- Drake responded to disses from Kendrick Lamar in a track released Friday called “Taylor Made.”
- The track features AI-generated verses from Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.
- Drake also uses Taylor Swift’s latest album “The Tortured Poet’s Department” to tease Lamar.
If you thought rap’s latest all-out brawl couldn’t get any more convoluted, enter Taylor Swift, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur.
On Friday, an embattled Drake released “Taylor Made,” his second diss track in response to Kendrick Lamar, which mentions the “Fortnight” singer and uses what sounds like an AI-generated Shakur and Snoop Dogg to try to humble Lamar.
It all began on March 22, when rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin released the song “Like That,” which featured a lengthy verse from Lamar that reignited long-standing feuds between both Drake and J. Cole.
In “Like That,” Lamar calls himself, Drake, and Cole “the Big Three” — a callback to the 2023 Drake and Cole song “First Person Shooter,” in which Cole uses the same phrase to describe the trio. Lamar makes it clear in “Like That,” however, that he sets himself apart from them (“It’s just big me”).
Lamar also compares himself to the artist Prince, who “outlived Mike Jack.” Listeners speculated that the line refers to Michael Jackson, who had a rumored rivalry with the “Purple Rain” singer. Drake recently tied Jackson for male solo artist with the most No. 1 songs in Billboard Hot 100 History, at 13, and often references the King of Pop in his music.
Jackson died in 2009 of acute propofol intoxication. Prince died in 2016 of an accidental fentanyl overdose.
The feud, for unclear reasons that have stirred even more internet speculation, prompted other rappers like Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky, and Ye to also issue diss tracks and verses targeting Drake and Cole.
“Taylor Made” starts with a potentially AI-generated Shakur speaking to Lamar — somewhat ironic, considering Drake once spoke out about his own voice being used to create AI music.
The fake Tupac gives Lamar advice on how to properly diss Drake by referencing rumors about the Canadian rapper “liking young girls.” Notably, Lamar and Shakur are often compared to each other by fans, and the late rapper received praise from Lamar on the anniversary of his death.
To top it off, the mic is eventually passed to an AI Snoop Dogg, who tells Lamar that he has “Never shot nobody, never stabbed nobody, never did nothing violent to no one.”
The actual human Snoop Dogg humorously responded to the verse in an Instagram video Friday evening.
“Everybody calling my phone, blowing me up. What the fuck? What happened?” Snoop said in his silk scarf and a Death Row Records jacket. Both Tupac and Snoop previously released records under the label.
Eventually, Drake’s verse comes in. He teases Lamar using Swift’s new album release and suggests that Lamar hasn’t responded to Drake’s other diss track, “Push Ups,” because of Swift and her new album “The Tortured Poet’s Department.” The album was released on Friday.
“But now we gotta wait a fuckin’ week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top/And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve/This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud,” the OVO founder raps in “Taylor Made,” according to lyrics published by Genius. Top possibly refers to Top Dawg Entertainment, Lamar’s old label.
The song could also be a diss about Lamar’s previous collaboration with Swift on “Bad Blood,” suggesting that the 2014 song boosted Lamar’s popularity. Drake sang along to the same song for an Apple Music commercial in 2016.
Representatives for Swift, Snoop Dogg, Drake, and Lamar, and a lawyer for Shakur’s estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
