Dear Gossips, 

The Met Gala is tonight… but whatever anticipation for it that may have been building over the weekend was completely overshadowed by another gossip story. I actually didn’t remember the Met Gala until Sarah messaged me about it last night because most of our WhatsApp over the weekend and all of my other group chats over the weekend were about the mess between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. 

 

There’s been a new drop every night for nights! 

Last night it was Drake’s turn with “The Heart Pt 6”, although it also sounded to some like he was waving the white flag, acknowledging Kendrick’s promise that he has many more releases that are locked and loaded. Seriously did Kendrick make a whole album of Drake diss tracks?!

 

So it could be over? Or could there be more tonight? Which brings me back to the Met Gala because you know how there’s allegedly a no phones policy? More than half of the celebrities on the invite list, guaranteed, if not more, have been following the battle this weekend between Drake and Kendrick just like the rest of us. If Kendrick does have more to say tonight, they might not know, it’ll be FOMO all over that dinner party – while they’re already at the fashion event of the year, lol. I kinda want to see that happen: celebrities rushing back outside to check their phones to see what other evidence Kendrick is sharing… 

Evidence that Drake is now saying he and his team planted on purpose and that Kendrick took the bait, basically trying to defend against the implication that there’s a mole within the OVO ranks, while doubling down on some disturbing allegations of his own against his opponent. 

 

In the end, in the long run, nobody wins here, especially not hip-hop, a point beautifully but also hilariously made by Charles Holmes in his brilliant piece for The Ringer, “The Last Great Rap Beef”. If you only read one essay about this chaos, make it this one. It was written before “Not Like Us” but it doesn’t matter, the thesis remains intact. 

The writing is sharp and irreverent, funny but also fair. Neither one of these artists can claim any kind of high ground. As Charles poignantly notes: 

“As with most hip-hop beefs, we’ve ended up where we were always destined to—men using women, wives, baby mothers, parents, and children in increasingly gross and depraved ways to satisfy their rabid egos.”

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey