Drake has denied allegations of child sex offences and of him harbouring a secret child, both levelled at him by Kendrick Lamar in recent days.
The enmity between the rap superstars has escalated over a series of diss tracks in the past few weeks, culminating in a flurry of activity during the weekend with three tracks by Lamar and two by Drake.
Lamar’s most serious allegations come on Not Like Us, with the line: “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young … Certified Lover Boy? Certified paedophiles … Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.”
On Meet the Grahams, addressed to a series of Drake’s family members, he raps: “A child should never be compromised and he keeping his child around them / And we gotta raise our daughters knowing there’s predators like him lurking … I’m looking to shoot through any pervert that lives, keep the family safe.”
Later in that track, Lamar addresses an entire verse to an unnamed girl, saying of Drake: “He a narcissist, misogynist, living inside his songs / Try destroy families rather than takin’ care of his own / Should be teaching you time tables or watching Frozen with you / Or at your 11th birthday singing poems with you … it’s not your fault that he’s hiding another child.”
Drake has responded directly to the allegations on a new track, The Heart Part 6, the title a reference to Lamar’s series of singles of the same name. “Drake is not a name that you gon’ see on no sex offender list, easy does it / You mentioning A minor … B sharp and tell the fans: who was it? … I never been with no one underage but now I understand why this the angle that you really mess with / Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I’m too respected / If I was fucking young girls, I promise I’d have been arrested / I’m way too famous for this shit you just suggested”.
He adds: “Only fuckin’ with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I’d never look twice at no teenager” – a reference to a friendship with Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown. Brown spoke of their friendship in 2018 when she was in her mid-teens, saying Drake was “a great friend and a great role model” who gave her dating advice.
As well as a play on Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s relationship, the line refers to Kendrick Lamar’s long-term partner Whitney Alford, about whom Drake makes a series of his own allegations in the diss tracks.
Drake also claimed that he and his team fed Lamar false information regarding the supposed secret daughter. “We plotted for a week and then we fed you the information / A daughter that’s 11 years old, I bet he takes it / We thought about giving a fake name or a destination / But you so thirsty, you not concerned with investigation.”
Drake had previously denied the allegation, saying: “If you or anybody can find proof that I have an 11-year-old daughter, I’ll quit rapping and come work for you.”
Elsewhere among the many insults and allegations shared on the diss tracks, each rapper attacked the other’s artistry and authenticity. Drake said Lamar was “always rapping like you ’bout to get the slaves freed / You just acting like an activist, it’s make-believe,” while Lamar described Drake as “not a colleague, you a fucking coloniser”.
The feud dates back to the 22 March release of the Future and Metro Boomin track Like That, on which guest rapper Lamar boasted of his superiority to Drake – the track reached No 1 in the US. Drake responded with two tracks, Push Ups and Taylor Made Freestyle, the latter featuring AI versions of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, resulting in a warning of legal action from the 2Pac estate – Drake subsequently removed the track from social media. After a brief pause, Lamar returned with Euphoria, which attacked Drake’s artistry and called into question his abilities as a parent. It is currently the third-most streamed track globally on Spotify.