The war of words wages on between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and this time it’s personal. After the latter released his new diss track entitled “6:16 in LA” earlier this morning, both rappers dropped response tracks, one after the other, on Friday night (May 3), with Drake putting out “Family Matters” and Lamar releasing “Meet the Grahams.”
Drake was first up with “Family Matters,” where things take a very personal turn. “You mentioned my seed now deal with his dad,” begins the Toronto native on his seven-minute track. “I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad.”
Among the sprawling shots he takes at Lamar on the track, he guns for his foe and his relationship with his fiancee Whitney Alford. “Don’t even go back to your hood and plant no money trees,” he states, referring to Lamar’s “Money Trees” that came out in 2012. “Say you hate the girls I fuck but what you really mean / I been with Black and white and everything in between / You the Black messiah wifing up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem.”
Things get even more off-limits with the mention of their children, which Lamar previously brought up on last week’s diss track “Euphoria.” “Why you never hold your son and tell him say cheese / We could have left the kids out of this don’t blame me,” he states. He suggests that one of Lamar’s two children, a son and a daughter, was actually fathered by Dave Free, who has been a creative partner to Lamar for years.
On Lamar’s “Euphoria,” he name-checks a Toronto Chinese food restaurant called New Ho King, and in the video for “Family Matters,” Drake appears at the restaurant itself. “Kendrick just opened his mouth / Someone go hand him a Grammy right now / Where is your Uncle at / Cause I wanna talk to the man of the house,” he sneers.
He then references the cease and desist that Tupac Shakur’s estate sent to him over “Taylor Made Freestyle,” on which Drake used AI to create new vocals from the late rapper. On “Family Matters,” Drake states that Lamar was the one who encouraged the estate to fire back at Drake, who removed the song from social media shortly after they threatened to sue him.
“A cease and desist is for hoes / Can’t listen to lies that come out of your mouth / You called the Tupac estate and begged them to sue me and take that shit down,” he says. He finishes on a dark note referring to their children: “Our sons should go play at the park / Two light-skinned kids, that shit would be cute / Unless you don’t want to be seen with anyone that’s Blacker than you”
Lamar got just as personal on “Meet the Grahams,” on which each verse is addressed directly at Drake’s family members including his son Adonis, mother Sandra, father Dennis and apparently a daughter that Drake has never addressed. “Dear Adonis, I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest It takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive,” he begins. “I look at him and wish your grandpa woulda wore a condom / I’m sorry that you gotta grow up and then stand behind him.”
His second verse talks to his mother and father. “Dear Sandra, your son got some habits, I hope you don’t undermine them / Especially with all the girls that’s hurt inside this climate.” He moves on to his father, who he states “gave birth to a master manipulator” and claims that he “raised a horrible fuckin’ person.”
And then, he addresses a “baby girl” that he implies Drake had and has kept secret. “Should be teachin’ you timetables or watchin’ ‘Frozen’ with you / Or at your eleventh birthday, singin’ poems with you / Instead, he be in Turks, payin’ for sex and poppin’ Percs.”
This has been a whirlwind for anyone who’s been keeping tabs on the beef. It all started when Lamar fired at Drake and J. Cole on “Like That” for words on their “First Person Shooter.” The beef has since progressed at a rapid pace, involving everyone from Rick Ross and Metro Boomin to the Weeknd and Future.