Rapsody Says Kendrick Lamar Was More Strategic In Drake Battle: “You Gotta Study The Art Of War”

Rapsody believes that Kendrick Lamar reigned victorious in his battle with Drake due to not only being the superior lyricist, but the better strategist among the two rap stars.

On Monday (May 13), the North Carolina rapper appeared on the Joe Budden Podcast and weighed in on the back-and-forth between Lamar and Drake, which has spawned several diss records and captivated the music world over several weeks.

According to Rapsody, Drake was ill-prepared to withstand Kendrick’s onslaught of diss tracks, which ranged from brooding conceptual fare to radio-friendly hits.

“It was so smart,” Rapsody told Budden and company. “Drake, he swung back. I didn’t think it was enough. But he swung back. I wasn’t mad at the swings. But whatever he could’ve said, Kendrick was so strategic. He swallowed that sh*t up so fast because he responded so fast. And then he hit you with a banger.”

The Grammy Award nominee continued, rejecting any notion that Kendrick ever felt hesitant to lyrically engage with Drake. “It’s just tough,” she said of the mental and tactical warfare that goes into a rap battle. “You gotta study the art of war. You have to. Everybody like, ‘He got three weeks.’ I was like, ‘He in there cooking over and over and over again.”

“The boy has been performing at this level a long time… What you thought he was in there shivering? He was in there like a mad dog,” she added.

Rapsody also shunned rap critics and pundits pressuring artists to quickly release a response when slighted on wax, pointing to Nas’ 2001 track, “Ether,” his scathing retort to JAY-Z. “‘Takeover’ came over Sept. 11, and Nas responded [with “Ether”] two, three months later, on his birthday. What are we talking about [a] clock?”

The 41-year-old noted that Lamar moves at his own pace and is unconcerned with online opinions. “The boy don’t be on social media, he don’t care about that,” Rapsody said of trolls lurking across the web and elsewhere. “He cut from the cloth, ‘ain’t no rules, when I come out, I’ma come out, that’s all you need to know about. And be ready.’ He wasn’t ready. That’s how you lose battles.”

See Rapsody speak on Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s battle below.

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