Yesterday (April 19), Drake officially released new song “Push Ups,” his response to Kendrick Lamar's sharp verse on the chart-topper “Like That.” He followed that up with another Lamar taunt, “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The track, shared on social media, opens with lyrics that sound like 2Pac and Snoop Dogg. A third verse comes from Drake with no obvious AI vocal manipulation. Find “Taylor Made Freestyle” at X.
In the opening verse, AI 2Pac urges Kendrick Lamar to respond to Drake. “Kendrick, we need you, the savior of the West Coast/Writing your name into some hip-hop history,” the voice raps. “Fuck that light Canadian skin, Dot/We need a no-debate win on the West Coast, man.”
AI Snoop Dogg goes on to question Lamar's street credentials while encouraging him to make out with Drake: “I know you never been to jail or wore overalls and shower shoes/Never shot nobody, never stabbed nobody/Never done nothing violent to no one, it's the houses that make you strong/But still, you gotta show this fucking owl who's boss in the west/Now it's time to really make a power move.”
To close out the song, Drake disses Lamar more and also praises Taylor Swift, Lamar's “Bad Blood” collaborator who released the massive double album. Section The tortured poets: The Anthology hours before Drake's “Push Ups”: “But now we gotta wait a fucking week 'cause Taylor Swift is your new Top/And if she's gonna drop, she gotta approve.” He later adds, “Yeah, shout out Taylor Swift/Biggest gangster in the music game right now/You know, I moved my album when it dropped.”
Drake's mention of 2Pac is reminiscent of the closing track on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, “Mortal Man.” In this song, Lamar used archival audio of 2Pac to chat with the late California rapper. Beyond the album, Lamar has long expressed his admiration for 2Pac, writing to him in 2015, “The people you touched in that little intersection changed lives forever.”
And Drake's use of AI Snoop Dogg's vocals has already received a response from the real, live Snoop Dogg. The Long Beach artist, who also appeared in To Pimp a Butterfly, on “Institutionalized,” acknowledged “Taylor Made Freestyle” in a video he posted on social media. “What did they do; When? How? Are you sure?” he asks. “Have a good night.”
Kendrick Lamar reignited a feud with Drake with a barbed verse on Metro Boomin and Future's “Like That.” The track prompted a response from J. Cole, another target on the track, who shared his own “7 Minute Drill.” Cole quickly distanced himself from the beef, publicly apologizing for the track and pulling it from digital streaming platforms.
