What's Going On With Kendrick Lamar, Drake & The "Meet The Grahams" Cover Art?

BYGabriel Bras Nevares16.3K Views
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Twitter user EbonyPrince2k24 made a whole lot of deep, damning, and conspiratorial claims after the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud died down.

Update: Journalist Christopher Alvarez, who appears in some of EbonyPrince2k24's photos and videos, wrote an article denying any negative or conflictive situation with Drake, as many fans had theorized. He called the assumption misinformation, said that they just listened to beats, but also lamented that a security guard's kindness to him got him fired from the hotel staff. Finally, Alvarez said he has nothing to do with the Kendrick Lamar beef and that he will not be following accounts from minors anymore despite a lack of inappropriate behavior for his own safety and reputation.

When we reflect on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, it's likely that "Meet The Grahams" will be the point of no return. It dropped minutes after Drizzy's "Family Matters" diss, its cover art displayed items that allegedly belong to the Toronto superstar, and it contained serious allegations accusing the OVO mogul of child neglect, various addictions, and predatory behavior towards young women and others. K.Dot quickly livened this up with the No. 1 smash "Not Like Us." But despite this feud being over for now, some fans went down a much darker and more serious path.

An account on the social media platform by the name of EbonyPrince2k24 now has hip-hop heads becoming amateur investigative journalists and private detectives. These videos, tweets, statements, and interpretations in defense of, in Ebony's words, "King Kendrick" (whose alleged involvement is unknown), allegedly suggest a more sinister incident at The Mark Hotel in New York City in July of 2023. We want to make it clear that none of the following claims are proven true or verified; that this got a whole lot deeper than just rap beefing with Drake, and that we're barely scratching the surface.

EbonyPrince2k24's First Posts About The "Meet The Grahams" Cover Art

First, the rabbit hole deepened when EbonyPrince uploaded a video displaying various items that Kendrick Lamar put on his "Meet The Grahams" cover art. These include a shirt, prescription drugs with July 2023 dates, a May 8, 2024 newspaper, a Maybach glove, and jewelry receipts. Ebony claimed that he did not steal these items, as DJ Akademiks had suggested, and warned Ak and Drake to publicly say that Ebony did not steal the items or face legal action (at press time past noon on Monday, May 13, which was his deadline for this, no news has emerged of a lawsuit). Ebony also tweeted what seems to be CCTV footage of a hotel lobby dated January 22, 2023, which he says he posted to remind Aubrey Graham of when he discarded those items. Journalist Christopher Alvarez also appears in that alleged screenshot.

Further tweets claim that Drake caused two Black men to lose their jobs on that day and that he "made an enemy," and Ebony further suggested that the 37-year-old is blocking him from getting money. Ebony even claims that the New York Police Department opened an investigation and almost arrested Ebony over Drake's "accommodations" and claims of assault, the alleged perpetrator of which is unclear. He then posted a video of Drake presumably entering The Mark Hotel in NYC while a female fan tried to run after him. "I've stood next to you in the rain to keep the paps and fanatics away," Ebony wrote. The last important accusation to mention is that Ebony allegedly recorded the video of the "Meet The Grahams" items from, according to fan theories, from either Kendrick Lamar's balcony or the hotel next to The Mark.

The Second Wave Of The "Meet The Grahams" Rabbit Hole: Drake Catches More Allegations

As if all that wasn't enough bizarre speculation, EbonyPrince2k24 returned on Monday (May 13) to post another video of items, but this one is different. These aren't the "Meet The Grahams" cover items, but rather a May 13, 2024 newspaper, a multi-colored set of jewelry, and two shooting range posters. Also, Ebony posted another picture of jewelry on Twitter, perhaps insinuating that these items are allegedly Drake's. Then, he said that The Boy introduced a "dilemma" into his professional life, suggested that all these items are from a Lost and Found, and that he "understood the assignment" when he saw the "Meet The Grahams" cover art a couple of days after it released. Ebony also insinuates that Drake asked for a "little bag" in Ebony's possession, and did not care about the "big bag" that may have contained these items.

Meanwhile, Ebony also called Drake's entourage a "goon squad" that "pushes the service providers who are trying to assist out of the way," is mean to staff, and once struck a service provider due to thinking that they were a paparazzi. "On top of costing people to be fired, costing people to resign, and nearly costing me to be arrested (all in the lawsuit against young Theodore from earlier)..." he also tweeted. This could refer to The Mark Hotel's defamation lawsuit against Theodore Weintraub, who reportedly accused the hotel of denying the Holocaust and supporting Jeffrey Epstein.

Final Claims & Theories

Throughout the rest of the day, Ebony has been making more claims, referring to a "3rd party company" that some have unverifiably linked to Drake's alleged security company. Ebony also alluded to his legal responsibility to "report any questionable activity regarding the humans this law covers..." The law in question is presumably related to "Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and Maltreatment," based on a screenshot of a certificate of completion of mandated reported training. Once noon on Monday rolled around, Ebony posted a picture of the Kaspia restaurant at The Mark Hotel, suggesting once again that something serious allegedly happened there on July 27, 2023. "My eyes [don't] determine age. They... decipher adult from adolescent. Young Theodore made changes to how we monitored youngins..." he captioned the photo.

At around 2 pm EST, EbonyPrince posted another alleged CCTV clip in the same alleged hotel lobby that also shows that journalist Christopher Alvarez was there. An unidentifiable person walks in, but the clip cuts off before anything happens. Ebony then announced that he would sell all the items this November at a New York event, and said that he's ready to die over this information. However, he suggested that he won't share it since it's all with the lawyers now, and finally, he claimed that he "only told Kendrick [Lamar] about the items." On top of all this, DJ Akademiks also expressed his opinion that Drake allegedly never had a mole in Kendrick's camp feeding him false info, which is related to these items. Overall, it's impossible to tell whether EbonyPrince2k24 is telling the truth or making mountains out of molehills. For now, the waters are muddier than ever.

[Via]

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output. Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond. Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C. His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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