DJ Akademiks Says Drake Had the Best Song in Kendrick Lamar Battle: 'Based Off Quality, Not Impact'

It's clear that people disagree with his choice.

May 4, 2025

(Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)/(Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)/ (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

DJ Akademiks has social media in an uproar thanks to an unusual top choice in his ranking of the songs in Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 back-and-forth rap beef extravaganza.

Ak took to X on Saturday (May 3) to give his thoughts about the tracks, starting off by saying that the second verse of Drake’s “Family Matters” was “the hardest shit in the battle.”

That got people talking, so Akademiks added another of his opinions to the mix.

“In hindsight, ‘Meet the Grahams’ was the WORST song by a mile in the battle,” he wrote in a separate post.

Akademiks continued by dropping his full official ranking of the songs from the beef. Drake’s “Family Matters” at the top spot and “Meet the Grahams” at the bottom.

“Songs are ranked off quality, bars, not impact,” he qualified, presumably to explain why "Not Like Us," with its world-beating success, was not at the top.

Akademiks’ post got more than a thousand comments from people debating his rankings.

“Push ups was better than Not like us and Euphoria,” wrote one user. Another one chimed in with an entirely different take: “Having pushups over 6:16 in LA is wild.”

Other fans recognized what they saw as Akademiks’ clear bias towards Drake in his rankings. For the duration of the beef last year, Akademiks frequently talked about his "association" with Drizzy, so him ranking “Family Matters” at the top didn't surprise many.

One X user’s viral post quoted Akademiks’ rankings with a video of the media personality watching Lamar perform “Euphoria” at a recent show. While initially appearing indifferent and slightly annoyed that Lamar was performing the diss song, Akademiks couldn’t help but break into an ear-to-ear grin as the beat dropped — even going as far to start rapping the diss song.

Akademiks hasn’t posted about Drake and Lamar’s beef since his ranking, but it’s clear that the internet won’t drop it anytime soon. Check out some of the best reactions to Akademiks’ post below.