Kendrick vs Drake

[Hygro]

Anyone following this? I don't think this is a friendly "we-can-both-sell-more-records-its-all-game" fight. I was kind of just getting the news from the side but I heard Kendrick's last one and it's incredible, 2024 continues to deliver.

 

[Lexicus]

Spoiler :

 

[Narz]

Besides lil baby and a few assorted songs here and there I've found most of the hiphop of the last 10 years pretty forgettable.

These hip-hop fueds are to increase interest and create story.

 

[Hygro]

Besides lil baby and a few assorted songs here and there I've found most of the hiphop of the last 10 years pretty forgettable.

These hip-hop fueds are to increase interest and create story.

I don’t think so. This one is different for a number of reasons that become obvious.

 

[Gori the Grey]

No. How can one catch oneself up?

When did it start? How many back and forths does it so far involve? What are the relevant songs I need to seek out?

 

[Hygro]

The skinny is Drake and J Cole come out with a song, they refer to the Big 3, i.e. them and Kendrick.

What could be a diss to everyone else, Kendrick takes offense and has a line in his next song says he’s the only one.

So far it’s super mild.

Here’s where it gets interesting:

J Cole releases a counter diss which is a fine track, nothing incredible.

He then pulls the track and apologizes to Kendrick

Drake releases his own diss track

And then he releases a second one, a double text if you will, where he writes (“writes”) fake Tupac and Snoop verses and used AI tools to voice swap them. This song gets released and then obviously pulled for fear of Tupac’s estate.

It’s all very weird but so far within the bounds of getting audience engagement up like classic beefs. Except the weirdness, like J Cole apologizing in the middle of it and quitting, or Drake erroneously invoking Tupac.

But then Kendrick releases “euphoria”, and you’ll have to hear it for yourself to understand why I think this isn’t intramural sports.

I won’t post it here because it deserves you listen to it as you listen to music rather than the side of your brain that engages cfc

 

[Lexicus]

I think Kendrick is probably a way better rapper than Drake, but tbh I've listened to a lot more Drake because the height of his career was basically my college years. When I say "listened" I really mean "heard" because you basically couldn't go anywhere from like 2011-2015 without hearing Drake, often on songs with a bunch of other Young Money rappers.

I tried to get into Kendrick a few years back but couldn't really, just my thing.

J Cole on the other hand, has really pleasantly surprised me. I remember one of his first big forays into the rap game was being featured along with Mos Def and J Electronica on the Reflection Eternal track Just Begun. It was a dope verse, not the best one on the song, but he held up his end.

Nowadays though he's probably the best "active" rapper, he has seriously fire songs. I didn't listen to the diss track but his song from last year with Benny the Butcher is insanely good.

@Hygro check this out too this is from ten years ago but I discovered it more recently, this song literally makes my chest hurt from childhood/youth nostalgia:

 

[Hygro]

I’m gonna be honest Lexicus, this thread should be a wake up call

 

[sophie]

kendrick fudging ethered that man it was incredible

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, in its own right, First Person Shooter is excellent track and video.

(I'm just giving my reactions as I acquaint myself with each stage of the battle.)

 

[Farm Boy]

rather than the side of your brain that engages cfc

Why?

You all are fun to float in, too.

 

[Lexicus]

Well I just listened to euphoria and it's good and all but like most other Kendrick songs I've listened to I'm just not feelin it. Idk. Maybe it's just not hitting for me because I've never really considered Drake to be a "serious" rapper?

 

[Hygro]

Well I just listened to euphoria and it's good and all but like most other Kendrick songs I've listened to I'm just not feelin it. Idk. Maybe it's just not hitting for me because I've never really considered Drake to be a "serious" rapper?

The rhymes, the delivery, the different voices to mean different things all controlled, but free, and powerful. It's just multidimensionally musically incredible. All threaded on an instrumental with totally different parts that somehow go completely together.

Like, it's too good. I've listened to it I dunno, seven times in the past day? Every time I listen a hear an entire full songs worth of new material. And it makes me dance holy smokes.

But what makes it make the thread, is how he's basically telling Drake what he's allowed to do from here. That's not the secretly constructive beefing we see between other rappers. I think Drake's in trouble.

 

[Hygro]

Like it's so layered. The whole song, all the way through. Just the transition from the introduction where the music drop offs and Kendrick, homaging James Brown (a truest of true musician):

Spoiler for Gori and whoever still needs to listen :

"Don't tell no lies about me, I won't tell truth about you"

Then the music changes from acoustic and comfortable to STREET FIGHTER. It's Guile's theme! Sort of, just close enough.
And then he changes from Kendrick's story telling voice to 2020s pop rap voice but going "yoo, yoo!" like the heat is up, and it's too late. Drake told lies, time for truth. The bell rings, and Kendrick switches to crazy angry kid Kendrick from mad city.

For the next few minutes every time a great rapper would stop and let it land, he keeps pummeling. Changing voices holy smokes. Micro changes that carry meaning. Music theory can't up, but the Jazz crew will understand.

And it's all a buildup to the end where... Drake's in trouble man. He has to change, but damned if you do or don't.

Like J Cole spontaneously quit the beef with an apology, before Kendrick clapped back, even though J Cole was well within his rights, commercial incentives, and even arguably his criticism of some of recent-ish Kendrick releases.

We're witnessing something else, a special moment in rap history.

The song is amazing. But it could have been amazing and let Drake out, let them both stay the same and grow from the attention. NOPE. Tony Montana'd to the face right in broad daylight of the streets of Miami.

 

[Gori the Grey]

for Gori and whoever still needs to listen

I'm just taking my time with this. I like rap battles in general. (They date from the agon between Homer and Hesiod, or between Apollo and Homer, maybe). But you've framed this one up in a way that makes it sound very interesting. I'm going to take seriously your question of whether something more is going on in this case than the usual mutual-sales-boosting. Given how you've described it, I don't want to rush my enjoyment of what's going on. In addition to First Person Shooter, I watched a video that sketches how it all develops from here, so I have a rough sense of the whole trajectory.

But so far, I'm still just getting to know First Person Shooter in its own right, and from it forming my own hypothesis about the key lines in it might have prompted a real rather than phony rap battle.

I'm in no hurry.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Though I can appreciate the wordplay and the delivery, no matter how hard I try to get into it, rap always leaves me cold. So as enticing as Hygro's fight commentary is, it's too late for me to jump in now to appreciate what appears to be the Thriller in Manila of the rap world

 

[sophie]

it’s got me feeling like it’s time for my annual tpab relisten

 

[Hygro]

This is the level of Kendrick Lamar. He releases a second follow up diss called 6:16.

Spoiler :

He’s so consistent with triple meanings it’s almost certainly intentional.

Level 20 bard out here dragon slaying
Just sayin
Gone super saiyan

Someone stop me before I get silly

 

[Birdjaguar]

Someone stop me before I get silly

This thread is locked--
Chocked and blocked;
The rhyming sucks and is too repeated;
All your posts have been deleted.

Spoiler :

not locked

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, I've gone as far as Kendrick's first reply, in Like That, and I agree with your assessment

So far it’s super mild.

Standard rap vaunting.

I know. I know. You said the good stuff is to come. Don't rush me.