Push Ups
Song Meaning

“Push Ups” is Drake’s response to Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” which had dragged both Drake and J. Cole 1 3. Drake mocks Kendrick’s height and shoe size (“How the fuck you big steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?”), dismisses his claim to being part of hip-hop’s “big three” (“Pipsqueak, pipe down, you ain’t in no big three”), and frames his own commercial dominance as proof of superiority 1 3. He also fires shots at J. Cole for softening his own diss, at Metro Boomin and Future for teaming up against him, and at Rick Ross and the Weeknd for their ties to that camp 1 3.

The meaning

At its core, “Push Ups” is Drake reasserting commercial and competitive dominance after Kendrick Lamar used his guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” to reject the notion of a rap “big three” alongside Drake and J. Cole 1 3. Rather than engaging Kendrick’s artistic critique, Drake responds with a numbers-and-status argument, repeatedly pointing to his own hits, bookings, and reach (“I’m the hitmaker y’all depend on”) as the rebuttal.

Much of the track is built around physical mockery of Kendrick, taking aim at his height and shoe size (“How the fuck you big steppin’ with a size-seven men’s on?”) and later calling him a “midget” elsewhere in the song 1 3. Drake directly contests Kendrick’s “big three” claim with the line “Pipsqueak, pipe down, you ain’t in no big three,” going on to argue that other artists like SZA, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage have commercially eclipsed him 3 4. He also revives an old dig at Kendrick’s relationship with former TDE label head Top Dawg, casting Kendrick as still “paying dues” to him (“Top told you, ‘Drop and give me fifty,’ like some push-ups”), which doubles as the song’s title and hook 4.

The track isn’t limited to Kendrick. Drake dismisses J. Cole’s diss track “7 Minute Drill” outright, rapping “I don’t care what Cole think, that Dot shit was weak as fuck,” while also suggesting Cole tried to broker peace through Top Dawg rather than stand behind his own record 1 2. He turns on Metro Boomin with “Metro, shut your ho ass up and make some drums,” reducing him to a producer with no standing to speak, and takes aim at Future and the Weeknd for aligning with that camp, with the Weeknd dig read as a jab at his departure from Toronto 1 3. Rick Ross, who had released his own diss track that week, gets called out over his age and finances 1 2.

Journalistic accounts of the beef frame “Push Ups” as Drake’s strategy of reframing the conflict as a hierarchy dispute rather than a substantive artistic one, casting his critics as a coordinated “conspiracy” of lesser artists rather than legitimate rivals 4. That framing lines up with the song itself: rather than rebutting Kendrick’s specific accusations, Drake leans on chart success, industry leverage, and a barrage of individual insults to project supremacy over everyone he names.

Last updated 2026-07-25