Kendrick Lamar & Drake Will Go Head To Head At The Billboard Music Awards

Kendrick Lamar and Drake already had their big rap showdown earlier this year that still has legs, but they’ve got one more head-to-head before 2024 ends. At the Billboard Music Awards, which take place on Thursday, December 12, both artists were nominated in the Top Rap Artist and Top Rap Male Artist categories. Considering that the 6ix God also received nominations for huge categories like Top Artist, it doesn’t seem like a particularly close race, but K.Dot also has plenty of chances for uncontested wins in other categories. The BBMAs are different to other award shows as far as criteria, and Drizzy is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to wins from the outlet.

As such, maybe these Billboard Music Awards will hold some surprises, but the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle was never about sales… Or about Grammys, for that matter. It’s a biggest hater competition. Both MCs are still making a case for themselves being the biggest hater, with the Compton lyricist dropping the fiery and confrontational album GNX and his Toronto rival pettily calling out “fairy tales” on xQc’s stream.

But Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s feud also roped in a lot of other people just by pure association, which some of them found quite odd. For example, during his aforementioned livestream with xQc yesterday (Sunday, November 24), the OVO mogul called Steve Lacy “a fragile opp,” which The Internet‘s guitarist found hilarious. He took to Instagram to issue out some troll responses to the call-out, joking about looking for someone to be fragile with him. Top5, a Toronto rapper, is also completely anti-West Coast right now, and it seems like a rite of passage for any affiliate of either superstar. There’s a choice: you call the other side out, or you wait for them to call you out.

Of course, the battle that began with “Like That” will always connect Kendrick Lamar to Drake, and vice versa. As such, there will be more showdowns between them to witness in the future, such as the latter’s Australian tour starting the same day as the Super Bowl. But we doubt that they will be the ones driving those conversations.