Kendrick Lamar and Drake (aka Aubrey Graham), two of the biggest active hip hop artists and former collaborators, are seriously beefing in a major way that hasn't been seen since Tupac vs Biggie. Last October, Drake dropped a track, First Person Shooter, where his collaborator J Cole named the two of them and Kendrick as "the big three". Kendrick, who has a competitive streak, took umbrage at being put on the same level as the other two and replied in Like That "it's just big me". What might've started as a somewhat professional competition has rapidly gone nuclear since Kendrick took shots at Drake's Blackness, fitness as a parent, and masculinity in his track titled "euphoria" and Drake responded with allegations of domestic abuse, infidelity, and cuckoldry in Family Matters. As of the latest, Kendrick has accused Drake of hiding a 2nd child and being a sexual predator of underaged girls.

For those of you with teenage or young adult children, I can almost guarantee they are paying attention to this. Be warned the songs linked do contain liberal use of the n-word, casual misogyny, glorification of violence, etc (aka all the stuff rap critics talk about). Some additional background/details:

• Drake was shamed into recognizing a son he had with an adult entertainer in a diss by Pusha T in 2018
• Drake's initial response to Like That was Push Ups, which had what could be interpreted as a reference to Kendrick's long time fiancé. He rapidly followed up without waiting for a response with Taylor Made Freestyle, which was almost jocular in tone and pulled after Tupac's estate threatened to sue over unauthorized use of AI-generated vocals in his style.
• After releasing euphoria, Kendrick took a page from Drake's book and shot off a 2nd diss track, 6:16 in LA.
• Drake replied with Family Matters within a day, to which Kendrick fired back within minutes with meet the grahams where he implies an unrecognized daughter of Drake's. It's likely both circles are leaking like sieves and had responses prepared.
• The latest from Kendrick, Not Like Us, is deeply personal in its rancor and makes life ruining accusations. The cover image is of Drake's house on Citizen App, filled with labels of child predators. People have been shot for less.

If you, like me, are only casually familiar with the hiphop world, you can delve into the meanings of the songs on Genius. I also only now found an NPR article on this, although it came out before things really escalated and became serious.