Kendrick vs Drake: A savage lyrical brawl

livemint.com:

Degrassi, Drake is by far the most commercially dominant contemporary rapper, holding the record for the most No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (he’s tied with Michael Jackson). But his pop-leaning tendencies, use of ghostwriters, and perceived inauthenticity mean that hip-hop traditionalists have always been a little leery of him. Kendrick, a Pulitzer-prize winner from Compton’s mean streets, is the socially conscious alternative, a lyrical genius whose songs soundtracked the 2015 Black Lives Matter protests and explore themes like systemic anti-blackness and generational trauma.

They represent two contradictory, competing lineages within rap music, each the undisputed flagbearer of their respective traditions. They’ve been taking subliminal jabs and potshots at each other since 2013, small skirmishes in a simmering Cold War. If anything, it’s surprising that it took them so long to escalate to open warfare.

Kendrick kicked off the current round of hostilities in March with a verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That calling out Drake and J. Cole, declaring “motherf*** the big three (...) it’s just big me." Drake responded in late April with the goofy, playful Push Ups, followed by Taylor Made Freestyle, where he used AI to rap in the voices of West Coast icons Tupac and Snoop Dogg, using their likeness to taunt Kendrick about his short stature, asking him to respond. On 30 April, Kendrick unleashed his first proper broadside, a six-minute track titled Euphoria that is full of subtle double-and-triple-entendres and multi-layered put-downs.