Kendrick Lamar and Drake‘s feud was reignited over a rejected feature request — specifically, one of the latter’s biggest hits of last year.
That’s according to Akademiks, anyway, who claimed on “good authority” that the simmering tension between the Hp Hop heavyweights exploded in recent weeks after Kendrick turned down a guest spot on Drizzy’s chart-topping “First Person Shooter” alongside J. Cole.
“I now have good authority to say that allegedly Drake hit up Kendrick and ‘First Person Shooter’ should have been a song with Drake, Cole and Kendrick,” he said. “Now, if you think about this entire timeline and beef with that in mind, it makes sense.”
The media personality then said that Cole’s verse on the song (“Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K. Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/ We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali”) “upset” Kendrick, inspiring his blistering verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”
“He says, ‘Man, these bum-ass n-ggas who couldn’t get a feature from me are now acting like they’re number one and number two. Fuck both of them!’” he continued. “That is what I am hearing.”
Ak also claimed that lyrics on “First Person Shooter” were “reworked” after the Kendrick snub.
“If you listen to, allegedly, a part of especially Cole’s verse, that verse was intended to be, ‘Yo, I’m here with my brothers and we’re the best! But I still feel like I’m the best, but we’re the best.’” he said.
“If you listen to Cole’s verse, you will hear what the original intention of the song was […] Allegedly, Kendrick already told J. Cole that he was going to be on the record.”
“From what I’m hearing, Kendrick got upset because, yes, he turned down the feature because he’s got smoke with Drake, but once he heard them talking like it’s just them two, he said, ‘Alright, fuck it! My next verse, I’m about to say, ‘Fuck the big three, it’s just big me!’‘”
Akademiks did, however, clarify that “none of this is from Drake” and is pure speculation “based on what I’ve heard from very reputable sources that are connected to other people.”
Akademiks reveals that Kendrick was supposed to be on 'First Person Shooter' with Drake and J. Cole, but he declined, which incited the beef pic.twitter.com/qEk54UArWw
— Akademiks TV (@AkademiksTV) May 3, 2024
Plenty of others have also theorized that this was one of the reasons for Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef exploding, especially due to a certain bar on the latter’s recent diss song “Euphoria”.
At one point, the former TDE titan raps: “Surprised you wanted that feature request/ You know that we got some shit to address.”
Kendrick has since dropped a second diss track aimed at the 6 God called “6:16 in LA,” which primarily finds him scrutinizing the loyalty of his inner circle.
“Conspiracies about cash, dawg, that’s not even the leak/ Find the jewels like Kash Doll, I just need you to think/ Are you finally ready to play ‘Have you ever?,’ let’s see/ Have you ever thought that OVO is working for me?” he raps over an Al Green sample.
“Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/ Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it/ Can’t Toosie Slide up out of this one, it’s just gonna resurface/ Every dog gotta have his day, now live in your purpose.”
He later spits: “The Elohim, K. T. W. know you can’t sleep/ These images trouble you, know the wires in your circle should puzzle you/ If you was street smart then you woulda caught that your entourage is only to hustle you.”
“A hundred n-ggas that you got on salary and 20 of ’em want you as a casualty/ And one of them is actually next to you, and two of them is practically tied to your lifestyle/ Just don’t got the audacity to tell you but let me tell you some game ’cause I can see you my little homie.”
While Drake was quick to respond to the aforementioned “Euphoria” with a troll-worthy clip from the teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You, he has yet to address “6:16 in LA.”
