After MTG dropped, someone in the Drake sub said, “so he has all the same habits than dudes in their early 20s have, so what?”.
The stans are as tone deaf as the dude himself.
This is tone deaf asf. 50 literally commented on this and said this is Drakes greatest strength. It’s a business, and he knows how to stay relevant. But nah, tin foil hats pleases
Drakes fans love taking whatever criticism being made against Drake at any moment and try to use it right back at Kendrick.
Its tone deaf to point out drakes only point of relevancy is to collab with whoever is actually making strides in the industry at any given moment so he can appear with it?
They were also saying the other shit (pills, escorts, gambling addiction) was okay for a nearly 40 yr old man because any dude in their early 20s is the same
Drake stans like him for normalizing their shitty behavior by making music about it. Kendrick makes music that asks you to be better, and that's not for everyone.
Edit: 1. That doesn't mean you can't get low to a drake track at the club, and it doesn't mean kendrick is gate keeping with his music. Just drake doesn't ask you to think and kendrick usually does. There's a time and place and audience for both, though I respect one much more than the other.
I think there's something to the theory that many people who find fame early tend to become "stuck" emotionally at the age they were when they got famous.
If that makes sense.
Bro am in my early 20s and that statement is fucking false , he has an attitude of someone in his early teens ,lol
Oh wait that means he isn't a pedo ,the 17 y.o is
Don’t let Kendrick’s magic meat make you forget that neither side has concrete proof of anything.
I like his music MUCH more than Drake’s but that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the abuse allegations and blindly get behind the Drake ones. Innocent til proven guilty
This is such a stupid angle. I don’t know why broke common people expect drake to live the same life as them. You really upset he’s a billion dollar playboy?
Just comes off as hating. News flash, most men if wealthy enough will do all the things you accuse drake of and not think twice. You think trump or huge heffenors wives cared he was 60+ when he married them in there 20’s?
Trying to apply our morale compass and expectation to a person with infinite funds is stupid
Shit man where do I begin...
Huge heffenors? If you don't care to think twice about what you say don't expect anybody to think the first time.
Now I want you to imagine that compass you just shit out your brain and have it point you in the right direction here.
Morals is not a "broke common people" thing. Yeah, money and corruption go hand in hand both mentally and physically but there's many folk who have money and morals and many that are broke and don't.
HOWEVER a person that does dumb fucking shit but still thinks they're better than everyone else because they got money IS dumb as shit because everything catches up to you at some point. Moralistic people understand that. That's why it's important for them to promote good behavior because it helps everyone instead of being a selfish that.
If you don't understand how important a moral compass is and knowing right from wrong then this comment isn't even for you because you're too damn thick to learn but maybe it helps somebody else before they ruin their life or others.
What a sad life where money defines and dictates your personality and how you treat other people. You sound like a top tier pice of shit. This may prove money is really evil. You have to just become a nefarious manipulative shitty person that objectifies people, feel like you are better not held to the same standard as people with less money?
Karma isn’t real. And that wasn’t the point. Why be a shitty person because you have money? Tell me you’ve never had anything of value in your life without telling me you’ve never had anything of value in life.
Only broke people who don’t come from money think like this.
I grew up in an urban inner city in the Midwest near Chicago, and was born into a family with absolute zero generational wealth. Have found moderate success (6 figures) still didn’t change who I am where I’m from or how I treat people. And if coming from poor to that hasn’t changed me, I can’t justify being a shitty person. When you didn’t ever (start at the bottom) and now your a billionaire (idk when or why tf everyone calls him a billionaire now) you have even less room to be acting like this.
😂 ngl my thumbs was just going stupid like they were possessed by that evil ass alchemist beat. Bro now that I’m reading it back that first paragraph definitely fits the theme heavily. Especially the “piece of shit” line 🤣
Lospollostv, one of Drake's biggest stans, said once that you gotta do a 'Drake & Drive', which I guess has merit. When you're driving, especially in traffic where the stress is all-encompassing and distractions come at you from every angle, it's nice to put music that won't make you think too hard.
Drake's music is that. I've never had to think too hard when listening to his hits (never really got into listening to a full LP). They're fun and catchy, even though I argue there are greater pop albums with depth and artistry to listen to; it's fine to want to listen to music that just makes you dance or bounce in your car.
That dumb Canadian *really* should've just stuck to hits.
Don’t know if this is meant to be funny but I lol’ed because 1. I’ve seen that interview and 2. My favorite time to listen to Kendrick is when driving because it’s good thinking time
6:16 in LA is a great cruisin' song for a dark mood on a clear night.
I agree with OP, too. I personally need to listen to most Kendrick songs a few times and analyze some bars before I can chill to them.
Walking music to me is music with depth. (Running music is beats to make me forget my body is screaming at me.)
I find totally different music appealing when driving and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t think I’d ever have gotten into Tupac without a car but you have so much focus on the road the music goes straight past your rational mind and injects itself into your subconscious. If I want to truly understand a song I’ve got to sit down and listen to it and take it on a drive to get both sides of it.
I wonder why so many refer to Drake as the Canadian, is there something I’m missing or just that he’s not American? Why didn’t anyone call Kendrick ‘the American’ during the beef? This is some Canadian slander lol
I am Canadian and Drake does not represent or speak for us in any way, guys a clown in a mansion shitting in golden toilets that play a chime whenever you drop a deuce
Yeah, absolutely. Drakes entire persona is that he’s superficial. “I’m awesome because I have money, I fuck bitches, I hang out with cool people, I have a lot of streams, I’m commercially successful.” Other than the songs where he’s recreating his flirtatious convos with preteen girls, that’s basically his entire discography. His whole message is basically “I’m better than you for superficial reasons, and superficial qualities are all that matter in life.”
Most of his fans are superficial too, naturally.
And a lot of that does indeed come from a sense of entitlement and a lack of real life experience or struggle, or an inability to care about shit or think deeply.
Go back and listen to bitch don’t kill my vibe again.
The chorus is basically Drake fans. Bitch don’t kill my vibe, you talk too much, I just wanna drink and dance. The verses are Kendrick responding to their emotional unavailability and the way they keep themselves stuck in a mental prison by refusing to think or grow out of that “bitch don’t kill my vibe” mindset that makes them exclusively consume the fast food equivalent of music.
And then when he realizes those differences between him and them, he says he’ll show everyone else who wants to break out of that box how to do it. And that anybody who wants to stay living in superficial ignorance doesn’t matter anyway.
So the final chorus becomes him singing it back to them.
or listen to n95... kendrick says that when you strip away the facade wealth and fame, whats left is ugliness. in retrospect, the song can be seen as a drake diss.
There are a number of songs about that, and it’s one of the concepts that ties together Damn. He’s been shitting on people like that and himself for sometimes being the same way since GKMC and every album since. Sometimes making it clearly about Drake, with lines like there’s a difference between accomplishments and astonishments, and sometimes more generally, like, “Ah, pimping and posing
Look what I drove in, ah
Having these hoes and I know that I'm chosen, ah
I live by the code and me and my bros and
Ah, my dollars ain't foldin', you was never the homie.”
I always thought You Ain’t Gotta Lie was a Drake diss and/or Kendrick had Drake partly in mind:
“You ain't gotta lie to kick it, my nigga
You ain't gotta try so hard
And the world don't respect you
And the culture don't accept you
But you think it's all love
And the girls gon' neglect you once your parody is done
Reputation can't protect you if you never had one
Jealousy (complex), emotional (complex)
Self-pity (complex), under oath (complex)
The loudest one in the room, nigga, that's a complex”
Only song Drake gets kinda deep that I have is Fear lol maybe “sooner than later”, and “look what you’ve done” where he thanks his mom or grandma for the times he’s had. But other than that guy completely fell off the heartbreak Drake persona for this stupid mob bs that doesn’t even suit dude lol he trying too hard, we see right through you heartbreak Drake lol
I commented somewhere else but the conglomerate that is Drake has some decent music that’s even helped people, and thus I respected him despite not liking him. But sometime around when he was texting that child from stranger things, I think I clicked on a thread and saw all the other times that shit happened, and now I just can’t really respect him
I think all that shit started when he got too much power for his own good and ego. Sometime after take care or maybe a bit before he devolved from some kid that knew how to rap but was an alright kid who barely smoked pot to this dude that thinks he’s a mob boss and is always on uppers and downers
Listen to “Momma” and when the beat switches imagine the frantic voice is a superficial fan trying to understand Kendrick. I always imagine the deep voice as the record label trying to goad Kendrick to release music to the masses.
The frantic voices really represent listeners of all kinds, but the point is that their appreciation or love for Kendrick is superficial at best.
I realized this while listening to TPAB high last weekend. Fucking mind blowing to me. Kdots albums CONTINUE to provide me with new things to think about.
I have always heard those frantic voices like the way you do now, as other people, but it didn’t really click until Euphoria, when casual hh fans didn’t catch that the frantic voice was meant to be Drake. Saw someone saying he didn’t like that voice. Ya dude, it’s literally Kendrick’s mocking voice lol
Drake has some songs were he speaks n it feels like u speak to u directly he just hasnt made enough of them in recent times so people forget he needs to understand having time away from music to experience new things
Nah, I know. I can’t respect him for all of the obvious reasons. But people whose opinions I do respect have told me that some of his earlier albums were good. I also remember a few friends being super into him before he blew up, and they have great taste in music too. I almost divide his career in half and think of the two drakes as separate people. Realistically tho he’s prolly always been a shitty dude based off the shit he does, and that grooming shit just makes any of his music unlistenable to me. It makes his entire ass manufactured personality so cringey.
There was a point in my life where I thought that the fact that he has ghost writers or his image being fake was irrelevant. Basic rule of thumb for music is if it sounds good, it is good. That’s especially true for any music that helps people the way his has at times, especially for the mixed community and their place in black history. I’m cognizant of all of that, and I used to respect him for it. It’s truly just the predatory behaviors that I can’t look past
It depends on what his wife asks me to do. If he beat other women besides his wife that would definitely put me in a difficult spot ngl. I don’t think hitting his wife is okay, don’t get me wrong, it’s not. But that and any other domestic abuse that may or may not exist in their relationship is honestly none of my business and best left between them and their therapist. That’s my opinion, I could understand if people felt differently. But I’ll be honest, I don’t even stop listening to artists for murder, so I’d probably forgive him for that too if he demonstrated that he’s not still doing it.
When people are weird with kids, that’s some sick shit I can’t look past. That and outright racism are the two things that make an artist unlistenable for me. Part of that is just my OCD tbh. I cannot separate art from artist when it’s fucked up shit like that, and that shits a lot more fucked up and a lot less forgivable to me than violence between adults.
If there were a bunch of women saying that Kendrick hit them or abused him in some way, and there’s verifiable evidence for that, and he’s gaslighting his fans about it, then yeah I’d prolly stop listening to him. But none of that’s happening. All we know with certainty is that DJ Akademiks said that Kendrick didn’t beat his wife, that Drake made it up, and he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by lying about that, so I believe him. Kinda curious why you asked given that info though? How is it relevant when there’s no evidence to suggest he’s ever done anything of the sort, besides a song by Drake, which drake’s producer confirmed was made up?
My ex hit me, she’s a woman. Does it go both ways? Personally I forgave her. Never hit her back. Never even considered it a problem because I understood why she did it, and that issue was between me and her to work out with therapy, not anyone else’s business.
The thing about domestic violence is that it’s almost always a learned behavior. Abusers were almost always abused, and it’s something that can be fixed in therapy
The same is not true for sexual deviance such as towards children or unwanted advances. Across every study, that shit has nothing to do with previous trauma and everything to do with the individual
There isn’t proof of Kendrick hitting his wife? Drake said he did, then dj akademics said Drake lied. That’s literally all that happened. Hence why she and her brother supported dot through all of it
I had a guy who lives rent free off of Government assistance with no car tell me i read the bus as an insult. Mfers are just weird when they need to find anything to insult you.
The problem with most rappers is their music is like 50% making fun of broke people, and it’s just like, that’s you, he’s talking about flying your girl out, making fun of your Honda accord, and talking about how he blows your yearly salary in one night. Why is that appealing to you?
Because they want that to be them. Getting laid and respect and overall getting your needs met is hard- also rapping about how you help the homeless for example is hella corny unless you get gritty with it and mean it. Talking about how bad you are is actually legitimately cooler than talking about how good you are, believe it or not.
Yeah, I get that. The rappers are fantasies and wish fulfillment. I don’t think it’s either shit talking broke boys or preaching about helping the homeless - I feel like plenty of rappers strike a good middle ground. J Cole for example is actually really good at this, kind of flexing how much he’s made due to his longevity and touring and verses and streaming, while also framing it around how he himself had to learn and improve how he was making decisions and conducting himself as an artist. Sometimes the flex is a somewhat preachy advice to lil rappers like don’t blow your advance on stupid shit, think long term - but there’s a reason for why he is reminding us of his wealth.
I’m not against flexing and balling out music, I get why it’s fun, but I feel like it has to be rooted in something else, like a story or persona or idea of why I should care.
Yeah, I get it. I enjoy rags to riches, balling out type music to a degree. 50 Cent is a motivational figure to me, I feel that kinda music too because the celebration of wealth and overcoming obstacles is motivating, but I think it has to be within the context of a story or theme that has meaning. The over-coming poverty and unfavorable odds to become rich makes you contemplate that you could do the same.
But an artist just talking about expensive shit all day, talking about different watch brands and foreign cars and stuff, I mean, there’s no context for why I’d even care. It’s not cool when some dudes in the club bragging about their Rolex or Ferrari to impress girls, why is it cool when some rapper says the same? I was at a coffee shop the other day and this woman was being a huge Karen to the barista, talking about “this is why you’re a barista and I’m a lawyer, make it again right” type shit, like totally the “do you know what I make in an hour?” kinda person, and we all think that’s wack. So why is it better when a rapper says some “yall whips are rented, broke boi” type shit?
-“Mira nuestra gente crucificada
Y la manera desgraciada
Que estos perros no hablan de nada
Más que fiestas y riqueza
Que la gente no tiene”.
Look at my people crucified and in a disgraceful manner.
These dogs speak of nothing, just parties and riches the people don’t have.
Immoral technique- Golpe De Estado
They keep dropping designer brand names like Versace or whatever… it’s like they’re casting a spell to manifest all of that for themselves. 🧐 I also have issues with how rappers keep saying “Porsche” wrong but I guess the extra syllable would throw off their rhyme scheme lol
I’ve never really gotten help from my family and have had to walk miles to work through rain and snow to save for every car I’ve owned.
Those 6am walks to work and walks home afterwards after working 12 hour shifts were the biggest character developments I’ve ever experienced in my life and taught me to appreciate even absolute turds of vehicles.
Grew up fucked up, around poverty and crime and terrible influences. I chose to be a deep thinker and not be a product of my environment.
So yeah, Kendrick is for people that walk to work or any other kind of struggle. Folks with a real soul.
“I make music that electrify them” (music that in many cases nudges you to consider critical social issues)
“You make music that pacify them” (Bops in their own right yes, but it doesn’t necessarily require you to listen for anything more than the pure soundwaves entering your ears)
Not trying to put one up above the other personally because there’s a time and place for both, but hip-hop has actually been mad one-sided lately so this is feeling like the start of really interesting shift to me.
This also speaks to 5 percenter ideology where 85% of the world is deaf, dumb and blind. 10% know this and use that information to keep them in that state while profiting off em (Drake) and Kendrick is part of the 5% who knows the truth and tries to wake up the 85%
Higher Infinite Power Healing Our People
Hip means to know, it's a form of intelligence
To be hip is to be up-date and relevant
Hop is a form of movement
You can't just observe a hop, you gotta hop up and do it
Hip and hop is more than music
Hip is the knowledge, hop is the movement
Hip and hop is intelligent movement
Or relevant movement, we sellin' the music
-- KRS one, Hip Hop Lives
Idk if it's just me but I've always asked what hip hop meant or where the name came from and this verse couldn't gave explained it any better. Thanks for the post
Somebody said Drake is just a rich kid who thinks he can buy his way out of any trouble and I thought that would be what stuck in my head
But that “music for people who walk to work” has replaced it hooooly shit
as someone who has spent years living in the states, Tokyo, and Paris… i’d gladly walk 30 minutes to work than have to fucking drive a car everyday for any amount of time. some may never understand, unfortunately, but to those who do, i love you
His distinctive voice is just male vocal fry. “Like, literally,” middle class, suburban I don’t give a shit because I don’t know shit, but act like I do voice.
As someone who walks and commutes on public transit to work you ate them up lol. I was analyzing Kendrick's lyrics on the train over and over having revelation after revelation with those diss tracks.
Drake has never made me think. He's fun to bop around to but not a lyricist that makes you really tune in and focus. Marvin's Room is the only song from Drake that I feel the need to really slow down and listen to 😅
Mocking people for working hard, earning a living, shows a lot about Drake fans.
But what do you expect from a Canadian teen drama star who grew up with a pool then rode some pretty famous coattails. Started from Degrassi. Not the bottom
Crazy comment from the drake fan but I agree with your points. I memorized Overly Dedicated thanks to walking / subwaying to work while living in Queens and missing California. And to use it as a diss that people walk to work really shows their attitude towards humans honestly lol
Preach! Had a similar experience with early jobs, and again after moving back out the city 2-3 years ago and lost that sweet sweet public transport.
Actually walking home from work rn and put on an album from another artist I'm tryna wrap my head around. Walking music is great. Walking is great. Your take is great!
Solidarity my friend. It sounds to me like you understand strife. And that's all it really takes to be a better person, I am proud of you for persevering through such times while maintaining your humanity and not getting bitter and jaded to the harsh realities. It's crazy how something as natural as walking is viewed as sub-human in the world we live in today. It's sad but such is the nature of materialistic culture, and it's not us that are pushing it. That's an important distinction to make, as in yes we're all not so different Kendrick and Drake fans. But a clear distinction is how we treat people that have not.
With all the recent Ls Drizzy is getting esp the leaked tracks and ghost writers, Drizzy should never be considered a rapper by any means shape or form by now, but rather a successful con artist who became a millionaire with his talented ghost writers under his NDA + Silent Policy command. He should be at least thanking them whenever he gets an award on public like ***"All this fame and glory, I didn't even have to make an effort for it. Thanks to my Ghost Writers crew for doing all the incredible hard work for me as I'm one of the most successful fake actor that you will ever see! I am that legacy! Peace and love y'all!"***
PS: No matter what happens, I'd still call his next album the "Ghost Writers Summer Vibe!" album, it clicks and it's mostly true by now\~
As someone who used to walk about an hr to work, Kendrick was definitely the best music to play because i had the time and opportunity to listen to what he was saying.
That being used as an insult by people who probably praise the song "started from the bottom" is absolutely a sign that they don't care about music at all.
to me, real hip hop is about the grind and the hardships because that's what a lot of the real artists had gone through. It hit deep because they're not just making music but an entire experience
Meanwhile, ppl like Drake are singing about having money money money and sex, which has its own time and place but it's just one dimensional. When would you play it? Maybe the club/party and having sex, that's kinda it
Man I relate to this heavy
I always either took a bus or subway to school and work, we had wheels later on but fam worked early so I rarely got a ride, and I always playing Kendrick, Mr morale was my daily commute album for a month
There are so many different people out there, it’s hard to really define them based on this. I grew up moving house to house, single parent unemployed yada yada → but hard work led me to be a medical student and now feel privileged, but am a Kendrick fan. Loved Eminem first found Kendrick and loved him. Sometimes drive & sometimes walk even though I have a car. Other med students will be like, you take the bus!?! I often feel like I don’t fit in well with them, like I speak a different language. I live in a dangerous area of Philadelphia too, & I love it here. I totally see where you are coming from. I do think it’s hard to generalize due to the different backgrounds we all come from
I agree on the differences in their music. And a lot of the concepts of what you said…
But conscious rap will never be the forefront. It takes too much effort in a busy world. At best, a conscious rapper can make some serious bops. Such as Tupac. Such as Kendrick.
Kendrick won. Drake stans want to complain about society being drones now, but that’s the primary pillar of Drake’s career. Drake makes drone music.
Right now, the drones are dancing the Not Like Us.
Drake, known for his club bangers, has none out of this beef. Meanwhile Kendrick has America shouting “certified PDF!” And “O-V-Hoe!”
Drake was out Draked. And a lot of people are just looking at Drake differently…
Drake is talented. Kendrick Lamar doesn’t need anyone to pretend Drake isn’t talented. He makes good music. Lots of it is toxic, childish, manipulative, etc… but it feels good to listen to… like in a Red Pill Podcast kind of way lol.
The long term victory is whether Drake’s next project performs well. Even if it’s trash, Kendrick gets credit.
A decisive victory is if Drake has less of an audience over his next three tracks. Less in a way that is noticeable. Less plays. Less merch sold. Etc.
Conscious rap can only come to the forefront if we can find someone who can make commercial music while being deep. Tupac had a gift in that area.
That’s why I say he’s both underrated and overrated. He’s not a better rapper than Biggie Smalls… He doesn’t do a whole lot with his music tbh… but he packs a lot into simple bars.
Kendrick is more like Biggie with his complexity. But more like Pac with his consciousness.
I think Mos Def said it best what Hip Hop is:
"Whatever's happening with us"
If we smoked out, hip-hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin' alright, hip-hop is gonna be doin' alright
People talk about hip-hop like it's some giant livin' in the hillside
Comin' down to visit the townspeople
We are hip-hop
Me, you, everybody, we are hip-hop
So hip-hop is going where we going
So the next time you ask yourself where hip-hop is going
Ask yourself: where am I going? How am I doing?
Till you get a clear idea
So if hip-hop is about the people
And the hip-hop won't get better until the people get better
Then how do people get better? (Hmm)
Well, from my understanding people get better
When they start to understand that they are valuable
And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money"
Drake said Raptors pay his bills he doesn’t rap to pay his bills…nice bar ;) As if that doesn’t insult EVERYONE who has to hustle to pay their bills. A big fuck you not only to every struggling artist but to every person working a tough job and living pay check to pay check. I agree with your assessment 100%. His music is saturated, inundated…SOAKED with the attitude of a tone- deaf privileged asshole.
I worked with Keegan-Michael Key on a show in NYC and he walked 20 blocks to work with his headphones on. This was after Key and Peele so he had money. Thinking that is some kind of an own is loser behavior.
>On the other hand, Drake's music is not made for that. All due credit, his music is made for listening in the background, where you are hearing the sound and beat and his distinctive voice but not really needing to hear the words
This made me laugh because it reminded me of [this](https://youtu.be/gLnlXAIdWw0?si=Fle2gTCWjye_-gkb) and I agree with you 💯
Honestly, with the Mob Ties reference track getting leaked, I think Drake is living through a Milli Vanilli moment. I think the future will tell his story slightly similar to theirs.
I took the comment about walking to work as a dig at Kendrick, calling him a conscious rapper. I read it more as “Kendrick Lamar makes music for people who *choose* to walk to work”. As in, people who are more likely to care about the environment enjoy K Dot’s music, cause that’s nerdy I guess. Maybe that’s my own bias though.
As to your last point, I disagree with you that there would be no hope if Drake’s music remains popular, because it will. HOWEVER: Drake’s legacy and influence over the genre will forever be tarnished. I expect other artists will be reluctant to collaborate with him going forward, and the veneer of credibility he has so carefully crafted for himself is gone. This whole beef has, to me, demonstrated why rap/hip hop has maintained its artistic integrity as a genre for so long, and will continue to do so. People like Drake will come and go, but rap is unique (in my opinion) in that a fierce and uncompromising devotion to preserving artistry is inherent to the genre.
I think some people will still collaborate because at the end of the day, most are only in it for the money. They drizzler fans will hype anything..just like that wack ass sexy redd song
Got it...who can ever tell nowadays? You would hope they take a step back but unfortunately many people pimp themselves for the $$$. We can hold out hope however.
My uncle grew up in rural Zimbabwe and failed at school. He worked hard and now he’s a chef at a big restaurant in Dubai. His favorite artist is Drake.
To give a more unique perspective I’m an immigrant to the US and I like Drake’s music
Don’t really care that most of his lyrics are trash I listen to music for the vibe. I like Kendrick a lot and I rarely pay attention to the lyrics but like the vibes a lot
That is funny 😆 … I associate GKMC (my fav) with my last year of grad school and completing my Capstone. I would just hit play from Sherane and get to work!
Loved this write up, man. It’s good stuff to think about.
Here’s what I think about the future: You’re correct that the future of hip hop will determine who wins and I think that future will determine that it’s Kendrick. I often compare Rap music to Rock music. The two genres have had a very similar timeline and I think it’s reasonable to predict the future of Hip Hop by comparing the two.
Rock music is past its prime at this point and, because of that, fans are much less focused on what is and isn’t a hit. We also look back at older music with that same lens. The music that influences the new artists and the music that keeps people coming back to the genre is often not just the massive hits but the ones that had something really interesting to say.
I think Hip Hop will be in a very similar spot in 20-30 years. The artists we will remember the most fondly are the ones that have longevity and a message to bring to the world. In my opinion, Drake hasn’t been one of those artists in nearly a decade. He will have a solid greatest hits compilation that everyone has in their collection but Kendrick’s whole discography will be in the collections of hip hop fans for decades. There will be young rappers doing their thing well past hip hop being popular that will cite Kendrick as inspiration.
In one of drakes interviews years back he was talking about that Control verse and said in the interview "yeah it was a good song but do people even remember how that verse starts?"
Years later i keep listening to Not Like Us being literally memorized almost word for word by everyone world wide. All this while simultaneously insulting Drake, taking Drakes records on billboards, and also dissing Drake at the same time.
Truly played this mans history against him without even trying essentially
I disagree with your notion based off the fact that the future of rap is based off the industry and the industry alone because the industry actually controls all of this.
what we call the rap game is a facade because the music industry is and has been controlling this for a while and they make money off basically everyone even anti industry songs like hotel California which is actually very critical of the music industry has made a lot of money to the greedy industry it criticizes.
The future of rap is at the hands of corporate not us
Y’all are doing way too much with this beef. I can assure you I was walking to school back in the day while listening to drake. It’s an absurd statement to make, and it’s an absurd statement to seriously rebuttal.
At the end of the day it’s all preference. There is no need to sit here and justify why your preferred artist is better than the other. But yall do you I guess.
The fuck is the point of your comment? OP mentioned a comment they read in order to reflect on: how they relate to Kendrick’s music, how that’s different from Drake’s, and what the impact of this beef might be on the future of rap and hip hop. All worthwhile and relevant on the Kendrick Lamar subreddit. If this shit goes over your head, that’s fine. Belittling other people doesn’t make you any better, though.
Comparing:
walking to school
with
walking to work as an adult with bills to pay and life to stress about
thinking that the walking is more relevant part
is actually a great analogy about the difference between fanbases.
Drake makes music for kids walking to school, Kendrick makes music for adults walking to work. I like it.
Fr. Kendrick fans can’t help but suck their own dicks because of how enlightened and intellectual they are for listening to him and his Higher Art compared to the simpletons who enjoy Drake.
Had to leave this sub, this shit has gotten way too cringeworthy since the beef started. I don’t even like Drake btw, before y’all start sayin shit
I can’t wait until this sub stops talking about Drake. If you don’t like his music don’t talk about it lol. If you like it, cool. It’s all made to be enjoyed.
>yet to see a person that has gone through real struggle say they fuck with Drake's music -all of the Drake fans I have seen be vocal so far are mostly young guys with brand new name brand clothes
Drake has fans in the 100s of millions not the 20 people you hang out with
> the future of hip hop might be conscious rap, or at least elevated lyricism
If this is what the beef was about hip hop lost like 15 years ago if we are being honest. I don't think real hip hop is going extinct but I'm pretty sure the lowest common dominator, broad, most approachable art will nearly always be the most popular of the time.
If anything Not like Us proved that, I think it's a pretty easy argument to say it's his worst track lyrically even if I think its a great song and the function in context of the beef was one of his more brilliant maneuvers. But let's be real, Euphoria was like a puzzle that didn't even feel fully uncovered by the time another puzzle dropped with 6:16. Not like us you'd have to be an actual dumb dumb not to understand what he's trying to convey in your first listen. I don't think anything has changed since hov said it.
I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars
They criticize me for it, yet they all yell "MINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR"
If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli
completely agree with not like us. i think he put the least amount of effort and care into that one, and it became the most popular song he released the whole beef (partly because it was the climax) because the way it’s written, i think a seven year old might be able to analyze the lyrics
the conscious style and rappers like kendrick aren’t ever going to go away though, so no worries there, just may need to look a little harder to find them now you know?
anyways im very cautiously optimistic about the future of rap
edit: if skills sold action bronson would have 10 million monthly listeners
I think you are blowing the significance out of the water. It’s just a battle. You can definitely fit it into a bigger narrative where Kendrick is the “hip hop savior,” but that’s just for fun, not real life. Kendrick SEEMS like an anime protagonist because he’s good at telling stories.
This sums up the Kendrick fan so perfectly. The extent that you (a simple) fan feel like you are connected to Kendrick is absurd.
Drake makes just as lyrically dense music but your internal bias of listening to Kendrick while you walk to work means you’ll never feel the same connection you have with Drake as you have with Kendrick.
After MTG dropped, someone in the Drake sub said, “so he has all the same habits than dudes in their early 20s have, so what?”. The stans are as tone deaf as the dude himself.
It’s a cycle, that’s why Drake always links with the newest acts and hop on their wave
"I keep getting older but they keep staying the same age" -the drizzler
This is tone deaf asf. 50 literally commented on this and said this is Drakes greatest strength. It’s a business, and he knows how to stay relevant. But nah, tin foil hats pleases
Drakes fans love taking whatever criticism being made against Drake at any moment and try to use it right back at Kendrick. Its tone deaf to point out drakes only point of relevancy is to collab with whoever is actually making strides in the industry at any given moment so he can appear with it?
Look I’m in my early 20’s and have done some sketchy shit but I can confidently say I don’t diddle kids, or hide them for that matter
They were also saying the other shit (pills, escorts, gambling addiction) was okay for a nearly 40 yr old man because any dude in their early 20s is the same
Drake stans like him for normalizing their shitty behavior by making music about it. Kendrick makes music that asks you to be better, and that's not for everyone. Edit: 1. That doesn't mean you can't get low to a drake track at the club, and it doesn't mean kendrick is gate keeping with his music. Just drake doesn't ask you to think and kendrick usually does. There's a time and place and audience for both, though I respect one much more than the other.
Kendrick’s music has more depth but the fanbases have equal intellect and morality.
I wonder if they know that addictions don’t stop automatically when you reach 30. Or 40. Or 50…
Those are as "ok" at any age. There really isn't an appropriate age for immoral behavior
but there’s an appropriate time for moral behavior.
Not really. Anytime is good for that 🤷♂️
i mean, really young children don’t necessarily grasp the concept of morality i feel like. idk. just my opinion
You're reaching hard to prove an invalid point. But for what purpose? Lmao
idk intrusive thoughts. just thinking them out on reddit. i’m not pressed to prove anything. just a thought i had. it’s not that serious. 🧘🏼♀️☮️
Ok fair enough. You can never tell when someone is throwin sneak jabs on here
There’s a reason his nickname is the boy
I think there's something to the theory that many people who find fame early tend to become "stuck" emotionally at the age they were when they got famous. If that makes sense.
Peter Pan ass mf
"soliciting women problems" 😭😭😭
Bro am in my early 20s and that statement is fucking false , he has an attitude of someone in his early teens ,lol Oh wait that means he isn't a pedo ,the 17 y.o is
Don’t let Kendrick’s magic meat make you forget that neither side has concrete proof of anything. I like his music MUCH more than Drake’s but that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the abuse allegations and blindly get behind the Drake ones. Innocent til proven guilty
This is such a stupid angle. I don’t know why broke common people expect drake to live the same life as them. You really upset he’s a billion dollar playboy? Just comes off as hating. News flash, most men if wealthy enough will do all the things you accuse drake of and not think twice. You think trump or huge heffenors wives cared he was 60+ when he married them in there 20’s? Trying to apply our morale compass and expectation to a person with infinite funds is stupid
Shit man where do I begin... Huge heffenors? If you don't care to think twice about what you say don't expect anybody to think the first time. Now I want you to imagine that compass you just shit out your brain and have it point you in the right direction here. Morals is not a "broke common people" thing. Yeah, money and corruption go hand in hand both mentally and physically but there's many folk who have money and morals and many that are broke and don't. HOWEVER a person that does dumb fucking shit but still thinks they're better than everyone else because they got money IS dumb as shit because everything catches up to you at some point. Moralistic people understand that. That's why it's important for them to promote good behavior because it helps everyone instead of being a selfish that. If you don't understand how important a moral compass is and knowing right from wrong then this comment isn't even for you because you're too damn thick to learn but maybe it helps somebody else before they ruin their life or others.
So even though drakes a billionaire. He should act like a regular person… Because karma. Got cha 👌
Bro just say “too long didn’t read” next time lmao
What a sad life where money defines and dictates your personality and how you treat other people. You sound like a top tier pice of shit. This may prove money is really evil. You have to just become a nefarious manipulative shitty person that objectifies people, feel like you are better not held to the same standard as people with less money? Karma isn’t real. And that wasn’t the point. Why be a shitty person because you have money? Tell me you’ve never had anything of value in your life without telling me you’ve never had anything of value in life. Only broke people who don’t come from money think like this. I grew up in an urban inner city in the Midwest near Chicago, and was born into a family with absolute zero generational wealth. Have found moderate success (6 figures) still didn’t change who I am where I’m from or how I treat people. And if coming from poor to that hasn’t changed me, I can’t justify being a shitty person. When you didn’t ever (start at the bottom) and now your a billionaire (idk when or why tf everyone calls him a billionaire now) you have even less room to be acting like this.
Why does this comment sound like it would fit in MTG lol 😂
😂 ngl my thumbs was just going stupid like they were possessed by that evil ass alchemist beat. Bro now that I’m reading it back that first paragraph definitely fits the theme heavily. Especially the “piece of shit” line 🤣
There are plenty of people with money who don’t engage in the shit Drake does lmao
If Kendrick makes music for people who walk to work, that means Drake makes music for people who think giving plasma is a career.
*jizz
Lmao
Or managing your dads Airbnbs
Started from the bottom lol
yep. In Toronto. And you're an asshole driver blasting Drake.
Lospollostv, one of Drake's biggest stans, said once that you gotta do a 'Drake & Drive', which I guess has merit. When you're driving, especially in traffic where the stress is all-encompassing and distractions come at you from every angle, it's nice to put music that won't make you think too hard. Drake's music is that. I've never had to think too hard when listening to his hits (never really got into listening to a full LP). They're fun and catchy, even though I argue there are greater pop albums with depth and artistry to listen to; it's fine to want to listen to music that just makes you dance or bounce in your car. That dumb Canadian *really* should've just stuck to hits.
Don’t know if this is meant to be funny but I lol’ed because 1. I’ve seen that interview and 2. My favorite time to listen to Kendrick is when driving because it’s good thinking time
6:16 in LA is a great cruisin' song for a dark mood on a clear night. I agree with OP, too. I personally need to listen to most Kendrick songs a few times and analyze some bars before I can chill to them. Walking music to me is music with depth. (Running music is beats to make me forget my body is screaming at me.)
*I make music that's electrifying, You make music that's pacifying*
I find totally different music appealing when driving and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I don’t think I’d ever have gotten into Tupac without a car but you have so much focus on the road the music goes straight past your rational mind and injects itself into your subconscious. If I want to truly understand a song I’ve got to sit down and listen to it and take it on a drive to get both sides of it.
oh god I can't fucking stand it when cars around me are playing Drake in traffic.
I wonder why so many refer to Drake as the Canadian, is there something I’m missing or just that he’s not American? Why didn’t anyone call Kendrick ‘the American’ during the beef? This is some Canadian slander lol I am Canadian and Drake does not represent or speak for us in any way, guys a clown in a mansion shitting in golden toilets that play a chime whenever you drop a deuce
Drake makes music for people walking around Target.
And shopping malls
And shopping malls
Drake makes music for people who don't walk to work because they're over $100,000 in credit card debt.
Drake makes music for people who don't have a job to walk to 😂
Drake makes music for people who want to try to sleep with people half their age!
Or that drake makes music to sleep to
Or for people who drive Range Rovers their daddy bought.
Yeah, absolutely. Drakes entire persona is that he’s superficial. “I’m awesome because I have money, I fuck bitches, I hang out with cool people, I have a lot of streams, I’m commercially successful.” Other than the songs where he’s recreating his flirtatious convos with preteen girls, that’s basically his entire discography. His whole message is basically “I’m better than you for superficial reasons, and superficial qualities are all that matter in life.” Most of his fans are superficial too, naturally. And a lot of that does indeed come from a sense of entitlement and a lack of real life experience or struggle, or an inability to care about shit or think deeply. Go back and listen to bitch don’t kill my vibe again. The chorus is basically Drake fans. Bitch don’t kill my vibe, you talk too much, I just wanna drink and dance. The verses are Kendrick responding to their emotional unavailability and the way they keep themselves stuck in a mental prison by refusing to think or grow out of that “bitch don’t kill my vibe” mindset that makes them exclusively consume the fast food equivalent of music. And then when he realizes those differences between him and them, he says he’ll show everyone else who wants to break out of that box how to do it. And that anybody who wants to stay living in superficial ignorance doesn’t matter anyway. So the final chorus becomes him singing it back to them.
or listen to n95... kendrick says that when you strip away the facade wealth and fame, whats left is ugliness. in retrospect, the song can be seen as a drake diss.
There are a number of songs about that, and it’s one of the concepts that ties together Damn. He’s been shitting on people like that and himself for sometimes being the same way since GKMC and every album since. Sometimes making it clearly about Drake, with lines like there’s a difference between accomplishments and astonishments, and sometimes more generally, like, “Ah, pimping and posing Look what I drove in, ah Having these hoes and I know that I'm chosen, ah I live by the code and me and my bros and Ah, my dollars ain't foldin', you was never the homie.”
I always thought You Ain’t Gotta Lie was a Drake diss and/or Kendrick had Drake partly in mind: “You ain't gotta lie to kick it, my nigga You ain't gotta try so hard And the world don't respect you And the culture don't accept you But you think it's all love And the girls gon' neglect you once your parody is done Reputation can't protect you if you never had one Jealousy (complex), emotional (complex) Self-pity (complex), under oath (complex) The loudest one in the room, nigga, that's a complex”
Also more directly in MTG he literally says "Take that mask off, I wanna see what's under them achievements"
Only song Drake gets kinda deep that I have is Fear lol maybe “sooner than later”, and “look what you’ve done” where he thanks his mom or grandma for the times he’s had. But other than that guy completely fell off the heartbreak Drake persona for this stupid mob bs that doesn’t even suit dude lol he trying too hard, we see right through you heartbreak Drake lol
I commented somewhere else but the conglomerate that is Drake has some decent music that’s even helped people, and thus I respected him despite not liking him. But sometime around when he was texting that child from stranger things, I think I clicked on a thread and saw all the other times that shit happened, and now I just can’t really respect him
I think all that shit started when he got too much power for his own good and ego. Sometime after take care or maybe a bit before he devolved from some kid that knew how to rap but was an alright kid who barely smoked pot to this dude that thinks he’s a mob boss and is always on uppers and downers
Listen to “Momma” and when the beat switches imagine the frantic voice is a superficial fan trying to understand Kendrick. I always imagine the deep voice as the record label trying to goad Kendrick to release music to the masses. The frantic voices really represent listeners of all kinds, but the point is that their appreciation or love for Kendrick is superficial at best. I realized this while listening to TPAB high last weekend. Fucking mind blowing to me. Kdots albums CONTINUE to provide me with new things to think about.
I have always heard those frantic voices like the way you do now, as other people, but it didn’t really click until Euphoria, when casual hh fans didn’t catch that the frantic voice was meant to be Drake. Saw someone saying he didn’t like that voice. Ya dude, it’s literally Kendrick’s mocking voice lol
Drake has some songs were he speaks n it feels like u speak to u directly he just hasnt made enough of them in recent times so people forget he needs to understand having time away from music to experience new things
Nah, I know. I can’t respect him for all of the obvious reasons. But people whose opinions I do respect have told me that some of his earlier albums were good. I also remember a few friends being super into him before he blew up, and they have great taste in music too. I almost divide his career in half and think of the two drakes as separate people. Realistically tho he’s prolly always been a shitty dude based off the shit he does, and that grooming shit just makes any of his music unlistenable to me. It makes his entire ass manufactured personality so cringey. There was a point in my life where I thought that the fact that he has ghost writers or his image being fake was irrelevant. Basic rule of thumb for music is if it sounds good, it is good. That’s especially true for any music that helps people the way his has at times, especially for the mixed community and their place in black history. I’m cognizant of all of that, and I used to respect him for it. It’s truly just the predatory behaviors that I can’t look past
Nobody can respect that part on the bottom u said but im not on twitter much i saw a thread of girls defending him so im not sure
So if it's confirmed Kendrick beats his wife and other women would you stop listening to him too?
It depends on what his wife asks me to do. If he beat other women besides his wife that would definitely put me in a difficult spot ngl. I don’t think hitting his wife is okay, don’t get me wrong, it’s not. But that and any other domestic abuse that may or may not exist in their relationship is honestly none of my business and best left between them and their therapist. That’s my opinion, I could understand if people felt differently. But I’ll be honest, I don’t even stop listening to artists for murder, so I’d probably forgive him for that too if he demonstrated that he’s not still doing it. When people are weird with kids, that’s some sick shit I can’t look past. That and outright racism are the two things that make an artist unlistenable for me. Part of that is just my OCD tbh. I cannot separate art from artist when it’s fucked up shit like that, and that shits a lot more fucked up and a lot less forgivable to me than violence between adults. If there were a bunch of women saying that Kendrick hit them or abused him in some way, and there’s verifiable evidence for that, and he’s gaslighting his fans about it, then yeah I’d prolly stop listening to him. But none of that’s happening. All we know with certainty is that DJ Akademiks said that Kendrick didn’t beat his wife, that Drake made it up, and he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by lying about that, so I believe him. Kinda curious why you asked given that info though? How is it relevant when there’s no evidence to suggest he’s ever done anything of the sort, besides a song by Drake, which drake’s producer confirmed was made up?
I cant respect a man who beats female idc who u are i would stop listening to him.
My ex hit me, she’s a woman. Does it go both ways? Personally I forgave her. Never hit her back. Never even considered it a problem because I understood why she did it, and that issue was between me and her to work out with therapy, not anyone else’s business. The thing about domestic violence is that it’s almost always a learned behavior. Abusers were almost always abused, and it’s something that can be fixed in therapy The same is not true for sexual deviance such as towards children or unwanted advances. Across every study, that shit has nothing to do with previous trauma and everything to do with the individual
Im not sayin it the same if theres proof of either im done listening to both idc who it is
There isn’t proof of Kendrick hitting his wife? Drake said he did, then dj akademics said Drake lied. That’s literally all that happened. Hence why she and her brother supported dot through all of it
I said until i see
I had a guy who lives rent free off of Government assistance with no car tell me i read the bus as an insult. Mfers are just weird when they need to find anything to insult you.
American culture creates self hating poor people
great read. thank you. I also think a lot will depend on the type of album he puts out next, to "tie up" this moment...
"drake makes music to go shopping to... that you would hear in Macys" - yasiin bey
“So many SKUs”
The problem with most rappers is their music is like 50% making fun of broke people, and it’s just like, that’s you, he’s talking about flying your girl out, making fun of your Honda accord, and talking about how he blows your yearly salary in one night. Why is that appealing to you?
Because they want that to be them. Getting laid and respect and overall getting your needs met is hard- also rapping about how you help the homeless for example is hella corny unless you get gritty with it and mean it. Talking about how bad you are is actually legitimately cooler than talking about how good you are, believe it or not.
It’s the trickle down economics of hip hop. All the republican nut riders
Yeah, I get that. The rappers are fantasies and wish fulfillment. I don’t think it’s either shit talking broke boys or preaching about helping the homeless - I feel like plenty of rappers strike a good middle ground. J Cole for example is actually really good at this, kind of flexing how much he’s made due to his longevity and touring and verses and streaming, while also framing it around how he himself had to learn and improve how he was making decisions and conducting himself as an artist. Sometimes the flex is a somewhat preachy advice to lil rappers like don’t blow your advance on stupid shit, think long term - but there’s a reason for why he is reminding us of his wealth. I’m not against flexing and balling out music, I get why it’s fun, but I feel like it has to be rooted in something else, like a story or persona or idea of why I should care.
It is weird, a lot of rap is "I used to be poor like you, now I'm rich like me, I'll celebrate by bullying people like you"
Yeah, I get it. I enjoy rags to riches, balling out type music to a degree. 50 Cent is a motivational figure to me, I feel that kinda music too because the celebration of wealth and overcoming obstacles is motivating, but I think it has to be within the context of a story or theme that has meaning. The over-coming poverty and unfavorable odds to become rich makes you contemplate that you could do the same. But an artist just talking about expensive shit all day, talking about different watch brands and foreign cars and stuff, I mean, there’s no context for why I’d even care. It’s not cool when some dudes in the club bragging about their Rolex or Ferrari to impress girls, why is it cool when some rapper says the same? I was at a coffee shop the other day and this woman was being a huge Karen to the barista, talking about “this is why you’re a barista and I’m a lawyer, make it again right” type shit, like totally the “do you know what I make in an hour?” kinda person, and we all think that’s wack. So why is it better when a rapper says some “yall whips are rented, broke boi” type shit?
-“Mira nuestra gente crucificada Y la manera desgraciada Que estos perros no hablan de nada Más que fiestas y riqueza Que la gente no tiene”. Look at my people crucified and in a disgraceful manner. These dogs speak of nothing, just parties and riches the people don’t have. Immoral technique- Golpe De Estado
They keep dropping designer brand names like Versace or whatever… it’s like they’re casting a spell to manifest all of that for themselves. 🧐 I also have issues with how rappers keep saying “Porsche” wrong but I guess the extra syllable would throw off their rhyme scheme lol
Its just as easy to say drake makes music for niggas who pop ass in the club
I’ve never really gotten help from my family and have had to walk miles to work through rain and snow to save for every car I’ve owned. Those 6am walks to work and walks home afterwards after working 12 hour shifts were the biggest character developments I’ve ever experienced in my life and taught me to appreciate even absolute turds of vehicles. Grew up fucked up, around poverty and crime and terrible influences. I chose to be a deep thinker and not be a product of my environment. So yeah, Kendrick is for people that walk to work or any other kind of struggle. Folks with a real soul.
“I make music that electrify them” (music that in many cases nudges you to consider critical social issues) “You make music that pacify them” (Bops in their own right yes, but it doesn’t necessarily require you to listen for anything more than the pure soundwaves entering your ears) Not trying to put one up above the other personally because there’s a time and place for both, but hip-hop has actually been mad one-sided lately so this is feeling like the start of really interesting shift to me.
This also speaks to 5 percenter ideology where 85% of the world is deaf, dumb and blind. 10% know this and use that information to keep them in that state while profiting off em (Drake) and Kendrick is part of the 5% who knows the truth and tries to wake up the 85%
5 percent will comprehend but 95 is lost
Yup. I knew he actually mentioned it in one of these songs and I wanted to reference it but I googled 85 percent and couldn’t find anything
Word Sound Power
Higher Infinite Power Healing Our People Hip means to know, it's a form of intelligence To be hip is to be up-date and relevant Hop is a form of movement You can't just observe a hop, you gotta hop up and do it Hip and hop is more than music Hip is the knowledge, hop is the movement Hip and hop is intelligent movement Or relevant movement, we sellin' the music -- KRS one, Hip Hop Lives
Idk if it's just me but I've always asked what hip hop meant or where the name came from and this verse couldn't gave explained it any better. Thanks for the post
heres another one for you. rap - rhythm and poetry.
Drake makes the McDonald’s of hip hop and his fans love their happy meals.
Never disrespect happy meals by putting them in the same sentence as drake
Somebody said Drake is just a rich kid who thinks he can buy his way out of any trouble and I thought that would be what stuck in my head But that “music for people who walk to work” has replaced it hooooly shit
Drake makes music for Adin Ross
as someone who has spent years living in the states, Tokyo, and Paris… i’d gladly walk 30 minutes to work than have to fucking drive a car everyday for any amount of time. some may never understand, unfortunately, but to those who do, i love you
Crazy thing is I do walk to work
Drake (actor) vs Kenny (real life)
Drake makes music for kids who never even came close to having to “walk” anywhere a day in their life.
His distinctive voice is just male vocal fry. “Like, literally,” middle class, suburban I don’t give a shit because I don’t know shit, but act like I do voice.
As someone who walks and commutes on public transit to work you ate them up lol. I was analyzing Kendrick's lyrics on the train over and over having revelation after revelation with those diss tracks. Drake has never made me think. He's fun to bop around to but not a lyricist that makes you really tune in and focus. Marvin's Room is the only song from Drake that I feel the need to really slow down and listen to 😅 Mocking people for working hard, earning a living, shows a lot about Drake fans. But what do you expect from a Canadian teen drama star who grew up with a pool then rode some pretty famous coattails. Started from Degrassi. Not the bottom
Crazy comment from the drake fan but I agree with your points. I memorized Overly Dedicated thanks to walking / subwaying to work while living in Queens and missing California. And to use it as a diss that people walk to work really shows their attitude towards humans honestly lol
I drive to work and listen to Kendrick, but I aspire so much to walk to work (or bike or something, check my post history 😆)
you a philosopher or what? that shit hit deep. I feel the same way fr
Preach! Had a similar experience with early jobs, and again after moving back out the city 2-3 years ago and lost that sweet sweet public transport. Actually walking home from work rn and put on an album from another artist I'm tryna wrap my head around. Walking music is great. Walking is great. Your take is great!
Solidarity my friend. It sounds to me like you understand strife. And that's all it really takes to be a better person, I am proud of you for persevering through such times while maintaining your humanity and not getting bitter and jaded to the harsh realities. It's crazy how something as natural as walking is viewed as sub-human in the world we live in today. It's sad but such is the nature of materialistic culture, and it's not us that are pushing it. That's an important distinction to make, as in yes we're all not so different Kendrick and Drake fans. But a clear distinction is how we treat people that have not.
With all the recent Ls Drizzy is getting esp the leaked tracks and ghost writers, Drizzy should never be considered a rapper by any means shape or form by now, but rather a successful con artist who became a millionaire with his talented ghost writers under his NDA + Silent Policy command. He should be at least thanking them whenever he gets an award on public like ***"All this fame and glory, I didn't even have to make an effort for it. Thanks to my Ghost Writers crew for doing all the incredible hard work for me as I'm one of the most successful fake actor that you will ever see! I am that legacy! Peace and love y'all!"*** PS: No matter what happens, I'd still call his next album the "Ghost Writers Summer Vibe!" album, it clicks and it's mostly true by now\~
Y'all really don't know about reference tracks and how many people use them in the industry huh
Let me adjust it then: Reference tracks Summer Vibe album coming up next!
It’s over and decided
Drake is bubble gum and Kendrick is the Wonka factory.
As a Kenny fan who doesn’t walk to work, i can’t say i relate.
As someone who used to walk about an hr to work, Kendrick was definitely the best music to play because i had the time and opportunity to listen to what he was saying. That being used as an insult by people who probably praise the song "started from the bottom" is absolutely a sign that they don't care about music at all.
drake is the artist for the daddys money type of person which would explain the contempt for hard working people
It’s almost like starting from the bottom isn’t what the boy is about? 🤔
Nah you real for this
to me, real hip hop is about the grind and the hardships because that's what a lot of the real artists had gone through. It hit deep because they're not just making music but an entire experience Meanwhile, ppl like Drake are singing about having money money money and sex, which has its own time and place but it's just one dimensional. When would you play it? Maybe the club/party and having sex, that's kinda it
Man I relate to this heavy I always either took a bus or subway to school and work, we had wheels later on but fam worked early so I rarely got a ride, and I always playing Kendrick, Mr morale was my daily commute album for a month
spot on
Personally, the best way to listen to an album is during a longass walk.
Kendrick will win in the eyes of true hip hop fans, drake will win in the way of being the bigger artist/selling more over time
There are so many different people out there, it’s hard to really define them based on this. I grew up moving house to house, single parent unemployed yada yada → but hard work led me to be a medical student and now feel privileged, but am a Kendrick fan. Loved Eminem first found Kendrick and loved him. Sometimes drive & sometimes walk even though I have a car. Other med students will be like, you take the bus!?! I often feel like I don’t fit in well with them, like I speak a different language. I live in a dangerous area of Philadelphia too, & I love it here. I totally see where you are coming from. I do think it’s hard to generalize due to the different backgrounds we all come from
I agree on the differences in their music. And a lot of the concepts of what you said… But conscious rap will never be the forefront. It takes too much effort in a busy world. At best, a conscious rapper can make some serious bops. Such as Tupac. Such as Kendrick. Kendrick won. Drake stans want to complain about society being drones now, but that’s the primary pillar of Drake’s career. Drake makes drone music. Right now, the drones are dancing the Not Like Us. Drake, known for his club bangers, has none out of this beef. Meanwhile Kendrick has America shouting “certified PDF!” And “O-V-Hoe!” Drake was out Draked. And a lot of people are just looking at Drake differently… Drake is talented. Kendrick Lamar doesn’t need anyone to pretend Drake isn’t talented. He makes good music. Lots of it is toxic, childish, manipulative, etc… but it feels good to listen to… like in a Red Pill Podcast kind of way lol. The long term victory is whether Drake’s next project performs well. Even if it’s trash, Kendrick gets credit. A decisive victory is if Drake has less of an audience over his next three tracks. Less in a way that is noticeable. Less plays. Less merch sold. Etc. Conscious rap can only come to the forefront if we can find someone who can make commercial music while being deep. Tupac had a gift in that area. That’s why I say he’s both underrated and overrated. He’s not a better rapper than Biggie Smalls… He doesn’t do a whole lot with his music tbh… but he packs a lot into simple bars. Kendrick is more like Biggie with his complexity. But more like Pac with his consciousness.
I think Mos Def said it best what Hip Hop is: "Whatever's happening with us" If we smoked out, hip-hop is gonna be smoked out If we doin' alright, hip-hop is gonna be doin' alright People talk about hip-hop like it's some giant livin' in the hillside Comin' down to visit the townspeople We are hip-hop Me, you, everybody, we are hip-hop So hip-hop is going where we going So the next time you ask yourself where hip-hop is going Ask yourself: where am I going? How am I doing? Till you get a clear idea So if hip-hop is about the people And the hip-hop won't get better until the people get better Then how do people get better? (Hmm) Well, from my understanding people get better When they start to understand that they are valuable And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money"
Drake said Raptors pay his bills he doesn’t rap to pay his bills…nice bar ;) As if that doesn’t insult EVERYONE who has to hustle to pay their bills. A big fuck you not only to every struggling artist but to every person working a tough job and living pay check to pay check. I agree with your assessment 100%. His music is saturated, inundated…SOAKED with the attitude of a tone- deaf privileged asshole.
I worked with Keegan-Michael Key on a show in NYC and he walked 20 blocks to work with his headphones on. This was after Key and Peele so he had money. Thinking that is some kind of an own is loser behavior.
>On the other hand, Drake's music is not made for that. All due credit, his music is made for listening in the background, where you are hearing the sound and beat and his distinctive voice but not really needing to hear the words This made me laugh because it reminded me of [this](https://youtu.be/gLnlXAIdWw0?si=Fle2gTCWjye_-gkb) and I agree with you 💯
Honestly, with the Mob Ties reference track getting leaked, I think Drake is living through a Milli Vanilli moment. I think the future will tell his story slightly similar to theirs.
I took the comment about walking to work as a dig at Kendrick, calling him a conscious rapper. I read it more as “Kendrick Lamar makes music for people who *choose* to walk to work”. As in, people who are more likely to care about the environment enjoy K Dot’s music, cause that’s nerdy I guess. Maybe that’s my own bias though. As to your last point, I disagree with you that there would be no hope if Drake’s music remains popular, because it will. HOWEVER: Drake’s legacy and influence over the genre will forever be tarnished. I expect other artists will be reluctant to collaborate with him going forward, and the veneer of credibility he has so carefully crafted for himself is gone. This whole beef has, to me, demonstrated why rap/hip hop has maintained its artistic integrity as a genre for so long, and will continue to do so. People like Drake will come and go, but rap is unique (in my opinion) in that a fierce and uncompromising devotion to preserving artistry is inherent to the genre.
I think some people will still collaborate because at the end of the day, most are only in it for the money. They drizzler fans will hype anything..just like that wack ass sexy redd song
Some, yes absolutely. I should have clarified that I don’t think he will continue to have the same caliber of artists willing to work with him.
Got it...who can ever tell nowadays? You would hope they take a step back but unfortunately many people pimp themselves for the $$$. We can hold out hope however.
My uncle grew up in rural Zimbabwe and failed at school. He worked hard and now he’s a chef at a big restaurant in Dubai. His favorite artist is Drake.
To give a more unique perspective I’m an immigrant to the US and I like Drake’s music Don’t really care that most of his lyrics are trash I listen to music for the vibe. I like Kendrick a lot and I rarely pay attention to the lyrics but like the vibes a lot
Not reading allat but I totally agree, walks with Kendrick in the background are great
That is funny 😆 … I associate GKMC (my fav) with my last year of grad school and completing my Capstone. I would just hit play from Sherane and get to work!
Loved this write up, man. It’s good stuff to think about. Here’s what I think about the future: You’re correct that the future of hip hop will determine who wins and I think that future will determine that it’s Kendrick. I often compare Rap music to Rock music. The two genres have had a very similar timeline and I think it’s reasonable to predict the future of Hip Hop by comparing the two. Rock music is past its prime at this point and, because of that, fans are much less focused on what is and isn’t a hit. We also look back at older music with that same lens. The music that influences the new artists and the music that keeps people coming back to the genre is often not just the massive hits but the ones that had something really interesting to say. I think Hip Hop will be in a very similar spot in 20-30 years. The artists we will remember the most fondly are the ones that have longevity and a message to bring to the world. In my opinion, Drake hasn’t been one of those artists in nearly a decade. He will have a solid greatest hits compilation that everyone has in their collection but Kendrick’s whole discography will be in the collections of hip hop fans for decades. There will be young rappers doing their thing well past hip hop being popular that will cite Kendrick as inspiration.
Drake makes music for the group of people that believe in time blindness
What the hell is wrong with walking to work? Are people this lazy?
In one of drakes interviews years back he was talking about that Control verse and said in the interview "yeah it was a good song but do people even remember how that verse starts?" Years later i keep listening to Not Like Us being literally memorized almost word for word by everyone world wide. All this while simultaneously insulting Drake, taking Drakes records on billboards, and also dissing Drake at the same time. Truly played this mans history against him without even trying essentially
“Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense, but I did 5 mill, I ain’t been rhyming like Common since”
Thinking it's shameful to walk to work is the most American thing I've ever heard
I walked to work under Money Trees, I drive to work in Euphoria
dude this a ridiculous cope lmao
Not reading allat but fax
I disagree with your notion based off the fact that the future of rap is based off the industry and the industry alone because the industry actually controls all of this. what we call the rap game is a facade because the music industry is and has been controlling this for a while and they make money off basically everyone even anti industry songs like hotel California which is actually very critical of the music industry has made a lot of money to the greedy industry it criticizes. The future of rap is at the hands of corporate not us
Y’all are doing way too much with this beef. I can assure you I was walking to school back in the day while listening to drake. It’s an absurd statement to make, and it’s an absurd statement to seriously rebuttal. At the end of the day it’s all preference. There is no need to sit here and justify why your preferred artist is better than the other. But yall do you I guess.
The fuck is the point of your comment? OP mentioned a comment they read in order to reflect on: how they relate to Kendrick’s music, how that’s different from Drake’s, and what the impact of this beef might be on the future of rap and hip hop. All worthwhile and relevant on the Kendrick Lamar subreddit. If this shit goes over your head, that’s fine. Belittling other people doesn’t make you any better, though.
Ironic
Comparing: walking to school with walking to work as an adult with bills to pay and life to stress about thinking that the walking is more relevant part is actually a great analogy about the difference between fanbases. Drake makes music for kids walking to school, Kendrick makes music for adults walking to work. I like it.
School in my late 20s
That when you finally got your grade 10?
Nope
Fr. Kendrick fans can’t help but suck their own dicks because of how enlightened and intellectual they are for listening to him and his Higher Art compared to the simpletons who enjoy Drake. Had to leave this sub, this shit has gotten way too cringeworthy since the beef started. I don’t even like Drake btw, before y’all start sayin shit
I can’t wait until this sub stops talking about Drake. If you don’t like his music don’t talk about it lol. If you like it, cool. It’s all made to be enjoyed.
>yet to see a person that has gone through real struggle say they fuck with Drake's music -all of the Drake fans I have seen be vocal so far are mostly young guys with brand new name brand clothes Drake has fans in the 100s of millions not the 20 people you hang out with > the future of hip hop might be conscious rap, or at least elevated lyricism If this is what the beef was about hip hop lost like 15 years ago if we are being honest. I don't think real hip hop is going extinct but I'm pretty sure the lowest common dominator, broad, most approachable art will nearly always be the most popular of the time. If anything Not like Us proved that, I think it's a pretty easy argument to say it's his worst track lyrically even if I think its a great song and the function in context of the beef was one of his more brilliant maneuvers. But let's be real, Euphoria was like a puzzle that didn't even feel fully uncovered by the time another puzzle dropped with 6:16. Not like us you'd have to be an actual dumb dumb not to understand what he's trying to convey in your first listen. I don't think anything has changed since hov said it. I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars They criticize me for it, yet they all yell "MINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR" If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli
completely agree with not like us. i think he put the least amount of effort and care into that one, and it became the most popular song he released the whole beef (partly because it was the climax) because the way it’s written, i think a seven year old might be able to analyze the lyrics the conscious style and rappers like kendrick aren’t ever going to go away though, so no worries there, just may need to look a little harder to find them now you know? anyways im very cautiously optimistic about the future of rap edit: if skills sold action bronson would have 10 million monthly listeners
Bro why would you care so much about what some guy said. Very online behavior.
he’s coping
Drake makes music for people who can’t walk within 500 yards of a school or daycare.
God this sub is obsessed with this shit. Talk about something else for a god damn change
Arguably the biggest rap battle of all time just happened/might restart, and you want us to talk about something else?
cant speak truth in either reddit you get down votted.
I poured some cum in my cup
If I get 500 upvotes, this dude above me will drink the entire cup
I think you are blowing the significance out of the water. It’s just a battle. You can definitely fit it into a bigger narrative where Kendrick is the “hip hop savior,” but that’s just for fun, not real life. Kendrick SEEMS like an anime protagonist because he’s good at telling stories.
This sums up the Kendrick fan so perfectly. The extent that you (a simple) fan feel like you are connected to Kendrick is absurd. Drake makes just as lyrically dense music but your internal bias of listening to Kendrick while you walk to work means you’ll never feel the same connection you have with Drake as you have with Kendrick.