Just a day after a security guard was shot near Drake’s Toronto home, police detained an intruder during an attempted break-in, according to Complex. The would-be intruder was taken to get medical assistance, per a statement from Toronto Police Service to Complex. “Officers were called after a person attempted to gain access to the property,” it read. “The person was apprehended under the mental health act and taken to get medical assistance.”
Meanwhile, just a day ago (May 7), police were called to Drake’s residence following reports of a shooting, with one man taken to the hospital with serious injuries. A later report from CBC noted, “Early details from the initial call suggest the victim was a security guard at the home who appears to have been shot in a drive-by attack.” The security guard was wounded in the chest and taken to a nearby hospital for surgery.
Some fans have noted that the incident followed a contentious rap battle between Drake and fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. On Sunday (May 4), Kendrick had released a diss track titled “Not Like Us” paired with an aerial photo of Drake’s Toronto home. While there’s no evidence that the shooting or the home invasion are connected to the feud, their proximity to the release of the song — and another, “Meet The Grahams,” in which Kendrick rhymes “I think n****s like [Drake] should die” — will undoubtedly fuel theories of a connection online.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Drake has had to deal with intruders. In 2022, he filed a restraining order against a woman who had previously broken into his home in Los Angeles and sent him threatening emails.
Reactions to the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef have come in a variety of ways. Some have tried to analyze who landed more punches and came away looking better. Additionally others have taken a more analytical approach trying to find out which of both rapper’s claims can actually be proven. Members of the hip-hop media space like Joe Budden have been doing a combination of both. He’s called together numerous emergency podcasts to break songs down line by line. They also discuss the overall standing of the war between the two artists.
During a recent episode Budden and his co-hosts reacted to the most recent addition to the viral beef. Drake dropped “The Heart Part 6” over the weekend. In the song he claims that the viral story Kendrick spread about him having a secret 12-year-old daughter was actually planted and didn’t have any real evidence. He also defends himself against the allegations that he’s attracted to underage girls, though how good of a job he does has been up for massive debate online. Subsequently, Budden and company seemed to pretty firmly state their takes on whether or not he pulls it off with their immediate reaction to the song. Check out what they had to say below.
After hearing one particular bar on the song where Drake promises that if he had been acting inappropriately to underage girls he would have been caught by now. Budden and company clearly weren’t a fan of that line of thinking. In fact, they went as far as to reference a notorious R Kelly incident where he sang an improvised invitation to a crowd of fans overseas. The comparison speaks volumes about how little they’re convinced by Drake’s denial.
What do you think of Joe Budden and his co-hosts singing a notorious R. Kelly song while reacting to Drake’s newest diss track? Do you think Drake did a good enough job defending himself against Kendrick’s allegations? Let us know in the comment section below.
Unwelcome visitors continue to visit Drake’s Toronto home, nicknamed The Embassy. According to TMZ, a man is in police custody after attempting to access the sprawling mansion.
Officers were called to the Bridal Path home after a man was intercepted at the security gate and detained until officers arrived. The man was arrested under the Mental Health Act. Canada Global News reporter Tracy Tong revealed the man stated he was “here to see Drake” before engaging in a scuffle with security.
This incident happened less than 24 hours after a shooting at Drake’s residence. According to The Toronto Sun, the man injured is a 48-year-old security guard. He was struck by bullets while “standing outside the gates in front of the home.”
The shooting occurred at 2:09 a.m., and the injuries were considered life-threatening. The shooting was a drive by. One of the bullets hit in the upper chest. The man was transported to the Sunnybrook Hospital and is listed in serious condition.
After the drive-by shooting, a vehicle was seen leaving the area. Law enforcement is allegedly battling “video quality” issues.
There are no details on whether Drake was home despite being seen in Toronto recently.
With the release of his song “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday, Drake might have finally waved the white flag in his battle with Kendrick Lamar. Now that the dust has seemingly cleared, it looks like a good time to take stock of the damage. Here are six things we learned from the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef.
Nobody Wins When The Family Feuds
Depending on who you ask, the winner of the battle remains a toss-up. Fans are divided by personal loyalties and favorites, of course, but also along lines of regionality, generation, and background. Some fans don’t feel there could be a winner after the battle became increasingly noxious. Whether you believe a rhyme fight should focus on punchlines and metaphors or mean-spirited mudslinging, both rappers went for broke, accusing each other of horrible crimes against women and children (going for the ol’ catch-22 loaded question, “Have you stopped beating your wife?“). Fans ascribed all sorts of symbolism to the battle — the future of the culture, philosophy of hip-hop, etc. — but ultimately, it all just came down to two guys who don’t like each other (despite having spent very little time together, to the best of my ability to ascertain) and put their problems on front street.
Drake’s Popularity With Fans Has Waned
For the past 15 years, one thing that could be relied on is that Drake would be the biggest thing in hip-hop anytime he dropped. Every one of his eight studio albums has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. He’s had thirteen No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, all but one of them coming in the last six years. Fans still anticipate every release like kids do Christmas morning, and let’s just say if Kendrick Lamar had spent the past four weeks dropping bombs on just about any other rapper, the press coverage would probably have gone from “breathlessly recounting every move” to “middle of the local news section in an indie weekly” levels in comparison.
But one thing the response to the war of words showed was just how much resentment against Drake has been simmering just under the surface. He’s always had his fair share of haters — people for whom hip-hop has always stemmed from a place of animosity and struggle, however ahistorical that outlook may be. But over the past few years, he’s alienated a great many more who’ve grown tired of his maudlin, paranoid subject matter, his faux-gangster posturing, and his insidiously misogynistic view of women (more on that later). Most of the interest in the battle had little to do with proving which rapper was the best — people just wanted to see Drake lose.
Kendrick Hates Not Only Drake But Also Drake’s Whole Family
I’m not sure when exactly being a hater went from a vice to a virtue — consider it a function of the goalpost moving many fans were willing to do to ensure a Drake loss. But if “hating” was an Olympic sport, K. Dot would be its Michael Phelps after spending no less than 20 minutes across four tracks detailing all the ways he dislikes Drake, Drake’s dad, Drake’s friends, Toronto, Canada, Nickelodeon, and anything else he deemed responsible for his rival’s rise to stardom.
Calling Drake a “horrible f*cking person” is by far the most direct attack on his character, but turning mean-spirited social media gossip fodder into outright accusations of literal crimes is … a lot (especially for someone who has been determinedly vague about whether or not he actually killed another human being). There had long been rumors of friction between the two but no one had any idea just how deep it went until Kendrick rhymed “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.”
Drake May Have Leaks In His Camp
Part of how methodically Kendrick picked his opponent apart stemmed from his assertion that he had moles in OVO feeding him information. Drake himself both denied and took credit for the leaks in “The Heart Part 6,” claiming that he’d seeded false information knowing Kendrick would pounce on it in his haste to find dirt to throw on Drake’s name.
But Drake should still find it concerning that anyone would be so invested in his downfall they’d sell him out — especially after the way Pusha T dug up the info concerning his son, Adonis. While cooler heads might attribute both rappers’ angles to them just being predictable as people — the jokes about jazz raps and Drake’s friendship with former child star Millie Bobbie Brown have been floating around on social media for years now — Drake’s “no new friends” policy probably hasn’t yielded all the results he’s hoped.
Kendrick Has Been Sitting On Entirely Too Many Fire Beats
The part of all this I found personally infuriating was learning just how much heat Kendrick has in his vault, especially after the navel-gazing disappointment that was Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Say what you want about having grand artistic vision, but we’ve had enough high concept albums that still had bangers on them that we should be holding Kendrick accountable for having had a Mustard-produced C-walk anthem on his hands and wasting it on something as petty as rap beef.
He also threw away a perfectly good Alchemist album on this nonsense. After getting a half-dozen incredible Alchemist-produced projects since 2020 (with such luminaries as Curren$y, Earl Sweatshirt, Freddie Gibbs, and Larry June), the idea that we could have had a Kendrick album produced by Al should be borderline unconscionable for all the so-called “real hip-hop heads” crowing about a battle. Bring that man up at The Hague and force him to put out all the material he has right now on the threat of life imprisonment. I’m only barely joking.
This may be controversial, but considering Questlove (who has forgotten more about hip-hop in the time it took me to write this feature than most of us will ever learn in a lifetime) thinks this too, I’m okay with whatever comes. I don’t think people who say that beef is “good for hip-hop” have ever considered what is or isn’t good for hip-hop. They’re just repeating a talking point, like “lower the rims” or “build the wall.”
The fact is, according to Audiomack co-founder Brian Zisook, “Multiple releases previously scheduled for next Friday, May 10, have already been delayed.” He further pointed out how the battle overshadowed releases from the likes of both rising stars like Chris Patrick and Foggieraw and underground veterans like NxWorries and Saba. How is that good for hip-hop? I joked that Detroit rapper Bfb Da Packman was just scamming with his much-touted Drake collab, but if Drake really did pull his feature — a feature that could have made Packman’s career — how does that help hip-hop?
Did the battle establish a new top dog in rap? It didn’t seem like that was even the goal after the initial jabs taken on “Like That” and “Push Ups.” Instead, both rappers seemed more intent on proving who was the bigger scumbag. Rap’s long-documented history of misogyny and homophobia reared its head yet again as they both used women as props, neglecting to acknowledge them as people, and used the very possibility of being gay as a weapon. This is good for hip-hop?
The recent shooting at Drake’s Toronto mansion may have nothing to do with the beef — but what if it did? I’m old enough and have been loving hip-hop long enough that I remember the slew of interviews from rap radio luminaries expressing their regrets at hyping up the beef between Biggie and Pac after both had been slain. Their deaths also may not have stemmed from their feud, but they let that feud define and consume the final year of Tupac’s career. B.I.G. went to his grave regretting losing a friend and that the last words they’d exchanged were hateful.
Competition might well be baked into the fabric of the genre and culture, but that personal vitriol has never been part of hip-hop. Wishing someone would die — which Kendrick straight-up said on “Meet The Grahams” isn’t hip-hop. No rap feud stopped either Jay-Z or Nas from being two of the most respected names in hip-hop to this day. But just imagine if they’d been helping each other the whole time instead of tearing each other down.
Everyone is talking about the biggest story in rap this year. Drake and Kendrick Lamar have been going back and forth for weeks now and it resulted in one song after another packed full of disses from the most comical to the most scathing. Everyone in the rap world has shared their takes on who is winning the beef, with some commenting on the very idea of rap beef itself. But that’s also extended beyond the rap world where millions more are paying attention to the pair, including comedian Seth Rogen. Earlier this week the comic took the stage as a part of Netflix’s Netflix Is A Joke comedy and music festival. During his set he talked about the beef that’s captured the hearts and minds of many rap fans out there.
“If you’re not a rap fan, allow me to explain. There are two very famous rappers in Drake and Kendrick Lamar, and they’re in a fight right now. They are in a big fight with each other, and the way rappers fight with each other is they write mean rhymes about each other, which is an objectively funny way to fight with another person,” Rogen begins. He discusses how the beef began and how it escalated to some pretty serious allegations that ended up with Drake playing defense. “You don’t hear rap that’s like, ‘I am a good father … I should not be a registered sex offender.’ I would say as soon as you’re asserting in a rap song that you should not be a registered sex offender, you’ve lost the rap battle,” he concludes. Check out the full clip of his explanation below.
The diss tracks finally seem to have slowed down after an extremely busy week for rap fans. The final release came from Drake, who dropped “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday. Many of the songs are off to incredibly strong starts commercially and will likely litter the top half of the Hot 100 for the next few weeks.
What do you think of Seth Rogen’s hilarious take on the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef? Do you think he does a good job of explaining how all of the events have unfolded so far? Let us know in the comment section below.
The Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef has resulted in some absolutely cutting moves by both artists. But Kendrick may have just beaten Drake at his own game. Drizzy holds MANY Spotify records having been the most commercially dominant rapper around for almost the entire time the streaming platform has existed. He previously held the record for the most single-day streams by any solo rap song with the opening track to his Certified Lover Boy album “Champagne Poetry.” But that record is officially a thing of the past.
Amid a sea of diss tracks with a much more serious tone, Kendrick dropped the hard-hitting DJ Mustard-produced “Not Like Us.” The song has the potential to be one of the biggest hits of the summer. It’s getting off to an extraordinary start. As Chart Data reports, “Not Like Us” just broke the record formerly held by “Champagne Poetry.” It now has the most streams by a solo rap song in any single day. It’s one of a number of achievements the song has made already, performing particularly well on Spotify. Next week the track is expected to challenge for the top spot on the Hot 100.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Breaks Spotify Record
.@kendricklamar‘s “Not Like Us” breaks the all-time record for biggest single day streams for a solo hip-hop song in global Spotify history, passing @Drake‘s “Champagne Poetry” (11.85 million). pic.twitter.com/zUPL4mZmOV
Fans have been breaking down all the details of “Not Like Us” and all the diss tracks both rappers have dropped. Lamar received praise online for lifting copyright protections from his tracks. That allowed rap fans and content creators online to make money off of their videos reacting to and discussing the beef. Things have finally slowed down in the past few days with no new tracks being dropped. That’s allowed many in the hip hop space to start making declarations about who is the overall winner of the beef so far.
What do you think of Kendrick Lamar breaking one of Drake’s own records with a diss track aimed at him? Do you think “not like us” will turn into a stable hit going into the summer? Let us know in the comment section below.
Unlike much of the online hip-hop community, Questlove was less than impressed with the rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Over the weekend, the two rappers exchanged a slew of acidic diss tracks — “6:16 In LA,” “Family Matters,” “Meet The Grahams,” “Not Like Us,” and “The Heart Part 6” — that did little to promote either rapper as the vanguard of a generation in favor of simply airing out each other’s dirty laundry.
Questlove, a 30-plus-year veteran of the rap business, who heard “Rapper’s Delight” on the radio and has written at least two books about the history of hip-hop as pop culture, deplored the contest on his Instagram, where he wrote, “Nobody won the war.”
This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned. Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.
As one of hip-hop’s foremost historians, Quest’s opinion holds a lot of weight. He also sees and remembers more than most. His ominous pronouncement isn’t just doomsaying, it’s a remembrance; interviews with prominent hip-hop journalists from the ’90s expressing regret over the coverage of the interpersonal feud between Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. aren’t hard to find.
And no, it doesn’t seem like either Drake or Kendrick would do some dummy sh*t and escalate the conflict to violence, but that doesn’t mean those around them won’t — or even unrelated superfans taking their jabs to heart. If nothing else, the pair never seemed to consider the effects of the battle on those they care about. Kendrick directly addressed Drake’s mother and son on “Meet The Grahams,” while Drake insinuated Kendrick’s manager was schtupping his fiancée on “Family Matters.”
Those are things you can’t take back and, honestly, probably would warrant violence in a face-to-face confrontation — I’ve seen folks punched in the face at rap battles for less (maybe they should take up Shawn Michaels on his WWE invitation and put on a shoot match for the ages). The battle wasn’t exactly “good for hip-hop” in the way many — who really just wanted to see a couple of really good rappers RAP — might see it. There were always plenty of raps, but many underground stars just looking to climb their way into public notice had rollouts ruined, opportunities overlooked, and releases swept to the side in the rush to hear these two guys air their personal grievances. Quest’s pronouncement that “hip-hop is truly dead” might be dramatic, but the spirit of friendly competition seems to have gotten lost in the modern climate of ad hominem and frankly outrageous accusations.
The shooting at Drake’s Toronto home has more details. According to The Toronto Sun, the man injured is a 48-year-old security guard. He was struck by bullets while “standing outside the gates in front of the home.”
The shooting occurred at 2:09 a.m. and the injuries were considered life-threatening. The shooting was a drive by. One of the bullets hit in the upper chest. The man was transported to the Sunnybrook Hospital and is listed in serious condition.
After the drive-by shooting, a vehicle was seen leaving the area. Law enforcement is allegedly ballting “video quality” isuues.
There are no details if Drake was home, despite being seen in Toronto in recent days.
Kendrick Lamar released “Not Like Us,” on May 4, as the latest in a number of lyrical onslaughts that target Drake. The tensions between Kendrick Lamar and Drake seem to have escalated after J. Cole referred to them as the “big three” of modern Hip Hop. However, it’s become increasingly evident that Kendrick has a bone to pick with Drizzy. In fact, one would say that he absolutely despises the Toronto rapper, and Kendrick is airing Drake’s alleged dirty laundry on the track. As a result, their back-and-forth disses have continued to evolve from playful jabs to personal shots. It looks like Kendrick is currently at an edge over Drake though, as the public has been leaning in his favor following the back-to-back disses on “Meet the Grahams,” and now, “Not Like Us.”
While Kendrick’s lyrics about Drake definitely steal the show, the production on “Not Like Us” does deserve a few points as well. The instrumental is a collaboration between producers Mustard and Sounwave. The track’s tempo is relentless, creating an urgent atmosphere that features pronounced snares and bass, emphasizing the aggressive tone. Nonetheless, Kendrick Lamar’s vocal performance takes center stage, with the instrumentation allowing his words to cut through.
Sex Offense Allegations
The song opens with a haunting line, “Pss, I see dead people,” referencing M. Night Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense (starring Haley Joel Osment) before diving into a barrage of insults aimed at Drake. Kendrick calls him a “free throw,” an easy target and continues with a series of accusations and metaphors that paint Drake as weak, untrustworthy, and worse, a predator. Throughout “Not Like Us,” Kendrick accuses Drake of having inappropriate sexual relationships with minors. This is also a topic Drake has had to debunk in the past. However, Kendrick doesn’t shy away from blowing up the rumors surrounding Drake’s personal life with his lyrics like, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / To any b**ch that talk to him and they in love / Just make sure you hide your lil’ sister from him.”
Accusing Drake of being sexual with underaged women has become a recurring topic in Kendrick’s diss tracks. However, K. Dot found new, creative ways to hurl these heavy allegations at Drizzy, but that’s not all. Another standout moment in “Not Like Us” comes when Kendrick hits Drake with the line, “Why you trollin’ like a b*tch? Ain’t you tired? Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor.” With this, Kendrick is referencing all of the memes and online insults Drake posted on social media last month in order to goad Kendrick into responding.
The predator accusations on “Not Like Us” don’t stop with Drake, as Kendrick moves on to accuse the entire OVO crew. The cover art for the track is in fact an aerial view picture of Drake’s mansion, allegedly dotted with sex offender location tags. Kendrick alleges that Drake’s close friend Chubbs, gets his “hand-me-downs;” a metaphor for the women Drake has sexual relations with. He also accuses PartyNextDoor of having a drug addiction before moving on to address Baka Not Nice, Drake’s former bodyguard and rapper who has had a history of run-ins with the law. “They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs / And Party at the party, playin’ with his nose now / And Baka got a weird case, why is he around? Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles,” he raps. Later, he doubles back on these allegations, rapping, “And your homeboy need a subpoena, that predator move in flocks / That name gotta be registered and placed on neighborhood watch.”
J. Cole & Lil Wayne Relationship
One of the most striking lines on “Not Like Us” is “Led a n*gga to the cross, he walk around like Teezo.” Here, Kendrick doesn’t just stop at suggesting that Drake’s actions have always been hypocritical. He follows up with names of those who have allegedly been subjected to Drake’s wiles, starting with J. Cole and Lil Wayne. “Did Cole fouI, I don’t know why you still pretendin’ / What is the owl? Bird n***as and bird b***hes, go. The J. Cole lyric is perhaps referencing the fact that Drake keeps mentioning Cole in a beef he does not want to be a part of anymore. Evidently, this comes off as an attempt to goad a reaction out of him too.
“Fucked on Wayne girl while he was in jail, that’s connivin’ / Then get his face tatted like a bitch apologizin’,” he continues. The second lyric is much more explicit in its meaning and is as on-the-nose as can be. Kendrick references Drake getting intimate with Lil Wayne’s girlfriend while Wayne was in prison. Wayne confirmed the rumor in his 2016 memoir Gone Til November. Drake subsequently tattooed Lil Wayne’s face on his arm in 2017, which Kendrick claims was a way to apologize.
Kendrick Questions Drake’s Authenticity On “Not Like Us”
Kendrick also lists other names within the industry on “Not Like Us,” specifically rappers from Atlanta, whom Drake allegedly leveraged to get his street cred. However, first, he opens the second verse condemning Drake for using A.I vocals of rap legend 2Pac in his diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle.” “You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect Pac, n***a? / I think that Oakland show gon’ be your last stop, n***a.”
The social climbing accusations are also consistent with his lyrics on “Meet The Grahams.” Summarily, K. Dot reminds listeners about how Drake allegedly only embraces his Blackness when it’s convenient. Kendrick gives a history lesson about how slaves built the city of Atlanta on their backs. White settlers eventually exploited these slaves. He then infers that Drake, who is biracial and Canadian, is a white settler in Hip-Hop. Altogether, he believes these Atlanta rappers have helped Drake get his reputation in the industry.
“Atlanta was the Mecca, buildin’ railroads and trains / Bear with me for a second, let me put y’all on game / The settlers was usin’ town folk to make ’em richer / Fast-forward, 2024, you got the same agenda/ You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance / Let me break it down for you, this the real n***a challenge / You called Future when you didn’t see the club / Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up / 21 gave you false street cred / Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head / Quavo said you can be from Northside / 2 Chainz say you good, but he lied,” he raps on the third verse.
Drake’s previous diss tracks, including “Push Ups,” released in April, took direct aim at Kendrick Lamar. On the track, Drake referred to Kendrick as a “pipsqueak.” He also questioned his stature in the industry. How the f*ck you big steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?
This was in response to Kendrick’s verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That,” where he dismissed the notion of the “big three,” which included himself, Drake, and J. Cole. No one expected that those lines would lead to a series of songs that serve as character assassinations. However, 24 hours after “Not Like Us,” Drake followed with “The Heart Part 6.” On the track, he made sure to address Kendrick’s pedophilia accusations while also claiming Kendrick was working with false information about him.
“I never been with no one under age but now / I understand why this the angle that you really mess with / Just for clarity, I feel disgusted I’m too respected / If I was fucking young girls, I promise I’d been done arrested / I’m way too famous for this shit you just suggested, but that’s not the lesson, clearly there’s a deeper message,” he raps. Though it marked the first time
At this point, the ongoing beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has permeated essentially the entirety of culture. Need proof? Joe Biden’s team is capitalizing on the situation to go after Donald Trump.
A video shared on social media by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ campaign team on May 6 is set to the part of Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” that goes, “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.”
That scores a gallery of Trump photos and text subtitles showing off alternate lyrics, which read, “It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater. I hate the way that you walk over women’s rights, the way that you talk about immigrants. I hate the way that you dress, I hate the way that you sneak diss on Truth Social.”
Meanwhile, Seth Rogen just joked about the beef at his Seth Smokes The Bowl event last night, saying in part, “Could you imagine going to a club and seeing a room full of people dancing to a song about you being a pedophile?”
