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On Monday, December 23, Billboard revealed the first name on its list of the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2024, with Kendrick Lamar bagging the honor. Meanwhile, his long-time rival, Drake received the Billboard Music Award for the Top Rap Artist on December 12.
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An X account, @certifiedjared, talked about it in a tweet on Tuesday, December 24, calling it "diabolical." The tweet has since gone viral, receiving over 950K views, 14K likes, and 1.5K reshares, as of this writing.
"they know what they are doing," one netizen wrote on it.
The awards Kendrick Lamar and Drake have received are being perceived as "diabolical" because of the ongoing Lamar-Drake beef that started in October 2023, with the release of Drake's First Person Shooter. In the track, Cole's rap verse suggested that Drake, Lamar and he were the only three rappers currently sharing the spotlight.
Lamar hit back at the duo with Like That in March 2024, through his feature in the Future & Metro Boomin' track. Drake responded with It's All A Blur, followed by Push Ups and Taylor Made Freestyle in April. Kendrick returned the diss with Euphoria and 6:16 In LA. The most recent hit also came from the Hood Politics rapper, in his Wacced Out Murals.
Some netizens explained how "pop" was used in terms of popularity and not any specific music genre.
"Please understand that ‘POP’ is short for Popular. In this context they’re not talking about that genre of music," commented an X user.
"Not like us is arguably a pop song lol," wrote a second one.
"Watch how everyone suddenly understands what “pop” means," replied a third one.
Meanwhile, others pointed out how Lamar and Drake both succeeded in establishing what they wanted.
"Well one of them rapped this year Wap Wap Wap let me do my thing lol. But seriously I think it works out perfectly because I think they both wanted to show each other that they could do what the other person does but better and in all honesty I think they both succeeded," posted the fourth user.
"But they said Drake wasn’t a real rapper. watch how they spin this," added a fifth one.
"Should be the other way around. This the only time us kendrick fans and yall drake fans are gonna agree on something," commented a sixth one.
Kendrick Lamar is followed by Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift on the list
Per Billboard, Kendrick Lamar became the Greatest Pop Star of 2024 by dropping new releases that "captured headlines and captivated the culture" throughout the year. Billboard said about the Money Trees rapper:
"He showed that at his absolute best and biggest, he could dominate the streets, the charts and everywhere in between with equal sun-blocking vastness, and emerge as the winner not only when pitted against his most direct adversaries, but against any other potential peer in popular music."
The success of Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us during the summers, which was eventually followed by the surprise drop of his sixth studio album, GNX, has only contributed to the rapper's popularity.
Kendrick Lamar also became the only rap and male artist to dominate the list's top 3. Sabrina Carpenter followed Lamar on it, securing the second position. Carpenter's Espresso kickstarted her journey to fame in 2024, peaking atop Billboard's Hot 100 chart and later winning the Song of the Year award at the MTV VMAs.
Later in 2024, Sabrina dropped her sixth studio album, Short n Sweet, which peaked atop the Billboard 200 album chart upon its release, selling 362K album-equivalent units in its first week. Per Billboard:
"Her retro aesthetics, carefully curated performances and suggestive lyrics captivated real-life audiences around the world and charmed the internet."
Taylor Swift was ranked third on Billboard's Greatest Pop Stars list after having peaked atop the list twice before— in 2015 and 2021 respectively.
The Blank Space singer finally concluded her three-year-long Eras Tour this year, which became the best-selling tour of all time, crossing $1 billion in revenue— a milestone achieved by no other tour till date.
Billboard said about the Cruel Summer singer:
"Swift was the biggest star on the planet when 2023 began, and by the end, she was one of the biggest stars ever to grace this planet."
Kendrick Lamar will take a tour to support GNX in 2025
With all the success Kendrick Lamar has achieved in 2024, he has already planned out what his 2025 is going to look like.
Last month, the TV Off rapper announced his Grand National Tour— a North American tour that he will co-headline alongside his latest collaborator, SZA.
The duo have worked together on two tracks in GNX— Gloria and Luther. K-Dot also made a guest appearance on 30 for 30, a track from SZA's latest deluxe album, LANA.
The Grand National Tour kickstarts on April 19 and will conclude on June 18, including 23 shows (two in Toronto).
