Brutal fallout of feud with Kendrick Lamar for superstar rapper Drake

It’s one of the most infamous ongoing feuds in modern music, and now the shocking fallout for one of the star’s has been exposed.

Drake’s popularity has taken a huge hit over the last year since Kendrick made their feud public knowledge.

New research has found that the Take Care singer is bound to be feeling pretty hurt right now, if his following size is anything to go by.

The rapper’s Instagram (@champagnepapi) follower count significantly dropped from 146.7 million in May 2024, when Kendrick dropped his diss single Not Like Us, down to 143.4 million nearly a year later. The Canadian rapper is losing 345,000 followers per month on average, according to Mystery box site Cases.gg.

Drake and Kendrick are locked in a bitter public feud. Picture: AFP.

As the track continued to gain popularity, Drake’s Instagram had one of its worst months for followers in September 2024, with a net loss of almost 500,000 (486,048). The downward trend continues, with a similar decline of 406,000 in January 2025.

Gabriele Asaro, head of research for Cases.gg commented on the findings: “Kendrick’s diss track winning Song of the Year highlights its huge impact. We dug into Drake’s social channels and found that since its release a year ago, he’s been losing hundreds of thousands of followers every month, where he was previously gaining them at a similar rate.

“It goes to show how rap feuds can backfire, costing you more than you bargained for, including social influence and fans. In Drake’s case, battling Kendrick Lamar has resulted in his own social media following rapidly declining, and his opposition’s song winning one of the most prestigious awards, which has got to hurt a little.”

Kendrick threw shade at Drake during his Superbowl performance. Picture: AFP.

Kendrick used the Superbowl on Sunday night to really hit Drake where it hurts.

Serena Williams was an all-star cameo, appearing on stage briefly to dance to the brutal Drake diss track Not Like Us. As if it weren’t savage enough to have one of the world’s greatest athletes essentially co-signing a song dissing you, consider this: Williams and Drake dated back in 2011, the rapper even writing the song Too Good about her.

It’s been a busy start to the year for Lamar. He swept the Grammy Awards exactly a week ago today, winning five trophies from five nominations for the song Not Like Us.

The blistering diss track picked up Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards, making it the most-awarded single song in Grammys history.

The rap superstar has filed a defamation suit over the song, in which former friend Lamar labels him a pedophile, among other things (that particularly incendiary line was left out the Super Bowl performance).

Originally published as Brutal fallout of feud with Kendrick Lamar for superstar rapper Drake