"Are you really saying something negative about his wife and kids?"— Dr. Dre claims Drake made a mistake going after Kendrick Lamar

Dr. Dre has recently addressed the rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar that happened last year. During an interview for the debut episode of The Unusual Suspects with Kenya Barris and Malcolm Gladwell on Thursday, January 30, Dre praised his mentee K.Dot. A clip of Dr. Dre's conversation was also shared by the NFR Podcast on X on January 31, 2025.

Speaking on the famous beef, Dre shared that he started taking Lamar's side as soon as Drizzy began to target K.Dot's family in the dispute.

Dr. Dre claimed that the Canadian rapper committed a mistake by doing that. He added that he loves Kendrick's diss track Not Like Us and does not intend to be negative in any manner. He further stated:

"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 & his kids, that made me say, 'Ah, adios!' That was a big mistake. This dope a*s motherf*cker Kendrick Lamar. Are you really saying something negative about his wife and kids? That's when I clocked out."

Not Like Us came out in May last year, 20 hours after Lamar released another diss track, Meet the Grahams. The song received a positive response and broke multiple records on platforms such as Spotify. It additionally reached the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts.

The track specifically grabbed a lot of attention last year when Drake filed a lawsuit against Spotify and Universal Music Group, accusing them of artificially inflating the streaming numbers of the song, as per Billboard. However, UMG denied the claims in a lengthy statement, and Drake withdrew the lawsuit earlier this month.

However, Drizzy filed another lawsuit for defamation and harassment against Universal Music Group in a New York federal court, as per The New York Times.

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Dr. Dre performed at Kendrick Lamar's concert last year

Following his rap battle with Drake, Lamar announced a concert called The Pop Out: Ken & Friends in June 2024. The event was held at the California-based Kia Forum the following month, and Dr. Dre also performed at the concert. Dre introduced Lamar's diss track Not Like Us by saying:

"Psst, I see dead people."

Apart from Dre, the concert witnessed the presence of other popular faces such as DJ Mustard. According to Vibe magazine, there was a long lineup of guest performers like Ty Dolla $ign, Steve Lacy, Tyler, the Creator, Blxst, and more.

Dre and Lamar have shared a close relationship over the years and have recorded around 30 singles together, as per Hypebeast. They even collaborated on a song titled The Recipe, which came out in 2012 and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.

Dr. Dre also addressed Kendrick Lamar's successful career while speaking on the talk show Hart to Heart in July 2023. He described Lamar as a real artist and continued:

"The only thing I can take credit for is opening the door for him because he's done everything himself, him and [his manager] Dave Free."

The record producer additionally stated that Lamar is one of the artists who would exist forever and that he can leave a positive impression if he returns after a long gap of five years. He also said that Lamar falls in the category of "forever artists."

As a rapper, Dr. Dre has not released any solo project for a long time and collaborated with Snoop Dogg on an album titled Missionary, which was released in December last year.