Drake has edged out Kendrick Lamar in a closely watched battle—not on stage, but on Spotify.
The Canadian rap superstar now holds the title of the most listened-to rapper on the global streaming platform, with 80.65 million monthly listeners, narrowly surpassing Kendrick Lamar’s 80.62 million.
The update was confirmed in a post by Chart Data, which read:
“Drake is now the rapper with the most monthly listeners on Spotify currently. He surpasses Kendrick Lamar.”
The spike in Drake’s numbers follows his triple-night headlining set at Wireless Festival in London, where he drew massive crowds and generated buzz for both his music and his on-stage digs at Lamar.
Meanwhile, Kendrick is currently on the Grand National Tour with SZA, continuing to promote his latest projects and maintain his presence on the charts.
This latest development adds another chapter to their increasingly personal and public feud, which erupted last year after Lamar’s explosive verse on “Like That” (a Future & Metro Boomin track), and the viral diss “Not Like Us”, where he labeled Drake a “certified pedophile”—a claim Drake has publicly denied.
Drake retaliated with a string of rebuttals, including “Push Ups” and “The Heart Part 6”, the latter directly targeting “Not Like Us.” He has since hinted at a “round two”, while Lamar delivered a subtle jab during his Super Bowl halftime performance, where he performed a censored version of “Not Like Us” alongside SZA.
At one point, Drake filed a pre-action legal complaint against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, accusing them of defamation, artificial stream inflation, and using bots to promote Lamar’s track. However, he later withdrew the legal petition, with no formal court action taken.
While the lyrical war may be cooling for now, the streaming charts tell a different story, and fans on both sides remain fiercely loyal—watching every move, every stream, and every verse.
