Kendrick Lamar warned Drake over the phone before their battle began, says Joe Budden

On December 31, 2024, when people look back at the biggest hip-hop stories of the year, the battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake will probably be at the top of most lists. That's assuming nothing bigger happens between now and then.

Since the battle began, it seems that every rap pundit on earth has given their take on it, and Joe Budden is one of them. On the latest episode of his podcast, the former Slaughterhouse member said that Kendrick and Drake had a conversation before releasing their diss songs, and they laid some ground rules.

“I also heard that Drake and Kendrick had a talk before any diss record was released,” said Joe. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I heard they spoke … It went like the Teddy Pendergrass part of the s**t. 'Hey, how do you want this to go? What we doing? Are we rapping? Okay, then lets keep it [civil].'”

But as most probably know by now, the battle was anything but civil because both rappers slung salacious allegations. Drake, for example, insisted that Kendrick abused his fiancée and mother of his children Whitney Alford, while Kendrick called Drake a pedophile and colonizer.

Plus, the common belief is that Kendrick won the battle, thanks to his Drake diss "Not Like Us" being a huge hit that's still heard on the radio, social media, television, and in music beds.

But the question now is, will there be a second round of the battle? Because Drake alluded to it in a now-deleted video that he posted last month. His message showed a video of retired NBA player Rasheed Wallace predicting that his Detroit Pistons would beat the Indiana Pacers in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals.

"Y’all can put it on the front page, back page, middle page, wherever, headliners, column one or two, we will win game two," says Wallace in the clip.

Kendrick responded to the post when announcing that he'd be playing Super Bowl LIX in February 2025. "You know there's only one opportunity to win a championship," said K Dot in a video. "No round 2s.”