"Push Ups" is released

Why it matters

"Push Ups" came out April 13, 2024, posted to streaming services through Drake's OVO Sound rollout. Drake produced it (with Boi-1da and a small in-house team). The song is structured as a tightly written diss directed primarily at Kendrick Lamar, with secondary jabs at Rick Ross, Future, Metro Boomin, the Weeknd, and a handful of other rappers Drake had been in escalating tension with through early 2024. The song was Drake's first official entry in what would become the largest rap-on-rap exchange of the 2020s. The 2024 Drake-vs-Kendrick beef had been brewing for years (J. Cole had named Kendrick and Drake the "big three" on his October 2023 Future album "First Person Shooter" appearance; Kendrick had responded by saying "motherfuck the big three, it's just big me" on Future and Metro's "Like That" in March 2024). "Push Ups" was Drake's escalation move. It included references to Kendrick's height, his label situation, his marketability, and his perceived inactivity. The song was technically well-constructed. The response, three weeks later, was "Euphoria." The exchange was not going to be a Drake win. You can hear, on "Push Ups," Drake operating in his strongest competitive mode. The pacing was about to change.