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‘A lot of rich guys arguing’: inside the rap beef of the decade with Drake, Kendrick Lamar and more

Future, Rick Ross and Kanye West are among those currently being drawn into one of the fieriest disputes in rap history. Is it good for the culture – and could it depose Drake from the top?

Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Future, the Weeknd and Rick Ross are among the combatants; Kanye West entered the fray over the weekend, while a separate squabble between R&B singer Chris Brown and rapper Quavo has also sprung into life, seemingly sparked in the heat of the current conflagration. But the clash never really progressed beyond cryptic disses until recent weeks, prompting Drake to fire back with his own song Push Ups, with juvenile digs at Lamar’s 5ft 5in stature (“How the fuck you big steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?”) and his suburbia-friendly collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift. From Boogie Down Productions’ The Bridge Is Over to 2Pac’s bloodthirsty Hit Em Up, the genre has always seen its biggest stars compete for lyrical supremacy using imaginative insults, and Pitchfork’s Pierre says the beefs are good for creativity as new rappers such as Sexyy Red and GloRilla come to dominate the conversation: “This beef probably came around for a good time for the slightly older guard, who definitely needed a little juice.” Drake also perhaps senses this is a source of rap-scene credibility to offset his often pop-leaning music, and a chance to redeem himself after being seen as the loser in a bitter 2018 feud with Pusha T, who used diss track The Story of Adidon to reveal Drake had secretly fathered a child.

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