Anything & Everything with Matt Reyna

Drake vs Kendrick: Who Really Won?

• Matt Reyna

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0:00 | 19:17

The music conversation continues as Matt Reyna and TJ dive into today's hip-hop landscape. From seeing ASAP Rocky live to breaking down regional rap styles, Drake's latest albums, and the Kendrick Lamar beef, they compare old-school rap, modern artists, and what makes great music stand the test of time.

🎙️ In this episode:
 • ASAP Rocky live at the Moody Center
 • Regional rap styles and hip-hop culture
 • Houston vs Atlanta vs Brooklyn rap
 • Ludacris and early 2000s nostalgia
 • Drake vs Kendrick Lamar debate
 • Breaking down Drake's newest albums
 • Why Kendrick won... or didn't
 • UMG conspiracy theories
 • Favorite diss tracks
 • Music that still holds up today

🧠 What you'll learn:
 • How different cities shaped hip-hop
 • Why Drake and Kendrick's battle is still being debated
 • The impact of streaming and record labels
 • Why older albums continue to age well
 • How live concerts change your appreciation for artists

⏱️ CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS

00:00 ASAP Rocky Concert Experience
 01:45 Hip-Hop Regional Sounds
 05:10 Ludacris & Early 2000s Rap
 07:00 Drake vs Kendrick Debate
 11:20 Drake's New Albums
 14:15 Favorite Diss Tracks
 16:45 UMG & Music Industry Talk
 18:30 Classic Movies & Random Conversations

📢 About the Podcast

Anything & Everything with Matt Reyna is a long-form podcast where every conversation can go anywhere. Music, sports, current events, business, real estate, life experiences, and everything in between—real conversations with no script.

📌 Connect With Matt Reyna

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 https://www.instagram.com/mattreyna2023/

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 https://www.facebook.com/matt.reyna.12

TikTok:
 https://www.tiktok.com/@mattreyna2023

#Drake #KendrickLamar #ASAPRocky #HipHop #RapPodcast #MusicPodcast #AnythingAndEverythingPodcast #MattReyna #Ludacris #UMG #RapCulture #Podcast #MusicDiscussion #HipHopDebate #DrakeVsKendrick

SPEAKER_01

I think that was last week. You didn't go to Mudder? No. It was there too?

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Damn. No, it was at Port Tech. Yeah. No, that that was tech is bad. Have you been to Portech?

SPEAKER_01

That's where that Kissel Show was at, bro, and I missed it. Oh, that's cool. I was over there seeing, I was over there in corporates. But I did see ASAT Rocky though. Remember, I told you about that. Tell me about that. Bro, that was fire. Jason was so excited about it. He loves him, bro. ASAP. He loves it. And we went to the it was in the Moody Center at Austin. So we drove, like I worked all day and then drove him out there. And we got there right before it started. And it was super packed, bro. It was like sold out, dog. It was sold out all the way to the top. And the the tickets that we got, I got blessed with these tickets from one of my customers that want them. And he gave them to us for free, bro. So I went, I was like, oh go, let's just go. Let's just do it. So we went up there and it was at the very top, like almost the last row. But dog, it was like full. Like full all the way. Like the stage was in the front, and the people were just, it was full, dog. Like the down, the bottom part was full. The uh all the levels are full. Where we were at, it was full. People were dancing. I was like, this is crazy. Like the moody is bad. He sold it out though.

SPEAKER_00

Nah, I didn't I didn't think it was gonna do that. ASAP, bro? I didn't think he was gonna do that shit, bro. No. I mean, what does a moody hold? Like 15,000? 16,000? Like the Frost Bank. Bro, speaking of oh, so uh did they play a lot of uh Long Live? Long Live ASAP? He played a lot, but it was like he played a lot of. What album is he on right now? Don't be dumb. No, like uh how many? Like three or four? Uh I was big time into ASAP, bro.

SPEAKER_01

With Long Lived ASAP, like five. Oh no, oh sure. But he did this weird album when it was experimental and it kind of like didn't do too well. But there was still some rapping, but he had a lot of like weird samples and like rock and like he does stuff like that, bro. Like he's different, you know. And that's what was cool because I was like, we gotta go see him if you're gonna.

SPEAKER_00

What's his name? The one that people get trampled on the show and shit. Oh, Travis Scott? Travis Scott.

SPEAKER_01

Nah. Nothing like that. Nah, because this was from Brooklyn. He's like from New York. That fool's from Texas. So yeah, he was different. They yeah, they have like fashion and all that, and they do all these weird things the way they dress and the way they look and the way they act, but the music is completely different. That's probably why I get them mixed up because they look the same. Yeah, they're completely different than music. They like where people just like. They wear crazy shit, yeah. And they have the the the dreads and all that shit.

SPEAKER_00

I think you're stereotyping, but no, they're all like they do like a lot of drugs and shit. You know, you know what these kids you know what these kids like probably you know these kids, bro. They're like all like like like pills.

SPEAKER_01

Well, these fools are not kids anymore, though. They're old, dog. They're our age, they're like 40. Because Drake's 39. ASAP 37. Okay. Travis Scott's like 37, probably.

SPEAKER_00

He might be like 35. Like the way that they rap and this and that, and bars and Xanning is all that stuff. I'm like, I I consider them like that's I don't think that's that rap.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, you talk about lean, maybe. Lean, yes. Travis Scott is from Houston. I get that.

SPEAKER_00

I bet you they do like Xanax and all that. That that's what they all rap about. Probably. At some point, maybe uh or or okay, so then I'm thinking about like future, then, right? They're all that. Future is all about the pills and the lean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, drugs. He's from Atlanta, so he's different. That's different. That's a whole different culture. Like, that's different cultures. Like you got Brooklyn, you got Houston, then you got like Atlanta, and you got the LA rappers. That's like the West Coast.

SPEAKER_00

Correct. Well, so yeah, so that's like top dog. Yeah, exactly. Like Kendrick and all that over there, right? Well, uh me and Xavier were just talking about that because guess what I was listening to right now? I was listening to Luda uh on the on the way over here, and I was like, man, this song reminds me um is uh the game got switched. That that one um it was uh uh anyway. That's old. That's old album. Oh no, that's the first album. The first album? That's the first album. And it was it was reminding me, and I was like, that's old. I was like, it reminds me of TJ's mom's house. It reminds me of the summers, bro, going to wreck and like like playing ball. It reminds me of the first time, that's the album.

SPEAKER_01

Back for the first time. The back for the first time is the first album. What year was that? 2000, maybe 2001, or something like that. I was like in fucking ninth grade, probably, bro. When I shit came out, yeah. I remember I was and it was dope. Every song was even hearing now, it's like it still slaps.

SPEAKER_00

I still like it right now. Well, okay, so I was saying, man, you listen to Luda, and I think he said something like, Uh, man, what's that smell? Probably your upper lip, because I love to walk around like my shit don't stink. And like, um, I was I was like, man, you could hear Atlanta in him. You know what I'm saying? You could hear that. Whereas you could tell like the territorial difference, like Houston sounds way oh yeah, like it's not it's not like that. You know what I'm saying? It's more like braggadocious, you know, like type of thing, you know, like outcast and all that as well.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that's from like they're from like South Carolina or something.

SPEAKER_00

Are they?

SPEAKER_01

I thought they're from Atlanta. Oh yeah, they are ATL right, ATL aliens. Uh-huh. But they're like from not like where future's from. Oh Future's like from like the city, like, and and uh Ludicris is from Atlanta, yes, but like from the south, though. I think so. I don't know how they're like futures, future's like not from that thing. And T I, you know? T I is like from the south, and then like you got the like Migos are from like the south. I would I think so. Oh yeah, like you know, so it's like but they sound like future kind of that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00

I lumped them all like in that category, like Migos, Ace, nah, not ASAP, right? No, I'm ASAP's more of a rapper.

SPEAKER_01

ASAP sounds like if he talks, he sounds like a Brooklyn accent, like he has like a Brooklyn accent. I I don't know how to explain it, but even when he talks or like no saying, like he talks like that. He don't talk like come on, son. Like he don't talk like yeah, he has like that kind of accent, that kind of that kind of speech. Not like that's brook. Travis don't talk like that. Travis sounds like slow and he talks like very like you know what I'm saying, like he's like he's different, bro. You know, future is future is like out of there. He's I mean, his bars are like he has good good raps and he can do it, but it's very like like mumbo rap, I guess you could say, like Migos, like mumbo rap.

SPEAKER_00

See, that's where it goes into that whole drug thing for me. Anyway, um, but like, yeah, that's uh they uh there's like a cutoff point with me because after that I don't know who like Dolph and um See that's he's from Memphis. Okay, so I'm talking about their age.

SPEAKER_01

Like he's like 40, he was like 37, 38 years old.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so then I guess what I'm trying to say is what the kids listen to now, like Dolph and um Duck and uh I think the Duck. What's his name? BGK Duck or what?

SPEAKER_01

BGM. BGK Duck. Um but I think that the rap now, young rap right now, is like I listen to some of it, right? But there's a lot of it that I just I just can't listen to it. No, like you listen to way more than me. Yeah, but that's because I just in the culture that I'm in, like in my work environment or like cutting hair, it just goes with all that. And that's why I'll I'll pick up the artist, right? But a lot of it is like I listen to so much music, bro, that I'll like put people on sometimes and I'll be like, damn, who's that? I'm like, oh, it's this person. Because like Spotify, it generates me music and it just tells me what I'm what I'm listening to.

SPEAKER_00

You know, perfect transition too. When you were cutting my hair the other day, what did I do? I went, I looked in the mirror and I was like, song is this? Oh, it was Drake, it was Drake, right? What do you think of the new album? I mean, I don't try that, Doc. Don't try that. No, because whenever Kendrick deaded his ass, you're out, he's done, bro. No, he's done. I said he lost the battle. Yeah, he's d he's done, bro. I said he lost that battle, huh?

SPEAKER_01

I said he lost that battle.

SPEAKER_00

I don't even think necessarily he lost, bro. He lost, dog. You think so? Yes. X? I don't think he lost.

SPEAKER_01

I think that he lost as a fact of like if you're trying to battle rap and you're putting this person down and they're going back and forth, putting each other down, like, dog, he had the better, he had the better fucking like putting him down. He had the better. They were both doing that, yeah. But the shit he was saying, like, he might have gone overboard saying it, but he's definitely was like smashing Drake, bro. Drake was just trying to still make a fucking rap hit, which is cool. He did make rap hits, but if you're trying to battle, like Meek Mill's song, Meek Mill, right? For example, he when he battled Meek Mill, he wasn't trying to make a rap song, he was fucking talking mad shit. Same thing with Butcher T. He was taking personal jabs when he with Kendrick, he tried to do that, and Kendrick just fucking shut that shit down. So I think he loved it.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's the reverse. Damn. Yeah, I think so. I I kind of think so too. I think Drake was talking way more.

SPEAKER_01

Like he was saying a lot of stuff about everybody and see about everybody though. About everybody because everybody was jumping in, but it was supposed to be him and Kendrick though. Correct. Everybody was running their mouth on the road on their own. They jumped in, though. They did that shit. Like Rick Ross dissed them. I don't know where fucking ASAP started dissing him. Like, so he, yeah, he addressed everybody, but if they were they were just battling one-on-one straight to it, like keep it to fucking to Kendrick then. Cool.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so that's why. So I think the the biggest thing, dog, is a minor and all of that stuff, right? Which is cool. And then like the I don't know if I could say that word, um, on like they were saying the PDF. Yeah, PDF stuff, right? All of that stuff. That shit ain't even true. Yeah. So therefore, why is he getting points? And why is he gaining a victory based off of a minor? This and that's it. I remember you specifically. You were all like, when something comes out, dog, he's gonna be done. And I was like, I was, I was like, I don't know, bro. I I don't know like if that's gonna like like unless they know something that nobody knows or whatever, right? And then, long story short, nothing ever came out. So why do you gain the points and win based off of that? Like, if you're dropping bombs on somebody with the shit, ain't even true. Yeah, well, he talked, he addressed about that. That's why the album is like really good. That brings us all the way to now X, which I was I was trying to tell you about, bro. He addresses a lot, he dresses a lot of it, which which I'm like, that's what we wanted to hear. You know what I'm saying? And it was crazy too, because it's what, like two years later? Well, it's been a while back. Two years later.

SPEAKER_01

But like people could defend and be like, well, damn, it took that long for you to come up with this. Like, Ice Boy, bro, true, but the album itself is good, like with the music, like the music is what I'm saying, the beats, the production. That's what I'm saying. So, like, I still don't agree with the whole like his whole album was talking about that the whole time. I think he should have made not songs talking about that the whole fucking time. That's how I feel.

SPEAKER_00

What I didn't know it's the whole album. Well, exactly, but what I didn't know, which is I think is pretty dope, but anyway, because every song has its own flavor, right? But then he throws in like and for all y'all who still think that, you know what I'm saying? And I didn't know that he was like addressing ASAP, and then he's also addressing Kendrick, and then he's addressing uh addressing um Joe Button and Rick Ross and Rick Ross, like he's telling everybody, bro.

SPEAKER_01

But like he really had did that, so it was kind of like some songs they're they're like they're kind of unnecessary, but it was a long album, bro. And then he did three albums, which I thought was cool because I haven't listened to the other two. You you should. If you like the if you like the hip hop, the the RB side, you should definitely listen to the Habib T one because that's like crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Somebody told me that I would like the one with the tape, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Which was that one with the girl on it, which is taped up that one, bro.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's like real soft, but it's good. Somebody told me that yeah, you'll like that one, but I don't think you'll like the other one.

SPEAKER_01

The third one is nah, I don't think you like either. It's more like the controller, or like it's more like you know, a passion fruit. Like it's those kind of songs. So probably not. But I mean, those songs were dope when they were on view, so that's a whole other thing. But the albums, I just like is the way he did it with the three albums, was because he was building up this whole thing on YouTube and this Iceman episodes and this and that, right? And he when he finally dropped the albums, he dropped three out of nowhere. But he did that because they had that lawsuit going on with UMG, he's trying to do all that, and it was getting shut down, so he was like, Okay, well, shut my lawsuit down, that's cool. But I owe you all three albums, here's your three albums, and now I'm out. So now I'm gonna be able to sell my stuff uh independently, or like sell my whole catalog for like whatever billions he was saying, though. He was saying all this already, like he said it already. Like, so here's your albums, I'm out, and now I can make music independently and say whatever I want about Kendrick, about anybody, and about the label, and you can't say shit no more.

SPEAKER_00

Did you tell me that there's like a um conspiracy that the the kit the the beef was manufactured? Well, that's what Drake was saying. Oh, that's what he oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01

That's kind of what he's like been alluding to this whole time. Is like they did that on purpose because they knew that I was gonna be able to like bounce back from it, but they basically own both artists, bro. Correct.

SPEAKER_00

They own both artists, they own a lot of artists. I love the way he's saying though. He's just all like a person's got a million of views and nobody's got questions for him, and this and that. And then he's like, I think he's a magician, because poof, there's he's gone again. Yeah, he's just like the there goes there goes your streams, and though he's just like, I got real numbers. You know what I'm saying? So he's he's saying that in the raps, and I'm like, it's tight, man. It's it's like almost getting the last laugh, if I if like if you want to put it that way, because the GNX that was whack. Yeah, that was just it was just a whack album. Um, and I think most of it. There were some good songs on there. All right, it was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01

There's some songs that are good, like Reincarnated was good, uh Man at the Garden, Whacked Out Murals, like Whacked Out Mirals. See, there's like songs like that that are good, but there's some ones that are very like stupid as fuck, like that I don't like at all. And I just had an album. I heard it, and people were saying that it was good, and I'm like, this ain't good, like this ain't good to me. And then it was a Super Bowl, and then it was the Grammys, and it's like I'm like, I guess. No, no, but like I would still say, like, I think he won the battle.

SPEAKER_00

I think Pound for Pound, bro, the best song in the battle was push-ups. I think so.

SPEAKER_01

I think that the best song that they took down was Taylor May Freestyle. I think that was fire. How did that one go? That was where he imitated Tupac and Snoop.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that one was good. And dog, that also helped like like made him like take a step back too. Like, it almost like it was a shot and a blow that doesn't count. So nobody heard it again.

SPEAKER_01

But what was dope about it though was that if you listen to it, if you can find it, because it's on Spotify, but if you listen to it, he like he has a voice changer, right? So he's it's Snoop's voice and it's Tupac's voice, and then he comes out. But in every verse, they all have a verse, bro. There's no chorus, it's just a verse, right? And they're just rapping. It's Snoop Dogg, he's like nephew, and he's like talking like Snoop Dogg. He's addressing them though, but it's no he's talking about Kendrick, but he's using their voices, but it's Drake rapping in their style, so he's doing it like he's like saying nephew, and he's like has the same cadence as Snoop. Then when Pac comes out, he's like, Kendrick, we need you, and he's like acting like Pac, bro. And then he comes out and then he has all the set of bars in his actual voice, and that I thought was super creative, dog, and like that. I think that was the best song.

SPEAKER_00

I kind of like the one that's like dun dun dun dun. It's like, and he's saying, like, um, what is it? He's like, um he's saying everything about uh Drake's like he's talking like if he's a therapist or something like that, and he's telling them like uh this and that. Talking about Kendrick? Yeah, yeah. That's uh which one's that one?

SPEAKER_01

Um Family Matters? No, Family Matters is the one that had the drop, drop, drop. Like it was a long, it was like seven minutes. Oh my bad. That's Drake's song. Okay, cool. It's uh Family Values.

SPEAKER_00

Family values, that's the one.

SPEAKER_01

He's like, You're at battle with yourself, and yeah. That's when we talked about his 11-year-old daughter that he had and all that.

SPEAKER_00

Like, and then that wasn't true either. But that song was hard. So I'm you just said it. You liked it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, so cool, right? But so now, uh and I uh so that's what Joe Button was saying, too. Now Joe Button's all on his shit now, though. He's all happy about it.

SPEAKER_01

He's like, yeah, he came back, like shut your ass up, bro. You've been like hey, you hate Dick Frank. He's Janice, right? Yeah, he loves that Janice song. No, but that's that's what that's what that's what is like he said it.

SPEAKER_00

Yo, Janice, shut the fuck up. He said it's supposed to be the Joe Buttons, so he's just like, these feet, baby.

SPEAKER_01

Because he said I had a I had a female name and my female name is Janice. Is that's what they gave him, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Someone gave him that name. So the in the course, it goes, Yo, Janice, shut the fuck up. And he keeps on saying, so Joe Buttons, like, yeah, like they got me or whatever, right? So yeah, that's tight.

SPEAKER_01

But bro, I honestly, when I heard the album though, when it first came out, like, so right away I was like, okay, that song is different, right? But but the whole like teach me, I was like, I feel like that's gonna just that's gonna catch on. Like, remember I was singing it at my house? When I hear new songs like that, when I hear new shit like that, especially when it's Drake, I'm very like, I don't know, let me hear it. Let me let me hear it a couple times. And then I heard that shit and I was like, I don't like the way it kind of. But then like the next day, I was like, okay, it's starting to catch on. And then I just that was there, bro. I was like, all these songs are fucking good. And then I was like, let me let me jump to the other one, like the the RB one. And I was like, because I started hearing uh TikTok clips, and I was like, okay, there's like pieces of it, like what song is that? Let me go look at it. Heard the whole album. I'm like, this is a good album. It sounds like it sounds like the slow part of Scorpion. That's what it sounds like. That album. I wasn't too fan, I wasn't a big fan of Scorpion. Yeah, but you like redemption? I do. So a lot of songs on that album, uh Habib, it's called Habib T. That's Prince Habibu? That's what it's called. I don't tell you this talk. You don't know what that's no.

SPEAKER_00

What's that next? And click, right? Yeah, click. Remember, uh, he's making a uh he's making uh he's just like uh Prince Habadah Habada. He's like Habibu. It's Rob Schneider for and he's like uh Damn.

SPEAKER_01

I I saw Click a lot too when I was younger, but I don't remember it like that. Yeah. So he's like, it's Prince Habibu. That's a great movie, bro. Click. That's like that's pretty much like uh a Christmas story. No one ever caught that.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, exactly. Right? Like you gotta Xavier said he caught it, dog, the first time he saw it.

SPEAKER_01

Because we're old. Dog, you would you probably didn't even watch Christmas story, dog. Oh, like the old one, the original? No, Christmas, like not a Christmas story, the wonderful life. It's a wonderful life. A wonderful wonderful life where he relives his life and he goes to see that Christmas pass. Hey, you remember the Fresh Prince episode like that? No, I remember I do, I don't remember that episode. That sounds dope. I have to watch that. I think I probably saw it, but nah. Scrooge, bro. Scrooge. You ever see that? Scrooge Murray? Nah. It's the same, it's the same. You ever seen that? It's the same concept, really. It's a wonderful life, but it's him, and he's all like the way he's he's Bill Murray, dah. Like, it's funny, it's so cringy. But you ever seen you ever seen it? He's like an asshole. He's like really rude, and he he owns this corporation, TV Corporation.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

And then he just it's like that, like the same thing. Oh, that sounds familiar. It's Bill Murray, bro.

SPEAKER_00

Owning the TV corporation, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

He owns the corporation, and he's like, he hates all his workers, he hates life, and he's but he's all rich. He's like a yuppie, it's like in the 80s, dog. So he's like basically they take everything away from him. So he's like, starts from the beginning, and then he has to go relive his life, and there's these ghosts that come and they're funny, they're comedians too, bro.

SPEAKER_00

It's exactly like uh The Wonderful Life. No. Um with Nicholas Cage, Family Man. Have you seen Family Man? Probably not. It's and it's a it's a in it's a Christmas theme as well. And he wakes up and he's with his high school sweetheart. Oh, that doesn't sound familiar. He goes into a store and um he's like, I wish something. And he's just like, You're gonna wish you never said that, Jack. He's like, How do you know my name? He's like, I call everybody Jack. It's um, it's what's his name, bro? Uh, Don Chito. Don Chito's.

SPEAKER_01

I don't think I've seen that one.

SPEAKER_00

It sounds familiar though. Yeah, so he ends up going home, and then his chick, uh, his chick from a high school sweetheart, like he wakes up and then he's he's in their room. He's he's in their house, and now it's his life as if he would have stayed with her all the way then.

SPEAKER_01

Ah, that does sound.

SPEAKER_00

I think he's like in a Ferrari and all that. I pretty much seen that. Yeah, I think I've seen that for sure, bro.

SPEAKER_01

I've seen like so many movies that dog.