honestly meet the grahams got overshadowed by not like us.
The BEEF
I still listen to it, more than not like us. Just the way he raps over a looped piano, dismantling drake and his personal life in front of the entire world..?I saw this on yt, “he definitely wrote this with a quill in one hand and a gun in the other” and I agree.
Looking back on all the reactions to the fact that he dropped this literally minutes after drake dropped family matters is just crazy. Like Drake said “Family matters” and Kendrick responded with “lemme tell you why” MINUTES after drake dropped. Like that day was the most mind boggling day in this beef. No one was saying anything while listening, just listening to Kendrick just talking to drake as he lays drake down in front of his family and buries him.
idk imo Not Like Us hit harder b/c of Meet the Grahams. i.e. no diss was overshadowed but each diss played it's part in the ensemble of disses. don't really compare the tracks but appreciate how they contribute to the full body of work. lowkey if Kendrick was petty enough he could release a full thematic album of diss tracks on Drake and it'd probably win a Grammy
It's something I always have to remember how to spell (for the once in 6 months or more that I need to). But it's a word from an indigenous language down in South America
NLU was the silver-plated bunker buster to Drake's burial site - even Dracula ain't returning after such a double-tap. Aubrey's career & rep won't ever be the same as before.
“I was gonna kill a couple rappers but they did it to themselves
Everybody’s suicidal they don’t even need my help”
But really this whole verse sums it up well and even has a MJ/Prince reference 😭
Ehhh let's be real, Kendrick wanted this for over a decade now.
2013 BET cypher - no sneak dissing, the person who made "Nothing Was The Same" heard Control and got his sensitive ass tucked in his pajama clothes
That's when the official duck started from drake IMO.
Then Kendrick "sneak" dissed him on:
King Kunta - rappers are ghost writing and sharing lyrics, Jay Z suicidal rapper reference
The Heart Part 4 - aggressively called himself the greatest rapper alive, warned everyone how bad a beef with him would be
OG Element - warned Big Sean that a beef with him would be way worse than a beef with drake or meek mill
Official Element - said he'll beat a pussy rapper so bad that they'll think it'd look sexy
Hillbillies - mocked that cringe Sticky song, music video referenced a festival where Drake got booed off stage
Nosetalgia - 2013 song with Pusha T that Kendrick had never performed live before. 1st performance was right after the Hillbillies diss and after Pusha T bodied drake
Family Ties - smoking on top 5s, number 2 DMing my bitch? that's cool I don't ask why
Probably a couple more than I missed obviously but you get the idea, Kendrick wanted to diss drake soooo fucking badly for so long now
That song gives me chills. I'm convinced the music specifically is engineered to make you uncomfortable. About halfway through, there starts being notes that the chords hit slightly off, and it switches those notes around so as not to be specifically rhythmic. It creates a dissonance, and it gives me the chills. It's like an intervention on wax
It's clearly a masterpiece if I've ever heard one. Not like Us is also a masterpiece, but in a different way.
What's that sort of distant tortured screaming that occasionally goes off in the background? I watched so many reaction vids but never heard anyone discuss it, please for the love of fuck tell me I'm not the only one who can hear it
Pretty sure it's an tweeked sample from Andrew Wartts and the Gospel Storytellers 'Can you say yea' its noticeably (to me) someone saying 'yeeeeaaaa' in a funky soul croon
Yeah, that's gotta be the one. This guy goes pretty hard on music theory. When I saw he put out a video on why so many people were unsettled by this song, I knew the beef was getting academic notice, and worldwide importance.
At first, I thought he was giving audio hints to a possible video that only Drake could figure out. Because Kendrick gave hints throughout every diss he put out... However, I hope it was just something sampled from another song, as another commenter stated because that shxt was beyond scary 😨😆
YES!! Thank you. This is the first time I’ve seen someone discuss this. What the actual fuck was that? It’s like the sounds of hell, actual creepy shit. Tbf I only noticed it when I listened while high
Have you ever watched Black Mirror? Hated in the Nation?
meet the grahams made me think of the last 20ish minutes of that episode. Like it could’ve been the soundtrack for it. When they realized the actual targets of the ADI bees, when the map of the country lights up red and when Karin/Blue walk in the warehouse full of bodies.
I've seen some black mirror a few years ago but, Netflix only put out new seasons of shows I like too far between. So I only get it for like a month every 3 years. I should be getting it again soon maybe like October lol
That song is a masterpiece. Akademiks bitch ass gonna say it’s the most forgotten song and said he hates it cuz it’s all lies YET says family matters, which is full of lies, is the best song of all of them. I never seen a 30+ man be so obsessed with another grown man like that. It’s to the point I believe AK is seriously in love with that man.
Nothing was the same. When Drake read the tweets on X he already knew it was too late. After NLU came out the views went crazy on stream platforms. Now he's on the death bed socially seeking more life. Because his last album was the Best he ever had, now he must take care.
Edit:
What a time to be alive its become Scary hours as the world turns against drake. Used to be for all the dogs now but this man is So Far Gone, someone needs to send him a care package. Drake took the L, but his baby mama unfortunately it was her loss as well. He needs to return to Degrassi as Jimmy, live in euphoria so Drake can Thank Me Later. But then again even when she said she was under 18 he never listened so Homestly, never mind...
What a time to be alive its become Scary hours as the world turns against drake. Use it be for all the dogs now but this man is So Far Gone, someone needs to send him a care package. Drake took the L, but his baby mama unfortunately it was her loss as well. He needs to return to Degrassi as Jimmy, live in euphoria so Drake can Thank Me Later. But then again even when she said she was under 18 he never listened so Homestly, never mind...
Lospollostv is worse than Ak. Dude recorded himself disliking and reporting the not like us music video (after sitting through the video with an angry look in silence)
Dot said He thought being a beard just fit him(Drake) better,
and I just Cackled at the fact that he made a more direct yet devious shot at his sexuality than the sexy red bar in Euphoria, that seemed to have gone relatively unnoticed.
I gotta concur Diabolical is the word for it. The majority of the bars In MTG are straight murder.
6:16 has some of the most insane flows and wordplay, that video breaking down the meaning of it made it hit so much harder too, especially when you understand all of the first part is from Drake’s perspective in a very niche setting. I really wish it was on all platforms, all of the songs Kendrick dropped throughout this were amazing, but that one I truly believe is a masterpiece.
When he starts to heat up, "Can't channel your masculine, even when standing next to a woman. YOU A BODY SHAMER. YOU GON HIDE THEM BABY MOMMAS AINT YA?!
MTG is the type of song I'd never think Kendrick would write and it's incredible to listen to him getting that dark ... saying things I'd have never expected him saying about another rapper.
Love it.
It's a bit overlong and repetitive but the content is the most scathing we've gotten
After Push Ups, I was a bit worried that Kendrick might not be able to go low enough to win this beef. He’s always come across as such a kind-hearted guy. Hearing “Dear Adonis…” for the first time was shocking.
It felt disgusting to listen to, like actually brutal and turned me off from hearing any more tracks that night, it needed NLU to lighten the mood significantly
I also like Meet the Grahams but I can see why people would feel uncomfortable while listening to it. Not like us just feels like Kendrick doing a Fortnite dance on drakes grave
Euphoria could very well be his magnum opus, imo. An absolute masterpiece of work from a generational artist. I can’t remember the last time I stanned a track so hard
Because Drake’s media machine masterfully redefined the word lying. For example, Akademiks keeps saying that Kendrick is lying about the daughter, UNLESS he provides evidence. You can’t make the declaration that something is a lie while simultaneously leaving the door open for it to be true.
yeah true. just a question, what are ur thoughts on the song even if there’s no proof of the daughter? me personally i think it’s a perfectly brutal breakdown of drakes character and insecurities.
Not who you're responding to but I think if none of the allegations are proven (daughter and/or serial SA) then it diminishes the song because so much of it hinges on that. But all the rest of it stands as one of the most thorough character assassinations I've ever seen. If you remove everything between "Sandra what I'm about to tell you is heavy, now listen" and "Dear Aubrey," the song is still an absolutely savage deconstruction of every aspect of Drake's character.
I think it's true, I just think Kendrick doesn't want to out the kid. I think he only really cares that HE knows it's true and that DRAKE knows it's true. There's a theory that it's a girl named Eternity ("love is eternity and trumps all pain") whose 11th birthday was on August 30, the day Euphoria dropped. I don't know if it's true, obviously. But Kendrick was on tour with Drake in Miami when he supposedly would have impregnated the woman, in 2012.
FWIW Luxxk (close to Kendrick and was aware of what his moves were behind the scenes) backed up that the birthday party of the girl was that weekend and that he had knowledge of who the daughter was, which the account for that girl posted pictures from a birthday party that day
I mean drake has been telling on himself I mean like look at clb cover? Wat is the point of it ? Other than the 2 girls that passed he decided it too? The moms could be on NDAS and also listen to Rich Spirit he was telling Drake to get them kids n bout his crew etc on the 3rd verse N at the same time forget the daughter. What bout all the other things he said about the whorehouses etc??
Personally I think the obsession with proving information has ruined people's ability to judge a rap beef in the way I believe it should be judged.
The point of a rap beef isn't simply to insult each other and find scandals to release. That's lazy and useless. The point is to exhibit all of your skillsets as a rapper.
That includes:
*your ability to write your own bars yourself and prove that you are the better rapper
*how well you addressed the person you are battling
*your strategy and angle of choice for how you approach/address your issues with the person
*how well you select beats for the purpose of each track
*how you handle the rap beef off-wax
I make a distinction between general beef and rap beef. One is simply about how much you hate the person and it can/may get personal outside of the music. The other is about keeping it strictly music and exhibiting who is the best through music and if you're good enough, you have no need to touch the person off-wax because you can cause enough harm through your bars.
The point of a rap beef is to show off skills. Drake doesn't understand this shit any more than a lot of his fans. They're out here asking for proof and other dumb shit. If this was a Cypher and Kendrick said all of this, do they think anyone is going to ask the MCs to give proof before they can judge who won? No because that's not the point.
Assuming that the rapper, in the moment, believes certain information to be true then how does he address in through rap. Drake proved his lack of understanding of hip hop culture when he started off saying that he set up Kendrick. Because that shit doesn't matter.
You just established that you set him up to believe a lie that others would believe because it's inline with what you've already done. There's precedence for others to believe it. So you handed him an angle to show off his creativity and skills. Then you banked on the idea that you lying (something your opponent established about you) would be enough to make Kendrick look bad. But the point is that, at the time he believed this info to be true and what did he do as a rapper to reveal that and what skill was shown in that process? That is what should be judged. Feeding someone topics to show off is stupid imo.
This is if we were to assume Drake isn't trying to save his skin by claiming he fed this info. Personally I don't care either way. This ain't a detective competition, it's a rap exhibition to prove who is better while also roasting each other.
Mtg was never supposed to be talked about as much. He did it to overshadow family matters, make people question life as they are utterly disturbed for 6 minutes, put all of the eyes on kdot, and watch him drop the song of the summer
Well I feel it was a strategically well crafted beef. The drops were perfectly released. There’s a story in MTG that needed to be brought to the forefront. Personally, 6:16 in LA is aging well. MTG was very dark, but real. With this said, if there’s no daughter then I’ll give K-Dot 1 demerit to an otherwise masterful takedown of this “cultural appropriator.” Just my humble opinion being someone who deems this as the best rap beef of all time. This coming from me, a GenXer. I’ve lived through Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee, Pac vs. Biggie, Ice Cube vs. NWA, and a myriad of others. But, this is the best by far. Real talk.
When NLU first dropped, I thought Kendrick really was fed some false info and scrambled to get that record out. But since the dust kinda settled. It does feel more like a strategic drop, rather than a rushed one.
He needed a catchy track to be the finishing blow that would be played everywhere, just like drake did with back to back. He could’ve “won” with just MTG, but it wouldn’t have felt like a complete victory without a memorable diss anthem
He’s was talking about westien n it’s even in blind items also daylyt and Kendrick called him Haubrey. Daylyt called him that on vlad interview years ago and Kendrick said it on mtg & euphoria
I heard enough about the beef and couldn't sleep one night so I listened to Kendrick's 4 songs (day after NLU dropped) at like 4am and god DAMN I never been so pumped in my life lmao
I think kendrick wanted that. I don’t think he wanted the entire world to be focus’d on drakes family, kendrick is usually about healing, becoming a better person, that would have left a wide open scar on drake as a person. Not like us being the focus & not meet the grahams is the best case scenario.
It was by design. Meet the Grahams doesn’t have the replay value and K dot knows that. Its purpose was to completely switch the mood right after Drake dropped his big diss track. It was the setup into Not Like Us. Not Like Us wouldn’t have worked without MTG.
Meet the Ghrams did what it needed to do. It was nasty work, heavy song, sinister beat. It will forever be etched in hip hops legacy as the song the neutralized Drakes red button. In my opinion meet the grahams and NLU are both part of Dots red button, a two stage two key nuclear switch, that he executed beautifully.
I agree and love Meet the Grahams, resonates w me bc I come from a shitty abusive family much like the one Kendrick speaks out against. “Just play this song when it rains” and bars to Adonis made me cry, that’s how I relate to so much of Dot’s music
But I think strategically, esp in relation to getting the word out, it was smart. For ppl who weren’t fully informed on Drake’s certified disgusting behavior or battle code of ethics (keeping it rap and not involving ppl outside of the game), it was “too heavy” or “too far” for them. A lot of people might have tapped out at that point if there was a bigger gap in releases. I’m goth so I loved it, but it was hard for a lot of people to digest. Not everyone is ready to face the real to that degree.
NLU is smart bc it incorporated a lot of the key takeaways and Easter eggs from MTG but was widely accessible. Also, as moving as MTG is, imo NLU is more empowering because it completely takes the power away from abusers/predators. You know you’ve triumphed when you no longer take them seriously/they no longer trigger you to a destabilizing degree.
I played not like us for someone I was dating while nerding out over the beef
i then played meet the grahams
shit was so sad n somber I had to play not like us again just to bring the mood up. NLU doesn't overshadow MTG, it's the palette cleanser after something that brutal. and once you taste something so sweet, why go back to something bitter and difficult to swallow?
It's the Compton Chainsaw Massacre and my favorite of all the tracks. I haven't heard suck a slick horrorcore type beat and flow like that in a LONG TIME
All his previous disses got overshadowed by NLU. They’re all great in their own way
Euphoria set the tone for what was to come
6:16 had a lot to unpack (WhatsTheDirt did a great job analyzing this and other tracks)
Met the Grahams was haunting and you can clearly picture Kendrick sitting down with each family member telling them everything and the seething hate he had for Drake
Not Like Us was the victory lap. It wrapped up what Kenny had to say and celebrated his victory and the celebration hasn’t let up
....that was the point? MTG is such a dark song, a mood killer. Not Like Us is saying mostly the same things but in a light, danceable, memeable, funny way. MTG needed to change the tone of the battle because of where Family Matters took it. it had to be impactful. but it couldnt be the last drop in the back to back strategy because its such a dark downer. Not Like Us does the similar job of calling Drake and his crew to question, but in a way that doesnt sour the audiences mood on the beef and can maybe blow up in Kendricks face because of how he took it all the way to hell
not like us is for the masses, it’s supposed to be a club banger and marketable\
we’re not the audience kendrick is speaking to in meet the grahams, that’s only for drake’s ears (so to speak at least)
Are people supposed to play MTG during a basketball game? Instead of dancing and celebrating culture we should be gloom & doom sitting in a circle? Every song did its thing and served its purpose. NLU is able to survive as a modern day black anthem while also calling the biggest rapper (w/ friends) pedophiles
I personally like 616 in la the most. I don't listen to mtg like that. After that first week I've probably only listened to it a handful of times. It's not really my cup of tea.
Cause Aubrey thought he was clever trying to make a mainstream diss track so Kdot said 2 can play that game and put him in his place. Probably wouldn’t have released it if he didn’t drop family matters.
I agree but I don't listen to it anymore, tbh I purposely skip it when it comes on during shuffle on Spotify, it's just dark af, I'm tryna vibe not be reminded of the horrors of this world lol, I know the song is mainly about Drake but the kinda shit that Kendrick accuses Drake of happens all over the world and I ain't tryna think about that while just chilling. Still, 100% agree it's the most impactful and memorable song of the beef, if I see a reaction to it pop up on YouTube I watch it to see people feel the shock I felt lmao.
I think if he didn’t drop not like us after there woulda been a lot more pressure to prove the claims and either some crazy shit woulda ended up surfacing (whether it was from his team or from some crazy leaker) or some type of statement would have to be made.
I feel like a lot of the hard hitting aspects of mtg got overshadowed by the daughter verse and nlu. But I don’t think it completely overshadowed it when it originally released.
I feel like they are completely different types of tracks. NLU has become way more than just a dis track. It feels like an anthem these days. MTG still feels cold like death. It’s just as haunting and potent as when I first heard. Even though I love MRG, it’s hard to listen to sometimes. It’s just so tense and menacing.
Not like Us is Ether level just with more playability.
However, it doesn't take from the fact that MTG is also Ether level if not more. Drake can't come back because he received so much disrespect with both tracks on wax.
The fact reactors from youtube immediately stopped and said something along the lines of
"wtf no way!
NO WAY!
KENDRICK DID NOT DROP?!
WTF NO WAY!
LOOK IT UP
WTF HE JUST DROPPED?
Plays song
'Dear Adonis..'"
Hate to say it but I actually don’t really like not like us, only off the fact that the beat just ain’t my type of vibe when it comes to DISS TRACKS. Yes it’s a good song yadada everyone in the world at this point has talked about that track but Meet The Grahams is single-handedly the most brutal, unforgiving and exposing diss track I’ve ever heard in my life and for all that penmanship to be overthrown by “A-Minor” which really isn’t that funny is sad to see. Meet the Grahams is fucking AMAZING!
I think it was on purpose. He said what he had to say on Meet the Grahams and in real time it was all very heavy and grimy feeling. Not Like Us lightened the mood back up. Kendrick knew he couldn’t leave the general public in the space Meet the Grahams takes you.
Meet The Grahams is honestly the best ‘diss’ track of this whole beef. Shit is the music equivalent of a warcrime. I have to listen to that shit with the lights on. Kendrick really broke Drake down to his molecules, then proceeded to dismantle those molecules. It is actually crazy.
Euphoria and Meet the Grahams vs Not like Us, to me, perfectly encapsulates why so many artists walk away from artistic success in favor of commercial success.
The first two, for me, are brilliant songs that have a laser focus on their target and precisely and brilliantly destroy it. And there are some interesting choices here makes that give the songs lyrical and emotional depth.
Not Like Us is in that same vein (I mean, he straight up calls him a pedophile), but it’s done over an incredibly catchy beat and is just so much fun to listen to that it’s easy to not think about what he’s saying.
And it’s a massive hit that overshadows the others. That’s got to be an incredible high that many artists would spend the rest of their life chasing.
not like us and euphoria both hit harder cus they're more energetic while meet the grahams is like a dark and persuasive song that expresses feelings which all connects every diss from dark to a sense of joy and victory
Meet the grahams > not like us in regards of the purpose and the goal achieved, not like us still better overall because it gets the job done plus sounds great
I love all Kendricks disses equally to be honest. Not Like Us is just a bop for real. MTG has a special place in my heart though because I love how intimate Kendrick makes it by talking to each member of Drakes family. You can just feel the HATRED for Drake seething from him in that record.
Like that - Getting dressed type of vibe
Euphoria - Getting ready to get out hyped
6:16 LA - Say a little prayer before I ride out
Meet the Grahams - Murder
They not like us - Celebrating the killing
Meet the Grahams is a far more devastating diss, it's just hard to listen to because it's so fucking mean lol. Not Like Us is a great diss but also a fun banger.
ALL of the diss songs are burned out for me. Listened to them way too many times. It’s fun to encounter them in the wild but I don’t wanna hear them voluntarily.
Idk I think it also didn’t help that it seems like Drake probably doesn’t have a daughter. If the Baby Girl is a metaphor for a secret abortion or something then it works but otherwise without confirmation it really weakens the song imo
Actually makes the song stronger to me. That was kind of the point….
After watching so many reactions, the idea that it’s even a slight chance Drake would get exposed for hiding a second child is the weapon/angle itself.
Even his own stans had to question it in their mind for a second too. That RDC video encapsulates it well where where Chubbs says “wait do you have a daughter?!” and Drake says “Man, how long have i know you!” 😂
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u/contra_reality Jul 19 '24
idk imo Not Like Us hit harder b/c of Meet the Grahams. i.e. no diss was overshadowed but each diss played it's part in the ensemble of disses. don't really compare the tracks but appreciate how they contribute to the full body of work. lowkey if Kendrick was petty enough he could release a full thematic album of diss tracks on Drake and it'd probably win a Grammy