The same day, Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith and Punch (both key figures at Lamar's label Top Dawg Entertainment) posted responses on Twitter to Drake's verse disregarding the supposed disses.

Two days after the track's release, Drake addressed Lamar's 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher verse and "The Language" in a cover story for Vibe, mocking the idea of them being "buddy-buddy" and stating he already "stood [his] ground" in response to "Control". Nevertheless, Drake maintained that "The Language" was not targeted towards Lamar. Drake also praised Lamar as a "genius in his own right" and insisted there was "no real issue". In June 2014, Drake posted a video on Instagram of himself rapping along to "Cut You Off (To Grow Closer)" from Lamar's 2010 mixtape Overly Dedicated.

On October 29, 2014, Jay Rock released "Pay for It" featuring Lamar. The latter's verse contained lines seemingly taking shots at Drake while referencing lyrics from Drake's "The Language". Like Drake, Lamar denied growing rumors of tensions between the two. In an interview with Dazed published on November 3, 2014, Lamar clarified: "I got no beef with Drake". On November 4, 2014, Lamar made an appearance on WWPR-FM's The Breakfast Club and further defused the prospect of a 'beef' between himself and Drake: "It wasn't no issue from the jump. I think people talk about beef ... it's just a whole 'nother dynamic. I can't see myself going bar for bar with Drake. We're two different types of artists."