Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.
Rap’s megastars have finally found a way to keep busy outside of chasing past glories with joint albums that should have happened a decade ago and projects full of way too many 21 Savage verses. It is Rap Beef! And the hater-fueled theatrics and competition to get the best joke off or leak the juiciest gossip have most of them tapping into the kind of energy that doesn’t happen when everyone is on the same DJ Khaled song every time they need a new boat.
Happy for them. They seem to be having a good time with their little rivalries. Drake gets to bring back his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late “Mafia Boss Living Off the Grid in a Beach Town” persona. Kendrick Lamar gets to cancel his next few sessions with Dr. Melfi. Future gets to find a new enemy who isn’t an Instagram model he met once. Rick Ross gets to show what Gotham villains would have done if they had Instagram. J. Cole gets to do uh… J. Cole stuff.
Who knows what actually got this whole rap civil war started. The rumors have ranged from romantic drama to behind-the-scenes politics, such as jealousy about Drake making Her Loss with 21 Savage. (Metro Boomin even had a tweet where he ranted about Her Loss winning more Grammys than his own Heroes & Villains.) So, yeah, a bunch of shit that I barely care about. What is more interesting is the resurrection of rap’s eternal power struggle that launched with Future and Metro Boomin’s March collab album, We Don’t Trust You. On the cover, they look like fleeced assassins in a Johnnie To movie out for revenge after a job that turned out to be a setup.
The scorned spirit holds strong throughout the album with brooding Metro beats that are a little too cinematic and glossy and acidic Future verses littered with subliminal messages to Drake, down to the shady album title. But the bell was officially rung on “Like That,” track six on We Don’t Trust You, where Kendrick sets off this Drake vs. the World moment by directly attacking the wannabe Toronto godfather (and J. Cole, too, for spending too much time with Drake). “Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it’s just big me,” he raps, a rejection of Cole’s suggestion that the three are the cornerstones of modern rap. (Sidenote: Bizarre that any of them think they have an argument for the crown, when Hood Hottest Princess exists.)
Kendrick’s mild jabs sent the internet into a frenzy since rap beefs among giants—that are more than just sassy tweets, and, also, where there is no sense that real-life violence could come into play—doesn’t happen so often anymore. This beef is exactly that. A high-profile battle of bars—the hit rate isn’t that high, but at least they’re bars—with a splash of memes. We haven’t gotten anything close to our next “The Story of Adidon” or “Ether” or “Checkmate,” but, hey, the music is piling up and the jokes are flying and I have something new to talk about with my barber. (Before this, our last conversation was about if Ice Spice is the antichrist, so, thanks, Kendrick.)
What I can’t really get past is that this entire beef feels so artificial and desperate. A collective final cry for attention by a generation of artists who are attempting to fend off an unenviable descent into the nostalgia circuit. Whatever. I’ll live in the moment and play along with the hip-hop soap opera, even if this may very well end with them all together giving away a PlayStation 5 on a Kai Cenat stream. Below is a power ranking of the contributions of all who have been tagged into this mess.
18. DJ Akademiks
How far have we fallen? The streamer taking the place of the DJ is a tragedy on par with the bruising, post-up-centric NBA center being replaced by the stretch five. (Yes, that is Wemby shade.) Especially when that streamer is DJ Akademiks, one of the one of the corniest, most unbearable, and clickbait-chasing personalities in rap media, which is saying a lot. (As I write this, he’s setting up for a stream at Trump’s compound in Mar-a-Lago.) For some reason, both of the actual diss tracks worth a shit in this entire beef—Drake’s still-unofficial “Push Ups” and Rick Ross’ “Champagne Moments” (which has raps funny enough that we will forgive that he’s definitely just trying to promote his line of liquor)—were premiered on a DJ Akademiks stream. Where’s Funk Flex or DJ Clue or any of the many Atlanta DJs who were born for this moment? Outside of the fact that Akademiks straight-up stinks, his premiere of the songs doesn’t elevate the theatricality of the disses in any way. He sort of just sits there and motor mouth rambles his way through an attempt at analysis. No Pageantry. No charisma. So un-fucking-cool.
17. Artificial Intelligence
The most boring part about all this commotion—well, besides 2024 Metro beats—is the rumors that songs may or may not be A.I. It all feels like a distraction that turns the conversation away from the music and onto whether we’re being duped. Not only that: It’s a way for the artists to upload clips of the diss tracks to social media and, if it doesn’t go over well, just claim it’s all fake. This was the discussion around Drake’s “Push Ups” (probably real) and then a Kendrick leaked snippet of a diss that has been floating around the internet (probably fake). What a killjoy.
16. A$AP Rocky, Who Is Possibly Also Artificial Intelligence
Hi, Mr. Fenty. Remember Testing? I do. I’m still not over that. You should be banned from dissing anyone if you made Testing. But Mr. Fenty still tries to stir something with a verse on “Show of Hands,” from Future and Metro’s second album, We Still Don’t Trust You, where he seems to be pointing and laughing at Drake about the fact that he will never get to be Mr. Fenty. Good brag, but Mr. Fenty is such an unimaginative and unstylish rapper these days that every time he raps it sounds like it’s his first time. Is this really the same Mr. Fenty who made Live.Love.A$AP? Is this really the same Mr. Fenty behind Cozy Tapes, Vol. 2: Too Cozy? Well, Drake didn’t even waste time by calling out Mr. Fenty on “Push Ups.” Though, all he would have had to do is say, Hey, Mr. Fenty, remember Testing?
15. Joe Budden
There have been way too many mentions of streamers and podcasters in this article, so I apologize, but this is the dark place where the world wants us to be. Joe Budden is basically to Drake what Skip Bayless is to LeBron James, meaning, whenever Drake is the topic, ol’ “Pump It Up” is involved. Therefore, naturally, every time I log onto social media, there’s a new five-minute clip of Budden monologuing while his stooges nod along. I can hardly get through any of them. Did you know that most Joe Budden Podcast episodes are three and four hours long? Who the hell is listening to this shit?
14. Cash
Amir “Cash” Esmailian, a co-founder of XO with the Weeknd, is one of those connected industry guys who does a lot more than take Instagram photos with famous rappers—though I’m not sure what exactly that “more” is. He absorbs one of Drake’s funniest jabs on “Push Ups”: “Cash blowin’ Abel bread out here trickin’/Shit we do for bitches he doin’ for niggas.” The bar, unfortunately, is dangerously close to the blatant homophobia that stains so many of rap’s most popular diss tracks. Taken for what it is, the idea of Cash treating the Weeknd’s bank account like Ippei Mizuhara did Shoehei Ohtani is hilarious. Of course, Cash responded in the only way he knows: An Instagram photo with Future.
13. Birdman
Birdman has been one of the few in rap to take Drake’s side, which is probably a bad sign for Drake. If Birdman is on your side, you’re probably in the wrong. For my money, it’s just a way for Birdman to get a few headlines and maybe a step closer to getting a nice check off a Young Money reunion tour. I’m down as long as they don’t let Mack Maine perform his verse on “Every Girl.”
12. Metro Boomin
It’s a buzzkill that so much of this venom has been delivered on sauceless Metro beats. The exception is “Like That” because the Rodney O & Joe Cooley sample is untouchable. That makes Drake dismissively rapping, “Metro shut yo’ hoe ass up and make some drums, nigga,” on “Push Ups” hit even harder. To give Metro some credit, he should save some of those drums for better projects in 2025.
11. Meek Mill
Meek Mill hasn’t really been involved, but he feels like he should be here.
10. Drake’s Mom
Rick Ross entered the fray by fanning rumor flames that could very well be fiction, but are funnier to pretend are fact. On “Champagne Moments,” he chose to stir up some whispers that Drake is so ashamed of his Blackness that he got a nose job to look more white. (I don’t think it’s a Jewish nose joke, but you could definitely argue it is; the more inflammatory statement is probably him calling OVO the “Pastrami Posse” on IG.) Too bad that it all led to an extremely strange response by Drake, where he posted a text conversation he had with his mom about the hearsay. “Aubs- the internet is saying you got a nose job?? You looked the same to me in the kitchen today,” she texts him in the same voice your mom would use if she were asking if you want the crust to be cut off your peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s fine that they still talk to each other like that; I just don’t need to see it. Drake caps it off by calling Ross “racist” and a “nosey goof.” Please, burn my eyes.
9. OB OBrien—Remember Him?
Drake needs more backup. Where are you? Seriously. Remember that era when OB OBrien and that other white guy from the “HYFR” video were Drake’s best friends? Did they get demoted? Are they working at OVO corporate now?
8. J. Cole
We don’t need to relitigate “7 Minute Drill.” J. Cole dropped a weak diss that he didn’t actually want to drop—and then immediately apologized for dropping a weak diss that he didn’t want to actually drop. He realized he wasn’t built for this, and bowed out of the fight. At first, I made fun of him for it, but—you know what?—he made the right call.
7. Kendrick Lamar
All of this picked up steam with a Kendrick verse that really wasn’t that defaming or damning. But the rivalry between Kendrick and Drake is the only bit of the hoopla that I believe has more to it than just rich guys doing wrestling promos because they’re bored. As Andre Gee pointed out, “Drake and Kendrick, however, are simply too different for either of them to stomach the masses saying they prefer the other. That will forever have them at odds.” I just wish Kendrick were funny or petty enough to hold his weight in these kinds of battles. Drake is over there on “Push Ups” calling him “pipsqueak,” but I can’t imagine Kendrick ever stooping down to that level.
6. Ja Morant
On “Push Ups,” Drake appeared to call out Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant with: “Nigga, shoutout to the hooper that be bustin’ out the griddy/We know why you mad, nigga, I ain’t even trippin’.” I have no idea what the context is, but NBA players getting involved in rap beef always adds to the spectacle.
5. The Weeknd
I cannot get a read on the Weeknd anymore. He’s sort of just a basic pop star now who feels like he could turn into Bruno Mars, but he’s also doing weird stuff like The Idol and involving himself in this mess. It’s funny, too, that most of his contributions are just harmonies in the background of We Still Don’t Trust You. And the few words he devotes to tearing down Drake on “All to Myself” (“They shooters makin’ TikToks/Got us laughin’ in the Lambo”) are sung in the same sweet, soft melody that he uses for his moody coffee shop music.
4. Nav
Nav’s silence says so much.
3. Rick Ross
Of anyone, Rick Ross has the greatest bit going. He’s on a crusade to convince the world that Drake got plastic surgery in order to get a six-pack. Or, as he says it, “BBL Drizzy.” Obviously, it’s not a reveal on the level of Pusha practically leaking an ultrasound, but it’s still amusing. And he doesn’t stop there. Another bit introduced on “Champagne Moments” is the way he calls Drake “white boy,” which you just know gets under Drake’s skin, even if this is all bullshit. According to Ross, his breakup with Drake stems from the fact that Drake didn’t clear a feature he did for French Montana, which checks out because the 6 Man is the kind of rapper who only collaborates with artists who give him some sort of juice in the process, and French can’t offer that anymore. My problem with Ross’ diss is that his most memorable jabs aren’t in the raps themselves, but instead in the monologue at the end or in his Instagram stories. It would be way cooler if “I know you got your Dockers on with no underwear, white boy” (is that a thing white people do?) were rapped instead of said, but I’ll just have to accept that Ross is a better public speaker than spitter these days.
2. Drake
Win or lose, Drake brings the best hate out of his peers. Through the years, he’s taken so much shit and just keeps chugging along. He lives for drama and theatrics in a way that feels extremely hip-hop. (“Push Ups” opens with a DJ Whoo Kid drop, a signal that his trollish behavior has been heavily influenced by 50 Cent, king of the trolls.) So far, in this round, he’s been called “white boy,” “fake friend,” and “pillow talker,” and he’s also been accused of getting a nose job and a Brazilian butt lift. There are now hit songs and hit albums where the selling point is to let the world know that he is a herb. Still, he stays the course and just keeps posting, even if it is just a lot of rich-guy blabber.
1. Future
The only rapper who seems to be unscathed in the melodrama is Future. Drake has mostly shifted his ill will to Ross, Kendrick, and Metro. And, while both the Future and Metro albums are full of subliminals, he seems almost uninterested in the battle royale he kicked off. One day soon, the smoke will clear and we will all move on, and our memories of what actually happened will probably fade away. The only thing I will remember for sure is that when the stars of our rap generation were holding onto their status for dear life, Future was there, hovering above them all.