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As resident Drake fan I've got to chime in here! Also a Kendrick fan of course, it's possible to be both. The whole beef is probably one of the few exciting events in mainstream US hip hop in recent years and certainly more of an event than both of their most recent albums... Firstly, Kendrick won the beef, but at what cost? Firstly there's the personal integrity question which is probably taking a big hit. At one point you could have posited him as the moral vanguard of hip hop but he's indulged conspiracy theorism in this (effectively and with a fair slice of humour, but conspiracy nonetheless) barrage of diss tracks, not to mention that he lapped up some deliberate BS fed by Drake's team and put it in a song. Obviously Mr. Morale itself goes some way towards distancing himself from the saintly projection from fans, the media and the world at large, but in the diss tracks he is adopting a 'we the people' voice and airing out the grievances and theories of drake haters worldwide and it must be cathartic for all of them. And he's good at it, but lets not confuse what he's doing here with some of his Pulitzer work. . And then of course the accusation that he beat his fiancee up and hired a crisis management team to clear it up is a pretty heavy one and you know, quite a long way away from "Godspeed for women's rights". Thirdly, he didn't really attempt to answer any questions about his own affairs, which is fine for now, he had plenty of mud to sling at Drake, and a world ready to listen, but someone will come for him one day and he won't have the same ammo to respond with and I guess that might be tactical victory, strategic failure. But he can still rely on being able to outrap nearly anyone else. For Drake, obviously it's been a pretty bruising encounter, especially because Kendrick used his own playbook against him in terms of how the beef played out with back to back releases and even a catchy club tune that will get singalongs all summer. But Drake's disses were pretty solid, well constructed and well rapped with lots of points scored and if he couldn't land a decisive blow against Kendrick, he certainly made the other co-ordinated agitators (Future, MetroBoomin, The Weeknd) look pretty silly. Rick Ross is now the old man angry at clouds meme. It's likely that both achieve extended relevance from this spat based on the streaming numbers. Drake is like Taylor Swift in that he releases music at an astonishing rate. I can't see this really making a significant dent in that cadence but hopefully it might inspire something better than his dull recent output. Kendrick hasn't done numbers like this for a while. It's a bit annoying that like 'Humble', it's his worst tracks that cut through (I'm calling 'Not like us' garbage, sorry.) There's an element of proof in the pudding for Drake in the fact that this beef is happening at all. In terms of motivation for Kendrick starting this beef, he clearly just wanted to prove he's number 1, responding to Drake & J.Cole's track "First Person Shooter" last year. Why is Kendrick so bothered? Why does he have this visceral hatred of all things Aubrey? Why has he thrown the absolute kitchen sink at him, noting every personal grievance, every rumour and conspiracy and even bringing family into it and throwing some pretty questionable racial politics into the mix? It's not an act of benevolence to the wider world but an attempt to see off a rival and be crowned the undisputed best rapper alive. To do that he had to defeat Drake, and throw it all on the line to do so. Would and should Drake play Glastonbury? The most obvious point is he fulfils most of the objective-ish criteria that gets bandied about on here to evaluate whether an act is a suitable headliner. One of the most commercially successful artists of recent times, a number of critically acclaimed releases, sellout arena tours and number one records. Arguably he's the rap equivalent of Coldplay - a mega artist who has evolved his music over the years in accordance with the trends of the time rather than imposing his artistic vision upon the world, and generally having what would be considered a broad rather than deep appeal. Obviously a lot of people think Coldplay are shite but few argue their credentials to headline. His creative peak was the middle years of the last decade with a number of great releases from 2012 through to 2018ish. Take Care (2012) and Nothing Was The Same (2014) are classic rap albums for me, the sort that have sadly died out. Scorpion was probably the turning point where, there were more stinkers than solid ones, but a bit like Taylor Swift's most recent album, a curated playlist picking out an hours worth of material from the record would make a very decent album. He's clearly far from a terrible rapper too, although he is prone to having many songs based around a similar subject matter and hasn't demonstrated lots of artistic growth from the early years. I'd say we're probably now entering the era where he could play. Whether he would be booked is another matter as I'd say mainstream opinion in the UK would be dead against it. But as far as the economics around it are concerned, I think he could become a festival sized act again, in the same way that Taylor Swift is probably 'above' festival sized right now. -
By BA_Barrabus · Posted
next week it is then (was holding out a glimmer of hope but alas) -
By Nobody Interesting · Posted
To have 'Instant Removal' you need to leave the ECHR and likely leave the UN too. Are you willing to have both of those happen? -
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