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If Kendrick Lamar and Drake was the biggest music beef of 2024, then Kendrick and Father John Misty might just be right behind it at No. 2. Lamar, one of the world’s biggest artists who is set to play the Super Bowl in February, shocked the music world when he suddenly dropped his first new album in 2.5 years on Friday.
Within minutes he became the No. 1 trending topic on social media.
That’s bad news for Father John Misty (real name Joshua Tillman). The former Fleet Foxes drummer is a pretty big name in his own right. He’s one of the biggest stars in the indie rock world and was nominated for Grammy awards in both 2016 and 2018 for his solo work. The latter nomination resulted in a Grammy Award win when his album Pure Comedy was named Best Recording Package in 2018.
Father John Misty released his sixth studio album, Mahashmashana, on Friday and it was almost immediately overshadowed by Kendrick Lamar’s album, GNX.
He poked fun at the unfortunate coincidence on Twitter, penning a tweet that read “not now I’m furiously scribbling my seeming response to.”
But was it really a coincidence? There’s mounting evidence to suggest that Kendrick Lamar just really, really does not like Father John Misty.
it’s okay only other times it’s happened was 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022
— Father John Misty (@fatherjohnmisty) November 22, 2024
Kendrick Lamar Has A Hilarious Habit Of Stepping On Father John Misty’s Toes
While Friday marked the same time that Kendrick released an album on the exact same day as FJM, he seems to follow a similar production calendar.
In 2012, Father John Misty released Fear Fun on April 30. Kendrick released Good Kid, M.A.A.D City on October 22. In 2015, FJM’s I Love You, Honeybear came out on February 9 only for Kendrick to release To Pimp A Butterfly on March 15. The trend continued in 2017 with Pure Comedy releasing on April 7 and Damn. coming out one week later on April 14. Then in 2022, FJM put out Chloë and the Next 20th Century on April 8, just a month before Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers on May 13.
In all reality, it’s probably pure coincidence. But it’s an extremely funny/unfortunate coincidence for Father John Misty. We’re not sure if there’s ever been an indie rock diss track before. But we may soon hear our first.