Kendrick Won His Battle With Drake, But Hip-Hop’s Soul Representation War Isn’t Over Yet
As someone with some connections in the music industry, these aren’t the only stories I’ve heard, these are just the ones that are public knowledge. Also, there isn’t enough space to write about how many rappers have featured lyrics about assaulting women. Eminem has devoted several songs to the story of beating and killing his ex-wife, and she says the taunts almost drove her to suicide.
Of the rappers I’ve named here, I only listen to Biggie, Tupac, Nas, and Flavor Flav’s Public Enemy on rare occasions. When a man is accused of gender-based violence, I usually try not to pay attention to his work. With Biggie and Pac, I rationalize it by the fact that they’re dead: My occasional streams don’t give them the right to continue being accused of harming women. With Public Enemy, I don’t want to blame the entire group for Flav’s actions, even though that means ignoring the possibility that his bandmates witnessed his behavior. With Nas, honestly, I have no reason to, but what often happens is that I’ll turn on his music and start thinking about what he’s been accused of, and then I turn it off.
Meanwhile, I’ve been listening to “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us” on repeat for weeks. I keep wondering, Why are the accusations against he Enough to make me stop? I don’t have an answer. I’ve long understood that being a feminist hip-hop fan is hypocritical, given how much of the music is dedicated to criticizing women. But by not engaging with artists accused of physical crimes against women, I still feel like I’m living my values. Why can’t I do that here?
To be fair, unlike the allegations mentioned above, no victim has come forward to say that Lamar harmed her.
For many, and perhaps for me, the allegations against Drake are more believable than the allegations against Lamar. Drake has been partying with girls for years, including the Jenner sisters, before they turned 18. In “Nice for What,” which has been hailed as a pro-women’s anthem, he raps, “High school pics/You were even bad back then.” As Lamar calls out in “Not Like Us,” Drake’s partner Baka is not good was arrested for sex trafficking; the charges were dropped when the alleged victim refused to testify, but he pleaded guilty and was convicted of assaulting the woman. Lamar, on the other hand, has a reputation as a family man. It’s hard to imagine him at, say, a Diddy party. Plus, he just outsmarted Drake. He’s the clear winner of this war of words, and so none of Drake’s accusations against him seem to hold water with his fans.
Despite what Lamar is accused of, I’ve been happily watching every moment of this battle, stopping everything I’m doing when a new song comes out. I haven’t been this excited since Barack Obama has won. Over the past five years, Drake, who was once considered the heir apparent LL cool J about his rabid female fandom, which has gone from hating “nice” women to attacking black women and attracting single guys. He spent years pretending to be a tough guy even though the world knew he was raised in a wealthy white suburb in Canada and appeared as the main character on a teen show. Remove weeds. He was eventually mentioned in a series of incredibly interesting songs.
