Kendrick Lamar escalates Drake beef at Grand National Tour

Kendrick Lamar wasted no time in trying to get under Drake’s skin at the opening night of his Grand National Tour.

The tour is co-headlined by Lamar and SZA and was kicked off on Saturday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The two singers collaborated on the song Luther, the third single of Lamar’s Grammy-winning album, GNX.

Lamar’s fans expected him to sing Not Like Us, as it is part of the album he is set to promote on the tour.

However, the 37-year-old took it to the next level when he made fun of Drake’s “drop, drop, drop” verse as part of a pre-recorded skit right before his infamous diss track.

The jab came after Drake updated his ongoing federal defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG).

The amended filing now also alleges that Lamar’s performance in the Super Bowl 59 halftime show damaged Drake's reputation.

The legal development triggered an ugly back-and-forth between Drake’s legal team and UMG, with the record label giving a stern warning to the God’s Plan rapper: “As the old saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’”

To which a spokesperson for Drake responded, “UMG said, ‘be careful what you ask for,’ Drake knows exactly what he asked for: the truth and accountability.”

When did the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud begin?

The highly publicised rivalry between Drake and Lamar originally began in 2013 when the Canadian rapper responded to the Compton native’s verse on the track Control by Big Sean.

After years of subtle jabs, the feud became mainstream in 2023 when J. Cole collaborated with Drake on First Person Shooter.

In the song, Cole claimed that he, Drake, and Lamar are the “big three” rappers of contemporary hip-hop, a notion that was dismissed by Lamar, who proclaimed in Like That that it is “just big me.”

The beef escalated in 2024 when the two artists traded insults in diss tracks such as Family Matters and Meet The Grahams.

RELATED: Watch: Kendrick Lamar performs ‘Not Like Us’ despite Drake’s lawsuit