So much is happening right now. Mere minutes after Drake dropped his “Family Matters” diss song, Kendrick Lamar responded with “Meet the Grahams,” and the battlefield is now decimated.
In his nuclear response, Kendrick goes after Drake by addressing each of his immediate family members in a 6-minute song, where he accuses the Toronto rapper of having a daughter that he’s been hiding from the world, a substance addiction, a gambling addiction, engaging in various sex crimes, and several other dark revelations. The title of the song references the way Dot structures each verse, speaking directly to members of Drake’s family, and it could be a double entendre about how he possibly exposes another child of the Toronto rapper.
“Meet the Grahams” arrived very shortly after Drake accused Dot of domestic violence and infidelity in “Family Matters” on Friday night. The similarity in the subject matter (and titles) of the two songs suggests that Dot might have already known “Family Matters” was going to come out, so he prepared “Meet the Grahams” in advance.
None of the allegations on either side have been verified with concrete evidence or receipts, but before another diss track drops, here’s a full breakdown of everything Kendrick Lamar said about Drake while addressing each of his immediate family members on “Meet The Grahams.”
The Aubrey Verse
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Kendrick saves The Boy for last, addressing his adversary directly as he explains that all of this could have been avoided if Drake never brought up his family throughout their beef.
“Dear Aubrey, I know you probably thinkin' I wanted to crash your party/ But truthfully, I don't have a hatin' bone in my body/ This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game/ But you f*cked up the moment you called out my family's name”
Kendrick opens the track by acknowledging that he stomped on Drake’s diss track “Family Matters” by dropping his response immediately, but clarifies that he didn’t have any real animosity towards him until Drake brought up his wife’s name on “Push Ups” when he rapped, “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney.” That bar sparked rumors that Kendrick’s wife had an affair with his bodyguard, in the same way that Whitney Houston did in The Bodyguard. Dot confirms that once his family was brought up, it stopped being a friendly match between the two.
“You got gamblin' problems, drinkin' problems/ Pill-poppin' and spendin' problems, bad with money, whor*house/ Solicitin' women problems, therapy's a lovely start”
Kendrick succinctly summarizes all of his implications from earlier in the song, calling Drake a drug addict who solicits sex from women and needs therapy. Drake’s “gambling problems” have been discussed by others before, in part because of how often he works with the betting app Stake. The jewelry receipts and pill bottles on the cover artwork also feed into Kendrick’s narrative that Drake has a spending and substance problem.
“You a body shamer, you gon' hide them baby mommas, ain't ya? You embarrassed of 'em, that's not right, that ain't how momma raised us/ Take that mask off, I wanna see what's under them achievements/ Why believe you? You never gave us nothin' to believe in”
On “When To Say When,” Drake rapped, “Baby mama fluke, but I love her for who she is,” and now Kendrick is implying that Drake has even more children with women that he’s ashamed to be around in public. Dot challenges Drake’s integrity and questions the persona he’s built up around himself, thanks to all of his awards and achievements. Then he goes into all of the things he believes Drake has lied about, including his religious beliefs, referring to Drake putting out a massive hit “God’s Plan” before more recently questioning his faith on “Wick Man.”
“You lied about your son, you lied about your daughter, huh/ You lied about them other kids that's out there hopin' that you come/ You lied about the only artist that can offer you some help/ f*ck a rap battle, this a long life battle with yourself”
Kendrick closes the track by planting even more seeds about Drake being a liar and having children that the public doesn’t know about. Then he brings the song full circle by saying that Drake lied about him and his family throughout their back-and-forth, which is what forced Dot’s hand to get extremely personal and say “f*ck a rap battle.”
