rap beefs

The Report That Claimed Future And Drake Squashed Their Beef Is False, According To Akademiks

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Fans of Drake and Future’s reconciliation celebration parade was short-lived. According to Uproxx’s Elliott Wilson the former collaborators mended their friendship.

During The Bigger Picture‘s latest episode (viewable here), Wilson claimed that the hip-hop heavy weights’ feud was official over. “I have it on good authority that Drake and Future have at least gotten on the phone and resolved their differences,” he said.

However, shortly after HipHopDX posted the confessional clip (viewable here), another industry figure came out to refute the remark. On his own platform, online commentator Akademiks shared insider knowledge to the contrary. “I’ve spoken to extremely credible sources on both sides, and Drake and Future have not been on the phone,” he said (viewable here courtesy of NFR Podcast).

Both Wilson and Akademiks have deep ties to rappers and their close affiliates. So, this has quickly become a case of he said, he said. Users across X (formerly Twitter), have expressed their frustration with these opposing recounts.

“See now this is what we aren’t gonna do, have two different stories over and over again. We need answers,” wrote one user.

Others have begun to question why Drake and Future were at odds to begin with. Hip-hop fans can understand Drake’s disdain for Metro Boomin, Kendrick Lamar, and Asap Rocky. But the supposed tension between Drake and Future has some stumped.

Punch Dispelled Rumors Of Beef Between TDE And Dreamville Artists After A Viral Fan Theory About J. Cole’s ‘Pi’

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Ever since Future and Metro Boomin added Kendrick Lamar to their combative single “Like That,” the rap game has been in shambles, with bloodlust among rap fans fueling pernicious rumors of beef between their favorite entertainers. Case in point, the song “Pi” from J. Cole’s new mixtape, Might Delete Later, has been the center of rumored beef between rappers affiliated with Kendrick’s former label, TDE, and J. Cole’s label, Dreamville. However, TDE President Terrence Henderson — aka Punch — stepped in to dispel that myth before it spread any further.

After a rap fan on Twitter (never calling it “X”) wrote, “Ab-Soul threw jabs at J. Cole after Cole did him dirty by adding him & Daylyt to a song with a verse dissing Kendrick on ‘Pi’,” Punch did some fact-checking on the inaccurate speculation. “I hate to clear up rumors,” he wrote in response. “I usually let them fester and see how far they go, but ALL verses on ‘Pi’ were recorded long before ‘Like That.’”

It’s fair to say that fans have let their excitement get the best of them in the past. That, combined with the vagueness of some rappers’ battle raps, gives plenty of room for conspiratorial thinking and jumping to conclusions. However, there’s a big difference between fan theories on the internet and what really goes on behind the scenes — and Punch’s tweet is a reminder that many of those theories are usually missing key pieces of information. In this case, the fans in question appear to have overlooked the fact that Daylyt and J. Cole have collaborated since on “Plate Of Collard Greens,” and that even Ab-Soul appears to be rooting for Drake to have a soft landing.

Did Future Diss Gunna On Ferg’s ‘Allure?’ Some Fans Think So, And Here’s Why

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Future puts on one hell of a performance on Ferg’s new single “Allure,” but some fans think that his verse has a particular target in mind with one line in particular: Gunna, who some rap fans still see as a supposed snitch after the Alford plea that helped him avoid the seemingly interminable trial against his YSL Records boss, Young Thug.

“I’m just a street n****, just rappin’, my day ones went fed / You done took a plea on my slime, won’t be surprise if you ended up dead,” Future raps. Some fans have interpreted this as a shot at Gunna, who has faced criticism from several former collaborators like Future, including Lil Baby and Lil Durk.

Fans who think Gunna and Future have beef — you know, the ones who learn about hip-hop culture on the internet instead of from real life — are overlooking a great many details, though, including that many, many, many rappers make the same generic threat in their music, and most of them don’t even know Gunna (and, if we’re being completely honest, aren’t even from the lifestyle they portray on their songs).

Gunna himself isn’t really sweating the speculation; after supposedly being removed from Future’s new album, Mixtape Pluto, Gunna denied any personal friction between the two. “It’s not personal,” he wrote on social media. “It’s just business.” Does that mean we’ll never see a sequel to “Pushin’ P” featuring the two? Listen, if Gucci Mane and Jeezy can put their differences aside — even if only temporarily — then their spiritual successors ought to be able to, as well.

Metro Boomin Believes ‘Stan Culture’ Is The Main Reason For Today’s ‘Weird’ Rap Beefs

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Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s track-for-track rap war dominated hip-hop discussion. Although Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” eventually became the standout (and chart-topping) song from the feud, many have already forgotten another song that kicked things off.

Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That” could easily be considered the launch point. Despite gaining the support of Kendrick Lamar’s massive fan base, Metro Boomin isn’t exactly a fan of stan culture. Yesterday (September 23), during a Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit panel, Metro Boomin seemingly cited stan culture as the root cause for today’s “weird” rap beefs.

“I feel like the competition is great for the game,” he said. “Hip-hop has always been more of a competitive genre even if just keeping it on music, and it’s not serious how everybody tries to make it. Because also with Hip Hop, there’s a lot of ego involved. You’re supposed to feel like you’re the best. Everybody from the highest to the lowest guy is supposed to at least feel like you’re the best. So when two of the top dogs in the game and you both feel like you’re the best, it’s like okay, now we gotta have a showdown.”

Metro Boomin then referred to Jay-Z and Nas’ infamous diss tracks before turning his attention to stan culture, saying: “But I just feel like more today with stan culture, it makes it kind of weird. Because back in the day, JAY-Z and Nas went at it. But I was a fan of both of them. And most people were! And it was like, it’s okay. It was like not I hate this side [or] I hate that side. The internet just makes it a little too wild now.”

I’m not sure those he were alive to witness Jay-Z and Nas’ clash remember it quite this way (myself, included).

The Kendrick Lamar Mural In Compton Was Vandalized With Gang Graffiti That Was Mistaken For A Pro-Drake Message

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According to XXL, a video has surfaced on social media of someone vandalizing a Compton-based mural of Kendrick Lamar with gang graffiti. While the tags represent a local Mexican-American street gang, the graffiti was mistaken for a pro-Drake message after some fans interpreted the “CVTF” as an “OVO.” (A reminder, some of you are really not like us, and should keep out of hood politics, thinking it’s entertainment.)

The mural, on the wall of Honduras Restaurant Mi Sabor, depicts Kendrick being honored with the key to the city in 2016 and accepting his Best Rap Album Grammy for his album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers in 2023, along with a reference to his Good Kid, MAAD City cover. It’s easy to see why some fans — perhaps the ones who should be wearing 50 SPF sunblock at all times, even in the winter — would want to interpret the vandalism as the latest extension of the rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. After all, it’d be fair to say that plenty of Drake fans are still sore about the drubbing he received at the hands of his former collaborator.

However, it seems, although Kendrick is very much a hometown hero, even he isn’t bigger than hood politics — or ratchet ass kids trying to make a name for themselves.

Did ASAP Rocky Diss Drake On ‘Ruby Rosary’?

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ASAP Rocky said he wasn’t going to worry about his Drake beef on future releases, but fans believe they’ve detected some shade in his new song. “Ruby Rosary,” the new ASAP Rocky song produced by The Alchemist and featuring J. Cole, has a few lines on it that some fans believe are references to Drake and the ongoing friction between the two former friends. So…

Did ASAP Rocky Diss Drake On “Ruby Rosary?”

In his second verse, Rocky raps, “Who dared me to die? / You a dead man walkin’, like you barely alive / Cut everything but the family ties / Cut the shit, cut the lies, word to the wise / Who in your top five? / I don’t get fresh to death, bitch, I’m buried alive / I heard dawg talkin’ funny, like it’s Family Guy.”

One of the more obvious potential Drake references is “Buried Alive,” the Take Care interlude on which Drake invited Kendrick Lamar to rap, increasing Kendrick’s popularity early in the Compton rapper’s career. Obviously, the two stars’ career paths diverged greatly, culminating in this summer’s beatdown, wherein K. Dot cooked Drake repeatedly over the course of several songs.

In some of those songs, particularly “Family Matters” and “Meet The Grahams,” the two foes expended several lines referring to each others’ families, hence, a potential meaning for the “family ties” reference in “Ruby Rosary.” Of course, all this is circumstantial and thinner than a toad’s toupee, but after Drake bowed out of his rumble with Kendrick, bloodthirsty rap fans have been grasping at whatever straws they can, hoping for a crumb of conflict.

Megan Thee Stallion Doesn’t Know ‘What The Problem Is’ Between Her And Nicki Minaj

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Megan Thee Stallion can’t explain how to reconcile her beef with Nicki Minaj, because she doesn’t know how it started in the first place. In a new interview with Billboard, Meg admitted she doesn’t know why Minaj turned on her, and that she only spent the early part of the year exchanging diss songs with her former collaborator because she “knew what I had to do and what I had to say.”

“I still to this day don’t know what the problem is,” she confessed when asked about a potential reconciliation between the two rappers. “I don’t even know what could be reconciled because I, to this day, don’t know what the problem is.”

For what it’s worth, Meg and Nicki certainly started their relationship on a good note, teaming up to rap together on Meg’s 2019 single “Hot Girl Summer.” The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the US Rhythmic chart — Meg’s first and Nicki’s eighth. However, in 2022, Nicki recalled taking umbrage at a joke Megan made during a party, which ultimately led to their falling out (although, I gotta say… that’s the sort of thing you have a conversation about, not hold onto for five years and make a slew of diss tracks about).

Meanwhile, some fans believe Nicki actually turned on Meg when her 2020 collaboration with Nicki’s rival Cardi B, “WAP,” turned out to be much more successful, spending four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, and becoming one of the most buzzed-about songs of that year. Minaj took some apparent shots at Meg on her 2023 single, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze.”

Nicki and Meg opened 2024 with back-and-forth diss songs, beginning with Meg’s lead Megan single, “Hiss,” which addressed a number of her other detractors at the same time. Nicki responded with “Big Foot,” but the lukewarm response to the song — and Nicki’s accompanying days-long Twitter rant — caused the “beef” to fizzle out quickly. Still, it set the tone for the year, which has seen skirmishes between Ice Spice and Latto, and Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

Do Compton Rappers Game And YG Have Beef?

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Thanks to Kendrick Lamar and his inescapable hit “Not Like Us,” the city of Compton is back on the map in a big way. His Kendrick & Friends concert put a ton of the city’s rap talent on display, giving both veteran performers and rising stars a new chance to shine on the national level.

That included Kendrick collaborator and fellow Hub City native YG and his main producer Mustard, but oddly, didn’t include their other fellow citizen, The Game, who didn’t quite join in on the Drake hate train. In fact, some fans think Game even has beef with YG and Mustard. So, what’s going on there?

On August 28, after making some cryptic posts on Instagram Stories, Game called out the other two. But the first batch of posts and the second were unconnected, according to Game, who cleared the air in a later post. “Rooting for somebody & finding out they secretly hate u is so crazy,” he wrote initially. “Secret haters are clutch.. yall make ballin in yo face worth it.” But in another slide, he wrote, “Aye Keenon & Dijon [YG and Mustard’s real names, respectively]… Jayceon [Game’s real name] looking for y’all. Ghetto name havin n****s.” It’s fair that fans connected the two statements, making Mustard and YG out to be the “secret haters,” but in the comments of a post reporting the alleged beef, Jayceon quickly cleared the air.

“@yg & @mustard My n**gas 5L,” he wrote. “Go twist a backwood before you twist that #Bompton.” It’s more likely that his call-out was an invitation to collaborate, which the two have done more than a few times over the years. Game and YG most recently collaborated on their Compton peace walk negotiating a truce between two rival gangs in their shared hometown. So, it seems improbable that Game would be starting beef with YG now.

Drake And Playboi Carti Have ‘No Face’ For Their Stinging Bars, But Fans Believe The Song Is A Kendrick Lamar Diss

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The summer is coming to a close, but Drake still has heat to deliver. Yesterday (August 23), the “Too Good” rapper seemingly woke up and chose violence.

Apparently, Drake’s 100 Gigs release was just a warm-up. When everyone least expected it, Drake dropped another previously unreleased collaboration, “No Face” featuring Playboi Carti.

Although Playboi Carti’s guest verses have proven to be a hit song’s secret sauce, he only appears across the track’s chorus. The verses are reserved for Drake, as he seemingly took aim at Kendrick Lamar once again. Back in May, Drake supposedly waved that white flag in heated battle. But, some rap beefs never die.

Drake subtly addressed his longtime foe, Metro Boomin, and possibly Mustard in the opening lines, as he rapped: “This is the sh*t that my daddy had raised me on / N****s got lit off the features I skated on / I gotta know, I gotta know / How you get lit off the n**** you hatin’ on? / Numbers untouchable, they got the data wrong.”

In the next verse, Drake turned his attention to musicians who jumped in to shade him during the height of his beef with Kendrick Lamar.

“Cause I keep on talkin’ ’bout beefin’ and business and money and women / It’s no diagnosis, they emptied the clip / Quick, swap that sh*t out, and I came back reloaded / I’m just so happy that n****s who envied and held that shit in got to finally show it / I’m over the / Moon, yeah, we’ll see you boys soon / I’m spreadin’ my wings, I hop out cocoon,” he rapped.

Listen to Drake’s song “No Face” featuring Playboi Carti above.

Barack Obama’s Summer Playlist Omitted A Massive Hit, And Fans Wonder If The Former President Is On Team Drake

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Barack Obama is listening to everything from Charli XCX to Shaboozey, but apparently wasn’t feeling Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” leading to fans wondering whether the former President is on Team Drake. While “Not Like Us” has turned out to be one of the biggest songs of the summer so far, climbing to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 multiple times, it doesn’t appear on Obama’s recently shared summer 2023 playlist — even though the playlist includes entries from hip-hop faves like GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion, and Saweetie.

The song spawned a browser game, inspired part of Serena Williams’ ESPY Awards monologue, and finally connected Kendrick Lamar to Gen Z and Gen Alpha fans. The song was even a big hit during the Olympics, with Team USA basketball stars Steph Curry and LeBron James debating its merits during shootaround.

It isn’t like Obama dislikes the Compton rapper’s music; he’s hung out with the rapper on several occasions, and even admitted to having him on a much more private playlist. He even predicted that Kendrick would topple Drake in a theoretical rap battle, eight years before the two actually came to lyrical blows. Maybe his excluding “Not Like Us” was an oversight, or perhaps he simply wanted to keep things kosher for the playlist, which still feels like it has some obligation to be at least a little wholesome and less haterific.