Drake Unveils Latest Kendrick Lamar Diss Track “Family Matters”
And so it continues. After Kendrick Lamar emerged from the shadows with the extremely angry Drake diss “Euphoria” this week, Drake responded with a video clip from a teen rom-com. Tonight, less than 24 hours after Kendrick hit him with another diss track, “6:16 In LA,” Drake has returned to the field of play with his latest song in this ongoing feud.
Like “Euphoria,” “Family Matters” is long — well over seven minutes, with multiple beat switches. In the first section, over video of the van from the good kid, m.A.A.d. city art getting crushed, he name-checks YG and other gang bangers he knows on the West Coast. He takes shots at Kendrick’s marriage, insinuating that his longtime fiancée Whitney Alford is not happy and that one of his kids was actually fathered by his business partner Dave Free. Drake also references Alford having lighter skin after Kendrick questioned his Blackness on “Euphoria.” There’s a reference to Metro Boomin’s partner cheating on him in there too, and Drake’s tour-mate J. Cole — who notoriously entered into and then immediately bowed out of the current rap civil war — catches a stray.
In the middle phase, Drake turns his attention to the Weeknd, implying that Abel Tesfaye’s music is popular in gay bars (homophobia has been a theme in this feud). He goes after A$AP Rocky, mocking his reliance on fashion and Rihanna to get attention rather than his music. He scoffs at Future and Metro Boomin’s recent two-album run, saying he had to skim through it. He says Kendrick’s bars are only viable nowadays when his cousin Baby Keem ghostwrites for him — an allegation that’s sure to infuriate Kendrick, who has famously railed against ghostwriters. He tries to flip Rick Ross’ assertion that Drake is “the white boy” into a bar about how other rappers are waving white flags.
In the third and final section of the “Family Matters” lyric video, the footage shifts to New Ho King, the Toronto restaurant that went viral after Kendrick mentioned it on “Euphoria.” The first line of that segment is pretty funny: “Kendrick just opened his mouth/ Someone go hand him a Grammy right now.” He raps that Kendrick called the Tupac Shakur estate and begged them to get his AI diss track taken down.
Things get really real at the end, as Drake accuses Kendrick of beating Alford, while returning to the theme of Kendrick being physically small — “When you put your hands on your girl/ Is it self defense ’cause she bigger than you?” Eventually he even alleges that Kendrick hired a crisis PR firm to cover up a history of domestic abuse. He questions why Kendrick and his girl still aren’t married when they’ve been engaged since 2015. He also says Kendrick moved to New York and cryptically raps that “we know the girls you actually like.” It’s his attempt at a “You are hiding a child”-level bomb drop — and if it’s true, it would certainly qualify. Listen below.
UPDATE: Kendrick has released another diss track, “meet the grahams,” in which he alleges that Drake is hiding another child, an 11-year-old daughter.