Hollywood’s favorite second son and regular Instagram cutup Chet Hanks had everyone cracking up but also awed by his succinct, dad-proofed explainer skills when he shared texts between himself and his father—thee Tom Hanks—where he broke the conflict down in the span of one long message. He could’ve just sent Tom this link but honestly, as far as explaining it on a parental level, he did pretty well!
May 23: Drake gets in on the joke
In his first post-beef bars, Drake joins Sexyy Red on “U My Everything,” a soulful Tay Keith-produced cut on her latest project. Even though it’s a song about wooing bae, Drake makes the chronology obvious in several bars, alluding to being delayed by some “smoke in the city” that needs to get resolved before he can return, later rapping that they can hit Saint Martin if “these n-ggas take a break and quit startin with me.” But it gets more on the nose when the beat switches to “BBL Drizzy,” the free, viral beat Metro Boomin made and encouraged rappers to spit their own freestyles too, offering money to the MC with the best bars. Originally it referenced the claims that Pusha, Kendrick and Rick Ross had made about Drake getting work on his own body done, but here Drake tries to flip into a title earned from doling BBL appointments out to his women. You think Metro will actually pay up ?
June 5: Drake deletes every diss track from his Instagram
Are they still available everywhere that’s relevant, e.g., Spotify, YouTube, etc? Yes. And so is “Family Matters” music video. But Instagram is by far Drake’s social media app of choice and his most consistent source of communication with the public. Him removing the tracks there is still notable…but is he signaling a readiness to move on, or clearing the slate for a new phase?
June 20: Kendrick performs “Not Like Us” five times at his Pop Out show in Inglewood
Kendrick’s Pop Out was more of a celebratory victory lap for LA and the deep-rooted culture that Kendrick proudly casts himself as the prodigal son of. (Read a full review of the event here.) But Kendrick didn’t shy away from the inciting incident either. To the 16,000 fans and countless more tuned in via an Amazon Music livestream, Kenny opened his set by performing his titanic “Euphoria” diss in full—even tweaking some bars to acknowledge that Drake was just a couple hours away spending time at his new ranch in Houston—rapped “6.16 in LA” to his Black Hippy cohort Ab-Soul, and then closed the show by running through “Not Like Us” not once or twice, but five (5!) times. The fourth of which saw him invite every LA hometown hero to the stage, from entertainers who you would think were cool with Drake like onetime Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan, to Russell Westbrook, Steve Lacy, and pretty much every LA rapper in attendance at the show save Tyler, The Creator.
