Song of the Day Thread from A College Library

Awful. Just ran across it.

 

If you’re not keeping up with the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef, you should be.

First K.Dot dropped a verse in “Like That” taking shots at both Drake and J Cole.

J Cole responded with a diss track called “7 minute drill” but apologized for it and took it down the next day.

Drake responded a few weeks later with a diss track called “Push ups.” Then he put out a follow up called Taylor Made Freestyle but had to take it down after receiving legal threats from Tupac’s estate for using AI to mimic his voice.

Kendrick just responded today (3-4 weeks later) with a new song called Euphoria. It was well worth the wait.

 

Sounds like a bunch of women. Think I'll pass.

 

Your loss. Rap beef and diss tracks are some of the best music the industry has to offer, and when it's the biggest guys in the business, it just goes up a level. Some of the greatest rap music in history was born out of beef (Tupac/Biggie, Nas/Jay Z, etc.).

I won't speak for Drake's piece, as I do feel he tends to come across very surface level and a bit childish.

But Kendrick's attacks are legit. He's attacking Drake's "blackness" and calling him out for appropriating "the culture" to get rich, pointing at his insecurities and identity crisis as a half black half white man. At the end of the song he takes away his "n-word" card. lol.

Then there's the attacks on his misogynistic nature and calling out how bad of a father he is. Oh, and then there's the work he's doing comparing Drake to Michael Jackson to take subtle jabs at Drake grooming young, underage women.

It's pretty well done.

 

honestly can’t think of many things I care less about

 

some of us are old enough to remember......

 

Or this ...


If we wanted insult entertainment ... Don Rickles.

 

I am down for anyone shitting on Drake. [uck fay] his weird perv ass.

These diss tracks will become classic when he gets R Kelly'd in about twenty years

 

Followed by this the rest of the night....

 

Yeah, I'm surprised by the "too cool for school" responses so far.

I look at rap beef as similar to player rivalries in sports. We love watching a great CB and WR who can't stand each other go at it on the field. We enjoy the back and forth between CP3, Westbrook, Pat Bev, etc. People couldn't get enough of Anthony Edwards the other night saying "I just wanna kill everything in front of me, man. That's the main thing." It reminded them of their favorite, Michael Jordan, who everyone LOVES talking about in terms of his rivalries with other players at the time (Magic, Bird, Isiah, etc.).

How is that any different than Kendrick calling out almost every mainstream rapper by name in Control (back in 2013) and saying:

I got love for you all, but I'm tryna murder you ni**as
Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you ni**as
They don't wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you ni**as

Drake and Kendrick are at the top of the hip hop mountain, and now they are competing and calling each other out by name in songs directly. It ups both of their games and pushes them to put their best possible product out there. It's [uck fay]ing awesome.

I can understand just not liking rap music in general, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you like listening to hip hop, you should LOVE the fact that these two are going at it.

 

There are a LOT of options to choose from, but I think my favorite line so far from any of the songs is probably:

"We hate the [itch bay]es you [uck fay], 'cause they confuse themself with real women
And notice, I said "we" it's not just me, I'm what the culture feelin'
How many more fairytale stories 'bout your life 'til we had enough?
How many more Black features 'til you finally feel that you're Black enough?
I like Drake with the melodies, I don't like Drake when he act tough"

So much to unpack but really hits hard at his core messaging:

• You mess around with underage women
• You and your history/background are fraudulent
• You haven't lived the "black" experience despite making millions off of "black" culture and "playing" black
• Your music is fine, it's the fake tough guy act that's the problem.
• I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm speaking for the "culture" (black folks more generally)

 

If they were actually going to fight in a ring, it would be mildly entertaining. Otherwise it is two kids yelling "my daddy will beat up your daddy", or worse, gunfights will actually breakout, in which case, don't want to promote that.

My two cents.

 

"I wanna piss on you"

 

I feel like this should be called white-splaining

 

For anyone who IS interested (or just enjoys hip hop in general), here are the tracks:

This one (Like That) rekindled the beef a month ago (Kendrick's verse, primarily):



This was Drake's main response (Push Ups):



And this was the response Kendrick dropped yesterday (Euphoria):

 

If you don't want to engage further, feel free to just say so, as I'm not trying to be a [penis] here or annoy anyone. I also understand that some people just don't like or listen to hip hop, which is fine. But your perception of the situation is way off base (outside of the gunfights breaking out piece). Here's some context, if you're interested:

First, I don't really understand the "fight in a ring" thing. Do we ever say that with sports figures and athletes who are rivals? We want to see them go at it within the game/sport they play. I want to see Drake/K-Dot go at each other lyrically through the music, and that's exactly what they're doing. They are creating enjoyable, listenable music while actively talking shit about each other and calling each other out directly by name. It's actually [uck fay]ing awesome, and there's a reason that the hip-hop "community" is so excited about it. It's Pac/Biggie. It's Ali/Frazier. It's 2 guys who are widely considered the best at what they do going directly at each other within their medium. Again, it's [uck fay]ing awesome - the height of what hip hop has to offer.

Second, I have no idea why you think these two guys in their mid 30's are "yelling 'my daddy will beat up your daddy.' Again, if there's a "main theme" associated with Kendrick's latest drop (Euphoria), it's that Drake is a fraud for growing up as a half white person in what most would refer to as a "sheltered," "white" culture, and then trying to "act" black in order to make money off of a culture he's not really a part of. That is significantly deeper than "my daddy will beat up your daddy." And that doesn't even mention the technical pieces, like making the music "good" and "listenable," responding directly to the topics the other guy broached in his song, and hitting every piece about the person that you want to call out/insult in a way that flows.

I truly look at hip hop as an art form. It's a combination of literature and music, both of which are incredibly important parts of our culture. That's a big reason I love it, and rap beef brings out some of the best that hip hop has to offer (though I, too, hope no one actually gets shot).

 

That's part of the hip hop discussion, and the Kendrick discussion, more specifically. A lot of people say Kendrick's music is "for" white people. Why are deep, thoughtful lyrics looked at as "more white" or "less black?" Big part of a stereotype/barrier that I think Kendrick works at breaking down through his music (whether intentionally or unintentionally).