When BBC Newsbeat speaks to music journalist and radio presenter Mary Mandefield about Drake’s new music, she’s still digesting the massive drop.
But she says there was never any doubt Drake would tackle the feud in some way.
“He’s a smart businessman, as well as a great musician,” she says.
“It would have been a massive miss to have three albums and not to mention Kendrick at all.”
Mandefield says fans have been waiting for Drake’s reaction to Lamar’s Not Like Us, the diss track he memorably performed at last year’s Superbowl half-time show.
While Lamar and Drake’s beef was rightly framed as a battle, both stars will have benefited, she says.
“It keeps people talking about it, it helps with streaming numbers,” she says.
“Externally it looks like beef, but on the whole, it helps both artists out.”
Is three albums quantity over quality?
Dropping 43 tracks at once is likely to attract accusations Drake is “stream trolling” – publishing multiple songs to boost overall listening figures.
If Drake is looking to get his streaming numbers up, Mandefield says, leaning into his “broad appeal” with three different sounds could help.
But, she says, the rapper isn’t the only person doing it. Rap group Migos, with a 24-track album, and R&B star Chris Brown, with a 57-track deluxe edition of Heartbreak on a Full Moon, have previously been accused of stream trolling.
READ MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE…
