Less than a full day after Kendrick Lamar released “6:16 in LA,” Drake has responded to it, and “euphoria,” which arrived Tuesday (April 30). Drake’s third jab at Kendrick comes after April’s “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made”—which was removed from digital streaming platforms and online accounts after threat of legal action by Tupac Shakur’s estate. Within an hour of “FAMILY MATTERS,” Kendrick has fired back with “meet the grahams.” Both songs, attempts at ruining one another’s careers, are explained below:
“FAMILY MATTERS” arrives as a seven-minute music video, which is made up of several songs mixed consecutively. The video opens with a spinning diamond-encrusted necklace and medallion and a figure throwing the finger. As that image hits the screen, Drake raps admit he’s “emptied the clip” for less, and that because Drake’s seed was mentioned, the father is now involved. Then, a Dodge Caravan—similar to that on Kendrick Lamar’s deluxe edition of good kid, m.a.a.d city album, is taken to be smashed at a scrap yard. Sections of the song also address Drake’s other collaborators-turned-nemeses, including Rick Ross, The Weeknd, Future, and Metro Boomin. Drake also seemingly adds A$AP Rocky to his growing name of opps—adding a second “F__kin’ Problems” collaborator to the mix.
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The video dedicates much of its vitriol to Kendrick. Drake spats at Lamar’s suggestion he stop using the N-word.
“Out here begging for attention, n___a say please / Always rapping like you ’bout to get the slaves free / You just acting like a activist it’s make believe / But you won’t even go into your hood and plant money trees,” he charges. Drake runs head-on to the fact that Kendrick’s fiance and the mother of his children is biracial. The OVO leader also alleges that Kendrick favors white women, and charges that some of the infidelity alluded to on 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was with a white female. “You say you hate the girls I f__k but what ya really mean? / I been with Black and white and everything that’s in between / You the Black messiah wifing up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem / On some Bobby s__t I wanna know what Whitney need / All that puppy love was over in your late teens / Why you never hold your son and say cheese? / We coulda left the kids outta this, don’t blame me.“
Meanwhile, Drake focuses on Kendrick’s relationship a lot. His lyrics question if Kendrick’s pgLang business partner and longtime manager Dave Free may have fathered one of the MC’s children. “Your baby mama captions always screamin, ‘save me’ / You did her dirty all her life, you tryna make peace / I heard that one of them little kids might be Dave Free / Don’t make it Dave freeze / Cause if your GM is your BM secret BD / Then this is all making plenty f__kin’ sense to me / Ayy, let that shorty breathe / Shake that ass b___h / Hands on your knees, hands on your knees / Hands on your knees, hands on your knees / Shake that ass for Drake, now shake that ass for Free.“ Then, in the final seconds of the seven-minute video, Drake also accuses Kendrick if beating his wife—something that has never been mentioned publicly. “They hired a crisis management team / To hide the fact that you beat on your queen / The picture you paint, it ain’t what it seems / Ya dead!” In that segment of the video, Drake wears a diamond around his neck—moments after questioning why Lamar’s near decade-long engagement has not evolved to marriage.
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Elsewhere in the song, Drake suggests Kendrick Lamar is only gang-affiliated by proxy. He calls out YG and Chris Brown for their legitimacy, while Kendrick is not. He demands to see the Compton superstar’s TDE paperwork, claiming that Lamar is dodging a probe into his business. As with “Push Ups,” Drizzy goes at Lamar’s height. Even at the chorus, Drake says he wanted to keep it “PG” — clear double entendre to Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s pgLang company.
Other jabs include claiming that since Top Dawg “robbed” Kendrick’s father (as told in the song “DUCKWORTH”), that it’s “like father, like son” with what the record executive did with K-Dot. Drake claims it was Kendrick who told the Tupac estate to publicly threaten Drake to have last month’s “Taylor Made” diss removed online. He also leans into Kendrick’s comparisons of himself being Prince and Drake being a modern-day Michael Jackson. Drake—who flips Kendrick’s idea that he stands alone—seems to suggest that Kendrick wanted J. Cole to be out of the spotlight.
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In other sections of the track, Drake makes light of Rick Ross’ weight (and weight loss) while bringing up the rapper’s past job as a correctional officer. This comes after Drake confronts RR’s accusations of a nose-job. He then accuses Rocky’s fame coming from fashion, not rap. He pokes at his history with Rihanna, and that should would tell Rocky that Drake is superior. “Rakim talkin’ s__t again / Gassed cause you hit my bm first / N___a do the math, who I was hitting them / I ain’t even know you rap still cause they not talking bout your fit again / Probably gotta a kid again before you think of dropping any s__t again.”
Drake closes out the song (which is credited to Boi-1da, Tay Keith, Mark Ronson, and others) suggesting he may be taking a leave of absence, having made such a statement.
Approximately one hour after Drake clapped back at Kendrick with “FAMILY MATTERS,” Lamar delivers “meet the grahams.” It is the most personal attack on Drake since Pusha-T’s 2018 charge, “The Story Of Adidon.” Like Eminem’s “Stan,” Kendrick writes the song as a series of letters. “Dear Adonis, I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest / It takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive / I look at him and wish your grandpa woulda wore a condom / I’m sorry that you gotta grow up and then stand behind him / Life is hard, I know, the challenges always gon’ be this home / Sometimes our parents make mistakes that affect us until we grown / And you a good kid that need good leadership / Let me be your mentor, since your daddy don’t teach you s__t / Never let a man piss on your leg, son / Either you die right there or pop that man in the head, son / Never fall in the escort business, that’s bad religion / Always remember, you could be a bitch even if you got b___hes / Never code-switch, whether right or wrong, you a Black man / Even if it don’t benefit your goals, do some push ups / Get some discipline, don’t cut them corners like your daddy did, f__k what Ozempic did / Don’t pay to play with them Brazilians, get a gym membership / Understand, I’m throwin’ rocks and hidin’ hands, that’s law / Don’t be ashamed ’bout who you wit’, that’s how he treat your moms.“ The verse rips apart Drake’s character, his role as a father, and weaves in three generations of a family.
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The next verse is addressed to Drake’s parents and uses some of the harshest words in the Rap diss canon. “Dear Dennis, you gave birth to a master manipulator / Even usin’ you to prove who he is is a huge favor / I think you should ask for more paper, and more paper / And more, uh, more paper / I’m blamin’ you for all his gamblin’ addictions / Psychopath intuition, the man who like to play victim / You raised a horrible f__kin’ person, the nerve of you, Dennis / Sandra, sit down, what I’m about to say is heavy, now listen / Mhm, your son’s a sick man with sick thoughts / I think n___as like him should die / Him and Weinstein should get f___ed up in a cell for the rest they life.” Moments later, he adds, “He hates Black woman, hyper-sexualizes them, with kinks of a nympho fetish / Grew facial hair ’cause he understand bein’ a beard just fit him better / He got s_x o__enders on OVO that he keep on a monthly allowance / A child should never be compromised and he keepin’ his child around them / And we gotta raise our daughters knowin’ there’s predators like him lurkin’ / F__k a rap battle, he should die so all of these women can live with a purpose.“
As was the case with that, this song is an indictment against Drake’s racial background, his parents’ role in his life, and accuses Aubrey Drake Graham of hiding a child. This time, it is an alleged 11-year-old daughter that Drake has shielded from the public. “Dear baby girl, I’m sorry that your father not active inside your world / He don’t commit to much but his music, yeah, that’s for sure / He a narcissist, misogynist, livin’ inside his songs / Try destroy families rather than takin’ care of his own / Should be teachin’ you time tables or watchin’ Frozen with you / Or at your 11th birthday, singin’ poems with you / Instead, he be in Turks, payin’ for sex and poppin’ Percs / Examples that you don’t deserve / I wanna tell you that you’re loved, you’re brave, you’re kind / You got a gift to change the world, and to change your father’s mind / ‘Cause our children is the future, but he lives inside confusion.“
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Kendrick closes with an attempted knockout blow. “His father prolly didn’t claim him neither / History do repeats itself, sometimes it don’t need a reason / But how I like to say it’s not your fault he’s hidin’ another child / Give ’em grace, it’s the reason I made Mr. Morale / So our babies like you can cope later / Give you some confidence to go through somethin’, it’s hope later / I never wanna hear you chase a man ’cause his fell behavior / Sittin’ in the club with sugar daddies for validation / You need to know that love is eternity and trumps all pain / I’ll tell you who your father is, just play this song when it rains / Yes, he’s a hit-maker, songwriter, superstar, right / And a f__kin’ deadbeat that should never see more life / Meet the Grahams.“
The artwork is a pullback of the “6:16 in Los Angeles” artwork, with jewelry receipts, a colorful button down shirt, and several prescription drug boxes and containers.
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Within minutes of the song, Drake has denied the claim while scoffing at Kendrick, claiming “These guys are in shambles.”
