The long-simmering battle between hip-hop heavyweights Drake and Kendrick Lamar escalated dramatically over the weekend. With a rapid-fire volley of deeply personal diss tracks, the feud has now left the realm of playful, mutually beneficial name-calling, and crashed, jarringly, somewhere between a blood vendetta and an actual combat zone. The only thing heavier than the grave accusations the two have begun hurling in each other’s direction are the teeth-rattling bass lines undergirding them, courtesy of top producers like DJ Mustard and, um, frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff.

This Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud has become so monumental—and so monumentally online—that even third-party reaction videos to the new songs are earning YouTube views in the millions. It’s not just the personal animosity or level of outside talent that have heightened, though, making this tête-à-tête unique in the 40-year history of rap beefs, dating back to the Roxanne Wars of the 1980s. It’s also the use of modern technology in the making and distribution of diss tracks that has vastly evolved—even just since the last major rap battle Drake was involved in, nine years ago.

In that short-lived, highly publicized skirmish, against rapper Meek Mill, the most sophisticated tech involved was probably the editing software used to make an SNL parody of it, starring Drake himself. A lot has changed since 2015, though, when the ability to stay current on a rap battle through Twitter was still relatively new. Drake’s current tour of duty in verbal warfare now includes streaming redactions, AI vocal manipulation, and beat-fansourcing. It’s been a wild, thoroughly modern ride so far, and considering the pace of things lately, it appears far from over.

MIGHT DELETE LATER

It all started in late March, with the song “Like That,” a collaboration between rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin. The punchy track features a guest-verse from Pulitzer Prize-winner Lamar, who comes across mildly annoyed to have even been mentioned as a peer to Drake and rapper J. Cole in a song the two put out last October. (LeBron James can apparently relate to Lamar’s exact frustration, as evidenced by a viral TikTok.)

Because the bad blood between Lamar and Drake goes back over a decade, the countdown clock on the latter’s response started ticking right away. So, it came as something of a surprise among aficionados when J. Cole ended up responding first, with a song called “7-Minute Drill” on his early-April mixtape, Might Delete Later. What was even more surprising, though, is what happened next.

To say that “7-Minute Drill” was poorly received would be too generous. Music bible Pitchfork characterized the disses on the song as “like your camp counselor pulling you to the side, putting their hand on your shoulder, and advising you to stop belly-flopping in the pool or else you might get hurt.” Not only had Cole submitted a tepid response out into the world, he’d now have to weather whatever unholy thunderstorm from Lamar the song incurred. He was worse off than if he’d said nothing at all. Unable to go back in time and prevent himself from releasing “7-Minute Drill,” he did the next best thing—publicly apologizing to Lamar and scrubbing the song from all streaming services.

It was an unprecedented move. If rapper Canibus had regretted putting out the LL Cool J diss track “Second Round K.O.” back in 1998, he’d have had to travel around the country, burning copies at radio stations. By deleting the track from circulation, though, Cole not only saved himself almost certain future embarrassment, he also made Might Delete Later perhaps the most accurately titled mixtape of all time.

ENTER TUPAC’S GHOST

Lamar is no stranger to using AI trickery in his work. The video for his 2022 song, “The Heart Part 5,” features the rapper’s face morphing into that of Will Smith, Kanye West, O.J. Simpson, and others, through deepfake magic. Still, Lamar was probably taken aback on April 19 when Drake released his second song of the battle, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which featured a guest verse from the AI-generated ghost of Tupac Shakur. A verse from an AI-generated Snoop Dogg also appears on the track, for reasons no one seems to understand. (Even Snoop Dogg himself appeared befuddled.) The use of AI to resurrect dead artists, or reap unlicensed work from the living ones, has proven controversial recently. This is perhaps the only instance so far, though, of a major artist deploying that tech to clone other major artists.

Drake may have got the idea to use AI in the battle after his voice was cloned and added to a heavily circulated Ice Spice song last year. Of course, his irritated reaction to that incident likely prepared him for how Shakur’s estate would respond once Drake’s song dropped. Shakur’s estate promptly threatened legal action and on April 26, “Taylor Made Freestyle” became the second diss track to ever be removed from streaming services in the middle of an ongoing rap battle.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

If using the voice of one of the most beloved rappers of all time to taunt an opponent sounds ice-cold, the situation went subzero soon after. Between April 30 and the first few days of May, Lamar and Drake released a total of six new tracks (four from Lamar, two from Drake), filled with character-assassinating accusations about each other’s families, loyalties, and proclivities. It was as uncomfortable to witness for music lovers as it was difficult to turn away from. (Dua Lipa released her wildly anticipated third album during this time, and it was all too easy to not be made aware of it.)

On Sunday May 5, the fans who had been following along the whole time got an unlikely invitation to get in on the action.

Metro Boomin, who produced the song with Lamar that ignited the whole feud, posted a vocal-free beat on X and announced: “best verse over this gets a free beat.” The track is titled “BBL Drizzy,” a reference to Drake’s cosmetic surgery allegations. (Adding another AI wrinkle to the saga, it samples an AI-generated “old” soul number with the same title.) Metro Boomin wasn’t trying to surface up-and-comers with this offering, though, like a hip-hop version of America’s Got Talent. By asking participants to hashtag their uploaded verses with a Drake-insulting hashtag, he was recruiting new soldiers. Now it’s not just Lamar landing blows on his opponent, but a flurry of talented welterweights doing damage as well.

Not only has this battle royale done wonders for the rappers at its center—Lamar’s “Not Like Us” just had the biggest streaming day for a hip-hop song in 2024—it’s also inspired a secondary wave of creativity, with parodies from Saturday Night Live, comedian Demi Adejuyigbe, and The Onion. As much as technology has helped propel the feud into a massive cultural moment, what’s undeniably driving it is infectious, deeply human creativity. Well, that, and the kind of verbal dexterity even an AI-generated Tupac’s ghost seems incapable of. (For now, anyway.)