How Taylor Swift Got Involved In Drake & Kendrick’s Brutal Diss Tracks

Taylor Swift is no stranger to a musical feud, but she’s somehow found herself in the middle of the most heated rap beef of the year. As Drake and Kendrick Lamar have traded several diss tracks, Swift’s name has come up a few times... and one production credit really had the Swifties gasping. Here’s how Swift has become the most unexpected part of this ongoing rap battle.

Drake was first to bring up Swift’s fan base in his Lamar diss “Push Ups.” “Maroon 5 need a verse, you better make it witty / Then we need a verse for the Swifties,” Drake rapped, clowning Lamar for his previous mainstream collaborations that seem to go against his “underground” branding. Lamar was featured on Swift’s 2015 single “Bad Blood,” which he re-recorded with Swift in 2023.

While Lamar and Swift have seemingly always been on good terms, Swift’s history with Drake is more complicated. After Drake posted a sweet pic with Swift in early 2022, Swifties picked up on a little bit of shade from the rapper when he covered Swift’s name in an Instagram story, presumably because her single “Anti-Hero” had beaten his new releases on the charts. The next year, he gave Swift some respect in his song “Red Button”: “Taylor Swift the only n*gga that I ever rated / Only one that could make me drop the album just a little later.”

After first mentioning the Swifties in “Push Ups,” Drake more emphatically called out Lamar’s connection to Swift in his freestyle “Taylor Made.” Echoing his own admission in “Red Button,” Drake accused Lamar of delaying his musical releases so they wouldn’t be overshadowed by Swift’s. “But now we gotta wait a f*ckin’ week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top / And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve / This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud / She tailor-made your schedule with Ant, you out of the loop,” Drake raps.

While Lamar didn’t directly respond to Drake’s digs about his connection to Swift, fans noticed a very telling production credit on one of his Drake disses. Lamar’s “6:16 in LA” was produced by Jack Antonoff, Swift’s go-to collaborator. Swift herself may not be involved in this beef, but it certainly seems to keep finding new ways to involve her.