euphoria

& what rap "beef" says about us...

(WRITTEN PRE FAMILY MATTERS & MEET THE GRAHAMS & NOT LIKE US 😮‍💨)

“People must be aware of their problems in a realistic way. They must be able to analyze their problems and to work out common solutions. In other words a community is easily divided when their perception of the same thing is different.”

- Steve Biko

I’m invested in Hip Hop getting better. And if Hip Hip is only a reflection of the people, than how does Hip Hop get better? Hip Hop gets better when we are reminded what it is valuable about it. When Kendrick Lamar decided to gift us with a response I don’t think it was only about himself, I think this was about adjusting and maintaining the bar for what we consider bars. What is a bar? For me, a bar is an undeniable time tested truth. You usually get to a bar by philosophical observation and synthesis that people usually call clever. Bars are a tool to animate language of the unseen while getting at something known but at times is beyond sayable. Bars are usually felt before they are even fully understood.

Which brings us to the deep dished pizza that is ‘euphoria’. The fact that the culture is still working through the highly effective and multi-layered lyricism of Kendrick’s writing demonstrates what great art does. The easter eggs are endless!!! Whether you see the beef as a distraction from the current genocides or confirmation of your music taste we are all talking about it. I don’t look to celebrities for my radical ideology, they are all bought in some way. Like Immortal Technique said “You don’t need commerical or underground rap leadership. You need more Street Generals that show kids how to move and avoid the police encircling tactics.”

It’s definitely the age of Aquarius out here and things are getting VERY exposed. This is a highly nuanced culturally significant moment that needs some tending to. Its really everything everywhere all at once type shit. If we lean into it the battle begs the question: What work are your words doing?

When Kendrick baited Drake into the battle he was prepared. This we all know.

Let’s set the contextual table : “First Person Shooter” was the song Drake and J. Cole made together where J.Cole said “Love when they argue who the hardest MC, Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali”. Like it or not this line was a conflation which Kendrick needed to dispel on his feature on the song “Like That” When he announced “Muthaf*ck the Big 3, it’s just Big Me”. I died laughing the first time I heard it. The thing folks are losing sight of is KDot was just saying that “yall are not on my level do not compare me to yall”. Which is valid. There is need not reply to that.

J. Cole’s apology (Something we’ve never seen in Hip Hop before) makes more and more sense daily. Bless him for sitting his ego down and excusing himself from the G.O.A.T conversation.

What I do love about this moment is it is clearly detangling the conflation of the big lie that Drake and Kendrick ever had the same occupation, done the same work or hold the same cultural significance. Kendrick’s highest streamed song is HUMBLE while Drake’s is ONE DANCE. Drake has 1 million more streams but what about the means?

Another layer the “battle” has brought to light is the fact that ppl want rappers to RAP! People are currently going viral for writing the raps they want the rappers in this to rap. The memes has been incredible.

With all the AI involvement it’s also helping train our ears to hear what’s real and what’s not.. It’s all pointing back to the fact that We’re hungry for effort from our artists. This battle is drawing a delineation that is not just about “success” it is about the means by which our success takes place. The industry and its obsession with scarcity has us comparing artists. There can only be one conscious MC with resources and spotlight every decade (if that). This thing (capitalism) ain’t sustainable. We really dying of thirst out here.

Speaking of thirst, Drake’s use of Tupac’s voice via AI was hella disrespectful, a missed dunk attempt, anti arist and cultural suicide. Let us remember he begged in Tupac’s voice for a response … Sooooooo you wrestling not against flesh & blood my boy prayers get answered, you playing with spirits. In short he deserved ‘euphoria’ & ‘Not Like Us’.

The implications are our aspirations. Do we aspire to be prophets or just rap for profit? Do we believe in the power of our words? That’s the difference. By Kendrick approaching and addressing Drake in this highly tactical and technician like way he is dethroning the “I have more money than you” argument as an angle. I’m here for that. Kendrick is attempting to stop the distraction that commerical music is all Hip Hop is good for and that bars don’t matter anymore. This “beef” is disrupting that myth and we don’t get to know what ripples this may cause. PEOPLE ARE READING & BREAKING DOWN LYRICS AGAIN. So yea he gave him the quintuple entendre he asked for and then some. Even if his words don’t say it the bars and aesthetics reflect a revolutionary spirit standing up against the performative colonizers of our culture.

The keyword in the above video to keep in mind is “Associate as a Black man” . To Associating is far different than identifying. That Fraudian slippage be revealing.

“And notice, I said "we," it's not just me, I'm what the culture feelin'

How many more fairytale stories 'bout your life 'til we had enough?

How many more Black features 'til you finally feel that you're Black enough?”

Drake was warned to “Keep it Canadian”

makisraqeem

A post shared by @makisraqeem

When speaking with adrienne maree brown she hit me with the analogy:

“Kendrick is to Drake what the protestors are to Biden

student protest classics: ending past apartheids through protests and divestment

critique: we don’t wanna hear you say peaceful no more / you don’t know nothing bout that”

It’s not about what Kendrick said as much as it is about what we do with the feeling he gives us. It is about what radical actions we take with the energy and messages his music contains (ie Alright). See the pro-Palestine & Sudan protestor Zul-Qarnain Nantambu who used Kendrick’s Super Bowl platform to say what Kendrick has chosen not to.

UPDATE: IT GOT VERY MESSY AND WAY DEEPER THAN RAP REAL QUICK. An hour after I published this Drake dropped Family Matters and 6 minutes later Kendrick dropped Meet The Grahams and I haven’t had the time to digest either one of these. With both of those drops aja’s point below is only been made further. If Kendrick had said Free Palestine or I ride with the students at the encampments on ‘euphoria’ that would have been the mic drop of the year, no further responses needed. It would elevate the conversation and create a further distinction between the two. But the win won’t be clear by only relying on morals and being “good” people. What is “good” without actual ethics and standing up for what’s actually right in the global sense of humanity? He would have the whole world on his side if he did that.

When speaking to aja monet a day after ‘euphoria’ dropped she said “Yea it’s cray cray but it’s giving the illusion of difference, and it’s a false opposition like quintessential American sports which is theater.” I agreed and likened it to our current election cycle, and the timing of the drop lead me to questions like :

Why didn’t Kendrick say to Free Palestine?

How many Z*onists does it take to platform two differing schools of thought that represent so many while neither challenges the system?

I wish he was the people’s champ but he aspires for a different less interesting crown in my opinion.

Do we celebrate the rappers that do speak out?

He is not someone who has ever been vocal about collective political struggle. Most of the time he’s self advocating. He’s never been as radical as his aesthetic.

Back to ‘euphoria’ when Kendrick says: “Y'all think all my life is rap?

I got a son to raise, but I can see you don't know nothin' 'bout that

Wakin' him up, know nothin' 'bout that

Then tell him to pray, know nothin' 'bout that

Then givin' him tools to walk through life like day by day, know nothin' 'bout that

Teachin' him morals, integrity, discipline, listen, man, you don't know nothin' 'bout that!”

YIKES!

I love to hear a good counter narrative but when he boasts about his morals and integrity he’s getting at something but not to its fullest extent. Because there’s still something to protect there. There lies his inconsistency and reveals just how personalized and non-collective his stance is. This moment reminds me of the film “One Night In Miami”, in the film Malcolm X goes at Sam Cooke for not using his music and talent to make protest songs. Malcolm confronts him with the success of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". Isn’t it funny that in 2024 Macklemore can be seen as this moments Bob Dylan when it comes to the stance and use of his platform in solidarity with 🇵🇸 . It’s also important to note that Bob and Macklemore have lineage with the oppressors so its a stance they MUST make if peace is to be made possible. They both hold identities that are visible and listened to.

I don’t need everyone to do the same work but his influence is something the people that support Kendrick could use right now. Mr. Morale could really be giving us a boost right now! We’ll even just take a clever line about watermlons, I swear that would turn the tides in a significant way. As thoughtful as he is the politic isn’t as radical as the moment is calling for.

Although Kendrick has never been political the video above shows the impact his cultural influence can do in just one line. Neither Drake or Kendrick is providing the ammunition of knowledge for what we need as people in this moment. I see this critique as an opportunity for us to create what we need and to uplift those who use their platform and art to speak to this moment. Be the artists we need to hear.

ALSO Kendrick dropped a pretty firm piece of homework called 6:16 this morning. 6/16 which is Tupac’s birthday as well. Listen, a diss track at 7 am is nasty work. ‘euphoria’ was the reading (to filth of Drake) and 6:16 was the internal take-home test.

Yasiin was right.

Think everyone is missing the plot on what Yasiin was really saying and getting stuck on who’s Hip Hop or not. Below hilarity Yasiin is pointing to the fact that the messages in Drake’s music are focused on consumerism, its not an inditement on whether he can rap or not. It’s what’s behind the form. Hip Hop isn’t whether you can spit, there are rappers and lyricists (aka MCs). A lyricist is a rapper who is furthering the form based on his content, purpose and intention. It’s very different work. Kendrick’s approach (pre Meet the Grahams) is about bars and standing on his stanzas. It’s about what cultural work the work is doing. Which must be addressed as Hip Hop moves forward in its 51st year of life. Yasiin is asking the very generative question of how is Drake’s music useful to oppressed people as the empire crumbles in slow motion? When you hear Drake’s disses they are grounded in products, sku’s and streams, which is exactly Yasiin’s point in the Cutting Room Floor interview above. Hip-Hop is a genre based in rebellion. So no Kendrick isn’t the most radical rapper we have but his music is useful and vulnerable as a mirror into our interior worlds. There is value in that.

This battle is a reflection of something. Like Yasiin said on Black on Both Sides, we are doing how Hip Hop is doing.

The mirror says we’re highly skilled, very sick and going through something. We were all conflicted misusing our influence.

-d