STREISAND EFFECT

Drake Tries to Nix Kendrick’s Pedophile Allegations—but Ends Up Fueling Them Instead

Drake was on the defensive after Kendrick dropped back-to-back diss tracks over the weekend, heating up their rap battle with a laundry list of accusations.

Drake’s destructive rap battle with Kendrick Lamar was littered with friendly fire after Sunday night’s release of “The Heart Part 6,” in which he angrily denied Kendrick’s wild suggestion that he may have preyed on underage women—an effort meant to quash the nasty rumors that instead likely drew even more attention to them.

Drake started out on the defensive Sunday night, at a distinct disadvantage since Kendrick released the back-to-back stompers “meet the grahams” and “Not Like Us” on Friday and Saturday. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper pummeled Drake on a number of fronts, but the most serious allegation was over the Canadian rapper’s red flag-raising relationships with younger women.

‘HE SHOULD DIE’

Drake and Kendrick Threaten to Go Nuclear in New Diss Tracks

Edith Olmsted

“Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one,” Kendrick raps on “Not Like Us,” a reference to the statistic that sex offenders, especially pedophiles, are more likely to be killed in prison than other inmates.

“Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles,” Kendrick continues, riffing on the name of Drake’s 2021 album. “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor.”

Drake hit back on Sunday night pointing out the lack of proof behind Kendrick’s smears, claiming that if he was a child molester, he would’ve been behind bars already.

“I feel disgusted, I’m too respected / If I was fucking young girls I would’ve been arrested / I’m way too famous for this shit you just suggested,” Drake raps.

He tried to double down on the denial later in the song by making a pass at Kendrick’s fiancee, Whitney Alford, but accidentally fanned the flames of Kendrick’s allegations by name-dropping a certain Stranger Things actress.

“Only fuckin’ with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I’d never look twice at no teenager,” he adds later, name dropping the actress whom he befriended when she was a minor. Though Kendrick never mentioned or alluded to her in his disses, Drake’s friendship with the actress raised alarms in 2018, when Brown said he was “a great friend and a great role model” who gave her advice about boys. She was 14 years old at the time.

The internet lit up over what many fans perceived as Drake’s self-own, with memes flying across social media alluding to the fact that he may have exposed himself by dropping names Kendrick never mentioned.

Again, there’s no proof to support any of the allegations made by either rapper. But in the arena of public opinion, the battle seems to have an emerging winner.

Since the nukes are falling faster and faster between the two rappers, it’s only a matter of time until Drake will drop a follow-up the internet can accept as a worthy clapback—or whether Kendrick will solidify his position with a sonic volley that cements his offensive.

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Amanda YenBreaking News Intern

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