Dr. Dre may be not be embroiled in any rap beefs of his own anymore, but that’s not keeping him from picking sides in the current ones, namely the one between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that took over most of 2024. And now, he’s sharing the exact moment he knew who to root for.
“The Chronic” revealed as much during the debut episode of Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell’s new podcast, “The Unusual Suspects With Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell.” During their conversation, Barris took a moment to praise Lamar and Dre’s appearance during the show. As we told you during the summertime in 2024, Dre was the surprise guest who showed up to help kick off Lamar’s performance of his hit diss song, “Not Like Us” during his “Pop Out” concert on Juneteenth in Los Angeles.
Speaking to that moment and the beef in it’s entirety, Dre made it perfectly clear that he still stands with Lamar but gave some insight on the exact moment he knew he had to choose sides and ride with the fellow Compton native.
“I love that record,” Dre explained. “I’ma say this on camera. I don’t want to get negative. My whole sh*t is about being positive and moving forward and all that sh*t, but the fact I heard Drake say something negative about Kendrick’s wife and his kids, that made me say, ‘Ah, adios!’”
He’s of course referring to the allegations Drake made on a handful of his diss songs—namely “Push Ups,” “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6"—where he said Lamar was abusive to his Whitney Alford and that another man had fathered one of their kids.
For Dre, that was the tipping point that made him majorly side-eye Drizzy Drake and put all his backing to Lamar.
This isn’t the first time Dre spoke highly of Lamar and lobbed his support behind him. Shortly after the Juneteenth show, both he and Snoop Dogg praised Lamar for his song and for his successful attempt at bringing unity to the L.A. gang scene.
“I think Kendrick was able to bring that together for that moment. Hopefully that moment can move forward,” he said in part at the time.