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Would Taylor Swift like to be excluded from this narrative?
Swift found herself in the middle of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud when the “God’s Plan” rapper not only name-dropped her on his new song, but used her recent album release as a potential reason why Lamar has not yet hit back.
Drake dropped his latest song, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” on Friday, April 19, the same day Swift released her double album, The Tortured Poets Department. On the new track, Drake baits Lamar while theorizing the reason why the To Pimp a Butterfly artist — who collaborated with Swift on his featured version of “Bad Blood” — has yet to respond to his earlier digs.
“But now we gotta wait a f****** week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top / And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve / This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud,” the Canadian artist, whose “Push Ups” track from earlier this month threw shots at Lamar, raps on “Taylor Made.”
“She tailor-made your schedule with Ant [Top Dawg CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith] , you out of the loop / Hate all you corporate industry puppets, I’m not in the mood,” Drake continues.
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While these lyrics seem to slam Swift, Drake later gives the “Fortnight” singer a shout-out in the outro, calling her “the biggest gangster in the music game right now,” noting, “I moved my album when she dropped, I said that already.” Still, he raps, Swift “got the whole pgLang [Lamar’s company] on mute like that Beyoncé challenge, y’all boys quiet for the weekend.”
Despite occasional collabs, Drake and Lamar’s feud has been going on for more than a decade, with the rappers taking shots at each other through both their music and in the media. Drama between the two once again kicked up in late March, when the “B**** Don’t Kill My Vibe” artist hopped on “She’s Like That,” a track off of Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You album, the whole of which seemed to be a Drake diss record.
After hearing Lamar’s verse on the track — which includes lyrics directly slamming Drake by referencing his song “First Person Shooter” (F*** sneak dissin’, first-person shooter / I hope they came with three switches”) — Drake dropped “Push Ups” on April 13, referencing Swift once again while seemingly taking aim at Lamar.
“Maroon 5 need a verse you better make it witty / You only need a verse for the Swifties,” he rapped. One week later, he released “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
In addition to the Lamar and Swift of it all, “Taylor Made Freestyle” has also made headlines for the use of AI vocals from Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.