kendrick lamar
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Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty / Elliott Wilson
No one man should have all that power. UPROXX’s new Editorial Director and legendary Hip-Hop scribe Elliott Wilson is no longer welcome in Toronto, and it allegedly has to do with Drake being salty.
Wilson spoke on The Bigger Picture podcast about the fallout after he decided that Kendrick Lamar came out on top in the highly entertaining back-and-forth with Drake.
Wilson revealed that Drake was in his feelings after his co-host DJ Hed pointed out that Wilson was no longer wearing OVO gear and asked him how he felt about Drake unfollowing him.
The Petty 6 God
“It’s funny because Drake is the kind of dude that, even if he doesn’t f**k with you, he still follows you. So, he’s not an unfollow kind of dude. [But] I saw somebody in my comments say, ‘How do you feel about Drake unfollowing you?’ I got my emotions about it… but look, it’s hard… that’s my guy, I respect him,” Wilson said.
Continuing the conversation, Wilson revealed that he got “calls” from people telling him she should not set foot in Toronto right now.
“I got the calls from OGs — I’m not really welcomed in Toronto right now. I grew up in NYC and you know not to go into other people’s projects. You might visit shorty but you ain’t got no business being over to those projects looking for no problems,” Wilson said. “So, I would not go to TO if me and Drake weren’t good. I just think it’s a tough time to manage these relationships with artists… You develop these connections with them, and then you have to manage these relationships and its ups and downs with that.”
All of this is because Wilson agreed with everyone else that Kendrick Lamar won.
Drake is a very petty individual.
Speaking of Drake, he just hopped on a new Sexy Redd song that features the BBL Drizzy beat.
You can watch the latest episode of The Bigger Picture below.
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Kendrick Lamar and his war of words with Drake was largely expected to be a war of words but has transformed into a huge cultural moment that transcends the battle. K-Dot’s blistering “Not Like Us” landed the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and gave DJ Mustard his first No. 1 debut.
Kendrick Lamar, 36, threw the first of the most current shots in the direction of Drake (and J. Cole) on the relatively tame “Like That” track from Future and Metro Boomin’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU collaborative album. From there, the stakes were raised when J. Cole fired back but retracted his diss track “7 Minute Drill” in the name of friendship.
Drake then leaked the track “Push Ups” before officially releasing the song and egging on the beef by daring Lamar to respond. Upping the ante, the Canadian superstar then released the “Taylor Made Freestyle” using AI-generated 2Pac and Snoop Dogg voices aimed at Lamar, which the estate of the late Tupac Shakur later took down.
Lamar returned the volley with “euphoria” which is also in the top 10 of the Hot 100 and just days later with “6:16 in LA” which prompted Drake to drop “Family Matters,” a track that is currently charting in the Hot 100 top 10 along with “Not Like Us” and “Like That.”
It all went left with Lamar’s creepy “Meet The Grahams,” which sits at No. 12 on the Hot 100, and “Not Like Us” came immediately after. It was an effective one-two punch as “Meet The Grahams” is sonically darker than “Not Like Us” with the latter now becoming the song of the summer.
Drake’s final salvo, “The Heart Part 6,” was seen as him waving the white flag and moving on from the battle. And as far as fans go, Kendrick Lamar is decidedly the winner of this feud.
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It was pretty obvious to much of the Hip-Hop culture that Drake was taking an ass whippin’ in his much-publicized and discussed battle with Kendrick Lamar. Although plenty of Drake “Stans” swore the 6 Gawd was somehow winning the war, the King of The North has seemingly waved the white flag.
In a recent post on his Instagram stories, Drizzy shared some artwork which featured a samurai staring down an army of warriors (the man done took shots and clapped back at a number of rappers in the past few weeks), and simply wrote “Good times. Summer vibes up next.”
Looks like Drake is officially done going back and forth with Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin’ and whoever else got roped into this battle.
The post comes after Top Dawg Entertainment founder, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, took to X to announce that the battle between his artist, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake was “over” and called it “A win for the culture, while keeping it all on wax.”
Truth be told, we’re kind of glad this is over. Not because the music wasn’t dope (it was), but because fans began to really take aim at Drake which allegedly led to one of his security guards getting shot in a drive by next to his home in Toronto and Drake’s OVO flagship store being vandalized in London.
The hate for the Drake was beginning to get too real. It’s probably best that the culture move on and everyone retreat to their respective sides.
What do y’all think about Drake apparently throwing in the towel? Is it enough? Did he take the L? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Kendrick Lamar’s verbal war with Drake is boosting his streaming catalog numbers and whittling his rival’s own down.
According to reports, the heated battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is carrying over to streaming as the former’s catalog is outpacing the other. The battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake saw Lamar issue four tracks beginning with “Euphoria” which entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 11 and garnered 27.6 million audio demand streams from May 3 to May 6 according to Luminate. “Not Like Us”, the infectious and scathing diss track that’s now become a club anthem, had 21.1 million streams since its debut on May 4, with the incisive “Meet The Grahams” earning 8.8 million streams so far. “6:16 in L.A.”, the second of the tracks, hasn’t hit streaming platforms yet. This also includes Kendrick Lamar taking the number one streaming status in Drake’s home country of Canada, standing at number one on Apple Music’s Top 100 chart as well as Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Canada chart.
Going further, removing the diss tracks only highlights how many listeners are tuning in to hear Kendrick Lamar’s music. During that same four-day period, his discography attained 50.62 million streams, showing a 49% increase from the same period the previous week. In comparison, Drake’s overall catalog streaming numbers took a hit once his response tracks, “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6” were removed from the equation – the data shows the streams at 100.7 million from May 3-6 as opposed to 105.9 million from Apr. 26-29. That represents a 4.9% drop.
While Drake can be okay with the fact that his overall streaming numbers still outpace Kendrick Lamar’s with twice as many, the recent hit has reflected a distinct turn against the Toronto superstar. Other streaming numbers that stand out are tied to the rise of “BBL Drizzy,” a song that producer Metro Boomin used for an instrumental to fire back at Drake after the rapper called him out in response to the “Like That” track with Future and Kendrick Lamar that he appeared on. R&B legends Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green also saw an uptick in their streaming numbers as a result of the feud, with the former’s “You’re My Latest, Greatest Inspiration” hit from 1981 saw a boost of 76% in streams from Apr. 26-29 (76,000) to May 3-6 (134,000) due to it being sampled in “Euphoria”. Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is” from 1972 saw a 283% rise in streams after its usage in “6:16 In L.A.”.
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As we all know, Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign centers around fear mongering, divisiveness and ultimately revenge (for himself). And though Joe Biden’s campaign has been reluctant to go down such a dark route to entice people to vote for him, he has decided to inject a little “hate” into his latest campaign ad.
Borrowing one of Kendrick Lamar’s new classic diss songs “Euphoria,” the Biden-Harris campaign took a snippet of the song to throw some shots at Donald Trump by using his own words against him throughout the ad. Highlighting the hate they feel for Trump’s many ways and actions such as taking away women’s abortion rights and the way that he blames immigrants for damn near everything that’s “wrong” with America.
The ad features Kendrick’s bars in which he spits: “It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater/ I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress/ I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.”
We’re not gonna lie, it was hilarious. He even threw in the “sneak diss” posts on Truth Social. Whoever’s idea this was is in line for a raise. Just sayin’.
No word on whether Kendrick Lamar has gotten wind that his song was used to attack Donald Trump in the ad and how he may feel about it, but Biden supporters have been loving it, and the MAGA side has surprisingly remained silent about it. We guess they’ve never heard of Kung-Fu Kenny. If they did they’d probably blame him for the Coronavirus or something.
Will Trump respond to Joe Biden’s latest jab at his horrendous history? Will he call on his own MAGA music “heavyweight” Kid Rock to help him clap back? Maybe Kanye West? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
What do y’all think of Joe Biden’s latest campaign ad? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Questlove opined on the ongoing beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar but some fans called his statements dramatic after the war of words largely concluded. The veteran drummer from The Roots band believed that the battle between the two titans took nasty turns, thus signaling a death knell for Hip-Hop.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 53, took to social media to issue one of the loudest detracting statements yet to emerge against what is one of the biggest Hip-Hop beef battles in the history of the genre.
“Nobody won the war,” Questlove opened his statement with. “This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.”
The statement continued with “Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
The caption of the Instagram post with the statement read “Here We Are Now…Entertain us?,” which seems to be aimed at Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
As it stands, K-Dot doesn’t seem to want any manner of reconciliation with Drizzy and said as much on the track “euphoria” where the Compton lyricist rapped, “Whoever that’s f*ckin’ with him, f*ck you n*ggas, and f*ck the industry too” and once more on “Not Like Us” with the lines, “The industry can hate me, f*ck ’em all and they mama.”
As far as responses go, Drake’s last missive was “The Heart Part 6” and the two have left it at that. The Canadian superstar is contending with other issues after a security guard was shot outside his home in a drive-by shooting along with another incident in which a man was arrested for trying to break into the the massive mansion.
On X, formerly Twitter, the comments from Questlove garnered some sharp responses. However, we’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Kendrick Lamar is contention for the Rap MVP of 2024 award. He has just surpassed Drake’s Spotify streaming record with “Not Like Us”.
As reported by Digital Music News the Compton, California native is putting numbers on the board like never before. The streaming service recorded that his diss track going at the 6 God has broken the single-day streaming record on Spotify with 10.986 million plays in the United States. Ironically this moment just makes their Rap war that much more ironic as the song that previously held the record was Drake’s “Girls Want Girls” featuring Lil Baby.
While their beef has been strictly lyrical it has unfortunately turned physical. The Toronto Sun reports that Drake’s bodyguard was shot outside of his mansion on Tuesday, May 7. Local police say a drive by shooting occurred outside the property that left the 48-year-old with serious injuries as one of the bullets hit him in the upper chest. The unidentified man was immediately rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital to be treated. Toronto Police Inspector Paul Krawczyk, of the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force, says that security cameras did capture footage of the crime but investigators are “dealing with video quality issues.” Drake has yet to comment on the matter.
You can listen to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” below.
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A day after it was reported that a man was shot outside of Drake’s residence in Toronto, more bad news comes for the embattled King of the North. Word out of London is that Drizzy’s OVO flagship store was vandalized with a specific message for the Canadian crooner.
Just a few days after Kendrick Lamar released his scathing Drake diss/club record, “Not Like Us,” a fan in the UK apparently took the song to heart and decided to spray paint “They not like us” across the front window of Drake’s OVO store, HotNewHipHop reports.
More than just your average diss record, K. Dot’s “Not Like Us” accuses Drake of not only being a sexual predator, but also employing a team of pedophiles who reside in his multimillion dollar mansion in Toronto. To make matters worse for Drake, Kendrick turned the diss record into an actual catchy club cut complete with a bouncy beat and sing-a-long phrase towards the end of the track.
As we stated before, the vandalization of the OVO store comes after a security guard was shot outside of Drake’s mansion early Tuesday morning. Though the security guard is alive, according to NBC News, he remains in serious condition.
Per NBC News:
Officers found the security guard suffering from an apparent gunshot wound, Inspector Paul Krawczyk said at a news conference. The guard was standing outside a gate when he was injured.
Police said in a news release they believe he “was shot from a vehicle which then fled the scene.”
He remains in the hospital in serious condition, Krawczyk said.
Krawczyk said authorities do not know how many people were involved or what kind of car they were in, but he noted that the shooting was captured on video.
Yeah, Kendrick Lamar and Drake might have to hold a joint press conference at some point to calm things down if things like this keep happening because things seem to be getting out of hand and quickly. If 50 Cent and The Game were reluctantly able to do so in 2005 when their beef began to violently spill out on the streets, K. Dot and Drake can do so also. Just sayin’.
What do y’all think about the OVO store getting vandalized and one of Drake’s security guards getting shot? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Russell Simmons has not made many public statements after being accused of sexual assault and other crimes during his time as a record company executive. Now residing in Bali, Indonesia, the former Def Jam Recordings mogul took to social media to defend Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is also facing a bevy of sexual assault charges, and urged fans to “see the good in things.”
Taking to Instagram, Russell Simmons, 66, opened up his video by mentioning that there have always been issues in rap but likened the skirmishes to pro wrestling. However, Simmons notes that the way that Kendrick Lamar and Drake are going after each other, while exciting, could eventually lead to gunplay.
“When you tear someone down or you watch someone tear someone down, try not to get so excited. I know it’s fun to watch for some people,” Simmons says, warning that the cycle isn’t healthy over time.
He added, “If I had a nickel for every nasty meme sent to me by people whose lives were enhanced and built by Sean Combs, it’s like, it seems a bit hypocritical since the only reason you have a life is because you worked for him, or he gave you a job or lifted you up somehow.”
The overarching message from Simmons is that the current state of beef and the tearing down of Diddy has created a situation where fans are more invested in the downfall of entertainers than in bettering themselves.
“You may think it’s, you know, entertaining. Some of the memes are funny, right? But, we gotta look up, train our minds to see the good in things and not the negative,” Simmons shared.
On X, fans are naturally blasting Russell Simmons for defending Diddy and for speaking on the beef when he has a mountain of legal issues to face himself, all of which the mogul vehemently denies. Check out the reactions below.
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Vince Staples has always presented himself as a principled individual and remains one of the greatest minds in Hip-Hop, even if his observations rankle some. The Long Beach, Calif. native recently spoke at an event in his hometown and was asked about the ongoing Drake and Kendrick Lamar but his answer was directly aimed on critiquing the music industry.
Vince Staples, 30, was a guest at the first annual Youth Day in the LBC event over the weekend which also featured a town hall with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richard alongside the rapper and actor. Fans in attendance were allowed to ask questions and the fan wanted Staples’ opinion regarding Hip-Hop’s hottest feud.
In his signature deadpan fashion, Staples harkened back to similar thoughts he shared on The Joe Budden Podcast where he tried to explain to the cast why the war between Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole was largely pointless and the only ones to benefit are the labels. Staples’ point was largely dismissed as he refused to engage in zeroing in on the beef and instead sticking to his morals that the industry is in literal shambles.
“That record label just folded all of its independent labels and subsidiaries into each other,” Staples shared of his current record label, Universal Music Group, which he’s been signed to since he was 17. Staples explained that the label hasn’t paid him since 2018.
Staples then explained that the dissolving of the independent labels and subsidiaries also meant that Black folks who have been invested in growing the Hip-Hop and R&B sectors of their labels are either without a job or moved into positions outside their wheelhouse.
“None of them [labels] exist no more. They fired all the heads of the labels and if they didn’t, they turn them into glorified A&Rs. They cut off 50 percent of the people who work in all these departments, most of those people is us, people of color, that come from hip-hop and R&B and these other things, right?” Staples continued.
In a somewhat somber fashion, Staples essentially said that a Hip-Hop beef is the least of his concerns while the industry he’s been a part of as a teenager is crumbling before his eyes.
“So then we getting priced out of our contracts, we getting priced out of our imprints. There are no labels, basically, that are incentivized to sign Black music and it’s happening in front of our eyes,” Staples shared. “While Taylor Swift is fighting for people to be able to have streaming money, n*ggas is on the internet arguing with each other about some rap sh*t. So that’s how I feel about it, honestly.”
Much like his comments on the JBP, Staples’ comments found their way online and fans have reacted to portions of his answer. Some fans also took aim at Staples for, in their view, evoking respectability politics. Staples also caught wind of those who didn’t enjoy his commentary.
We’ve got comments from all sides below.
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