Last Friday, Future and Metro Boomin released a collaborative project, We Don’t Trust You.
The album consists of 17 songs, and it was the sixth track, “Like That”, which took over the Internet thanks to an explosive feature from the reclusive Kendrick Lamar.
On it, the Compton native fired direct shots at fellow legendary rappers Drake and J. Cole, reviving the competitive nature of hip-hop that is central to its foundation.
There has been a feeling in the rap industry for some time that Lamar and Drake do not see eye to eye, but it was Drake and J Cole’s 2023 track “First Person Shooter” that finally pushed Lamar over the edge.
J. Cole went for a respectful approach on the track in addressing the hierarchy of rap, saying: “Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot (Kendrick Lamar)? Is it Aubrey (Drake)? Or Me?/We the big three like we started a league, but right now I feel like Muhammad Ali.”
Drake also alluded to himself as the GOAT (greatest of all time) rapper, and Kendrick was clearly unhappy with the stance of his peers.
Kendrick waited for the right opportunity to address the claims made in “First Person Shooter”, strategically collaborating with Future and Metro Boomin who have both developed tensions with Drake in recent months.
Kendrick Lamar did not hold back in the slightest on “Like That”, calling out “First Person Shooter” by name, taking the opportunity to make clear that he stands alone as the best rapper in the world with the lyric: “Motherf*** the big three, n****, it’s just big me.”
To make things even more enticing, most of the shade thrown by Lamar on “Like That” is aimed solely at Drake, calling his album For All the Dogs out by name as well as measuring his artistic longevity as being greater than Drake’s.
The song, which has already cemented itself as a moment in hip-hop history, is projected to have a No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Whether J. Cole needs to respond to Lamar’s verse is debatable, but Drake has to respond with a diss track of his own if he’s to protect his credibility as a rapper, ideally sooner rather than later.
Watch this space.
