Kendrick Lamar has won the culture-consuming rap beef with Drake, at least as far as Billboard hits are concerned, as his diss track Not Like Us debuted at No 1 on the US Hot 100.
The scathing track, which alleges that the Canadian hit-maker is a âcertified pedophileâ, is Lamarâs fourth No 1 song, after a feature on Future and Metro Boominâs Like That earlier this year, 2017âs Humble and his verse on Taylor Swiftâs 2015 track Bad Blood.
Another one of his tracks in the rapid-fire, increasingly acrimonious rap beef with Drake, Euphoria, reached number three after debuting last week at 11. Family Matters, one of Drakeâs several responses as the feud escalated in the past two weeks, currently sits at seven on the singles chart.
The chart win is the latest notch for Lamar in the headline-grabbing feud, which over the last month expanded from long-simmering tension between two of worldâs most famous artists into all-out lyrical war, engulfing other artists such as Rick Ross and The Weeknd.
The current spat dates back to Lamarâs verse on Like That in late March, and has produced a bevy of diss tracks in rapid succession â Euphoria, 6:16 in LA, Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us from Lamar, and Push Ups, Taylor Made Freestyle, Family Matter and The Heart Part 6 from Drake.
The beef grew increasingly personal in the last two weeks, with both artists taking shots at the otherâs lifestyle and family. Drake, born Aubrey Graham, claimed that Lamar, a Pulitzer prize winner for his 2017 album Damn, physically abused his partner; Lamar claimed that Drake engaged in underage sex and concealed a child from public view, marking a dramatic escalation of public rancor. âSay Drake, I hear you like âem young / You better not have to go to Cell Block One,â he raps in Not Like Us, a single whose cover art depicts Drakeâs Toronto mansion doctored to appear labeled as âregistered sex offenderâ. The track led Drake to publicly deny allegations of underage sex and harbouring a secret daughter.
The lyrical sparring has also been connected to actual violence, after one of Drakeâs security guards was shot and seriously injured outside the rapperâs Toronto home last Tuesday. A man was later arrested after trying to break into Drakeâs home in a separate incident, one of several trespassing attempts.
This is the second time a rap beef has launched a number one song this year, according to Billboard. In February, Megan Thee Stallion scored her first solo No 1 song with Hiss, part of a long-running feud with Nicki Minaj.