Kendrick Lamar won the Drake–Kendrick beef’s public narrative, but the songs did not establish every personal allegation as fact. Here is the documented timeline from the artists’ early collaborations and 2013’s Control through the 2024 diss-track exchange, Not Like Us’s Grammy sweep, Drake’s UMG lawsuit, and the appeal status as of August 12, 2026.
Short answer: Kendrick Lamar won the Drake–Kendrick Lamar beef’s public and cultural battle, while neither artist’s most serious personal allegations were established as facts. Kendrick’s Not Like Us became the defining record, won five Grammys, and remained central to the story through his 2025 Super Bowl halftime appearance. Drake’s lawsuit against UMG was dismissed in 2025, but his appeal was still pending as of August 12, 2026. Both artists continued releasing major music afterward.
That is the clearest evidence-based conclusion. The feud began with competitive tension between former collaborators, turned into an open exchange after Kendrick’s response to Drake and J. Cole’s “big three” claim, and escalated in 2024 into a rapid series of diss tracks involving attacks on authenticity, family, relationships, commercial success, cultural identity, and alleged misconduct. The songs are part of a rap battle, not a reliable factual record of every accusation inside them.
Scope: This timeline covers the documented history from the artists’ early collaborations through the legal and musical developments available as of August 12, 2026.
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Before the beef: Drake and Kendrick were collaborators
Drake and Kendrick Lamar did not begin as enemies. Their early professional relationship included Kendrick’s appearance on Drake’s Buried Alive Interlude from Take Care in 2011, Kendrick’s feature on Drake’s Poetic Justice in 2012, and a shared appearance on A$AP Rocky’s F***in’ Problems.
The relationship changed publicly in 2013. Kendrick’s verse on Big Sean’s Control named Drake and several other prominent rappers as competitors. Kendrick used the language of lyrically “murdering” his peers, a familiar form of battle-rap hyperbole. Drake initially minimized the significance of the verse in public, but it became the event most often identified as the origin of their long-running rivalry.
For the next decade, fans and commentators read possible subliminal shots into lyrics, interviews, alliances, and career moves. Some of those interpretations may have reflected real competitive tension; others were speculation. The important distinction is that the feud remained mostly indirect until 2024. There was no continuous, openly acknowledged Drake-versus-Kendrick track battle immediately after Control.
The immediate trigger: “First Person Shooter” and “Like That”
In October 2023, Drake and J. Cole released First Person Shooter. The song helped popularize the idea of a rap “big three” consisting of Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick rejected that hierarchy in March 2024 on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That. Rather than accepting a shared ranking, he challenged both Drake and Cole and presented himself as operating outside the proposed order. The record transformed years of interpreted subliminals into a direct public confrontation.
J. Cole briefly answered with 7 Minute Drill. He then publicly stepped away, withdrew the response, and did not continue the exchange. That decision left the central 2024 conflict as a two-person battle: Drake against Kendrick Lamar.
The 2024 Drake–Kendrick timeline
The battle moved unusually quickly. Instead of a handful of isolated diss tracks spread over years, the artists traded records across late April and early May 2024, with each song attempting to raise the stakes and redefine what the conflict was about.
1. Drake — “Push Ups”
Drake’s Push Ups attacked Kendrick’s stature, commercial positioning, label relationships, and perceived dependence on other artists. Drake also expanded the argument beyond Kendrick by targeting Metro Boomin and other people in Kendrick’s musical orbit.
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The song framed the conflict partly as a dispute over rank: who had earned his position, who benefited from a team, and who could claim independent stature. It also established a pattern that continued through the battle. Neither artist stayed within purely technical rap criticism; both moved toward personal history, relationships, entourages, cultural allegiance, and alleged hypocrisy.
2. Drake — “Taylor Made Freestyle”
Drake followed with Taylor Made Freestyle, which used AI-generated vocal likenesses associated with Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. The track was designed to pressure Kendrick into responding and invoked the developing accusations about Drake’s relationships with younger women.
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The use of Tupac’s likeness created a separate legal problem. The Tupac Shakur estate issued a legal threat over the unauthorized use of the likeness, and the track was subsequently removed. Its disappearance became part of the feud’s documented history, although the record itself did not remain available in the same way as the later official releases.
3. Kendrick Lamar — “Euphoria”
Kendrick’s Euphoria attacked Drake’s authenticity, musical persona, celebrity image, and place within hip-hop. Kendrick argued that Drake’s public identity and industry position did not amount to the cultural authority Drake claimed.
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4. Kendrick Lamar — “6:16 in LA”
With 6:16 in LA, Kendrick shifted toward psychological pressure. He suggested that Drake’s inner circle was not completely loyal and that information was leaking from inside it.
Those claims functioned as part of the song’s narrative and intimidation strategy. They were not independently established by the evidence available here. The track’s importance lies in how it changed the battle’s tone: the conflict was no longer only about public status, but also about trust, surveillance, private information, and whether either artist knew what was happening inside the other’s camp.
5. Drake — “Family Matters”
Drake’s Family Matters widened the attack to Kendrick’s relationship and family life. It included allegations of domestic abuse and infidelity, along with accusations of hypocrisy and criticism of people around Kendrick.
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6. Kendrick Lamar — “Meet the Grahams”
Kendrick released Meet the Grahams shortly after Family Matters. The song addressed members of Drake’s family directly and made severe claims about Drake’s conduct, including allegations involving underage girls and the existence of a secret child.
The secret-child claim became contested within the exchange itself. On The Heart Part 6, Drake claimed that his team had deliberately supplied Kendrick with false information about a daughter. No independent source in the available research establishes either the underlying allegations or Drake’s account of how the information was obtained.
The song’s structure and timing made it one of the battle’s most confrontational moments. It was not merely a response to Drake’s accusations; it presented Kendrick’s version of events as a warning to Drake’s family and associates.
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7. Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us” — May 4, 2024
Not Like Us, released on May 4, became the battle’s defining record. Kendrick repeated allegations that Drake was sexually interested in minors, attacked Drake’s relationship to Atlanta and broader hip-hop culture, and cast Kendrick’s side as a collective rejection of Drake.
These were lyrical allegations, not adjudicated findings. Drake denied them on The Heart Part 6. The song’s later success should not be confused with independent confirmation of its claims.
What made Not Like Us unusually powerful was its accessibility. Its central refrain could be repeated by people who had not followed every earlier track, and its framing turned an artist-versus-artist dispute into a broader cultural chant. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the song most closely associated with the public perception of the battle.
8. Drake — “The Heart Part 6” — May 5, 2024
Drake released The Heart Part 6 on May 5, his final direct response in the main 2024 sequence. He denied Kendrick’s accusations, argued that they were implausible, and claimed that his team had planted false information about a daughter.
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The record attempted to rebut the allegations and explain the secret-child story, but it did not achieve a comparable cultural or chart impact to Not Like Us. Judgments about which song is lyrically stronger remain subjective; the difference in public momentum was much easier to observe.
What is verified—and what remains an allegation?
The safest way to understand the battle is to separate documented events from claims made inside the songs.
| Category | What can responsibly be said |
|---|---|
| Documented | The artists collaborated early in their careers, Kendrick challenged Drake in Control and Like That, and both released diss tracks during the 2024 exchange. |
| Documented | Not Like Us became a No. 1 song, won five Grammys, and became the battle’s most recognizable cultural record. |
| Documented | Drake denied Kendrick’s accusations and later sued UMG over the promotion and distribution of Not Like Us. |
| Alleged or disputed | The songs made claims involving sexual misconduct, relationships with younger women, domestic violence, infidelity, secret children, and manipulation by entourages. |
| Not established by the court ruling | The dismissal of Drake’s lawsuit did not conduct a factual trial of every personal allegation in the songs. |
Kendrick alleged predatory sexual behavior and other misconduct by Drake in Not Like Us and related tracks. Drake denied those accusations and counterattacked Kendrick’s relationship, family, and authenticity. That formulation describes what happened without turning either diss track into sworn testimony.
The later court ruling is especially important to describe precisely. The court considered whether the challenged lyrics could support a defamation claim. It did not independently prove or disprove every underlying accusation. A legal finding that lyrics are protected or nonactionable opinion is not the same thing as a factual declaration that the allegations are true—or that they are false.
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Why “Not Like Us” became the battle’s defining record
The song’s impact came from a combination of timing, repetition, clarity, and cultural positioning.
- It arrived at the peak of the exchange. The release followed the most personal stage of the battle, when listeners were already watching for the next escalation.
- It was immediately legible. Its central accusation and refrain were easy for a broad audience to understand and repeat, even without detailed knowledge of the earlier records.
- It turned the dispute into a collective statement. Kendrick presented the conflict as involving regional and cultural belonging, not only two rappers competing for status.
- It became a public event. The record moved from streaming platforms and rap commentary into charts, award shows, sports culture, and mainstream discussion.
- Drake’s response did not reverse the momentum. The Heart Part 6 offered a denial and counterargument, but it did not create an equivalent cultural reaction.
None of those points requires deciding whether every line was factually true. They explain why the record won the public narrative.
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The aftermath: Grammys, the Super Bowl, and GNX
Five Grammys in 2025
At the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2025, Not Like Us won all five categories in which it was nominated:
- Record of the Year
- Song of the Year
- Best Rap Performance
- Best Rap Song
- Best Music Video
That sweep gave Kendrick’s victory a concrete institutional dimension. A rap battle’s outcome is normally debated through fan reaction, sales, performances, and reputation. Here, the signature track also received the strongest possible confirmation available from that awards slate.
The Super Bowl halftime show
Kendrick performed during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show on February 9, 2025, in New Orleans. The appearance gave the battle-era moment an enormous mainstream platform and placed Kendrick’s post-beef public victory lap in front of one of the largest audiences in American entertainment.
The verified fact is the performance and its date. Claims about every symbolic meaning of the appearance belong to interpretation rather than the documented timeline.
GNX and “heart pt. 6”
Kendrick’s surprise album GNX, released in November 2024, included a track titled heart pt. 6, echoing Drake’s The Heart Part 6. The album contained references to the feud, but it was not simply a full-length diss project. Its wider focus was Kendrick’s identity, Los Angeles, collaborators, and artistic position after the battle.
A physical way to revisit Kendrick’s post-beef era
For readers collecting the music rather than the controversy, the Kendrick Lamar GNX vinyl is the most directly relevant physical-format recommendation connected to this section. The album listing identifies heart pt. 6; editions and track listings can vary, so do not assume that the vinyl includes Not Like Us. It is a GNX release, not a physical edition of the diss single.
Drake’s legal fight with UMG and Spotify
The feud moved from music into litigation in late 2024.
The pre-action petition
In November 2024, Drake’s company Frozen Moments filed a pre-action petition seeking information from UMG and Spotify. The petition raised allegations of artificial promotion and stream inflation connected to Not Like Us. Drake withdrew that petition in January 2025.
The federal lawsuit against UMG
Drake then filed a federal lawsuit against Universal Music Group in the Southern District of New York. He alleged that UMG promoted defamatory content and harmed him by distributing and marketing Not Like Us.
UMG moved to dismiss. On October 9, 2025, Judge Jeannette Vargas dismissed the case. The court held that, in the context of a heated rap battle, a reasonable listener could not understand the challenged lyrics as conveying objective facts about Drake. The court therefore treated the statements as nonactionable opinion for purposes of the lawsuit.
That ruling has a limited meaning. It resolved the legal viability of Drake’s claim as presented; it was not a factual trial into every allegation in Kendrick’s songs. It also did not establish that the allegations were true.
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- DIY Decoration: Since everyone's decoration style and purpose are different, our vinyl fake records do not provide center graphic stickers, you can feel free to DIY graffiti on it to design your favorite words or patterns like hip hop, rock and discos for decoration.
- Easy to Use: Just fix the double-sided tape (Double-sided tape does NOT include) with the record and the wall, and you can also hang blank vinyl records with string for decoration.
- Great Gift: The vinyl CDs can be designed with their own unique style. It is an excellent gift for friends, lovers, and families, who like hip-hop, rock and retro, and can make them feel the unique rock and retro atmosphere.
- Versatile Application: These fake vinyl albums can be stuck or hung in bedroom, corridor, bar, music room, cafe, etc as decorations. At the same time, it is also very suitable for discos, hip-hop, rock, 70s, 80s, etc. music theme parties, creating a strong theme atmosphere.
The appeal remains unresolved as of August 12, 2026
Drake appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in case 25-2758. The docket showed briefing activity in 2026, including Drake’s opening and reply briefs, UMG’s response, and amicus filings. As of the research cutoff on August 12, 2026, no appellate merits decision had been located in the reviewed docket materials.
The accurate description is therefore: the district court dismissed Drake’s lawsuit, and the dismissal was under appeal. It would be incorrect to say that Drake won the appeal or that the Second Circuit had rejected it as of that date.
What happened after the original battle?
The conflict remained culturally active without becoming a clearly documented, sustained new track-for-track exchange.
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Those later references show that Drake continued to process or revisit the aftermath in his music. They do not establish that the 2024 feud restarted as a new sustained battle. The better-supported conclusion is that the dispute remained part of both artists’ public narratives while Drake’s legal case continued through the appeal process.
Who won the Drake–Kendrick beef?
The answer depends on the metric:
| Metric | Best-supported conclusion |
|---|---|
| Public narrative | Kendrick. Not Like Us became the battle’s signature record and dominated the cultural conversation. |
| Awards and mainstream visibility | Kendrick. The song won five Grammys, and Kendrick’s 2025 Super Bowl appearance extended the moment. |
| Legal outcome so far | UMG won the district-court dismissal, but the appeal was pending. The ruling concerned actionable opinion in a rap-battle context, not the truth of every allegation. |
| Long-term career survival | Both remained major commercial artists. Drake continued releasing high-profile music, including ICEMAN, while Kendrick continued his post-battle artistic run. |
| Truth of the personal allegations | Not resolved by the music or the dismissal. The songs established that accusations were made and denied, not that every accusation was proven. |
The cleanest overall verdict is that Kendrick won the 2024 battle’s public narrative and institutional victory lap. That does not support the claim that Drake’s career ended, nor does it turn battle-rap allegations into independently verified facts. Both artists continued to operate at the highest level of commercial music, even as the conflict remained a reference point in their work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the Drake–Kendrick Lamar beef?
The public evidence favors Kendrick Lamar. “Not Like Us” became the defining song, reached No. 1, won five Grammys, and remained central to Kendrick’s 2025 Super Bowl-era victory lap. That does not mean every allegation in the song was proven.
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Did Kendrick Lamar prove the allegations against Drake?
No. The songs made serious allegations and denials, but the available record does not independently establish all of them as true. The court’s dismissal of Drake’s UMG lawsuit concerned whether the lyrics were actionable statements of fact in a rap-battle context, not a factual trial of every accusation.
What happened to J. Cole in the Drake–Kendrick beef?
Cole released “7 Minute Drill” after Kendrick’s “Like That,” then publicly withdrew the response and stepped away from the conflict. The sustained 2024 exchange therefore became primarily Drake versus Kendrick.
What is the status of Drake’s lawsuit over “Not Like Us”?
Drake’s company Frozen Moments first filed a pre-action petition involving UMG and Spotify in November 2024 and withdrew it in January 2025. Drake later sued UMG in federal court. Judge Jeannette Vargas dismissed the case on October 9, 2025, and Drake appealed to the Second Circuit. As of August 12, 2026, no appellate merits decision had been located in the reviewed docket materials.
Is the Drake–Kendrick feud still going on?
The feud did not clearly restart as a new, sustained track-for-track exchange. Drake revisited its fallout on “What Did I Miss?” from his May 15, 2026 album ICEMAN, while the legal dispute continued on appeal.
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Bottom line: Kendrick Lamar won the cultural contest because Not Like Us became the defining song, won five Grammys, and carried the moment into the 2025 Super Bowl era. Drake’s lawsuit against UMG was dismissed in 2025 and remained under appeal as of August 12, 2026. The personal accusations exchanged in the songs remain allegations and denials—not findings established by the battle or the court.
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