Two years after losing the biggest rap feud of the decade, Drake came back swinging. His surprise three-album drop in May, anchored by the diss-heavy “ICEMAN,” reignited the battle with Kendrick Lamar, and the shots are still landing months later. Here is where one of hip hop’s most expensive rivalries stands, and why it keeps pulling in audiences far beyond the genre.
The comeback: three albums, one grudge
On May 15, 2026, Drake released not one but three albums at once: “HABIBTI,” an R&B effort, “MAID OF HONOUR,” a set of international club tracks, and “ICEMAN,” the straight-rap project where all the shots at Kendrick live. Hip hop media noted that nearly every song on ICEMAN carries at least one sub aimed at K-Dot, proof that the 2024 loss still stings.
The bars got personal. On “Dust,” Drake questions Kendrick’s discography: “What was the year you said you had slaps, cause I don’t remember it going like that.” He also took aim at Kendrick’s fanbase, rhyming that white kids listen out of “guilt,” and mocked the Big Three era with “F*ck a big three anyway, there was too many chefs in the kitchen.” Mustard and the West Coast got hits too, with Drake reviving the “Rack City” era as a flex.
The lawsuit that went nowhere
The feud’s legal front ended badly for Drake. In October 2025, a federal judge tossed his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick’s “Not Like Us,” ruling that lyrics branding him a pedophile were opinion, not fact. The dis track also headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, a victory lap Drake could not stop.
The Game adds a new layer
The latest twist involves The Game. The Compton rapper allegedly took shots at Kendrick on Instagram and on the “3rd Verse” podcast, where Top Dawg reportedly explained that the tension traces back to The Game’s Drake collaboration “100.” Fans are now debating whether this is the start of a decade-long feud finally bubbling over, or just more noise around the main event.
Where the feud stands
Drake’s three-album blitz worked commercially: ICEMAN sat at number one on the Billboard 200 for weeks, with reports of Apple Music records along the way, and even Giannis Antetokounmpo weighed in saying Drake won the round. But the consensus on who won the war has not moved much. Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” remains the defining song of the beef, the Super Bowl moment still echoes, and no verified Kendrick response to ICEMAN has landed.
What is clear is that Drake is not done. The “Freeze the World” campaign, the CN Tower takeover, the bot-farm stunt in his ICEMAN broadcast, it all points to an artist determined to flip the narrative. Whether bars and charts can undo “Not Like Us” is a question only the next chapter will answer.
