Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar came out two years ago. The president was still Biden, there was still no talk of Brat Summer and artificial intelligence did not dominate our online lives with its mediocrity, yet that song continues to have an impact that changes the course of rap history. It had a long life and this without even taking into consideration the lawsuit (later archived) brought by Drake against Universal who he said was guilty of having published and promoted Not Like Us despite knowing that the accusations contained in the piece were false and defamatory. Ask around: for almost everyone, the beef between Lamar and Drake was won by the former, even if there was never a real final act.
Tomorrow Drake will release Icemanhis first solo album after the clash with Lamar and it almost seems like we're back to square one, with fans discussing the matter again on social media. It is the demonstration that Not Like Us he hit the nail on the head, but there's something unresolved. Think about the last clash of this type, the one between Jay-Z and Nas. The two did not reconcile until 2005, four years after the peak of their rivalry, but after two years their clash had made history.
Unlike that beef, which occurred long before the stan culturesThe brain rotmisinformation, smartphone addiction and AI transformed every dispute into content to be consumed, Not Like Us it seems designed to make a peaceful resolution impossible and that's because it doesn't just knock Drake out in front of the audience, it makes the audience no longer feel any empathy for him. It transformed Aubrey Drake Graham, the man and not just the artist, not into a rival to be defeated, but into a person to be condemned. Many former allies and colleagues were ready to stand against him and this only amplified the effect.
This is why two years later the story still doesn't seem completely closed. Why is everyone mad at Drake? The people closest to the source of the conflict have been flying low. Even Metro Boomin, who helped light the fuse with We Don't Trust Youand seem disturbed by what has happened online. Speaking at the Forbes Under 30 Summit, he compared the Drake-Kendrick conflict to the rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas, maintaining however that conditions have changed. «Jay-Z and Nas were at each other's throats, but I was a fan of both of them. Most people were.” Today, however, “the Internet turns everything into madness.” In an interview granted to GQFuture basically pretended beef never existed. «Was there a beef? I knew it”.
Kendrick was also stingy with explanations. Even after bringing Not Like Us at the Super Bowl, he avoided explaining why, as he says in Meet the GrahamsDrake should even die for his moral failures. In fact, much of the weight of the beef between Drake and Kendrick comes from the way a simple rap battle escalated into a moral showdown that entered even more disturbing territory when Kendrick warned some NBA players to keep their kids away from Drake.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaarwhen asked what it means to him Not Like UsKendrick proposed a reformulation rather than an explanation: «Not Like Us it is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent”, that is, a man with morals and values. «When I think about Not Like UsI think of myself and anyone who identifies with these things.” For Kendrick fans it's an almost spiritual response, for others it's downright evasive.
J. Cole and A$AP Rocky, secondary characters in the story, were among the few to speak openly about the feud. Cole, who immediately pulled out, said that beef had transformed rap fandom into politics: “Either you're with Kendrick or Drake, you have to choose which side you're on.” Rocky told DJ Akademiks that his problem with Drake stems from the digs the Canadian threw at Rihanna.
Now with Iceman Drake may be trying to make things right. In the album launch campaign we have so far seen a gigantic ice cube, some mysterious livestreams, a handful of snippets, scattered fairly decent tracks (ironically, the last rap single to enter the American Top 10 was What Did I Miss? by Drake). The lawsuit he filed isn't helping him. It could be read as a sort of damage control measure: how should someone react when they are called a pedophile in a hit? The lawsuit remains a source of embarrassment for Drake. The impression is that he was defeated so badly that he had to go to court to clear his reputation.
Here's why Iceman will have to offer some explanation as to what the hell happened between Drake and the world, while trying to make the public forget about that Not Like Usbut also the cause. Two years later, perhaps this is the true legacy of Kendrick's piece: more than winning a battle, it changed the mood of rap.
From Rolling Stone US.
