This post began as a misandrist manifesto. I’d tell you all the reasons I hate men, express to you how they should seek therapy immediately, lament on the fact that it feels like the dating pool of eligible respectable men is getting smaller and smaller, and convince you to break up with your boyfriend. But that felt really negative and y’all know I don’t like to focus on the negatives. Especially the negatives that we all already know.
So, as an attempt to contribute something new to the conversation, let’s talk about what the Kendrick-Drake beef could mean for the future of love in our society. The key to creating a better world is to first imagine it and then shine a light on the ways what you’ve imagined already exists in our present reality and do everything you can to make more of it happen. Take the downfall of Drake as our case study. I think we all know about the Drake and Kendrick beef that has taken the last almost year by storm. Kendrick, the short king that he is, absolutely demolished final boss lightskin Drake.
He did so lyrically with back to back six minute long diss records, commercially with the success of street loved “Not Like Us”, and visually with music videos and an over-analyzed (can’t let a short man have too much sorry) Super Bowl performance that, as always, paid homage to Compton and Black American culture. Something that, even though he was crossing back and forth between the borderline to film Degrassi out in morningside, our ex-king Drake could never really understand.
But, what happened? Drake used to sing praising women. Do you remember when niggas actually liked women and sang about it? For the last week, I’ve been listening to 90s male r&b hearing those freaky ass niggas sing about how they want to pleasure their woman. I don’t understand why everyone was so up-in-arms about WAP when everyone used to have women moaning on their songs in the 90s with lyrics that, while not as direct, equally as freaked out.
I think real lovers can make a comeback, which is why Drake had to get his ass beat. Kendrick loves hip-hop, he loves Compton, he loves his artform, his pen, his family, and he loves being a hater. That love pours into the music he creates and the visuals he pairs with said music. As a result, the streets, the people, the “culture” pours that love right back into him. What does Drake love? Gambling, 18 year olds, his bed and his mom, uh… As a result, we get corny songs that soar to the top of the charts or become instant Tik Tok sounds because they’re quick, catchy, and meaningless (see: Nokia going viral right now).
And who pours into Drake? Corny niggas.
If you take a listen to any of Drake’s music post-Views (2016), you can begin to see the decline into the incel pipeline. Songs like “Jaded” and “Summer Games” from Scorpion (2018) express his pain over being hurt by a girl (not a woman) who broke his heart by playing games with him. Then Certified Lover Boy’s (2021) “Pipe Down” is about humbling a materialistic girl because he spoiled her so much and she didn’t reciprocate by being a “ride or die”. I have no thoughts on Honestly, Nevermind (2022) because I love that album. Following this, we hear the crude Megan Thee Stallion diss on “Circo Loco” featured on Her Loss (2022)--the album name is telling enough. And finally, I couldn’t even get through his last two albums because they were so bad and he hates women so much in both of these. Drake doesn’t just hate women, he hates Black women. Black women--Serena WIlliams, Rihanna, Ice Spice, Jorja Smith, SZA, Megan Thee Stallion, Halle Berry, the list goes on, have been the main targets of his aggression ever since the full blown descent into loserdom.
We know that the incel pipeline is one many men are being lost too. They cannot meet the bare minimum expectations and boundaries of respect women their age establish, so rather than looking inward they project their shortcomings onto women. Undoubtedly, when this standard bleeds into the music we listen to and establishes this as the norm, more men feel validated in this disrespect.
Drake, now Champagne Papi of the incels, is a lost cause and admittedly it has been hard to see my fave descend into full blown Peter Pan syndrome. Drake, grow up! Back to the point, what I’m saying is that we can look at the Kendrick-Drake beef as a hopeful indicator that love can make a comeback.
Drake name dropped SZA in his first diss against Kendrick Lamar, what did Kendrick and SZA do? Kendrick added SZA to his national tour, they’ve dropped back to back bangers on both of their albums, and Kendrick pulled SZA out for his Super Bowl performance dissing Drake on live television. Drake has harassed Serena Williams and her husband across social media and multiple albums since dating briefly in the 2010s. What did Serena and Kendrick do? Serena Williams appeared in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance C-walking as a big fuck you to the fine and anti-Black backlash she received after doing that as her victory dance at the London Olympics. Oh yeah, and it was a bit of added fun that she linked up with Drake’s biggest hater. Lastly, might we all remember that Meg Thee Stallion has dissed Drake multiple times across her songs in self-defense because of his targeted attacks against her post Tory Lanez (another loser) shooting her back in 2020. His targets against her likely started because “a lot of rapper’s mad cause [she] never game ‘em sex” (“Not Nice”).
Unfortunately because this society needs a man to co-sign everything women do, Kendrick’s dedicated hatred towards Drake has been a vessel for many Black women to see this annoying ass man go down, even if briefly. But, I’ve been hesitant towards this, and expressed in the past, that I side eye this because I feel like women were used in this battle as pawns, not because either side gave a fuck about them. Again, Kendrick loves hip-hop. This was in defense of hip-hop. But, hip-hop is inherently misogynistic. Many bars in hip-hop rely upon the subjugation of women (which is why 2010s-present mainstream hip-hop music is so ass). Many male hip-hop icons are abusers and people sit on podcasts and laugh about said abuse to this day (see: Jermaine Dupri detailing Biggie pistol whipping Lil Kim). Hip-hop has also classically undersold the contributions of women MCs, rappers, and stylists that put hip-hop in the stratosphere that it’s in now. (Watch this commentary video on female rap)
I’m no music journalist, but I can say what many have said--hip hop is dead. And if not dead already, it’s dying. From mumble rapping, to tweeting or going on live instead of getting in the booth, to the homogenizing of sounds that used to be region-specific, hip-hop at fifty years old is dying. So, what can bring hip-hop back? Love.
Love for the craft, love for the niche, love for your region, and love for women. We just saw Doechii win Best Rap Album at the Grammys, making her only the third woman to do so. Doechii loves hip-hop. It’s evident from her passion in every performance she does, the intentionality in her lyricism, the creativity in her music videos, and the Florida all over her album cover.
Bring back real lovers! We so desperately need it, love, in order to get away from the monopoly Drake, corporations, imperialism (oh she getting too woke now) have on our souls. This rap beef represents a rare opportunity for hip-hop to restart. To honor and recognize the work Black women have put into the culture, the music, the style, the buying of records, the pushing of talent, etc.. It represents an opportunity for people to become rappers because they love the art form. Not to become rappers because they’re influencers and rapping is a good source of income. Not to rap about fucking bitches and going to Magic City on a Monday. It represents an opportunity for music to not be brain rot, but a source of inspiration. Might I add that when Drake first came on the scene he was called Heartbreak Drake and basically barred from Hip-hop by other rappers until Lil Wayne co-signed him. Drake represented an opportunity for male r&b yearning to fuse with hip-hop, and while he carried that for a little while (whilst being carried by Black women), he eventually sucumbed to full blown misogyny. So what I'm envisioning (a fusion of love and hip-hop) is possible, but maybe unpopular for the masses that aren't Black women.
I’m not asking everyone to be Malcolm X on the beat, what I’m asking for is for intentionality and care. And I think we as consumers should start demanding that from artists. Artists like Drake and the brethren he’s spawned make the music they make because they know it’ll sell. And we listen because what else is on?
As always, I am not saying this from a pedestal. I love listening to your favorite mumble rapping, percocet popping, same flow having ass rappers just as much as you do! I’m slowly becoming a Future fan and he is no Saint. And I love 21 Savage. But I’m saying that rappers, and artists in general, can use the crack in the door Kendrick opened to re-establish a respect for making art. Of course, I know a lot of these rappers are doing it to get out the hood. I’m just saying someone like Drake shouldn’t be able to come from Canada and co-opt the whole thing, do it badly, and create a market for more people to continue to make mediocre music.
I do, though, think that because Drake’s done it so poorly, he’s helped expose just how misogynistic, uncreative, and sometimes vile a lot of rap bars can be especially in regards to women. Black music has dictated the trends for the world, and I just can’t help but wonder if we can utilize this platform to steer the world towards love, passion, intentionality, pride for our communities, and overall vibrancy.
Being able to exist when “Not Like Us” came out was honestly one of the Top 10 moments of being alive. Even though it was a West Coast anthem, I heard it played all over gentrifying Brooklyn. It really reminded me that we’re still here, and proud, and loud, and creative, a lil ghetto. And that wasn’t even his peak lyricism! We can still have fun, still be silly, and still create something made with love for your people or extreme hatred for someone else lmaooo.
To close, I was just playing around with some ideas here. As I said before, I look for pieces of the world we’re working to create in moments of our present reality, and I feel like the era of this Kendrick-Drake beef gave a glimmer of hope that someone is out there protecting art, protecting Blackness, and (at the bare minimum if you can even say this) protecting Black women. But never give a short man whose body looks great in bell bottom jeans too much. I still think Kendrick has hotep qualities, definitely not saying we need more of him out there.
Drake is a cockroach, he will probably never die, but at a certain point we should reject mediocrity. And abuse (not just Drake, but Chris Brown, Tory Lanez, Trey Songz, the list actually goes on for 200 pages). I pray that in five years we don’t see these niggas hugging because there is truly no way to come back from calling someone a pedophile, but crazier things have happened and men fail to surprise me so.
I am begging for male r&b to make a comeback while hip-hop figures it’s shit out. PLEASE WHERE ARE THE YEARNERS!
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