As the battle comes to a close between rap giants Drake and Kendrick Lamar, many wonder who arose as the victor after the longest rap clash the genre has witnessed in recent times.

Kendrick started it all after he took offence to J. Cole mentioning him in a “Big Three” discussion with himself and Drake. Lamar rebutted saying, “Motherf**k the big three, it’s just big me” on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That’… and hip hop has been abuzz ever since.

Metro Boomin has gone on a Twitter tirade against Drake, Future has been schemingly quiet, but Kendrick and Drake have been making all the noise in the hip-hop sphere, diss track after diss track, going neck and neck in the most epic battle of this decade.

Honourable mention to J. Cole for dropping out of the clash early after rescinding his ‘7 Minute Drill’ diss track and opting out of the battle.

Now back to the matter at hand, the microphones were primed with some of the best lyrics hip-hop heads have heard in a long while.

Prepare yourself for the elaborate boxing metaphor that is about to occur…

Drake came back, full force with an uppercut after ‘Like that’ with ‘Push Ups’, then practically begged Kendrick to respond with ‘Taylor Made’. Kendrick then responded with a drop kick and a little strangulation action with ‘Euphoria’, then he back to backed Drake, using Drake’s own signature tactic, releasing ‘6:16 in LA’. Drake came in for the kill with ‘Family Matters’, but not even two hours later, Kendrick Lamar had him against the ropes with ‘Meet the Grahams’, then rocked him again with ‘Not Like Us’ which should have been a knockout. But no…Drake, out of breath and trying to regain his strength charged at Kendrick with ‘The Heart Part 6’, hitting back with everything he had, effectively ending the match, *The crowd goes wild!*

But who won?

Well, depending on your algorithm on social media either one would seem to be the victor of the greatest rap battle of the decade, however, according to the poll above, it seems that…Kendrick Lamar won?

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ has reached number 1 on Toronto’s Apple Music Charts. ‘Euphoria’ debuted on the Billboard Top 100 at number 11, and ‘Push Up’ sits at number 17, moving up every week, so both tracks have been making a great impact on the culture. They were two very good diss tracks.

All their subsequent tracks appear to be loved by their respective fans. Kendrick’s ‘Not Like Us’ seems to be taking over as the dance hit among his diss tracks— having folks on thr internet crip-waking and two-stepping to a track aimed at disrespecting you cannot feel great.

Many say Drake held his own and brought up some scathing criticisms and allegations about Kendrick, such as Kendrick being fake woke, the low-hanging fruit that is Kendrick’s height, and that Lamar physically abuses women. In any case, Drake showed up and showcased his writing abilities. He was also going against not only Kendrick, but Rick Ross, Future, Metro, and others who were not actively participating in the battle but showed their hand when they collaborated on the Future and Metro Boomin anti-Drake albums ‘We Don’t Trust You’ and ‘We Still Don’t Trust You’. Drake had his hands full, but is that an excuse when you are challenging Kendrick for the top spot in rap?

I think not.

Kendrick’s pen is not to be underestimated. However, the Pulitzer Prize winner did fumble during this battle since he presented allegations as facts in some of his songs. He alluded to Drake having an 11-year-old daughter, but never proved it. Drake came back to say he fed that information to Kendrick, who did not fact-check the information, clowning him on ‘The Heart Part 6’ as being too eager.

Whether or not this is true, Lamar objectively had the better tracks. They were more thought-out, and hard-hitting. Lamar was not above being petty or damning, referring to Drake as a paedophile, a pop artiste, a boy, and so on. It was an entertaining battle, one that we’ll not soon forget.

So, Kendrick won and the rap battle is over eight amazing tracks later.

Finally.