Kendrick Lamar Is More Popular Than Drake in Canada

Kendrick Lamar’s war of words with Drake has seen the California-born rapper dominate his adversary in his native Canada when it comes to streaming figures.

Lamar and Drake, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, have spent recent weeks leveling insults and allegations at each other on a host of tracks after the long-established bad blood between the two reached boiling point.

The war of words got into full swing in March, when Lamar released “Like That,” a cutting response to the Drake and J. Cole track “First Person Shooter.” While J. Cole quickly bowed out of the brewing beef, Lamar and Drake have relentlessly attacked each other on tracks that have captivated fans ever since.

During the past weekend alone, the rappers ramped up their back-and-forth with the release of four new diss tracks between them. In the tracks, they talk about each other’s families and lob unsavory allegations at one another.

“Not Like Us,” a diss track targeting Drake that was released by Lamar on the night of May 4, has seen the American best his Canadian rival in both of their countries.

Spotify’s Top 50 for Canada shows the track, which features an array of cutting insults over a catchy beat, taking the top spot with daily streams as of Friday morning. Lamar’s “Euphoria” takes fifth place, while Drake makes his first appearance on the chart in sixth position with “Family Matters.”

Lamar rounds out the streaming platform’s top 10 with “Like That,” one place ahead of “Meet the Grahams,” another of his tracks released last weekend. Drake’s only other showing on the chart is for “Push Ups” in 14th place.

As of Friday morning, six of the nine diss tracks exchanged between Lamar and Drake had made it to the top 20 of Apple Music’s Top 100 chart in Canada. Just two of these tracks are by Drake. Keeping to form, “Not Like Us” is on top, while Drake’s “Family Matters” trails in third place. Lamar is the only one of the two appearing in the remainder of the top 10, with “Euphoria” placing fifth and “Like That” landing eighth.

Drake’s one concession is on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100, where he’s the first of the two to appear on the chart, with “Push Ups” in 10th place. Lamar has debuted in 13th place with “Euphoria,” followed by “Like That” in 15th. “Not Like Us” has yet to place on the charts, which could largely be due to Billboard’s update schedule. With the track having been released on Saturday night, Lamar had limited time to make the cut for Billboard’s update, which is typically on Tuesday mornings.

From a global perspective, Lamar’s “Not Like Us” recently broke Spotify’s single-day streaming record for a hip-hop song with a tally of 6.59 million listens. This daily figure has since grown. Ironically, Lamar took the record from Drake, who had previously held the honor through “Girls Want Girls,” his non-diss track from 2021 featuring Lil Baby.

On YouTube, “Not Like Us” has clocked up 30 million views, while “Family Matters,” which is the most streamed of Drake’s tracks from this current feud on the platform, trails by more than 10 million, with a current total of about 19 million hits.

It’s worth noting that one of Drake’s diss tracks is now out of the running. “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which was released in late April, featured the use of artificial intelligence vocals from Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur. The track was eventually removed from streaming following a threat of legal action from Shakur’s estate.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Lamar and Drake for comment.

War of Words

Despite occasional collaborations, Drake and Lamar’s feud has been going on for more than a decade, with the rappers taking shots at each other through their music and in the media.

On “Meet the Grahams”—which was released on May 3, less than an hour after the unveiling of Drake’s diss track “Family Matters”—Lamar accused his adversary of having an 11-year-old daughter that he had hidden from public view.

Musician and actor Drake denied this in his May 5 track, “The Heart Part 6,” saying that he and his associates had purposely planted misinformation to trick Lamar into using it during their battle.

During a previous rap beef with Pusha T back in 2018, Drake was accused of having a secret son. Drake confirmed that this was true weeks later on the track “Emotionless.”

To date, Drake’s “The Heart Part 6” is the last track to have been released by either party in the feud.

On Tuesday, a drive-by shooting outside a Toronto property owned by Drake left a security guard hired by the artist badly injured.

Officers found a man with “serious injuries” near the scene, and he was taken to hospital. The victim was a security guard for the rapper, Toronto police confirmed to Newsweek in a statement.

Police said the suspect fled in a vehicle. Officials haven’t released a description of the alleged shooter or the car.

When contacted by Newsweek, representatives of Drake declined to comment on the matter.