Kendrick Lamar Creeps Up On Drake's Spotify Dominance As Diss Tracks Continue To Dominate The Conversation

BYGabriel Bras Nevares6.9K Views
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Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 2 - Day 3
INDIO, CA - APRIL 23: Kendrick Lamar performs on the Coachella Stage during day 3 (Weekend 2) of the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 23, 2017 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)
Neither artist's commercial dominance has been all that surprising during their beef, but seeing it visually is another thing.

The Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is still a very hot topic of conversation in the hip-hop world, even if it's more from a retrospective. For example, a lot of folks are curious as to how the "numbers" battle ended up between both mainstream juggernauts, and while "Not Like Us" has gotten a lot of the love in this regard, both artists certainly impressed. Moreover, a new graphic surfaced showing how The Boy and K.Dot's monthly listeners on Spotify changed throughout this battle. As of May 27, 2024, Kendrick's Spotify listeners rose from about 50 million to 77.11 million, whereas Drizzy's been comfortably at around 83 million all year.

In addition, this information from HipHopNMore's Navjosh via Chartmetric also includes breakdowns of each streamable diss track in the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, not including IG-only or deleted releases like "Taylor Made Freestyle," the "Buried Alive" reimagining, "6:16 In LA," or J. Cole's "7 Minute Drill." The graphic compares the YouTube and Spotify streams for each song as of May 28, and if you want to count "First Person Shooter," that still remains the most overall streamed song here. However, "Like That" is a few million behind, and "Not Like Us" already reached two-thirds of the For All The Dogs cut's streams on Spotify and surpassed them on YouTube, so we'll see how this all evolves.

Kendrick Lamar & Drake's Diss Streams Compared

Perhaps the most interesting part about these numbers is that Drake and Kendrick Lamar were much closer in the song-for-song competition than fans on either side probably give their opponent credit for. For example, the double-drop of "Family Matters" and "Meet The Grahams" sees each song with pretty much the same number of streams, with Aubrey Graham slightly ahead. While he may have more Spotify listeners and definitely more streams overall than Kendrick, the Compton lyricist's diss tracks are out-streaming his rival's own. If you total all the YouTube and Spotify numbers for all these applicable diss tracks, Mr. Morale beats the 6ix God 883 million to 591.1 million.

Meanwhile, there are some rumors that this isn't the end of the battle. However, we'd be more inclined to believe that there will only be subliminals from here on out unless someone fires yet again. With all the wildness of 2024 so far, who's to say what happens? But one thing's for sure: no matter the course of the next few months, Kendrick Lamar and Drake are making some big bags this year.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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