Top Dawg CEO says Drake and Kendrick Lamar “battle is over”, but “a win for the culture”
The Top Dawg Entertainment founder and CEO has taken to social media to say the Drake and Kendrick Lamar rap “battle is over”.
Last week (May 10), Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith took to X/Twitter to promote the upcoming TDE 20th anniversary compilation album, while also speaking out about the long and recent feud between Drake and Lamar.
“This battle is over. A win for the culture, while keeping it all on wax,” he tweeted. “Especially when these publications try to make it something else. We proved them wrong. That’s a victory within itself. On another note, it’s time to wrap up this TDE [20-year] anniversary compilation.”
This battle is over. A win for the culture, while keeping it all on wax. Especially when these publications try to make it something else. We proved them wrong. That’s a victory within itself. On another note, it’s time to wrap up this TDE 20yr anniversary compilation.
— TOP DAWG #TDE (@dangerookipawaa) May 11, 2024
Jay Rock also hinted at the first-ever TDE compilation album in an interview last December. He has been a member of the hip-hop supergroup Black Hippy for over 15 years, which was formed by Rock, Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q while signed to TDE.
Rock was asked by the Associated Press if there would be another Black Hippy album, to which he answered: “It’s been 20 years since TDE [has] been in the game. So we are putting together a compilation album, so we should be dropping that at the top of the year. I don’t know how many songs we’re going to put on there, but we got a majority of Black Hippy on that thing.”
Other signees on the Top Dawg Entertainment roster are SZA, Reason, Isaiah Rashad, Doechii, Ab-Soul, Lance Skiiiwalker, Zacari, Ray Vaughn and SiR. Kendrick Lamar left the label in 2022, releasing ‘Mr Morales & The Big Steppers’ before starting his own creative agency, pgLang. None of them have confirmed their involvement but are expected to feature on the upcoming TDE compilation.
In March, Lamar ignited his feud with Drake by calling him out on ‘Like That’ from Metro Boomin and Future’s debut joint album ‘We Don’t Trust You’.
After hearing Lamar mock him on ‘Like That’, Drake fired back with two tracks ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Taylor Made Freestyle‘. On the latter, he included A.I-generated verses from Snoop Dogg and Tupac, causing Tupac’s estate to threaten legal action. The 37-year-old subsequently removed the diss track from streaming. Lamar then responded with the brutal six-minute-long comeback ‘Euphoria‘.
On May 3, Lamar followed up with ‘6:16 in LA’. Hours later, Drake released ‘Family Matters’, and Lamar responded 20 minutes later with ‘Meet The Grahams’. On the latter, the Compton rapper accused Drake of being a sexual predator and likened him to Harvey Weinstein.
The following day, the Pulitzer Prize winner called Drake a “certified paedophile” on ‘Not Like Us’ – which is now the most streamed rap song on Spotify and the highest-charting song from the feud, breaking records and topping the charts. Then on response track ‘The Heart Part 6’, Drake then claimed he had fed Lamar false information which had inspired the song.
After ‘Not Like Us’ was released, a bodyguard was hospitalised after being shot outside of Drake’s Toronto mansion (dubbed The Embassy). In the days following, numerous people were arrested for trespassing on the property. It is unclear if the incidents occurred due to Drake’s feud with Lamar.
Drake asked a Toronto local news helicopter to stop flying over The Embassy overnight. The heightened media presence happened after a third intruder was arrested for attempting to break into his residence.
Elsewhere, Questlove voiced his opinion on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud, saying “Nobody won the war.”
“This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match-level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary – women [and] children ([and] actual facts) be damned. [The] same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘RIP’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip-hop is truly dead.”
Meanwhile, Vince Staples said that Black music “deserves better” than the feud: “There are no labels, basically, that are incentivised to sign Black music and it’s happening in front of our eyes. While Taylor Swift is fighting for people to be able to have streaming money, n***as is on the internet arguing with each other about some rap shit.”
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