Former President Obama took a side in the ongoing rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake long before it began, predicting in a 2016 interview that Lamar was his pick in a theoretical battle between the industry giants.
The topic came up in an interview with YouTube personality Swoozie, when he asked Obama who he would side with. Lamar was fresh off his pinnacle release “To Pimp a Butterfly” the year before, while Drake had recently dropped the massively popular “Views.”
“Gotta go with Kendrick. I’m just saying, I think Drake is an outstanding entertainer, but Kendrick, his lyrics, his last album was outstanding,” Obama said, referring to “To Pimp a Butterfly.” “Best album I think of last year.”
The clip went viral this week when a feud between the two rappers hit new highs. Both musicians dropped multiple diss tracks on each other, topping charts and dominating conversation in hip hop circles.
Obama has repeatedly praised Lamar as one of the best musicians of the modern era, often featuring his work on the former president’s music playlists. Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2018, considered the most prestigious award in songwriting.
The beef became real last month, with Drake dropping his first diss track against Lamar, “Push Ups,” after Lamar dissed him in a previous feature verse in March. Lamar responded with “euphoria” last week, taking the internet by storm with accusations that Drake is an absentee father.
Lamar doubled down last Friday, dropping “6:16 in LA,” filled with references to Drake’s music career. On the same day, Drake responded with “Family Matters,” accusing Lamar of beating his fiancee and alleging that his son is not actually his.
Prepared for the response, Lamar immediately dropped “meet the grahams,” an open letter to Drake’s family attacking his parenting and claiming the artist has a second, previously unknown child.
Just a day later, Lamar dropped again, releasing “Not Like Us” and accusing Drake of being a pedophile, citing the Canadian artist’s notorious history of questionable interactions with underage girls.
Drake took the most recent shot against Lamar on Sunday with “The Heart Part 6,” parodying Lamar’s ongoing series of thoughtful singles of the same name. In the diss, he claims the story of a secret daughter was planted, and that Lamar’s obsession with pedophilia accusations is rooted in his own experience with abuse, incorrectly citing one of Lamar’s previous songs.
The feud has frenzied hip hop fans, who wait in anticipation for Lamar’s next response, the next chapter in what is already considered one of the greatest rap beefs in the genre’s modern history.