Metro Boomin and Future’s long awaited album “We Don’t Trust You” dropped March 22. The album is full of notable features like Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, and Rick Ross, but the track garnering the most attention is “Like That” featuring Kendrick Lamar. The song is good, but what’s really highlighting it is Lamar’s red-hot no-holds-barred verse in which he disses two other rap industry giants.
Tension has been brewing between Lamar and Drake for some time. They’ve shot back and forth with veiled bars targeting each other for years, but it’s never been anything major. Then, in 2023, Drake came together with J Cole to release “First Person Shooter”, in which Cole raps about him, Drake, and Lamar being the “big three” of rap.
Now, what exactly got “Like That” 25.62 million streams in the first three days of release (according to billboard)? It was Lamar’s verse, in which he fired diss after diss towards Drake and Cole. The verse featured bars like “f*** sneak dissin’, first person shooter, I hope they came with three switches” and “mother**** the big three, ***** it’s just big me” directly referencing Coles line in “First Person Shooter”. He goes on to diss Drake directly, saying “and your best work is a light pack, ***** Prince outlived Mike Jack”. Drake compared his success to that of Michael Jackson, who famously had beef with fellow popstar, Prince. He finishes the verse by saying “fore’ all your dogs gettin’ buried, that’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Cemetery”, referencing both Drake’s most recent album, “For All the Dogs”, and “Pet Cemetery”, a novel and movie by horror writer Stephen King.
Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much of a response from Drake or J Cole. Drake didn’t specifically address the diss, but at a concert in Florida, he stated “I got my f****** head up high, my back straight, I’m 10 f****** toes down in Florida or anywhere else I go, and I know that no matter what, there’s not a ***** on this earth that could ever f*** with me in my life. And that’s how I want you to walk outta here tonight.” J Cole is yet to respond.
Other rappers have started taking sides in what multiple sources on social media are calling a “rap civil war”, with many rappers unfollowing Drake on Instagram, making posts, etc. It’ll be very interesting to see where this goes next, and many are speculating that Drake and or Cole will have to respond with songs of their own. And hey, new music is new music, right?
