NBA Stars, NFL Stars, & Mbappé Choose Between Kendrick Lamar, Drake, & J. Cole
Over the years, we've had star athletes including Zion Williamson, Kylian Mbappé, Nikola Jokic, Damian Lillard, Ant Edwards, Ja Morant, and more pick between Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole. Here are their responses.
Kendrick Lamar set the internet ablaze last night when he dropped a verse dissing Drake and J. Cole on Future and Metro Boomin's new album We Don't Trust You. Kendrick referenced "First Person Shooter", a collaboration by J. Cole and Drake and included a line that triggered Drake and J. Cole stans everywhere when he said "motherf**k the big three, n***a, it's just big me." The verse reignited the longtime debate of who is the best rapper alive between Drake, J. Cole, and K. Dot. While X, formerly known as Twitter, debates all night on morning on the topic, we thought it would be timely to dip into our archives.
Over the past five years, the Complex Sports team has polled athletes ranging from NFL, NBA, and even soccer on the everlasting debate of who was the best rapper between the Big 3. We started this series in 2019 with the NBA rookies and have continued it up until last year's NBA All-Star Wekeend. While some polls were closer than others, all of them concluded that athletes rank Drake and J. Cole over Kendrick. It's worth noting that two polls happened when Kendrick hadn't released music close to the time period of filming but shockingly, we saw the largest disparity in votes in our 2022 poll with NBA rookies fresh off the Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers debut.
Our polls feature some of the biggest names in sports including Zion Williamson (twice), Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, Nikola Jokic, and even Kylian Mbappé. We typically poll NBA players because the cultures of hip-hop and basketball have always been intertwined.
With all that being said, here's how athletes rank Kendrick, J. Cole, and Drake.
