Drake vs Kendrick:
What Hurts The Male Ego?

Considering the entire universe of insults in the discography, Kendrick rapped approximately 15% more disses than Drake.

One of Drake's songs, "Buried Alive Interlude Pt.2", only contains an intro and a verse and was released on Instagram as part of his promotions for his full length diss track, "Family Matters". The song is a parody on Kendrick's intro and verse on "Buried Alive Interlude" that featured on Drake's 2011 album "Take Care" and was meant to show how Drake believes that he helped kickstart Kendrick's career - a theme that comes up often.

Shorter diss-tracks like this reduced Drake's overall contribution of insults.

When it comes to bragging about their careers, both artists are prolific, making this the largest category of insults overall (30%) as well as individually. But their approaches differ significantly.

Drake tends to focus most of his disses on commercial success (or Kendrick's lack thereof) and Kendrick's futile attempts to take Drake's spot at the top of the industry. His lyrics are also more provocative, goading Kendrick to respond and threatening to come down hard on him.

Kendrick directs most of his lyrical energy towards artistic ability, lording his superiority of the craft over Drake, implying that Kendrick has distanced himself from the showy metrics of success that Drake seems to prefer.

And yet the irony lies in the fact that a nightclub hit like "Not Like Us", often expected more of Drake than Kendrick, won Kendrick the feud.

While this is the second largest category overall, Kendrick dominates it with over 50% more disses than Drake, primarily centered around behavioral criticisms.

He refers to Drake as a liar and a terrible person, calling out his fake alpha male personality, gambling habits and Drake's well known habit of "sneaky dissing" is his music, which is when an artist disrespects someone in their song without mentioning them or owning up to it.

Drake in turn accuses Kendrick of constantly needing attention and tossing accusations without ever having proof. Drake believes that Kendrick's attitude towards him is a projection of Kendrick's own trauma.

In the conflict between the two men, women are strongly weaponized, making this the third largest category. It makes up 15% of all insults, with astonishingly equal contributions by both.

Drake uses Kendrick's partner, Whitney, in most of this category's insults, alleging her consistent infidelity with Kendrick's bodyguard Dave, calling into question Kendrick's son's true parentage and leveling serious allegations of domestic violence against him.

Kendrick retaliates with bars accusing him of consistent and pervasive sexual misconduct including pedophilia, predatory behavior, associating with sex-offenders and hypersexualising Black women.

It is worth noting that in their relentlessness to accuse each other of misogyny and problematic behavior, the two artists display significant misogynist behaviors themselves.

Aside from referring to women as "bitches" and "hos" for most of both their discographies, Kendrick questions the characters of the women that Drake has had sexual relations with, saying that they are not "real women" (a dig at the mother of Drake's child, a former adult film actress). Meanwhile, Drake dehumanises women by making passes at taken women and talking about sleeping with women of every race possible as though they are his personal conquests.

A prevailing theme in the feud is cultural authenticity with Drake and Kendrick accusing each other of not having as much "street cred" as they lead their listeners to believe. Kendrick once again dominates in this category, with almost thrice as many disses as Drake.

Kendrick goes back and forth between calling out Drake for not being "Black" enough, given that Drake is biracial with an African-American father, and accusing Drake of using Black Culture to further his own agenda and success. In "Euphoria", Kendrick says that he hates that Drake co-opts the N-word, considering that it's not his culture. In Drake's next track after Kendrick's "Euphoria" and "6:16 in LA", Drake doubles his use of the N-word.

Drake questions Kendrick's own cultural authenticity, saying that his label consistently makes him rap for commercially successful, white artists. Drake also uses his verses to inflate his own African-American descent with bars on his street credibility, Kendrick's lack thereof and rails against Kendrick's alleged savior complex.

A flavor of violence and harm is present through the whole discography with Kendrick and Drake threatening each other with direct and implied harm.

Both incorporate vocabulary associated with guns, gun parts and harm through their verses as well as threatening to physically and metaphorically put the other in their place if they don't back off. For example, Kendrick compares himself to YNW Melly, a rapper who was charged with the double homicide of two other rappers who were his friends. And Drake makes explicit threats about gunfights and even defecating on his enemies.

Drake with "Family Matters" and Kendrick with "Meet the Grahams" (released less than an hour after "Family Matters") each have one song entirely dedicated to dissing each other's familial dynamics.

Drake goes after Kendrick's relationship with his son, and partner Whitney, doubling down on the allegations of domestic violence, infidelity and accusing Kendrick of never being an affectionate parent. Kendrick's "Meet The Grahams" is written like an open letter where he systematically addresses Drake's mother, father, son and exposes the existence of a supposedly hidden daughter that Drake refutes in "The Heart Part 6". Kendrick calls out his father for being an absentee parent resulting in Drake continuing that cycle with his children. He offers to mentor Adonis, Drake's son, because Drake doesn't have any of the qualities required to be a good father.

May 3rd, when four out of the ten tracks were released*, marked a turning point in the feud with each artist greenlighting the use of intimate, personal dynamics and allegations. Adarsh Tyagi, a 16-year high school student from San Diego, follows rap but still finds the feud childish. "Neither of them had any proof for what they were saying about each other. It's never okay to bring family into these things – but it's the whole reason this blew up, because they said all this unproven stuff." He says that he doesn't particularly support either of the two rappers in the feud.

*("Meet the Grahams" was released at midnight on May 4th but because it was so close to the previous song, it is widely considered as part of the May 3rd releases)

Both rappers equally peppered their feudal verses with direct disses about each other's physical attributes and masculinity.

From Drake's end, he constantly belittles Kendrick with multi-layered bars about his short stature and Drake's physical superiority. Time and again there have been rumours about Drake's conventionally attractive body being the result of surgery along with others that involve him getting a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL). Kendrick jumps on these by mocking Drake for lying about his surgery, alleged Ozempic use, BBL and also throws some bars in about hating his general style of walking, talking and dressing.

There is also an element of using sexual prowess and masculinity to insult. For Drake, it involves talking about women wanting him and also boasting about being sexually extremely well endowed (a reference to a leaked risque video of him). For Kendrick, his bars on masculinity involve calling Drake effeminate. Both artists exhibit problematic undertones of homophobia, using lyrics to allude to each other or their family members as not being straight, intended as an insult.