The Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is still a very hot topic of conversation in the hip-hop world, even if it's more from a retrospective. For example, a lot of folks are curious as to how the "numbers" battle ended up between both mainstream juggernauts, and while "Not Like Us" has gotten a lot of the love in this regard, both artists certainly impressed. Moreover, a new graphic surfaced showing how The Boy and K.Dot's monthly listeners on Spotify changed throughout this battle. As of May 27, 2024, Kendrick's Spotify listeners rose from about 50 million to 77.11 million, whereas Drizzy's been comfortably at around 83 million all year.
In addition, this information from HipHopNMore's Navjosh via Chartmetric also includes breakdowns of each streamable diss track in the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, not including IG-only or deleted releases like "Taylor Made Freestyle," the "Buried Alive" reimagining, "6:16 In LA," or J. Cole's "7 Minute Drill." The graphic compares the YouTube and Spotify streams for each song as of May 28, and if you want to count "First Person Shooter," that still remains the most overall streamed song here. However, "Like That" is a few million behind, and "Not Like Us" already reached two-thirds of the For All The Dogs cut's streams on Spotify and surpassed them on YouTube, so we'll see how this all evolves.
Kendrick Lamar & Drake's Diss Streams Compared
Perhaps the most interesting part about these numbers is that Drake and Kendrick Lamar were much closer in the song-for-song competition than fans on either side probably give their opponent credit for. For example, the double-drop of "Family Matters" and "Meet The Grahams" sees each song with pretty much the same number of streams, with Aubrey Graham slightly ahead. While he may have more Spotify listeners and definitely more streams overall than Kendrick, the Compton lyricist's diss tracks are out-streaming his rival's own. If you total all the YouTube and Spotify numbers for all these applicable diss tracks, Mr. Morale beats the 6ix God 883 million to 591.1 million.
Meanwhile, there are some rumors that this isn't the end of the battle. However, we'd be more inclined to believe that there will only be subliminals from here on out unless someone fires yet again. With all the wildness of 2024 so far, who's to say what happens? But one thing's for sure: no matter the course of the next few months, Kendrick Lamar and Drake are making some big bags this year.
About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output. Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond. Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C. His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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