It’s been nearly two weeks since the latest song dropped in the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake – “The Heart Part 6” – and fans have made their feelings known. Drake may have gotten the final word in this beef, but he did not go out on a high note – at least judging by the “dislike” function on YouTube. According to the “Dislike Viewer” feature on jabrek.net, “The Heart Part 6” has over 1.5 million dislikes.
Fans will have their own subjective opinions about Drake and Lamar’s songs, but it can be hard to objectively measure responses through social media commentary or the opinions of close friends. Obviously, music streaming numbers don’t tell us much since fans would have to listen to both songs to make up their minds about which one they like better. That makes this one of the best applications for YouTube’s controversial dislike function. Looking at the number of people who clicked that thumbs down button is a great indication of how Drake’s song was received.
“The Heart Part 6” has almost 18.5 million views at the time of this writing, but it only has about 722,000 likes. Comparatively, it has over 1.5 million dislikes – meaning 67 percent of those who clicked one of the thumb-shaped buttons disliked the song. Meanwhile, Lamar’s latest song in the feud, “Not Like Us,” has over 48.6 million views, with over 2.2 million likes and only about 21,000 dislikes. That’s only 1 percent of responders.
That’s a pretty strong hint that, for most people, Lamar came out on top in this volley even if Drake got the last word. These numbers are seem to compliment the general response from critics, fans and influencers, most of whom have declared Lamar the winner here. For example, retired rapper and culture critic Joe Budden made a YouTube video calling “The Heart Part 6” Drake’s “white flag.”
Still, fans of Drake continue to sing his praises online, and right now there’s no indication that his career will suffer long-term damage after this beef. Although Lamar went so far as to call Drake a “pedophile,” there are no criminal charges against the rapper as far as the public knows. There’s no indication that more diss tracks are on the way.