Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar: the juiciest moments in their beef | CBC ...

Once upon a time, Drake and Kendrick Lamar were collaborators: Lamar was an opening act for Drake's Club Paradise Tour in 2012 and Drake appeared on Lamar's song "Poetic Justice" the same year. But things began to sour in 2013, after Lamar rapped on Big Sean's track "Control" and called out Drake and several other rappers by name before adding: "I got love for you all but I'm trying to murder you n---s / trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you n---s."

WATCH | The official video for 'Poetic Justice':  

While Drake didn't officially respond — his 2013 song "The Language" was rumoured to be a diss, but Birdman, the CEO of Drake's then-label, denied it was targeting Lamar — things between them seemed stable, as Drake praised Lamar at his OVO Festival the following year.

On March 22, the feud officially started again after Lamar appeared on "Like That," a diss track from Metro Boomin and Future, and declared himself a better rapper than J. Cole and Drake. The fiery verse prompted retaliative tracks from J. Cole, who released — then retracted — "7 Minute Drill" on Apr. 5 and Drake, who dropped "Push Ups" on Apr. 19.

Lamar responded to "Push Ups" on Apr. 30 with "Euphoria" and dropped another diss track, "6:16 in LA," on May 3. We've broken down some of the key moments from their disses so far, below.

Lamar's loaded 'Like That' references

There are a number of highlights in Lamar's "Like That" feature that take shots at Drake such as, "Motherf--k the big three, n---a, it's just big me" and "'Fore all your dogs gettin' buried/ that's a K with all these nines, he gon' see Pet Sematary" (Drake's most recent album is titled For All the Dogs.) 

But it's when Lamar raps, "Your best work is a light pack/ n---a, Prince outlived Mike Jack," that he draws an interesting comparison between two iconic artists. Drake is a longtime fan of Michael Jackson: he's referenced Jackson in several songs, tied some of his Billboard records, and included a posthumous Jackson feature on his track "Don't Matter to Me." 

Michael Jackson and Prince famously feuded for decades, so by Lamar comparing himself to Prince and likening Drake to Jackson, he positioned himself not only as Drake's artistic rival, but also a personal one.

Drake hits back with funny bars on 'Push Ups'

On Apr. 19, Drake fired back with "Push Ups," responding to several artists including Rick Ross, the Weeknd and Metro Boomin. However, he saved his funniest lyrical barbs for Lamar:

He mocked Lamar's pop collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift: "Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty/ then we need a verse for the Swifties"

He called out Lamar's alleged shoe size: "How the f--k you big steppin' with a size-seven men's on?"

He hit back at Lamar's comparison to Prince on "Like That": "What's a prince to a king? He a son, n---a"

While referencing The Bodyguard film, he also name-dropped Lamar's wife, Whitney Alford: "I be with some bodyguards like Whitney/ top say drop, your little midget ass better f--kin"

Drake baits Lamar on 'Taylor Made Freestyle'

Hours after releasing "Push Ups," Drake dropped another diss track. On "Taylor Made Freestyle," he used AI voices of West Coast hip-hop titans Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur to rap lyrics encouraging Lamar to fight back. Some of the lyrics spotlight Lamar's Compton, Calif., heritage while calling him out: "Kendrick, we need ya, the West Coast saviour/ engraving your name in some hip-hop history."

After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Shakur's estate, the song was removed from Drake's social media channels.

Lamar delivers scathing call-outs on 'Euphoria'

The entirety of Lamar's Apr. 30 response track, "Euphoria" was directed at Drake, with Lamar mocking everything from Drake's lack of parenting skills to his fashion sense. While there are numerous cutthroat lines, some of the most memorable moments on the song are:

The much-memed lyric about Drake's affinity for braided hairstyles: "Cutthroat business, you got shit twisted/ What is it? The braids?"

The loud reminder about Drake losing his beef with Pusha T: "Yeah, f--k all that pushin' P, let me see you push a T"

His pointed diss of Drake's faux persona: "I like Drake with the melodies, I don't like Drake when he act tough"

His hint at Drake getting plastic surgery: "Yeah, my first one like my last one, it's a classic, you don't have one/ let your core audience stomach that, then tell 'em where you get your abs from"

His incorporation of Toronto slang while rapping in a Toronto accent and also shouting out a local Chinese restaurant: "I be at New Ho King eatin' fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie"

Lamar claps back again with '6:16 in LA'

Drake responded to "Euphoria" by making fun of it on Instagram, but before he had a chance to reply in song, Lamar released a follow-up diss track on May 3. The song's title "6:16 in LA" is a play on Drake's many timestamp diss tracks such as "7am on Bridle Path" and "4PM in Calabasas." Fans have also theorized that the title is also stands for Jun. 16, which is Tupac Shakur's birthday, and Father's Day. 

The track was also co-produced by Jack Antonoff, who is one of Taylor Swift's most frequent collaborators, signaling that Antonoff may not have appreciated Drake namedropping Swift on "Taylor Made Freestyle" or dissing Lamar on "Push Ups" for collaborating with Swift. The result is a 'Taylor-made' diss and the standout moments are below:

Lamar doubles down on his hatred of Drake: "Have you ever thought that OVO was working for me? Fake bully I hate bullies/ you must be a terrible person/ everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it"

He pokes fun at Drake's single "Toosie Slide": "Can't Toosie Slide up outta this one"

He hits at Drake for reacting to the diss online: "Your lil memes is losing steam, they figured you out"

The song ends with a nod to Michael Jackson: "Before you figure that you're not alone/ ask what Mike would do?"

After joining rapper Nicki Minaj on stage at her Toronto concert on Apr. 30, Drake hinted that his back and forth with Lamar wasn't over yet.

"I love you," he told the crowd. "You know what time it is — you know what I have to do."