Dr. Dre released Compton, his first new album in over ten years, and the Rap Genius nerds are already dissecting every rhyme of every song, with some thinking that Kendrick Lamar fired shots at Drake on Dre’s “Darkside/Gone” and “Deep Water.”

Kendrick Lamar vs Drake

In “Darkside/Gone,” Lamar raps, “But still I got enemies giving me energy, I wanna fight now/ subliminally sent to me all of this hate.” The Los Angeles rapper clearly uses parts of the hook of Drake’s “Energy,” which many have taken as a jab at Drake.

On “Deep Water,” Lamar’s rhymes aren’t clearly addressed to Drake, but the To Pimp A Butterfly creator borrows Drake’s lyrics once again on his verse, rapping “Motherf–ker know I started from the bottom/They liable to bury him, they nominated six to carry him/They worrying him to death, but he’s not vegetarian/The beef is on his breath, inheriting the drama better than/A great white, n—a, this is life in my aquarium.” Here, Lamar hints at Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” and the fact he’s usually called the “6 God” of Toronto.

Lamar is known for calling out Drake and several other rappers in the past, so these rhymes on Dre’s album are far from unexpected. Lamar originally set the tone of competition when he shocked the entire rap game on Big Sean’s “Control”, rapping “This is hip-hop, and them n—as should know what time it is/And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale, Pusha T, Meek Millz, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller/ I got love for you all but I4m tryna murder you n—as,” then adding “What is competition? I’m trying to raise the bar high.”

On the other hand, this new Dre album doesn’t seem aggressive at all. It has a pretty easy-going tone, like a meeting of old and new rappers who remember the good old days.

Drake has yet to comment on Lamar’s raps; he’s been busy exchanging diss tracks in his feud with Meek Mill.

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Quentin Gueroult

Article by Quentin Gueroult

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