Kendrick Lamar Might Never Respond To Joey Bada$$–Here’s Why

Posted on by EDITORIAL FEATURES

Kendrick Lamar.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know there’s been an ongoing battle involving Daylyt, Joey Bada$$, Ray Vaughn, and a few others. It’s largely shaping up as a coastal war—Joey Bada$$, the Brooklyn don, going toe-to-toe with these West Coast cats. And to be clear, this is a battle Joey chose, but he’s earning a lot of respect for holding it down mostly solo. Sure, Loaded Lux and a few others have jumped in here and there, but for the most part, Joey’s standing on his own. And I think he wants it that way.

Now, the name that keeps coming up throughout this whole back-and-forth? Kendrick Lamar. People keep dropping his name, and Joey himself continues to mention both Kendrick and Top Dawg. It’s always exciting when there’s even a hint of a bigger battle looming in the distance. But let’s be real—is that actually going to happen?

I doubt it.

Right now, Kendrick is on tour with SZA, and he’s crushing it. Reports say he’s pulling in about $20 million per show. He’s not thinking about this little lyrical “skirmish”—at least not in a public way. I’m sure he’s aware of it; after all, we’ve seen nearly 14 diss tracks drop in a single week. It’s almost too much. We barely get time to digest the bars before another track drops. Yes, we’re loving the competitive energy, but I’d really like to sit with the lyrics and appreciate the craftsmanship behind them. Writing these raps isn’t easy.

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But let’s not forget what Kendrick pulled off last year with the whole Drake situation. That was a masterclass—straight-up surgical. “Not Like Us” is still charting, still breaking records. It recently became the only rap song (or one of the few) to hit certain milestones—some even say it’s the highest-charting diss track ever. I haven’t verified that myself, but reputable outlets are reporting it. If that’s true, there’s no way Kendrick is going to descend from that level of success and hop into the mud with Joey Bada$$, Daylyt and the rest battling at street level.

People really don’t understand what it took for Kendrick to do what he did. It wasn’t just the music—it was the strategy, the timing, the rollout, the artistry. He dismantled Drake with precision.

Meanwhile, Drake’s out here pushing gambling apps? What are we even doing?