NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour dissects Kendrick/Drake Beef
NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour does a dissection of Kendrick vs Drake beef, breaking down what each one's artistry represents, the contradictions in what they accused the other of, and how women are utilized as tools to one up the other.
This was one of the better analyses I've heard so far, along with one by writer Craig Jenkins that I'd recommend you to check out.
Synopsis below the cut
- Juxtaposition of themselves as Prince vs Michael Jackson is appropriate as similar tensions existed between them regarding who had greater commercial appeal vs who was the true instrumentalist and true artist. Debate is centered on artistry vs. commercialism.
- Both artists' fans have superiority complex. Drake's fans see him as indisputable greatest artist of all time. Kendrick's fans see him as preserving hip hop purity.
- Kendrick, "Not Like Us" was TKO moment.
- Drake has found ways to maintain youth audience with engaging with streamers like Kai Cenat and DJ Akademiks; this has led to massive young fans being loyal to his camp vs Kendrick has longstanding relationship with TDE and California artists and California fanbase writ large
- The light skin vs dark skin debate; does the colorism in Kendrick's jabs support critique that Kendrick is setting himself up as a Hotep/savior to Black culture?
- Kendrick's criticisms are less based in colorism but his critique of Drake's inauthenticity; will quote the podcaster directly as Kendrick saying to Drake, "You should be yourself. What you are trying to portray right now, that image is not you. It's not specifically that you are not Black, but it's that you're overcompensating for whatever you feel like your insufficiencies are as a biracial Black person and doesn't necessarily have the formative experiences that square up with an artist like Kendrick."
- Drake has been adept at navigating different subcultures in Black diaspora, from UK/Jamaican dancehall to AfroBeats to Southern Rap. Kendrick is saying, "You are so unwilling to be yourself that you have to be everyone else," but the conversation gets watered down to "biracial people are not authentic and can't be part of hip hop" which is factually incorrect and an oversimplification of what Kendrick is saying
- Has turned into a battle of who is morally superior which is icky; both sides have things to be critiqued.
- Para-social relationships with fans lead to them feeling, "I like this artist and I am a good person, therefore as extension my favorite artist ... has to be a good person because they represent what I like." *coughTaylorcough*
- Creates moral complication; leads fan to claim Kendrick as not only the gatekeeper and cultural arbiter of hip hop legitimacy and cultural authenticity but ALSO he becomes the cultural gatekeeper for all things good and moral
- Not true when you look at inconsistencies with 1) Kendrick being mentored by Dr Dre who has been accused of abuse 2) Kodak Black features who has been accused of SA and been charged
- How many women in these disses have copped strays? Whitney Alford, Drake's mom, Millie Bobby Brown, and now all Drake's exes whose Instagrams are being scoured for evidence - they are all being roped into this beef and have to contend with conflict they did not consent to participating in
- Is this a moment of reckoning for Drake similar to when Hannibal Burress broke the dam over Cosby?
- Safety of women has always been disposable in public feuds, music or otherwise.
- This was cool to learn about and news to me: Discussed legacy of rapper Roxanne Shante; in 1984 at the age of 14 she responded to a song by rap group U.T.FO called Roxanne Roxanne about a woman rejecting their advances; she released Roxanne's Revenge in response, which started the Roxanne Wars, 30 to over 100 records were recorded piling on and dissing teenage Roxanne
- TLDR History of Rap Beef is founded on misogynoir; women's experience is disposable for the back and forth
- We're in a paradox where fans engage in cognitive dissonance; art of blood sporting music is a speculative exercise that sensationalizes long-standing rumors
- How low can people go in rap beefs? "Big Foot" took shots at Megan's dead mother, but mistake wasn't in gravity of the insult, but because she didn't engage in good musicianship
- Kendrick's cruelty is there will be people in the club screaming "Certified PDF File!"
- You can get away with a lot if you can show dedication to craft.
- We've gotten to place where one of the worst things you can do is engage in GBV or violence against marginalized communities, and we acknowledge it as a bad thing, but in the context of this beef, the worst part is the insult, not necessarily the harm. People aren't sitting with whether the harm is tangible or real and what it means about the fact that these artists have circled each other knowing of this harm in the industry but not working to rectify it? Reinforces that the worst thing that can happen is being accused of harm and not the actual harm they cause.
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