When Will Drake Respond To Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Like That?’

Fans have been waiting for a response from Drake since Kendrick Lamar went scorched earth on his verse from Future’s Metro Boomin-produced song “Like That.” After K. Dot declared, “Motherf*ck the Big Three / It’s just big me,” plenty of hip-hop heads have looked forward to seeing how Drake approaches any potentional reply — especially since the last time he was in a full-tilt rap battle, things didn’t exactly go his way.

Increasing the anticipation was the fact that J. Cole beat Drake to the counterpunch, dropping his own response track, “7 Minute Drill,” last Friday. Unfortunately, J. Cole has since issued a retraction of his RSVP to this battle, citing his discomfort with going against someone he admires. Drake, on the other hand, has been compared to and contrasted with Kendrick Lamar ever since both began making noise on the blog circuit, so fan investment in his reply is higher than it’s ever been.

While Drake hasn’t made any overt announcements as yet, he’s hinted that he’s working on something, and now, Joe Budden has gotten involved (of course). The podcaster — who has long had his own friction with the Canadian superstar — suggested on his show that both rappers have recorded diss tracks and that they’ll release them sooner than later.

“Actually, I have it on good information that both sides went in the booth and came out,” he said. “What I’m hearin’ about both sides is that it’s nuclear. It’s up-up.” While it could just be another case of Budden blowing smoke (how’s that “girl rap wave is over” pronouncement working out, I wonder), his sources might be onto something since Drake and Kendrick have been at each others’ heads for so long.