In May, we witnessed one of the greatest rap battles of all time. This battle of this magnitude is so rare; the last time we saw one was over 30 years ago with Jay-Z and Nas. Then, on Juneteenth, we saw another once-in-a-lifetime event when Kendrick took a victory lap at the forum at the pop-up show on Amazon Prime. Then, Kendrick released a music video for his hit “Not Like Us.”Kendrick released GNX. Now the latest in this epic saga, Drake is petitioning Universal Music Group to hand over evidence of working in part to boost a record that slanders his name. It’s been quite a year.
But one thing kept coming back to my mind after watching this unfold. The one single line from the Heart Part 6 from Drake. It’s at the song’s end, and Drake says, “You got this joint burnt the f***k out though.” It was a line that most people probably looked over; the song has been chiefly ridiculed, forgotten, and recognized as a waving of the white flag. That line is mainly viewed as an excuse from a beaten rapper. In other words, it means accusing Kendrick of doing too much and taking it too far. But that one line summarizes this entire battle and both rappers perfectly; it’s almost apropos. From Drake, Kendrick, and even the stans, this whole saga, in so many ways, can be described as burnt the f***k out.
The Burning of Drake’s Career
Drake has burnt too many bridges in an industry that is a tiny world. Also, doing questionable things in his past; why the hell are you texting Millie Bobby Brown?? Now granted, he has lived most of his life in front of a camera, so there will always be some dirt on him, perfect for an artist to go at him. But on top of that, he was outsmarted and out rapped. Now, he has his reputation and legacy ridiculed. He looks incredibly out of touch with his fans, and even before this battle, he seemed to be battling an identity crisis; I mean, Anita Max Wyn? He made the terrible mistake of running the same playbook he had run with Meek Mill and every battle he went into. But let’s digress; Drake and his team have now taken the unprecedented actions of taking a rap beef into legal matters.
Kendrick wanted to leave a Scorched mark on Drake’s Legacy
Kendrick Lamar, in my opinion, even before this battle, is the greatest rapper to have ever lived. But also Kendrick, in my opinion, clearly wanted this battle from the beginning. Knowing exactly what this would mean for his career, he took this opportunity to pose Drake not just as a fraud but a villain to the black community, and he was the savior of the culture. For all his greatness, Kendrick Lamar is self-grandiose, i.e., a diamond-encrusted thorn crown. Initially, Kendrick knew he was going scorched earth, no matter the cost, even if he had to make up a forgotten daughter or say that Drake should die. Because Kendrick is hip hop’s anointed savior, and every hero needs a villain. Kendrick doesn’t measure himself by Grammys, records, or money. He measures his career by similar hip-hop artists who set benchmarks before him. And one of those benchmarks is to beat the next best artist and cement your title as the best rapper alive. Drake didn’t realize this and probably asked himself where all this was coming from. He wasn’t prepared for the onslaught. Kendrick needed this to complete his heroic story and to tell himself that I am the hero who will save the “culture,” West Coast, Compton, and Tupac legacy. But he did exactly what you are supposed to do in a rap battle, leave no doubt.
Kendrick and Drakes Stans Got This Joint Burnt The F Out
Overwhelmingly, in my opinion, the older black hip-hop talking heads had this penned for Kendrick from the beginning. Which was, in my opinion, a forgone conclusion as well. But they couldn’t wait to show off their intellectualism by writing about how Drake’s music is so beneath them now, and Kendrick is “real hip hop,” and they have always felt Drake was corny 😑. Kendrick’s stans can be so pretentious and, of course, lost all objectively when it comes to him; the deciphering of his every puzzled bar and word can be exhausting. But Drake fans aren’t any better. They are riding so hard for Drake and making every excuse possible for why he lost, as if he needed defending. It’s truly pathetic. But it’s even worse now that Drake fans are trying to justify this lawsuit by saying he is in the right to take this fight to UMG. It needs to stop.
Two Cooks for entirely two different kitchens
Drake and Kendrick are two completely different artists. Kendrick is like a fancy restaurant, and Drake is a fast-food chain. Now, it is easy to get so enamored with the fancy restaurant and put down the fast food chain. But don’t ever get it twisted; under the hood, fast food is a thousand times more complicated to do and is as impressive as the fancy restaurant in its way. Drake is that for hip hop, he might not give you quality storytelling or content for you to chew on. Still, he is focused on consistency, output, longevity, and maintaining a certain level of quality. Which causes him to do genres we have never heard of before. He has to test and experiment with so many different sounds. Suppose you make music consistently; you have to sacrifice content. You can’t tell deep life stories consistently. It’s an oxymoron. Kendrick will give you a nice meal, but it’s once in a while because, at some point, deep material is not a well you can always pull from. Even Andre 3000 said it: I have nothing to rap about. However, regarding hierarchy and rankings, you must put the artist or the nice restaurant over the commercial artist or fast food chain.
What’s next
Kendrick Lamar is the greatest rapper ever, and Drake has had one of the most outstanding music careers ever. But I believe now their careers, for better or worse, will be linked forever. Sometimes rap battles come and go, but some rap battles cause both artists to be inexplicably linked to one another for the rest of their careers, i.e., Nas and Jay Z. Now that Drake has filed a petition and possibly lawsuits down the line, this will probably not be the end of this story. Will Kendrick come to regret this moment that he spurned? Will Drake take some self-reflection and accountability, bury his pride, and work through what I believe is an identity crisis? Either way, both artists, especially Drake, have taken this a little too far and got this joint burnt the f out.
What do you think?
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