Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

Yep, Beefwatch 2024. It's a thing that is still ongoing. It's reached a very interesting place and peak as of right now with the release of Drake's latest contribution to the back and forth. That would be The Heart Part 6, which, as I've already said before, on live, title-wise, is just a genius move on his part to troll Kendrick in that way and down the road, potentially deprive him of the ability of writing a song with the same title, which he will most likely put out his own Heart Part 6 at some point. But now whenever he does eventually drop it, it's not going to be able to hit the streets, as it were, without giving us a reminder of this situation, this moment in time right here.

What I want to do with this article is not necessarily tell you guys who I think is winning or who's had the best bars and the best songs in this back and forth so far. I'm not here to go over any of these tracks line by line. This is instead going to be a larger commentary on the state of this beef right now. It's an observation of the supremely dark and strange place that this is all headed in.

Because here's the thing, while for sure it is true that this beef I think this back and forth with Kendrick and Drake has been a long time coming, has been something that from fans of each artist, I think a lot of people have been looking forward to seeing, mostly because Drake is so huge, Kendrick is so huge, and each of them, respectively, represent two very different sides and vibes within the hip hop sphere. And just them going toe to toe would actually show, artistically, who's actually the best, who's actually the most relevant, who's actually the king of hip hop right now in this day and age, to put it bluntly. And it seemed like at first, that's the direction things were going to go in, with Kendrick asserting on like that with Metro Boomin and Future, that he's the best. There's no big three. It's just big him. Then J. Cole getting involved and dipping out and Drake firing back after that with pushups.

I mean, for sure at some point this beef was going to get personal. Some ugly things about Drake that have been shared and rumored in the music industry for a long time would probably come up. Kendrick usually leads a pretty private lifestyle, but that doesn't mean that there aren't skeletons in his closet. We could be potentially learning new stuff about him as a result of all of this. Even though that stuff getting dragged out was most likely inevitable because that's the stuff that tends to get dragged out in beefs. I still assumed on some level, like ultimately, what this was going to come down to was just a show of talent. Who could write the better bars? Who could write the better song? Who could deliver the most scathing disses?

Right now, this has so moved beyond that to the point where this is not about artistry, this is not about songwriting, this is not about who's more barred up at all. What Kendrick and Drake are currently engrossed in is this vicious and relentless smear campaign against each other, this mutual destruction of each other's reputations. And as a result, accusations are flying by at a million miles an hour in both directions, and we have little to no confirmation on whether or not the vast majority of any of it is even real.

For the fans, just like the artists, it's not even coming down to whether or not one artist is making better songs than the other. It's about whether or not one is slandering the other in a more superior fashion and whose accusations are sticking and landing harder. People seem to be aligning themselves based on their preconceived notions of the other person and buying into certain narratives more easily based on whether or not they tend to like the guy on one side or the guy on the other side.

I mean, let's start with Kendrick here since his accusations against Drake have been some of the most viral on the internet and are going pretty far. He alleges, literally in his latest track, "Not Like Us," that Drake is a downloader of PDF files. For sure, as somebody who has followed Drake's career pretty closely over the past decade plus, I understand where that perception comes from, given his multiple documented interactions, public or otherwise, that he's had with women who haven't quite turned 18 yet. There's also that wild video of him live from years ago where he kissed that 17-year-old girl on stage and continues to have very odd interactions and comments about her even after he learns how old she is.

So again, I understand why these suspicious looks would be thrown Drake's way vis-a-vis this. But as of right now, there are no confirmed cases of Drake doing anything along the lines of being an actual PDF file guy. On "Not Like Us," Kendrick also names members of Drake's team and accuses them of similar things, too, also throwing hardcore drugs into the mix as well. Even with these songs going as viral as they have, we still have no true confirmation that any of this is in fact true. You have to wonder, does Kendrick actually have the receipts to back anything he's saying up, or is he just going off of rumors?

There's, of course, also the allegation, which we will get into in a little bit, that Drake has another child that he's not only just hiding from the public, but apparently not involved in the life of an 11-year-old girl. And while I have seen some various commentators on the Internet talking about a few individuals that might possibly be her at this very moment, there's still no confirmation that that is even true. So as well put together and conceived and compelling as the tracks that Kendrick has made against Drake are, it's important to remember at the end of the day, there's been nothing so far to actually prove if what Kendrick is throwing out there is actually 110% the truth, which, again, even if the songs are good and entertaining and they're going after a guy that maybe a lot of people in rap music have been seeing want to just fall down for a while, if he's not going off the truth, that's a misuse of his influence.

Then on the other side, there's Drake, who has thrown out numerous accusations against Kendrick in his "Family Matters" video and single in this latest one. He's just put out the Heart Part 6 that I just mentioned. It's a laundry list. It's that Kendrick is a fake woke, that he's moved to New York. He's not with his family anymore. He's broken up with Whitney. One of the kids that she's had is actually that of his creative partner and manager, Dave Free. On top of it, Kendrick was physically abusive to his partner, Whitney, at one point.

As damning and as scathing and potentially career-ending as a lot of these accusations are, these are yet to be fully confirmed, too, especially as Drake makes the claim that, 'Oh, yeah, we leaked the information to you, and you ran with it, and now you're embarrassed.' Which in my mind, no goddamn way that's true. If it was my prerogative to trick someone into saying something false about me through another channel or whatever, you would be damn well sure that I would have whatever phone calls or DMs over which that happened, recorded, screenshotted, and then ready the moment that that person lied about me to share to the world.

There's only one way in which that trap, that dupe, actually works. It's when you actually pull the trigger and you show the world that this guy is an idiot who's lying about you and believe false information that you told him. You don't wait days days and days and days down the road to actually spill this information.

Number two, Drake did have a genuine initial, very quick reaction to the allegations that he has an 11-year-old child, and that was in this him an Instagram story where he was like, 'No, I don't have a kid. But wait, tell me about this kid that I have. I don't even know.' Again, obviously, he was paying attention to the whole thing go down. If he actually had that information or if that was his strategy all along, wouldn't that be when you announced to the world, 'Aha, I tricked you!' So, I think he's just saying it now on this track to fucking cope.

But that doesn't mean that maybe other stuff that he's saying couldn't be real. And that doesn't necessarily mean that everything Kendrick is saying is the truth either, because at the end of the day, with Kendrick's lyrical ability, his mastery of songwriting that Drake just doesn't have on the same level, Kendrick could just be a better liar than Drake is.

I mean, that's the thing. Drake could just be really shitty at lying because I don't think he's as conniving as he thinks he is, or maybe some people think he is. How is this man baited into leaking his own DMs with a cookie recipe? It's beyond me, but it happened. And if Drake did actually leak this information to Kendrick, and that was his plan, I guess it would be very Drakesian of him to do that and not actually record any of the proof that you tricked him.

There's also been a viral tweet that people have been going crazy about from Whitney's brother, her own brother, supporting Kendrick in the midst of this beef. I can't imagine that if my sister, per se, were getting attacked violently by the father of her children who was involved in a rat beef, I would be coming out publicly to support him in that beef after what he allegedly did to my sister.

As I get to the close of this article, I would like to mention that there are some signs around and out there that maybe this whole thing is drawing to a close. We recently had TDE hopping on Twitter to say what just happened was a good battle, which I feel like is something you could only say if you have knowledge that the whole thing is done at this point.

Then there's also Drake with his most recent response. The more I digest it, the more it's pretty clear that he's really playing defense on this track, and that's pretty much it. His delivery isn't that fiery or intense across the track either, not like in the way that it was during the first section of "Family Matters." And toward the very last moments of the track, he's just really talking his way through it, and it sounds like he's ready to be just checked out totally and done with this thing. So Drake may, in fact, not even have the will or the desire to engage with this any further, even if Kendrick drops four, five, six more tracks.

Secondly, as much as the internet has changed rat beef and the public's perception of it over the years, I think one thing still holds true, and that's the main goal of the whole for there to just be a winner. If Drake concedes by essentially ignoring Kendrick past this point, he's taken the L. The more this thing focused down on Kendrick and simply Kendrick, the less Drake seemed to care. Maybe due to the big body blows, his reputation was taking over and over and over throughout this thing.

Also maybe because doing this thing, mano a mano, direct with no subliminals to save him or give him the benefit of the doubt, this is a position that Drake is just not comfortable In his music, typically when it comes to disdain he has for others, for beef, generally, he likes to pocket that and hide that into just little singular, quiet mentions. And on top of it, dude loves to paint this image of the entire industry being against him, which is a narrative that's hard to live in when what the internet really wants to see is a one-on-one boxing match.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments in regards to all of this. You guys are the best.

Anthony Fantano, Drake Kendrick, of Forever.