We know more shots will be thrown between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Artists will make more cold accusations and might even release more derogatory songs. But much of the war has passed and the crown has been won by Compton. In retrospect, the way Drake provoked the bear with hints on his Instagram stories and his ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ seems masochistic. Over the past week, Kendrick has hit Drake with songs that completely dismantled the character of his opponent, and with ‘Not Like Us,’ he could make her the joke of the summer. Although Drake deserves credit for challenging an experienced lyricist like Kendrick, he will have to accept defeat.
It would be easy to call their dispute a heavyweight fight, but I compare it more to the great middleweight wars of the ’80s, when Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Durán fought round after round to be the best. . Similarly, the rivalry between Drake and Kendrick initially stemmed from their competitive instinct. Just as Kendrick rapped “Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish black, the crown is heavy” on ‘Euphoria,’ Drake often keeps a few lines about hip-hop’s inherent competitiveness on his dressing room wall. They both knew that this moment was inevitable. Those who don’t understand the nature of the conflict clearly haven’t spent the last 15 or 20 years wanting to be considered the greatest rapper of all time.
Traditionally, rap rivalry develops over several years. In the past, albums were released, shows were performed, and lives were lived between each. diss track. But Drake revealed in April that he delayed taking a break from his tour to fight, and Kendrick accepted. Hip-hop fans should admire them for giving us one of the most exciting eras in hip-hop history, featuring appearances from Rick Ross, Kanye, Metro Boomin, and more. If enmity in rap isn’t your thing, you must be totally irritated. But if so, you’re on the edge of your seat.
To quote Jay-Z, everything was fine just a week ago for Drake. He had thrown two diss tracks, and it looked like jumping in front of Kendrick’s first pitch with a third lead might have tipped things in his favor. But then ‘Euphoria’ came along and nothing was the same again. ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Family Matters’ are catchy songs that will end up on many playlists. The way he repeatedly inverted the Michael Jackson/Prince binary against Kendrick was clever and he deserves credit for not weakening when numerous industry giants ganged up against him. That being said, it seems like he didn’t have as much to say about Kendrick as vice versa.
‘The Heart Pt. 6’ sounds like it was written in the notes app with a confusing rhyme full of errors. Drake misinterpreted the story told in Kendrick’s ‘Mother I Sober’ (to project the very rational notion that Kendrick would hypothetically have a problem with pedophiles if he were sexually abused), and added that he has never interacted inappropriately with actress Millie Bobby Brown when Kendrick never explicitly mentioned her. He claimed to have given Kendrick false information about having a daughter, but also rhymed, “Those you get your stories from, they’re all clowns.”
The attacks of both men canceled each other out significantly. Both seem to be wrong about their paternity accusations, both men had unfavorable record contracts when they began their careers, and neither man has much of a right to talk about how the other treats women. Kendrick allowed Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith to use his catalog as bargaining chips in an attempt to keep R. Kelly and XXXTentacion on Spotify playlists in 2018, and invited Kodak Black, who was put on trial for rape , to co-star on his album Mr. Morale. She asked Drake, “Baka has a weird case, why is he around?” on ‘Not Like Us’, but the same could be said for his mentor, Dr. Dre, who has a documented history of accusations of assaulting women. Drake’s friend Baka Not Nice was accused of sex trafficking in 2015, but the charges were dropped after the defendant refused to testify. The way women have become chess pieces in the latest rounds of this conflict is disheartening, but more on that later.
But overall, Kendrick’s shots have had more power. He rapped about Drake’s racial identity issues, his alleged vices, his lack of street smarts, his shady behind-the-scenes tactics, his transactional relationships in Atlanta, his alliance with Baka, and, most alarming, his alleged inappropriate behavior with teenage girls. . It appears that he pulled much of her social media information, and while some of it has yet to be corroborated, he executed it properly in the public eye. Kendrick expressed his grievances in four songs that radiate different vibes. ‘Euphoria’ is a gym track, while ‘6:16 in LA’ is soulful music. ‘Meet the Grahams’, which premiered minutes after Drake’s ‘Family Matters’, showcases his opponent over a horror soundtrack produced by Alchemist.
That brings us to ‘Not Like Us’, a DJ-Mustard knockout with classic LA swing. Drake quickly came out to deny Kendrick’s accusation on ‘Meet the Grahams’ that he has an 11-year-old daughter, but it took ‘Not Like Us’ to go viral for him to open up about the nature of his alleged relationships with teenage girls. Some pointed out that none of Kendrick’s first three songs had club potential, but after the release of ‘Not Like Us’, Saturday night was filled with videos of DJs playing the song at parties across the country. Social media is full of people posting memes overlaying the track on dance videos. In 2015, Drake used the beat of ‘Back to Back’ and an avalanche of memes to cement his victory against Meek Mill. In wrestling terms, Kendrick used his opponent’s finishing move against him.
Kendrick’s sense of humor is underrated and is most evident on ‘Euphoria’ and ‘Not Like Us’. His comedic chops come to play on ‘Euphoria’ when he raps in disbelief: “Is it the braids!?” and he observes, “I even hate when you say the word ‘nigga,’ but I guess that’s just me.” If he had rapped ‘Euphoria’ in a totally serious tone, he would feel too angry. If he had gone too far with the teasing, he would feel like he wasn’t taking it seriously enough. But he showed perfect balance on the track, changing his vocal cadence and tone almost every eight bars. His performance of ‘Not Like Us’ was completely camp, with a chant of ‘OV-HOE’ and an inflection on lines like “The devil’s a lie, he’s a 69 God, queer blacks need to stay inside.” Drake had spent his entire career trying to get rid of the stigma of being a wheelchair-bound Jimmy in Degrassi, to an overcompensatory degree. Now, the rap world is laughing at him again.
It felt like Drake was focused on winning the social media war, while Kendrick was in Pepe Silvia mode, trying to make his speeches as intentional as possible. ‘6:16’ contains numerous references, from Tupac’s birthday to the release date of Euphoria, a Drake-produced series that has been criticized for sexualizing high school students. He had Taylor Swift’s producer Jack Antonoff co-create ‘6:16′ after Drake sarcastically rapped about Kendrick’s submission to the pop star. His writing was so sharp that he used foreshadowing in an insult, rhyming “’Back to Back,’ I like that record / I’ll go back to that, let it be on the record,” on ‘Euphoria,’ and then did so with a samples by Al Green in ‘6:16’, a reference to an obscure CD Back to Back Hits by Al Green and Teddy Pendergrass (the latter was also sampled in ‘Euphoria’).
What Kendrick did is unprecedented. In the summer of 2016, Joe Budden released four diss tracks against Drake in a span of four weeks. But at that time, Drake had not earned as much bad fame for his actions, and Budden did not have the popularity to get the masses to riot. Many former Drake fans are tired of hearing about his (alleged) strange relationships with teenagers and his unnecessary attacks on people like Megan Thee Stallion and Rihanna. Kendrick carried his own disdain for the Toronto rapper and finally let it out.
The past few weeks have sparked broader cultural conversations about racial identity. The notion of Drake maintaining transactional relationships with black music scenes is not new. But Kendrick put it even better than Pusha T did a few years ago, listing Drake’s Atlanta connections one by one and surmising that they collectively allowed Drake to assimilate into African-American culture. He rhymed, “You’re not a buddy, you’re a colonizer,” a phrase that could stick with Drake for years.
On Sunday, a social media user criticized Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg for weighing in on the verse, saying that as two white men, “we have to stay out of this.” But it’s not just about that verse. Much of this dispute leads into waters of racial politics that non-black rap fans don’t have the lived experience to truthfully evaluate, no matter how hard they try. As I’ve written before, the cultural disconnect of rap fandom is evident through the reactions to this issue. Could it be that the people who still believe that Drake has won say so because of his verses, or do they fear that admitting Drake’s defeat will force them to admit that they are not “like us” either?
most of diss tracks They don’t end up generating broader social commentary, but Kendrick isn’t like most artists. After Nas’ ‘Ether,’ where his resentment toward Jay-Z boiled over in a scathing track, most artists knew no one would make him that angry again. The same will happen with Kendrick. He’s known for letting years pass between albums, but in just one week he proved his legacy as one of the most respected lyricists of all time. After all, he may actually be rap’s fearsome bogeyman.
Last year, X’s account, https://twitter.com/JahTalksMusic/status/1631678563668598789: “J. Cole retires after The Fall Off, Drake said he’s considering ‘a graceful exit’ and Kendrick is choosing himself over music. “We are coming to the end of these legends of the 2010s.” The post sparked thoughtful comments about what the three men had accomplished. Then, First Person Shooter brought the big three from a past-tense conversation to the center of today’s pop culture. It feels like they are creating the epilogue to their story rather than a new chapter. And in those final lines, Kendrick is the victor.
