Over the course of the last decade, an epic battle has been brewing between two rap giants: Kendrick Lamar and Drake(AKA Aubrey). After a series of short lived collaborations early in their careers, both men have since traded veiled verbal jabs over the course of several years but have remained somewhat restrained in their attacks. But, during the past two months, what began as a competitive sparring match between two talented lyricists, has now escalated into an all out blood feud, with both men adopting a policy of scorched earth tactics and a determination to publicly drag the other rapper’s name and reputation through the gutter.
What makes this feud all the more intriguing is that this long simmering war of words began to heat up during Mercury’s retrograde through Aries in March/April and recently boiled over when Mars made its ingress into his home sign of Aries in May. Additionally, the beginning and middle phase of this battle appears to coincide directly with the Eclipse series moving through Aries/Libra. We will look at each of these in turn, as well as how each of these transits play out in each man’s natal chart.
On October, 14th, 2023, a partial solar eclipse occurred in the Venus-ruled sign of Libra, closely conjunct the planet of communications, Mercury. The sign of Libra is concerned with diplomacy, relationships, and the need to relate to others and create harmony. Wherever an eclipse falls within a person’s natal chart, it generally indicates an area of life where a dramatic shift will occur or where one door opens and another door closes. For eclipses, we generally give a window of 1-2 weeks on either side of the eclipse date for a seed to be planted.
On October 5th, Drake recorded a new track titled, “First Person Shooter”. Drake, seemingly interested in offering an olive branch to crush their long running feud, asked Kendrick to appear as a guest on the track and even attempted to smooth things over with Kendrick on one of the verses. This would appear to align with Libra’s themes of diplomacy, but Kendrick refused.
Within Drake’s natal chart, the October Libra eclipse occurred in his 3rd house of communications. So here, conjunct the planet of communications, in the airy, relationship-oriented sign of Libra, we have an eclipse promising new beginnings or new endings in the 3rd house of communications. This is certainly an auspicious place to begin a rap battle.
*Note that on Oct. 28th, the final eclipse in the Taurus/Scorpio eclipse series occurred in Drake’s 10th house which is related to career, reputation, and where one receives their highest honors. “First Person Shooter”, was released only days later, on October 31st.
On October 14th, 2023, the same Libra eclipse occurred in Kendrick’s 1st house which represents the self, the character, and the appearance of the native.
Additionally, using the time lord technique of Annual Profections, we can see that Kendrick is in a 1st house profection year, in which issues related to the self, the character, and the appearance become of increased importance over the course of the year. Any transits through this sign become further emphasized as well. Venus, as ruler of Kendrick’s first house of Libra, becomes activated as ruler of the year. Within Kendrick’s natal chart, Venus is located in his 9th house, in Mercury’s sign of Gemini. The 9th house has many significations, but the one we are most concerned with is the area of life related to publishing. As we shall see, over the course of this year, Kendrick will publish a number of new songs, most of them dedicated to artfully killing Drake with a thousand words.
On. March 25th, 2024, a lunar eclipse occurred in the Venus-ruled sign of Libra. On March 22nd, 2024, Kendrick used a guest verse on the Future and Metro Boomin’ track, “Like That”, to clap back at Drake. Here it becomes evident that Drake’s effort to quash their beef by offering a guest verse on the previous October eclipse track titled, “First Person Shooter”, appears to have offended Kendrick. On that track, Drake attempted to declare himself, Kendrick, and J. Cole, as rap’s Big Three. Kendrick wasn’t having any of it, and on “Like That”, he says,
Motherf–k” the big three…it’s just big me
Note that this verse aligns with the Libra eclipse in Kendrick’s 1st house, which is all about “Me”.
On April 8th, 2024, a total solar eclipse, conjunct a retrograde Mercury, occurred in the Mars-ruled sign of Aries. The fire sign of Aries is a somewhat hostile environment, filled with intemperate heat, risk taking, ego-centrism, and a desire to be the best. Mercury, when retrograde, can bring increased frustration and irritability. In the sign of Aries, the Mars-ruled terrain further inflames the mind and there is an increased risk of speaking in anger.
On April 19th and April 24th, Drake released two back-to-back diss tracks directed at Kendrick. For Drake, the Aries eclipse/Mercury retrograde occurred in his 9th house, emphasizing publishing.
For Kendrick, the Aries eclipse/Mercury retrograde occurred in his 7th house of relationships. Of note is that in Kendrick’s natal chart, the ruler of his 7th house, Mars, is conjunct Mercury in the 10th house, in the sign of its fall in Cancer. When a planet is in its Fall, there is a sense in which there is some aspect of that environment in which the native constantly trips over something and “falls”.
Mars represents our approach to competition/conflict as well as our capacity to act and be assertive based on desire. Here, in the Moon-ruled sign of Aries, highly combustible Mars tends to struggle to express its emotions in a healthy manner and there can be a tendency to overreact or to experience emotional outbursts. Mars in Cancer natives may at times be overly protective of their family and may respond with overwhelming force when attacked.
Conjunct natal Mercury in Cancer, in the 10th house, there is the suggestion that these qualities are tied to Kendrick’s career in some way. This tendency towards aggressive speech and emotional outburst will be seen in full effect with Mars’ ingress into Aries. Additionally, Both natal Mars and Mercury in Cancer are in a sign based square to transiting Mars and Mercury in Aries, bringing increased tension and friction between career and relationships.
On April 30th, shortly after the solar eclipse in Kendrick’s 7th house, Mars entered its own domicile of Aries. In Aries, Mars is encouraged to be more reckless, more ruthless, and more vicious in battle. There’s also a sense in which things begin to move at a breakneck speed.
On this same day, Kendrick released a new diss track, titled “Euphoria”. At this point, Mercury has gone direct, and with this change, the lyrics become much more focused, personal, and vicious, rather than some of the more indirect jibing that occurred previously.
It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater,
I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.
It does not get more direct than that. This man HATES Drake.
With his blood thirst still not satisfied, Kendrick released ANOTHER diss track on May 3rd, titled, “6:16 am in Los Angeles.” Here, Kendrick suggests that Drake has moles within his camp.
Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person
Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it
…
If you were street smart, then you woulda caught that your entourage is only to hustle you
A hunnid n***as that you got on salary, and 20 of ’em want you as a casualty
And one of them is actually, next to you
Only hours later, on the same day, Drake released “Family Matters”, in response. The track represents a new low in the war, with Drake dragging Kendrick’s wife, Whitney Alford into the mud, with not so veiled allegations of infidelity. Note that again, Mars is transiting through Kendrick’s 7th house of marriage, relationships, and close partnerships.
You a dog and you know it, you just play sweet
Your baby mama captions always screamin, “Save me”
You did her dirty all her life, you tryna make peace
Aye, let that shorty breathe
Shake that a*s, b***h
Hands on your knees, hands on your knees
Hands on your knees
Shake that a*s for Drake, now shake that a*s for free
Proposed in 2015
But don’t want to make her your actual wife
I’m guessing this wedding ain’t happening, right?
’Cause we know the girls that you actually like
Your darkest secrets are coming to light
Within minutes of Drake’s release, Kendrick released his own response in the form of a track titled, “Meet the Grahams”, and it is here where the gloves really come off. Across four blistering, brutal verses, Kendrick absolutely unloads on Drake, alleging drug abuse, gambling problems, and associations with pedophiles. Drake’s abandonment of his own son is brought front and center when Kendrick addresses him directly:
Dear Adonis, I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest
It takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive
I look at him and wish your grandpa woulda wore a condom
Then speaks to Drake’s parents:
I’m blamin’ you for all his gamblin’ addictions
Psychopath intuition, the man who like to play victim
You raised a horrible f**kin’ person, the nerve of you, Dennis
Sandra, sit down, what I’m about to say is heavy, now listen
Mhm, your son’s a sick man with sick thoughts
I think n***as like him should die
Kendrick even makes some serious allegations that Drake is associating with known pedophiles:
He got sex offenders on OVO that he keep on a monthly allowance
A child should never be compromised and he keepin’ his child around them
And we gotta raise our daughters knowin’ there’s predators like him lurkin’
F**k a rap battle he should die so all of these women can live with a purpose
I been in this industry 12 years, I’ma tell y’all one lil’ secret
It’s some weird s**t goin’ on and some of these artists be here to police it
…
To anybody that embody the love for they kids, keep the family away
They lookin’ at you too if you standin’ by him, keep the family away
I’m lookin’ to shoot through any pervert that lives, keep the family safe
Finally, in one particularly revealing verse, Kendrick evokes some of the Mars in Cancer significations we discussed earlier.
This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game
But you f**ked up the moment you called out my family’s name
As if he did not make his point abundantly clear, within 24 hours, Kendrick released “Not Like Us,” his fourth diss track in a week. Here, Kendrick continues to make serious allegations of pedophilia. The artwork to the single, a Google picture of Drake’s mansion, populated by red sex offender logos, says it all.
Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young
You better not ever go to cell block one
To any b***h that talk to him and they in love
Just make sure you hide your little sister from him
…
Why he trollin’ like a b***h? Ain’t you tired?
Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
As of today, May 6th, Drake released a new track, titled, “The Heart Part 6”. On it, Drake continues the race to the bottom and dredges up a past Kendrick verse in which he insinuates he was the victim of sexual abuse:
Wait a second, that’s that one record where you say you got molested
I just made the whole connection, This about to get so depressing
This is trauma from your own confessions
At this point, there appears to be no end to this feud. My guess is this may dissipate once Mercury or Mars departs Aries but we shall see.
Finally, a few parting notes:
*Pluto, transiting Drake’s 7th house of relationships, suggests deep, transformative crises, death/rebirth, and the unearthing of buried secrets. Pluto tends to intensify whatever planet it touches. Co-present with natal Mars, there is the suggestion of increased potential for interpersonal conflict, power struggles, and issues related to control/manipulation.
*The Drake track titled, “Taylor Made Freestyle”, released on April 24th, contains the A.I generated voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. This is another example of our ongoing Pluto in Aquarius story about A.I. and is mentioned here because what would a 2024 story be without A.I.?
*The Tupac Shakur estate threatened to sue Drake and he was forced to remove the track. For Drake, Saturn, the planet of obstacles and restrictions, is transiting his 8th house of death, debts, and other people’s stuff. Saturn transiting Drake’s 8th house would appear to align closely with this story as well.
*Also on April 24th, the day Drake released, “Taylor Made Freestyle”, Uranus conjoined Jupiter in the sign of Taurus, located in Drake’s 10th house of career. Jupiter represents expansion, increase, growth and affirms whatever planet it touches. Uranus is the planet of sudden changes, unexpected events, and unpredictability. This track apparently set Kendrick off, as he released his response only days later. This feud has certainly has certainly brought more attention to both men’s careers. The Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Drake’s 10th house of career, which promises unforeseen opportunities for growth and expansion, as well as instability, would certainly align with what we’ve seen play out in the headlines.
*Last point(PROMISE!). Drake is in a 2nd house profection year. Mercury, as ruler of the 2nd house of finances/income, becomes the ruler of the year. In Drake’s natal chart, Mercury is located in the 4th house of home and family. Thus, issues related to finances and the home/family become of increased importance. Additionally, Mercury’s transits also become of increased importance. Due to Mercury’s swift movement, these transits may not be that noticeable, but, when retrograde, Mercury has a more sustained presence. During this feud, issues regarding Drake’s family history as well his relationships (Mercury transiting the 7th) have come to dominate the conversation. How all of this affects his 2nd house is yet to be seen but I imagine all of the attention this feud has brought him will certainly affect his bank account.
This is straight fire