Drake Just Dissed Kendrick Again ... Badly (1am in Albany)
>“As for these other suckers that's tucked away I'm down to put bills on they face
No wonder why they been ducking Drake Bills on they face, no wonder why they been ducking Drake”
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
The new ‘leak’ ahead of ‘Iceman’, ‘1am in Albany’ is a flagrant display of Drake’s stupidity and short sightedness.
The disses against Kendrick, LeBron, and others, are obvious, but I want to focus on one specific angle. Drake’s ‘evil ways’.
On ‘Wacced Out Murals’, Kendrick told us directly that his beef was never going to be peaced up, that “they’ll never get over it” and exactly why this is. The track title. Someone tried to whack out his mural.
>“Niggas from my city couldn't entertain old boy
Promisin' bank transactions and even bitcoin
I'll never peace it up, that shit don't sit well with me
Before I take a truce, I'll take 'em to Hell with me
If that money got in the hands of a crash dummy
Could jeopardize my family and burden the ones who love me“
Kendrick Lamar - Wacced Out Murals (2024)
I cannot go into specifics for obvious reasons, and for brevity’s sake, but on the first two tracks of GNX (Wacced Out Murals + Squabble Up) Kendrick explains that there were two attempted hits, with money floated on both the West Coast & East Coast. I go into this on a previous post you can read here.
Deep, complex, hard to decipher symbolism, only the 6ix God could come up with this.
Let’s start with the track title ‘1am in Albany’. Albany is the capital of New York, where the second hit was planned, and then foiled, after word came out about the plans, this is extensively spoken about on ‘GOOD CREDIT’ from Playboi Carti’s album:
>“Red and blue diamonds like* *Gusher, dog
Up score on you niggas like Rucker*, dog*
I'm sore 'cause I got it off the muscle*, dog*
Frrah, frrah, slid, slide (The streets ready for this shit right here)
Drop, drop, die, die, kill, kill, watch, watch (Swamp Izzo)”
Playboi Carti ft. Kendrick Lamar - Good Credit (2025)
Red & blue diamonds = ambulance lights. ‘Gusher’ refers to fatal injury and blood loss. ‘Off the muscle’ is self explanatory, as is slide, drop, and kill. To ‘up score’ is to score a point via shooting, and Rucker refers to Rucker Park, NYC.
We were told by a noteworthy source that a majority of you will be familiar with, that these attempted hits were stopped thanks to a ‘buddy pass’, as Kendrick affirms on ‘Squabble Up’:
>“A yee nigga couldn't try me in the tri-state
Buddy pass*, bet I get him splashed 'til he hydrated“*
Kendrick Lamar - Squabble Up (2024)
It wasn’t clear who this ‘Buddy’ was, but it seems like Drake may have just clarified things.
>“But truth be told, I can't even see the block. It's blocked by the Tree Tops*“*
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
The Tree Top Pirus is the set represented by Kendrick’s affiliate, YG. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see what Drake is saying here. YG had made his stance in the beef very clear after Drake attempted to use his name to add weight to ‘Family Matters’:
>“You know who really bang a set? My nigga YG”
Drake - Family Matters (2024)
V.s
>“You bitter-ass niggas be sweet, like Cheerios
Weird-ass nigga (Ass nigga), you niggas lame (You niggas lame)
When it's smoke, don't ever mention my name (Mention my name)
You gon' have me jeapoardizin' my fame
Jeapoardizin' the gang, jeapoardizin' where you hang, nigga”
“I don't wanna hear it, not even a snippet
You ain't Piru, stop talkin' Piru business”
YG - Weirdo (2024)
Okay, now lets get back to ‘1am in Albany’ and Drake’s hamfisted lyrics.
>“The blasphemy you talk lets me know that your amazing grace gon' be delayed.“
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
‘Amazing Grace’ is a hymn played at funerals. Essentially saying Kendrick avoided the hit & fortunately prolonged his time on Earth.
>“God* wanna wipe that little smug look right off of your fucking face
All you really did was cap like uppercase
Dodge a trooper still managed to finally get a hit that let you run a base
Managed to finally get a hit that let you run a base
Niggas saw you out at first, you need them *you out at home now, just like a double play”
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
God refers to Drake’s position as the ‘6 God’, and this is important, as these lines are all about home. The Canadian says Kendrick was able to ‘Dodge a trooper’, as in, avoid a soldier, and ‘run a base’ by getting away. He explains he was only able to get this ‘out’ because of his guys at home from the ‘Pop Out’. This is capped off by the final lyric, which refers to a ‘double play’, Kendrick’s two homes - in New York & in LA.
>“As for these other suckers that's tucked away I'm down to put bills on they face
No wonder why they been ducking Drake Bills on they face, no wonder why they been ducking Drake
Let's not even take it to that other place
You boys too pussy like double dates“
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
Drake continues the hit talk in the following lines.
To put bills on someone’s face is to put money on someone’s head, i.e, a bounty. This is probably the best line from the track (not that there is much competition). ‘Bill’ is the word for a receipt being paid, but also the beak of a water bird, in this case, a duck. To duck is to avoid something (usually aimed at your head/face). Of course, Kendrick’s surname is ‘Duckworth’, so Drake is going duck hunting, and explaining the ‘bill’ needed to take the shot (which blew up in his face).
>“You’ll live to see another day, and even if you don’t, its just another day*
We ain't crying for your punk ass anyway
I'm a six side renegade, for anybody adding more lemons to the lemonade
Sour in the vibes that I generate
*I'm 16 years in this ain’t Minute Maid”
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
These lines are mostly self explanatory, but the final has some more weight to it. ‘16’ is likely a reference to Kendrick’s line:
>"I done lost plenty friends, 16 to be specific*"*
Kendrick Lamar - Wacced Out Murals (2024)
We know this thanks to ‘Minute Maid’ - an alliteration, MM. ‘MM’ is used to refer to a Mercedes Maybach, with the Mercedes logo mirroring the peace sign. ☮️ When Drake says ‘this ain’t Minute Maid’, he is saying this isn’t peace, or rap bravado, and that he means what he is saying.
Edit: I didn't explain the Minute Maid = Mercedes Maybach = Peace thing well enough. I'm gonna share some other examples. This isn't something specific to this track, or Drake, its a code used by a majority of rappers to denote when they are on peace/looking for smoke.
I'll give two examples:
>"How many Texas boys done ran it up? A couple, maybe (Couple, maybe)
Swanging in the pickup truck, baby, fuck Mercedes (Fuck Mercedes)
I'll fuck a nigga bitch but she can't have the baby (Have the baby)
I'll shoot your ass in Walmart like I'm DaBaby (In Walmart)"
Travis Scott ft. Drake - Meltdown (2023)
Here Travis literally says 'fuck Mercedes' - 'fuck peace'. He follows this up by saying he'll shoot you like DaBaby (who famously shot someone in a Walmart). Meltdown is of course a diss track against Pusha T, and was responded to on 'So Be It'.
>"'Til the day me and the grim reap meet, I'm ten toes down 'til I'm six feet deep
Windows down in the Benz E jeep*, hollerin' at a bimbo, beep-beep-beep"*
Eminem ft. Cordae & Jack Harlow - Killer (Remix) (2021)
Here Em says he is riding in a Benz (Mercedes), hollering and beeping his horn. He's looking for attention, not for smoke. He's taunting, not looking for war, or sending actual shots. Of course, this is Em's whole thing (mostly).
Hopefully this illustrates the differences in the two meanings & what was being said by Drake when he brought up Minute Maid.
Here is an example of this from YG's Suu Whoop music video, notice that the Mercedes logo has been censored. Other logos are also censored in the video, like Converse's Chucks, for obvious reasons.
Mercedes Maybach with the logo censored
Edit:
Insanely good catch from u/cartywho, who pointed out another parallel between 1am in Albany and Wacced Out Murals:
>"Squares drawing the line but we at the root of it now"
Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)
v.s
>"Turn me to an Eskimo, I drew the line and decimals"
Kendrick Lamar - Wacced Out Murals (2024)
----
Other lines that are relevant but don’t need much explanation include:
>“You put that jacket on anybody, you're funeral bound*.”*
>“I'm in the battlefield really putting boots to the ground.“
>“They trying to have me stuck in this position like rigor mortis*.*
Turn my back on you just to give you the biggest target”
>Drake - 1am in Albany (2026)