Yahoo Lifestyle Drake Seemingly Addressed His “Rap Beef” With Kendrick Lamar On His New Album, And It Sounds Like He’s Ready To Move On
Amid the resurgence of his longstanding feud with Kendrick Lamar, it sounds like Drake is keen to put the past behind him and focus on other things…
For context, Drake and Kendrick have been beefing on and off for over a decade, although things came to a head in 2024 when the two became embroiled in a heated exchange of brutal diss tracks.
Johnny Nunez / WireImage, C Flanigan / FilmMagic
I’m sure you know the basics by now, but you can read a full breakdown of the feud here.
And while things settled down for a while last year, 2025 has brought the feud right back to the forefront thanks to the Grammys on Feb. 4, where Kendrick scored five wins for his popular Drake diss track, “Not Like Us,” and his subsequent Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 9, where he performed the song for millions of viewers and called Drake out by name.
Monica Schipper / Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
After the halftime show — which also pointedly featured cameos from two of Drake’s exes, SZA and Serena Williams — reports claimed that the Canadian rap star was “angry” about the whole situation but has been “acting like he doesn’t care.”
An insider told Entertainment Tonight that Drake was upset but “not trying to outwardly show” it.
And now, with the release of his new collab album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, it seems Drake has finally taken a moment to address the elephant in the room on a track somewhat aptly titled “Gimme a Hug.”
The 21-track project, titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, dropped on Feb. 14 and has since broken Apple Music’s record for the most first-day streams worldwide for an R&B/soul album.
“Gimme a Hug” begins with Drake shutting down the narrative that his career is over and reaffirming his status as an influential figure in the rap game, stating: “Yeah, Drake elimination, fake intimidation / Take a minute, take a deep breath, have a little bit of patience / ‘Drizzy, you amazin’, you the inspiration / You set the bar for the next generation.'”
He also gives a shoutout to those who hope to see him fall while acknowledging the true supporters who have stuck with him throughout the turmoil, rapping: “I appreciate the fans rocking with me, this is really just a small token.”
Later in the track, Drake also appears to make a dig toward Kendrick’s more sophisticated style of rap lyricism, suggesting that if he were to die, women would be deprived of fun party anthems and stuck “twerkin' with a dictionary,” presumably referring to his enemy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning music.
So, after reminding the world that he’s truly all about making music for people to dance to, Drake implies that he cares less about feuding with other rappers and more about doing what he does best — which is “tryna get the party lit for the bitches.”
“They be droppin' shit, but we be droppin' harder shit,” he raps. “Fuck a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit / Tryna get the party lit for the bitches.”
So…my takeaway here is that Drake wants to be done with the Kendrick drama so he can focus his time and energy on making some club bangers. Fair enough. Could this mark the end of the beef if Drake has other priorities? LMK in the comments.
Of course, songs are open to lyrical interpretation, so always take everything with a grain of salt. You can find the full lyrics to “Gimme a Hug” here.
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