Headshot(s) Of The Year: Is Drake Cooked?
Modern Hip-Hop's two most successful names have been on a relentless streak this week going head to head: what does this mean for the culture?
Jesus Christ, Okay.
When I started writing this post on Friday morning, each rapper was two disses deep. And now, Sunday evening, tears are being shed at Drake's funeral: Kendrick dropped three times in 36 hours in response to Drake's seven-and-a-half-minute diss titled Family Matters that came out Friday night. Bombs dropped; the internet exploded; "Kendrick And Drake" was trending with 1.32 million posts on X by Saturday morning: this will go down as one of the most important weekends in Hip-Hop ever. And Metro Boomin' is dropping diss beats? What exactly is all this? What does any of this mean?
Well, if you aren't already aware of the situation, let me fill you in with a timeline:
On March 22nd, Metro Boomin' & Future dropped their highly anticipated collaborative record, We Don't Trust You, which got online Hip-Hop circles talking for a variety of different reasons, but the main one being that on the track Like That, Kendrick Lamar came out of his slumber swinging at J. Cole and Drake after hearing them team up on Drizzy's latest record, For All The Dogs, in October, saying, "We the big three like we started a league." He was not about to be put in the same category as guys who don't hold nearly the same amount of integrity as him. It garnered massive attention, and people were ready for the biggest showdown in rap since Tupac V. Biggie three decades ago: Kendrick Lamar versus Drake & J. Cole: Hip-Hop's Civil War.
On April 5th, after two weeks of growing anticipation of who would respond first, J. Cole surprise dropped his mixtape, Might Delete Later, ahead of his headlining performance at his Dreamville Fest that weekend. It Featured the song Seven Minute Drill, which awkwardly and hesitantly sent warning shots at Kendrick with little actual weight, resulting in the internet mocking him for his failure to hit back. That very Sunday, Cole announced that he would be taking the diss down, as it didn't sit right with his inner peace, and that he had no reason to beef with his contemporary, furthering the internet's mockery.
On April 13th, Drake's first diss track, Push Ups, mysteriously "leaks," dishing out disses to Kendrick and other musicians such as Rick Ross, Future, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin', and more. It put Drake in a secure spot, showing he could hold his ground, although it failed to hide Drake's vapid desire to flaunt his success as a factor of his position in the “Big Three.” Within two hours, Rick Ross responded, making claims that Drake was getting plastic surgery and attacking his position within Hip-Hop as a "white man." It led to a week-long feud between the two, who cornily communicated through Instagram stories that made the internet cringe. Push Ups would hit streaming services the following Friday.
On April 19th, after putting Push Ups on streaming, Drake released a now-deleted song via Instagram titled Taylor Made Freestyle, taunting Kendrick distastefully using AI voices from the late Tupac and Snoop Dogg talking down upon him. In the following days, Tupac's Estate sent Drake a Cease And Desist letter threatening to sue for the use of Tupac's voice without consent.
On April 30th, Kendrick finally responds to Drake with Euphoria: a six-and-a-half minute walk down on Drake, challenging his position as a father, rapper, student of the game, and as a person of color, calling out his appropriative take on Hip-Hop and Black American culture as a Canadian, while also alluding to further disses to come. It sent the world into a frenzy, and many swiftly called Drake out of the fight before he could even respond.
May 3rd would prove itself to be a battlefield: Kendrick wakes up early to put out 6:16 In LA on Instagram, a play on a multitude of Drake's song titles from across his career, and to create anxiety in his camp, suggesting there is a mole amongst his men, most of which want to see Drake's empire fall apart. That night, Drake responds with Family Matters, claiming one of Kendrick's children isn't his, he is a serial cheater, and above all, a domestic abuser.
Kendrick doesn't even give him an hour before he responds. Some people say it was 55 minutes. Others say it was 15. The point is that it was under an hour. His response, Meet The Grahams, proved to be a destructive, panic-inducing, eclectic blow, playing out as a letter to each of Drake's immediate family members, explaining what makes him such a horrible person while simultaneously revealing his vices and insecurities. However, the most surprising aspect of the song is Kendrick's verse directed at Drake's supposed 11-year-old daughter, apologizing on behalf of Drizzy for being a deadbeat. How are you going to have your children revealed by diss tracks twice??? Friday Night will go down in Hip-hop history as one of the most memorable moments in the entire genre. But that isn't where the story ends because it isn't even over yet.
On May 5th, the day I write this, not even 24 hours later, Kendrick released Not Like Us: a smooth West Coast tune that embodies a victory lap, as Kendrick eases the tensions of his previously haunting diss by making a club track that directly calls Drake and his camp a group of Pedophiles. The cover is also of Drake's house covered in registered sex offender markers. Memes are circling, YouTube is full of shocked reaction faces, and everyone on X is losing their minds. What is going to happen next?
We can't be sure of where this goes for now. But here's my Eero's take on it (Haha, get it? Cause, like, Eero's Takes?… I'll get back to the point now.)
Kendrick's challenge to Drake is getting so much praise not only because he is Kendrick Lamar but because, in the eyes of many, Drake represents a dilution of cultural nuance and appreciation. What makes Kendrick different is that he has always threaded his knowledge and understanding of the culture into his works. He is unapologetically vulnerable: the humanity of his works makes his music as accepted as it is. Drake is a culture vulture. His albums are bloated chauvinist grabs at trends within the genre that stand as near-facetious attempts to mock those who truly care about Hip-hop. It's music focused on numbers, not art. With that said, this is the best Drake has rapped in years, and that is solely because his image is at stake: he is proving that if he really did care about the music, he could do it, but doesn't feel it to be necessary unless his carefully crafted image is being threatened by someone actually embedded in the culture. He is as plastic as his surgeries. He does not deserve nor can possibly be the winner of this battle.
While it's ever-so entertaining to watch and see Drake's downfall, I believe we are undermining the severity of the accusations at hand for the sake of the game. If everything said is true about even just one of these musicians, it begs a larger question of how we view idolhood and the morality of entertainment. Do we really want to continue supporting Kendrick Lamar if he did abuse his partner? Do people need more reasons to dislike Drake?
Pusha T opened Pandora's box with The Story Of Addidon. Revealing Adonis has led Hip-Hop beef culture to become centered around annihilating one's opponent, not as a musician, but as a person. While you can make a case for this always being a part of beef culture, even going back as far as Pac's taunts toward Mobb Deep member Prodigy and his eventually fatal case of Sickle Cell Anemia, there has been an increasing over-reliance on personal information that is ultimately hindering the art. It takes away from the artistic value of the records dropping, feeding into a celebrity-gossip culture that has plagued entertainment for decades.
If push comes to shove, we may have to accept that both musicians, regardless of talents, accolades, and numbers, are bad people. Yes, it has been incredible to watch in real-time. Yes, it will impact the culture. Yes, I am still rooting for Kendrick, but we cannot ignore the immorality of the situation. But until proven or disproven, we cannot do anything but sit and watch, waiting for one, the other, or both to have their claims verified.
Why can’t we just focus on the art of the game?
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Some 🌶️ = some 🔥 writing Eero! Great work, loved reading this (and thanks for filling in the gaps in my knowledge 🙏)
good shi