Kendrick Lamar skips the VMAs to Watch The Party Die

While everyone was out partying at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kendrick Lamar pronounced the party dead. He's got the kind of authority to do that now after effectively curb-stomping rap's former golden boy, Drake, into submission. Lest Drake get a little too comfortable, Lamar has decided to resurrect the beef at ongoing intervals, including Wednesday night when he unceremoniously dropped a surprise new track (titled, as far as we know, "Watch The Party Die") on Instagram. 

Posted to social media around the same time the VMAs began, it's as much a commentary on the "clowns and nerds" there as it is on Drake specifically. But Drake is obviously not safe from Lamar's wrath; even though he wasn't in the building, he's still the avatar for the kind of pop-rap Lamar holds in such disdain. "Just walk that man down, that'll do everyone a solid/It's love, but tough love sometimes gotta result in violence," Lamar raps. "If you parade in gluttony without givin' truth to the youth/The graveyard is company, just tell us what casket to choose."

As if it wasn't clear enough from Lamar taking home a Pulitzer Prize, he's positioning himself as the more adult, intellectual alternative to rappers like Drake whose bars (and behavior) are more superficial and "lame." He takes aim at others on the outskirts of the feud like DJ Akademiks ("The radio personality pushin' propaganda for salary") and other "degenerates" giving the genre a bad name. "Would trade all of y'all for Nip"—i.e., the late Nipsey Hussle—"I can't be proud of you n****s," he laments.

It seems the self-described boogeyman has resolved to continue to haunt his enemies, and there may be a few more of them on the roster after some backlash at the announcement he'd be performing the Super Bowl Halftime Show. A contingent of the hip-hop community, including Nicki Minaj, Birdman, and yes, seemingly Drake, were offended that Lil Wayne didn't get tapped to do the show in his native New Orleans. But Lamar is confident "They got the right one" to represent rap, as he said in a Super Bowl press release. And it seems he'll continue to prove that, as his friend and collaborator Euro Luxxk teased on Twitter/X that "Watch The Party Die" was "just a teaser" and encouraged fans to "watch the next shit."