Drake and Lamar don’t care about women

Rap fans received the best gift ever on the first weekend of May. Heavyweight diss tracks from Drake and Kendrick Lamar followed one another after more than a month of subtle jabs and outside meddling. They caused more mayhem in the span of 72 hours than hip-hop has seen since Drake was last charged with child abduction. (According to Lamar on “Meet the Grahams,” there’s supposedly another one. ” “).

It appears that the majority of this rap war has already been fought as of May 8. With the infectious diss song “Not Like Us,” produced by DJ Mustard, Lamar appeared to have struck the ultimate blow on May 4. Since then, videos of clubgoers dancing to the song have gone viral despite Drake’s music being jeered. By the time Drake released “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday, a notably limp voice note of a track brushing off Lamar’s diss, the world had already chosen a victor.

Though there are many facets to this weeks-long fiasco, the most notable aspect may be Drake and Lamar’s ammo selection. During his three-act drama “Family Matters,” Drake shockingly accused Lamar of abusing his wife. During “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” Lamar takes advantage of the long-running speculations about Drake’s purported relationships with minors. “.

The rappers tried to use the post-Me Too culture as a weapon against each other by accusing the other of misogyny. Both of the callouts were unexpected, as was the out-of-pocket aspect of rap beef. Nevertheless, with such grave allegations circulating, it’s difficult to fully enjoy this moment. Both of these cases involve serious accusations, so bringing them up in a diss track felt awkward and disrespectful. When it comes to women, is hip-hop really experiencing an exciting moment, or are fans merely supporting an unsettling status quo within the genre?

Calling each other out on misogyny, Drake and Lamar, is not a noble gesture. It’s hypocritical.

While social media users are mostly enjoying the drama playing out between Drake and Lamar, others have pointed out the glaring hypocrisy in hearing two men — both of whom have demonstrated sexist attitudes in their music and supported abusers in the industry — attempt to expose each other’s mistreatment of women. These claims seem even more flimsy when one realizes that they are all attempts to gain favor on the internet.

Drake’s combative relationships with women are questioned in Lamar’s first diss track, “Euphoria,” where he bluntly declares that he “doesn’t believe [he] likes” them. The widespread belief that Drake may be a misogynist is difficult to disagree with, as it has grown more difficult to refute (or, perhaps more appropriately, ignore) in recent years. Together with his spontaneous jabs at Megan Thee Stallion and Rihanna, his raps have progressively gained popularity on incel subreddits. His adorable, loverboy persona has reverted to that of a pouting, rejected teenager.

Looking closer, though, Kendrick’s accusation is delivered with zero accuracy. Slightly misogynistic in its own right. This bar has an overt homophobic vibe to it. Drake is explicitly compared to the glasses-wearing rapper Sexxy Redd, asserting that he can “pop ass” with women and views them as rivals. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Drake as a plastic surgery-affected “Instagram baddie” (Lamar even makes mention of the BBL rumors at one point) has gained popularity and become its own meme in recent years. It lacks the same lightheartedness coming from the mouth of a fervently Christian straight guy amidst a bitter feud.

Drake’s abuse of women has undoubtedly helped Lamar, as it has increased public outrage and kept the incident fresher in listeners’ memories. Perhaps this explains why fans don’t seem to be as interested in Drake’s allegations of domestic abuse against Lamar on “Family Matters” as they usually do. Drake, to be fair, makes light of these charges by dismissing them in a way that belies any apparent guilt. He pairs this accusation with a joke about Lamar’s diminutive stature in a single sentence. Using the song, he promotes the rumor that Lamar’s fiancée Whitney Alford gave birth to a child outside of their relationship, implying that both of these claims are true.

Lamar drops the darker information he had been hinting at about Drake in his earlier diss tracks on his back-to-back responses, “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us.” The main charge is that Drake has sex with minors. He refers to Drake as a “sick man” on “Meet the Grahams,” implying that Weinstein and he ought to spend the rest of their lives locked up in a cell. He takes it a step further on “Not Like Us,” labeling Drake a “certified pedophile.”. The triple entendre “tryna strike a chord, and it’s A-minor” is another noteworthy line from this feud. Still, listening to this topic over a fast-paced West Coast rap beat is unsettling.

In his final response, “The Heart Part 6,” Drake flimsily refutes these grave charges, but nothing seems to have been given much thought. In response to allegations of sexual assault, he states that if they were true, he “would’ve been arrested.”. The National Organization for Women NYC reports that only 50 out of every 1,000 reported rapes will result in an arrest or conviction. He goes on to say that he is “way too famous for the shit [Lamar] suggested,” as if the goal of the Me Too movement wasn’t to hold powerful, well-known men accountable for similar transgressions. He also goes out of his way to refute long-standing claims that he had an improper relationship with Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown during her adolescent years. Lamar included her name in a public and intricate dispute, even though he didn’t even mention her.

In his songs, Kendrick Lamar does a better job of expressing the gravity of misogyny and the institutionalized ways in which powerful men in the industry shield abusers. His failure to address these issues in his earlier music, which usually tackles social inequality from the constrained viewpoint of straight, cis Black men, undermines these sentiments, though. Additionally, there were a few contentious moments on his most recent album, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. Rapper Kodak Black appears on the song “Silent Hill.” In 2021, he accepted a plea deal in connection with a case involving allegations of sexual assault and admitted guilt to a lesser battery charge. Lamar was also accused of transmisogyny by some members of the LGBTQ+ community for the song “Auntie Diaries,” where he misgenders his uncle while grappling with his uncle’s trans identity.

While acknowledging a shift in culture, these diss tracks don’t show concern over misogyny.

By all evidence, it seems like Drake and Lamar were relying on the power of what problematic men would inadequately label “cancel culture” to handle their issues with each other. Nor does it seem like Lamar’s primary complaint about Drake is related to any dubious actions he may be involved in behind the scenes. All things considered, Lamar just seems irritated by Drake, viewing him as a fraud—a biracial, Canadian child actor devoid of street cred that has unjustly come to represent modern hip-hop while cosplaying various Black American cultural icons.

It was important to remember that the Me Too movement never really took off in the hip-hop and R&B industries the way it did (however briefly) in Hollywood, as Lamar pointed out when discussing Harvey Weinstein on “Meet the Grahams.”. Rappers like Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, and XXX Tenacion, along with R&B singers like Trey Songz and Chris Brown, continued to accumulate accusations of gendered violence, even as R. Kelly emerged as the face of abusive behavior. 1 hit and keeping their teammates’ support.

Rappers, however, are now acutely aware of how these actions can catch up to even the most powerful individuals, as evidenced by the numerous lawsuits filed against Diddy and the current federal investigation into allegations of sex trafficking. Diddy has charmed his way out of years of nasty rumors while establishing a billion-dollar empire, so it seemed unlikely that he would ever face consequences, even though the legal outcome is still pending. But his reckoning, coupled with Tory Lanez’s conviction in 2022, has hinted at a paradigm shift of sorts, upending the idea that men can get away with anything, even if they can get away with the majority of things.