Drake

Dame Dash Thinks Kendrick Lamar Is Winning The Beef: “He Snuffed Drake”

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Dame Dash has seen rap beef up close. He was Jay-Z’s right hand man during the legendary Nas battle, and spearheaded Roc-A-Fella during its commercial peak. His opinions on hip-hop, and beef especially, holds weight. This is what makes his recent comments on the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle so much fun to parse through. The duo represent the most substantial rivalry since Jay-Z and Nas, and Dash made it clear that he prefers one rapper over the other. Like most industry vets, he leans team Dot.

Dash was asked about Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” diss during a barbershop visit, and the mogul had plenty of thoughts. He admitted that he was underwhelmed by the song on first listen, but the more he dug into it, the more he appreciated what Lamar was doing. “He smothered Drake,” Dash stated. “This is a battle of lyrics, and you can be eloquent about conveying a point.” The ex-Roc-A-Fella boss lamented the advent of AI, and the way that it ruined the songwriting process, but he remained complimentive of Kung Fu Kenny.

Read More: Cam’ron & Mase’s Controversial Reaction To Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” Prompts Backlash, They Respond

Dame Dash Praised Dot’s “Lyrical” Strategy On “Euphoria”

The talking point that really swayed Dash on “Euphoria” was fatherhood. He thought it was incredibly smart to target Drake’s parenting skills, or lack thereof, on wax. “As a man, I thought that that was the most logical, grown man, battle rap, sh*t that you could say,” he noted. “A father really enjoys hearing about how fly it is to be a dad, and that’s basically the message I’ve bee conveying. F*ck all that dumb sh*t. If you ain’t a dad it don’t matter.” Dash went as far as to liken “Euphoria” to Nas’ “Ether.” The irony, of course, is that “Ether” was aimed at Dash’s own business partner.

Dame Dash thought Lamar’s diss was tactically superior as well. He claimed that “Euphoria” made him question whether Drake’s previous statements were true. “It was a very strategic lyrical play,” he added, inferring that the Toronto rapper’s insecurities are now going to be under greater scrutiny. Dash didn’t say the battle was over, though, and he’s actually had praise for Drake in the past. He merely thinks K. Dot won the first round. Like the rest of the hip-hop world, he’s curious to see what the 6 God has in store for a response.

Read More: DJHed Claims Drake Is Dropping A “Hit” Kendrick Lamar Diss Tonight

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DJHed Claims Drake Is Dropping A “Hit” Kendrick Lamar Diss Tonight

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The rap battle continues. Charlamagne tha God recently claimed that Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar is the current generation’s answer to Jay-Z vs. Nas. The comparison makes sense, given the stakes and the high-profile both artists have. The thing that really clinches the comparison, though, is the hype that’s been surrounding each new diss song. Jay and Nas had radio to build up, but Drizzy and Kenny have a new level of buzz thanks to social media. DJHed hopped on X (formerly Twitter) to claim that the former will be dropping a song on May 3.

DJHed has chronicled the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle ad nauseam on X. He drew praise and some criticism for pointing out that Drake took a while to upload “Push Ups” to streaming platforms. The radio personality really ramped up the hype cycle, however, when he claimed that the 6 God plans to kick off the second round of the battle tonight. “I HEAR the boy IS DROPPING A ‘HIT’ RECORD TONIGHT,” he wrote on X. “I HOPE IT’S AMAZING.” A few hours after this was posted, DJHed quote tweeted his own message with a confirmation. “Confirmed,” he wrote. “Best of luck to you.”

Read More: Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” Diss Was Originally 19 Minutes Long

DJHed Trolled The Incoming Drake Song On X

DJHed has made it clear that he’s team K. Dot. In the aforementioned criticism of Drake, he likened the rapper’s music to microwave food. He dismissed the notion of cooking up a response quickly in favor of taking time to craft something quality. “If you enjoy microwave meals that’s on you,” he tweeted at Drake fans. “We prefer cooked food on this side.” The radio personality decided to double down on his analogy by posting a gif on a microwave.

To DJHed’s credit, speed does seem to be a vital part of the Drake playbook. The rapper dropped two diss songs in the span of two weeks, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” then taunted Lamar for taking too long. The rapper also reacted to Lamar’s “Euphoria” diss the same night it dropped. He took to Instagram to troll Lamar with a film clip, and then told concertgoers at a Nicki Minaj show that he had business to take of. “You know what I gotta do,” he announced as he walked offstage. All eyes are going to be on the Boy, let’s see if he delivers.

Read More: Drake Reacts To Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” Diss: “See You Soon”

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Azealia Banks Unsurprisingly Chose A Side In The Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar Feud

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The beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar is boiling like a hot pot dinner, and it’s perhaps inevitable that Azealia Banks would chime in to pick a side. Longtime fans of the controversial commenter wouldn’t be shocked by whose side she chose, but if you weren’t tapped in before, you might raise your eyebrows on discovering that she didn’t care for Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” preferring Drake’s “Push Ups” instead.

A few reasons she gave include Kendrick “wearing the same size” as her, “the tone and timbre of Kendrick’s voice,” her feeling that “the mix is muddy as hell,” and that the beat is “dumb trash.” Her conclusion is that “Drake won. That’s it.” In typical Azealia Banks fashion, though, she quickly lost the plot, arguing for a conspiracy theory that “Kendrick sent goons to have both diss tracks from Cole and Drake removed from DSPs.”

Real quick, though: Drake was threatened with legal action by the estate of Tupac Shakur, whose likeness he unethically reproduced using AI (Congress really needs to get on some sort of legislation about this instead of, like, banning apps and selling bombs). Cole removed his track after seeing some backlash to it, citing his internal discontent with how it all worked out.

Of course, Azealia Banks has always had it out for Kendrick Lamar, writing in a rant about Doja Cat taking her spot, “He be making the kind of rap music that allows white people to indulge in weird fetishization of ‘the Black struggle’.” Her position is also something of an about-face, considering she was just trashing Drake a few months ago for allegedly getting liposuction. Also, her quibbles with Drake aligned with much of what Kendrick said in “Euphoria,” but Azealia’s never much been one for consistency, right?

She, of course, is still best known for a song from over 13 years ago and her salty assessments of everything everybody else has done since sooo… She’s entitled to her opinion, but it certainly looks like she’s on the outs this time.

Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” Breaks A Rap Streaming Record

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The biggest story in hip-hop so far this year has now spawned one of the biggest rap songs of the year. Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s beef first sparked back in March when Future & Metro Boomin dropped “Like That.” That feels like a lifetime ago as there’s been numerous responses and developments from across the genre’s spectrum. J. Cole and Kanye West have sparked a side-beef of their own while artists like Rick Ross and even Metro Boomin himself weighed in. But at the core it’s been about Kendrick and Drake and the newest development proved it.

It’s first full day of streaming on Spotify resulted in a massive number of streams. As DJ Akademiks reports, users streamed the song 9,206,498 times. That isn’t just an incredibly impressive start for the diss track, it’s the biggest single day of any rap song released in 2024 so far. Given that the diss track that started it all “Like That” has racked up more than 200 million streams, the ongoing beef is proving to be a major commercial draw for everyone involved. Earlier this week, Drake’s “Push Ups” response track landed in the top 20 of the Hot 100. With “euphoria” pulling off an even stronger start it has the chance to debut even higher.

Read More: Kendrick Lamar Scores This Milestone For Feature On “Like That”

Kendrick Lamar Breaks 2024 Rap Streaming Record

In the days since “euphoria” dropped, fans have been dissecting every element of the track. That’s including creating theories about some of the more abstract lyrics and noticing mistakes like a celebrity switch-up that went viral shortly after the song dropped. Most people online have claimed that Kendrick got the best of Drake in the beef so far. Though some like Joe Budden are hoping that the “Rich Baby Daddy” rapper is cooking up a response.

What do you think of Kendrick Lamar’s new diss track breaking the single day Spotify streaming record for rap songs this year? Do you think the song will debut even higher on the Hot 100 than Drake’s did? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More: Which Rappers Have Apologized To Kendrick Lamar?

[Via]

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Wack 100 Says Drake is Currently Beating Kendrick Lamar in Beef

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Wack 100 spoke with DJ Akademiks, and while he is all about the West Side, he thinks Drake is involved in the beef with Kendrick Lamar.

“Drake up one,” Wack 100 said. “The energy wasn’t there and a lot of things said, Pusha T said.”

You can hear Wack 100’s full reasoning below.

Kendrick Lamar fired back at Drake with “Euphoria.”

The track opens with Lamar rapping over the Teddy Pendergrass classic “You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspriation,” calling out “the famous actor we once knew” as spiraling. He also stated Drake was a “pathetic master manipulator” created a fake story about Lamar’s family in “Push Ups.” Another early job is “you make music that pacify them, I can double down on that line but spare you this time, that’s random act of kindness,” hinting at rumors of Drake’s involvement with underage girls.

The track then hits a new level, calling out Drake for dodging Pusha T, calling into question his contracts, bieng a poor father and more. All the while, leaving the belief he has more on the way. One of which, “

You can hear it below.

The post Wack 100 Says Drake is Currently Beating Kendrick Lamar in Beef first appeared on The Source.

The post Wack 100 Says Drake is Currently Beating Kendrick Lamar in Beef appeared first on The Source.

Haley Joel Osment Acknowledges His Unexpected Role In The Kendrick Lamar And Drake Beef

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Haley Joel Osment 2024
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Kendrick Lamar really goes after Drake on “Euphoria,” with most of the bars leaving very little doubt about what exactly he means. There is one portion of the diss track that has raised some uncertain eyebrows, though: At one point, Lamar raps, “Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? N**** feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called AI / And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him.”

While Joel Osteen is a televangelist, the lyrics seem like they’re really more about similarly named actor Haley Joel Osment, which has left some listeners confused (and dropping Abbott Elementary references).

Meanwhile, Osment himself has subtly weighed in: As some have observed, Osment liked Lamar’s tweet sharing the song. Whether this is Osment taking Lamar’s side or simply giving a quiet nod to his unexpected role in the situation as a whole, who knows. But, we know that he’s at least aware of the fact that he got roped into the big hip-hop beef of the moment.

Perhaps relevant is the fact that in a 2017 interview with Uproxx, Osment said Flying Lotus’ “Massage Situation” was his most-played song at the time. Given that Flying Lotus and Lamar have a history of working together, perhaps Osment’s X (formerly Twitter) like really is a Lamar co-sign.

Angel Reese Refuses To Pick Sides In Drake Vs Kendrick Lamar Battle

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Angel Reese is a competitor. She knows what it takes to win, and she doesn’t have a problem getting in people’s faces to prove it. Reese is famous for speaking her mind, on and off the court, but she decided to draw the line during a recent Q&A with the Chicago Sky. The basketball team was asked whether they preferred Drake or Kendrick Lamar in the ongoing rap battle, but Reese was one of the few who dodged the question. Instead of picking a side, the WNBA stalwart decided to play it safe.

The majority of the Chicago Sky team answered the prompt, and the majority of them picked Drake. It’s fitting that the guy who made the “Best I Ever Had” music video has the support of the WNBA. Reese, on the other hand, opted for a more diplomatic approach. She made it clear that she doesn’t want to cause any additional strife between the rappers.

Even more importantly, though, she didn’t want the headache of having to deal with various news outlets hyping up her answer. “I’m not getting in this controversy because I’ll be on Twitter, The Shade Room, all that,” Reese explained. “Nope!”

Read More: Shaq Is A “Father Figure” To Angel Reese, LSU Star Declares

Angel Reese Wants To Avoid The Controversy

This isn’t the first time Reese has avoided the “Drake or Kendrick” question. The athlete was asked to pick during the red carpet for the WNBA Draft, but she told Complex she didn’t want any part of it. “I don’t want to get in the mix,” she said. “I’m out the mix!”

Angel Reese has publicly spoken about Drake in the past. During a 2023 appearance on The Breakfast Club, the athlete revealed that both Future and the Toronto rapper slid into her DMs after she won the NCAA Championship. “They just congratulated me,” she noted. “It’s all congratulations.” Nevertheless, Charlamagne tha God told Reese to stay away from both rappers given their reputations.”You said two that you need to stay far away from,” he advised.

It looks to be all love between Reese and Drake, however. The former appeared on the cover of Teen Vogue in 2023, and she quoted a lyric from Drake’s “Jimmy Cooks” while promoting it on Instagram. “Don’t tell me that you a model if you ain’t been in Vogue or whatever Drake said,” she wrote in the caption.

Read More: Kendrick Lamar “Euphoria”: We Might Finally Get The Surgical Summer We Deserve

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TNT Plays Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” During NBA Playoffs Halftime

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Los Angeles has more eyes on it than usual, which is saying something. The Lakers were just eliminated by the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers are fighting to stay alive against the Dallas Mavs, and the Compton savior, Kendrick Lamar, is duking it out with Canada’s favorite son. Some Angelinos theorized that Lamar dropped “Euphoria” at 8:24 am as a tribute to Laker Kobe Bryant, but the Drake diss was unexpectedly tied to the L.A. Clippers on May 1, when the song played during the TNT halftime show.

The halftime panel featured the usual suspects: Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. Each of them weighed in on who they thought was going to take game 5 (spoilers, but Dallas prevailed) in predictable fashion. The curveball in the broadcast came when the show cut back from a commercial break and Lamar’s ferocious diss track was blaring over the speakers.

It wasn’t even the soft, melodic intro, either. The TNT halftime show was playing the third beat switch. The one where K. Dot cuts loose and calls Drake a bad father (among other things). It was the last things fan expected to hear, and the same goes for the panelists.

Read More: Joe Budden Reacts To Kendrick Lamar’s New Diss Track “Euphoria”

Kendrick Lamar’s Hardest Bars Made The Broadcast

Shaq and Kenny Smith began laughing when they heard the song. “C’mon man,” Smith noted. “Y’all putting us in the middle of the rap beef. [Now] we in the middle.” The Jet then joked that the network needed to play Drake’s “Push Ups” in order to stay neutral. The rest of Inside the broadcast went over without any beef talk, but one of the panel members actually weighed in on the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle previously.

Shaq voiced concern for both artists during an episode of his podcast The Big Podcast With Shaq. “I like competition,” he admitted. “I love it, you know, because we all have egos. We all say we’re the best and the fans want you to prove it.” The NBA legend asserted that things between Drake and Kendrick Lamar would be fine as long as they kept their conflict to the music. “I just hope it don’t go into all that other stuff,” he added. “You know, ‘My crew see your crew and we start fighting and shooting and all that.’”

Given Drake and Dot’s track record, it doesn’t seem like Shaq has anything to worry about. The same goes for the rest of the TNT panel.

Read More: Drake Reacts To Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” Diss: “See You Soon”

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Shaq And Kenny Got A Laugh Out Of TNT Playing Kendrick Lamar’s Drake Diss ‘Euphoria’ At Halftime

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shaq-kenny
TNT

Wednesday night was a big one in the Mavs-Clippers series, as the two teams met in Los Angeles for a pivotal Game 5 (I’m legally obligated as a sportswriter to call it that) with the series tied 2-2. The first half was a back-and-forth battle until the Mavs went on a late second quarter run to pull ahead by 10 at the halftime break on TNT. Once the halftime buzzer sounded, it was time for Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson to break down that half of basketball in the studio.

However, before they could get to that, TNT’s production team decided to tap into the dominant story of the day in the world of pop culture, playing Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss that he released earlier in the day, “Euphoria”, in the transition from the booth in L.A. to the studio in Atlanta. Only half of the desk realized what was being played in the background as Ernie did his lead-in, with Shaq and Kenny both chuckling about how they were suddenly in the middle of the rap beef.

The least surprising thing ever is that Shaq (literally a DJ) and Kenny (a man who still listens to new music) would recognize the Drake diss playing while Ernie (old, white) and Chuck (listens to country) would be oblivious. Shaq and Kenny got a kick out of it, with Jet joking that they were inserting themselves in the middle of the rap beef and they needed to play Drake’s “Push Ups” to stay neutral in the battle between the Los Angeles and Toronto artists.

Angel Reese Was Asked To Choose Between Drake And Kendrick Lamar, And She Handled It Perfectly

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Angel Reese 2023 ESPY Awards
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Kendrick Lamar and Drake have a longstanding beef, as chronicled by Uproxx’s Aaron Williams, and it’s sizzling this week. On Tuesday, April 30, Lamar dropped “Euphoria,” the latest in a string of diss tracks between Drake, Lamar, J. Cole, and more that began with Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.” The six-minute sprint of a song packs in myriad Drake disses, and everyone from Joel Embiid to Rick Ross is chiming in.

Angel Reese is not interested in entering the fray. The Chicago Sky posted a video on Wednesday, May 1, showing the WNBA team’s players answering a loaded question: “Drake or Kendrick?” Reese’s teammates each chose a side — the results were lopsided in Drake’s favor — but Reese knew better. “I’m not getting in this controversy because I’ll be on Twitter, The Shade Room, all that,” Reese said. “Nope!”

Last month, Reese was drafted seventh overall by Chicago after a decorated collegiate career at LSU, where she and the Tigers won the national championship in 2023. Anyway, Reese’s favorite rapper might be her former LSU teammate, Flau’jae Johnson. The two co-starred in NLE Choppa’s “Champions” video last year, and Reese was also featured in the video for Latto and Cardi B’s “Put It On Da Floor Again.”