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FEATURE

Drake vs. Kendrick and Social Media’s Influence

Two of rap’s most popular artists have spent the last month taking aim at each other within a series of diss tracks. Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s ongoing feud has been one of the year’s most significant pop culture events - so of course, we had to unpack it.

A Brief Beef Background

In 2011, the pair’s relationship was in a different place - they’d collaborated on releases and Lamar even opened for Drake’s “Club Paradise” tour. Over the years, tension between the two has gradually increased, coming to a head this year.

In mid-April, Drake’s track “Push Ups” was leaked. It included personal and business-related digs at Lamar. Six days later, Drake officially released “Taylor Made Freestyle”, which dissed Lamar again and featured AI generated vocals mimicking Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. It’s since been removed from streaming services following a request from Shakur’s estate.

Then came Lamar’s retaliation tracks “Euphoria” and “6:16” - both taking aim at Drake. Over the past month, Drake has released “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6”, while Lamar has released “Meet The Grahams” and “Not Like Us”. Each track contains various inflammatory statements and attacks, all fueling the feud’s fire. It’s important to note that these tracks have been released via a variety of modes including leaks, YouTube exclusives, Instagram, and DSPs.

Social Media’s Role

Both Drake and Lamar have taken aim at each other in a series of social media posts, and users have been quick to comment, react and take sides in their feud. 

In early May, Newsweek reported that both Drake and Lamar have allegedly removed copyright from their diss tracks. Typically, copyright restrictions can lead to content like influencer reaction videos and/or audio being removed from platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Since a number of Drake and Lamar’s new tracks aren’t available as official releases on DSPs, influencers have played a key role in facilitating their presence across social media - supplementing DSP traction. Without the hurdle of copyright, they’re free to continue amplifying the diss track’s traction with their content.

The Numbers

So who’s come out on top? Well, speaking purely in numbers, according to Chartmetric, Drake has gained 1.28 million Spotify followers, 2.52 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Lamar gained 1.32 million followers and 8.81 million monthly listeners. Lamar, of course has an upper hand - as two of his diss tracks are available on streaming services, while only one of Drake’s is.

Over on Instagram, Lamar’s gained an impressive 1.7 million followers, while Drake’s gained 247,000.

General sentiment on social media agrees with these stats - it seems Kendrick Lamar has come out on top after releasing “Not Like Us” earlier this month, but there’s no guarantee that we’ve seen the last of this long-standing conflict.

^{Written by Olivia Gliku}