3. “Family Matters”
Release date: May 3, 2024
Billboard Hot 100 peak: No. 7
Many fans and critics have described this feud as a total KO by Lamar, but to be fair, Drake didn’t go down without a fight. “Family Matters,” Drake’s penultimate swing, actually features some of his most impassioned and nimble rapping in years.
The seven-and-a-half-minute song is split into three parts, allowing Drake to run the gamut — taking shots at Lamar, of course, as well as Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, and The Weeknd — while shifting gears between bemused and bloodthirsty.
The former mode works well for Drake, who’s been impossible to shake from the top of the charts for over a decade. It makes sense that his peers, especially those considered to be more “highbrow,” would want to knock him down a few pegs — and why Drake would assume that’s all this is about. I’m particularly fond of the line, “Ayy, Kendrick just opened his mouth / Someone go hand him a Grammy right now.” That’s legitimately funny.
The latter mode is riskier, but Drake makes sure to sell it. He takes aim at Lamar’s private parenting style (“Why you never hold your son and tell him, ‘Say cheese’ / We could have left the kids out of this, don’t blame me”), suggests that one of Lamar’s children was actually fathered by his business partner, Dave Free, and even floats the grisly claim that Lamar abused his fiancée, Whitney Alford. (To date, there are no allegations or reports of domestic violence against Lamar. For her part, Alford attempted to nullify the claim by making a cameo in the “Not Like Us” music video.)
Ultimately, “Family Matters” is a formidable diss track that could’ve posed a real threat had Drake been facing a lesser opponent.
However, Lamar dropped “Meet the Grahams” mere minutes later, followed closely by “Not Like Us,” all but knocking “Family Matters” off the scoreboard.
It’s also worth noting that, in just a few months, several lines in “Family Matters” aged quite poorly — especially after Drake took legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group, seemingly as a last-ditch attempt to damage Lamar’s credibility and block “Not Like Us” from getting more spins. Uh, Drake, what happened to “a cease-and-desist is for hoes”?
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