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Things weren’t always so tense between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. On Friday, the former shook the ground with his uncredited verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That,” a cut included on the pair’s just-released collaborative album “We Don’t Trust You.”
The Internet lit up immediately: Lamar’s particularly fiery verses expressed his issues with other rappers in unusually clear terms, very clearly attacking Drake and J. Cole in response to their song “First Person Shooter,” featured on “For All the.” from last year. Dogs.” In the song, Cole grouped Lamar with him and Drake as the “big three”: “I love it when they argue about the hardest MC / Is it K. Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We them three big ones, as if we were starting a league.”
In a machine-gun verse, tense and full of meaning, Lamar responded by refuting the designation and differentiating himself from his peers and former collaborators. “Yeah, get up with me, fuck you sneaky taunts / ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they come with three switches,” he raps. “Fuck the big three, na, it’s just me big.” To make matters worse, he referenced the controversial relationship between Michael Jackson and Prince, comparing himself to the latter and stating that his legacy will outlast his influence. “Your best work is a light backpack / N—a, Prince outlived Mike Jack / N—a, hobo, ‘before they bury all your dogs / That’s a K with all these nines, see ‘Pet Sematary’” .
It makes sense that Lamar would use his appearance on Metro’s new album as a platform to air his grievances; After all, Drake and Metro have recently had their own public reckoning. The two have worked together in the past (Metro helmed most of the songs on Drake and Future’s 2015 album, “What a Time to Be Alive”), but something changed between the two in the years since.
This is where the speculation comes in. Some assume that the lack of a promised sequel to “What a Time” generated resentment; Instead, Drake released “Her Loss” in 2022, which included a Metro production credit on “More M’s.” But others attribute the first true indicator of tension to the song “Trance” by Metro, included on the producer’s 2022 album “Heroes & Villains.” Drake initially had a verse on the track, which features Travis Scott and Young Thug, but Metro removed it before the album’s release. The version with Drake inevitably leaked; some think that Drake himself posted it in retaliation. Then last December, Metro tweeted and deleted that “’Her Loss’ still wins rap album of the year (‘Heroes & Villains’). Proof that awards ceremonies are just politics and not for me.” Drake went live shortly afterward, shouting “tweet-and-deleters” and saying that “you guys make me nauseous.” Metro unfollowed Drake on Instagram and the meat was slow cooked.
So it makes sense that Lamar would take this opportunity with “Like That” as a podium for his own grievances with Drake and J. Cole. But it took listeners by surprise that Lamar so decisively exposed his problems with the couple. All three emerged around the same time and have always been considered instrumental to that generation of MCs. They have all collaborated and even toured together; Drake gave Lamar his own interlude on his 2011 album “Take Care,” and Cole and Lamar once teased a collaborative project in addition to releasing numerous collaborations.
But the three have also long considered rap a competitive sport and have been competing for the GOAT title for years. In 2013, Lamar gave a similar show-stealing verse on Big Sean’s “Control,” also featuring Jay Electronica, where he ran through a long list of his peers’ names, including Drake and J. Cole, stating that “I got love for All of you, but I’m trying to murder you, n—s” and asking “What is competition?” “I’m trying to raise the bar very high.” In the years that followed, subliminals took flight, on songs like Lamar’s “King Kunta” and Drake’s “The Language” (hint: if you’re trying to find sneaky comments in their discographies, there’s plenty to work with).
It was only a matter of time until their problems came to light so openly. So where does the future come into all this? Drake and Future have been very frequent collaborators in the past. Beyond “What a Time,” the two have a slew of duets between them, so it was a surprise that he co-wrote Lamar’s verse by including it on “Like That.”
But once that song lit up the Internet, fans began looking elsewhere in “We Don’t Trust You” for possible attacks on Drake. One Person Matched Song Titles as Puns to Drake Song Titles. Some pointed to Future’s second verse in the album’s intro as a slam: “You’re a—a number one fan, dog / Disin’ on the sly, I don’t understand, dog / Talking to the pillow, acting like a fed dog / No No I need another fake friend, dog / I can’t be a bitch, ’cause we share, dog / In your feelings, n—a, why you playing, dog?
A little unpacking here. In “What Would Pluto Do?” Drake’s “For All the Dogs” references Future and states, “Last time I saw her, she was fuckin’ with my n—a / So the question is, the question is, what would Pluto do?” He would fuck the whore, so I did.” Not to mention, “in your feelings” could be a reference to Drake’s “In My Feelings.”
While it’s difficult to pinpoint the source of their problems, social media connected the dots to suggest that Drake and Future were fighting over a woman. An X (formerly Twitter) user suggested that a song from “We Don’t Trust You” referenced the woman in question; Metro came in to close the theory.. “All of you, stop making things up for engagement and enjoy the music,” she wrote.
Regardless, Lamar’s verse on “Like That” has officially entered the pantheon of iconic distortion tracks and clearly set off a chain reaction that is still going strong days later. Will Drake and J. Cole respond directly? It’s hard to say. However, in classic Drake fashion, he vaguely addressed the controversy last night during a stop on his joint tour with J. Cole. “Many people ask me how I feel. “What I feel is the same way I want you to leave here tonight feeling about yourselves,” he told the crowd. “Because you know how I feel? I’ve got my head up, my back straight, I’ve got 10 fucking toes down and I feel like every other place I go, and I know that no matter what happens, there’s no one on this Earth who can fuck with me in my life.”
