Why does everyone hate Drake?
May 1, 2024 5:12 AM Subscribe
Can anyone provide a timeline of why all of rap-kind is dissing him? If there’s dunking to be done I want in on it.
Best answer: Hunter Harris is covering this in great detail (and with great glee) on her Substack. Some posts are for paid subscribers only; FWIW I've found the $50 to be a good investment.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:26 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:26 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]
Best answer: KEEP IT REAL
It's about authenticity, and what it means to "be hip hop" basically. You got a guy who came up as a child actor in Canada, rapping about stuff that Americans don't think he should be rapping about with that background.
He's got a lane everyone was comfortable with: club hits for the ladies. But then he started jumping in a lot of other lanes, and people felt like he was a cultural intruder in a sense, he didn't experience (from their perspective) the life they did and yet somehow ended up in the same lane.
But a lot of it is also just the tradition of the culture, a constant jockeying for position in a medium that is built on competition and trying to deliberately, and specifically, outshine anyone else you see in the same class as you. It goes all the way back. You used to have to fight to protect your records sometimes, as a DJ. DJs used to scratch the labels off the records they were spinning to make it harder for the competition to be able to play their hot records nobody else had found yet. So whether it's rapping, DJing, producing, writing graffiti, or breakdancing, that competitive "I'm going to make you look like shit by being so good at this" spirit has been part of this from go.
posted by turntraitor at 8:08 AM on May 1 [15 favorites]
It's about authenticity, and what it means to "be hip hop" basically. You got a guy who came up as a child actor in Canada, rapping about stuff that Americans don't think he should be rapping about with that background.
He's got a lane everyone was comfortable with: club hits for the ladies. But then he started jumping in a lot of other lanes, and people felt like he was a cultural intruder in a sense, he didn't experience (from their perspective) the life they did and yet somehow ended up in the same lane.
But a lot of it is also just the tradition of the culture, a constant jockeying for position in a medium that is built on competition and trying to deliberately, and specifically, outshine anyone else you see in the same class as you. It goes all the way back. You used to have to fight to protect your records sometimes, as a DJ. DJs used to scratch the labels off the records they were spinning to make it harder for the competition to be able to play their hot records nobody else had found yet. So whether it's rapping, DJing, producing, writing graffiti, or breakdancing, that competitive "I'm going to make you look like shit by being so good at this" spirit has been part of this from go.
posted by turntraitor at 8:08 AM on May 1 [15 favorites]
Ugh I’m mad he couldn’t figure his shit out with Rhianna. The kind of guy who likes the wanting more than the having. This is clearly a personal issue but I’ll never forgive him for messing that one up.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:11 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:11 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Best answer: (On 'The Story of Adidon' and Drake's beef with Pusha T)
posted by box at 9:50 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 9:50 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J. Cole beef, explained, WaPo gift link
posted by theora55 at 10:07 AM on May 1 [3 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 10:07 AM on May 1 [3 favorites]
If OP doesn't mind me piggy backing on this Ask, I'd love to know: is all this posturing and dissing and rivalry for real? Or is it like a WWE "fight", a bit of theater albeit with more spontaneity and creativity than WWE?
posted by MiraK at 11:13 AM on May 1
posted by MiraK at 11:13 AM on May 1
is all this posturing and dissing and rivalry for real? Or is it like a WWE "fight", a bit of theater albeit with more spontaneity and creativity than WWE?
It's both. Rap has always been ultramasculine and combative both for show, and in reality. Sometimes what starts as fiction ends up with people dead, and quite literally, vice versa.
posted by so fucking future at 12:06 PM on May 1 [4 favorites]
It's both. Rap has always been ultramasculine and combative both for show, and in reality. Sometimes what starts as fiction ends up with people dead, and quite literally, vice versa.
posted by so fucking future at 12:06 PM on May 1 [4 favorites]
Mainly a PR stunt between very rich professional performers with big egos. Drake said he was one of the big three (and that he was the best of the three), leaving everything open for a "battle" that others were happen to join for the exposure. The Real Roxanne will show up any minute.
posted by pracowity at 1:58 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by pracowity at 1:58 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Best answer: On Kendrick Lamar's Drake Diss 'euphoria': Complex, Pitchfork, NPR, Rolling Stone
posted by box at 2:33 PM on May 1
posted by box at 2:33 PM on May 1
Best answer: Pitchfork writer: "the rivalry between Kendrick and Drake is the only bit of the hoopla that I believe has more to it than just rich guys doing wrestling promos because they’re bored."
posted by box at 2:38 PM on May 1
posted by box at 2:38 PM on May 1
Drake is also pretty unliked for being creepy with young women in that “is he a groomer or a maladjusted ex-child-star” way.
posted by Iteki at 3:30 PM on May 1 [14 favorites]
posted by Iteki at 3:30 PM on May 1 [14 favorites]
Definitely Drake and the younger women. I’m having trouble finding anything one might call a reliable, authoritative source, but Google “Drake and younger women”, and you’ll get back a bunch of stuff.
posted by joycehealy at 3:52 PM on May 1
posted by joycehealy at 3:52 PM on May 1
Best answer: This is an extended take from the terrific FD Signifier that gives a whole lot of context. It's from two years ago but I think it's such a deep dive that it's worth watching. He's got a couple more recent videos about it too.
posted by stinker at 2:34 AM on May 2
posted by stinker at 2:34 AM on May 2
Response by poster: What, an hour after I mark this as resolved, there's ANOTHER diss track?? This is amazing.
posted by orrnyereg at 8:34 AM on May 3
posted by orrnyereg at 8:34 AM on May 3
Kendrick Lamar is crushing it! Lololol at Drake and all his crew of writers.
posted by Kitteh at 8:38 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 8:38 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]
Everybody Hates Drake: A Guide to Millennial Rap's Midlife Beef Crisis
posted by box at 9:38 AM on May 3
posted by box at 9:38 AM on May 3
Just popping in to say that the last 24-48 hours in hip hop have been the wildest I've ever seen. It's become clear that Kendrick absolutely despises Drake -- on a deeply personal, visceral, moral, possibly even spiritual level. The heights of hateration that Kendrick has attained is going to be talked about for generations. Despite him being an apparently awful person, I am genuinely concerned for Aubtey's mental health after this relentless onslaught.
If this doesn't make sense right now, I epologize. I don't have the wherewithal to go into detail right now, so just wait for the inevitable FPP about this.
Meanwhile, here are two more from Kendrick:
meet the grahams
Not Like Us
posted by mhum at 1:08 AM on May 5 [2 favorites]
If this doesn't make sense right now, I epologize. I don't have the wherewithal to go into detail right now, so just wait for the inevitable FPP about this.
Meanwhile, here are two more from Kendrick:
meet the grahams
Not Like Us
posted by mhum at 1:08 AM on May 5 [2 favorites]
Ok, just one detail to demonstrate Kendrick's diabolical-ness: these last two Kendrick tracks dropped while DJ Akademiks, a well-known and vocal Drake fan, was live-streaming, getting him to listen and react live on-air (so to speak) in front of his considerable audience.
The first one, meet the grahams was dropped only something like 15 minutes after Drake's Family Matters dropped. DJ Akademiks had just finished listening to Drake's volley in this very public battle and was still basking in the commentary afterglow when his chat notified him that Kendrick had already dropped his response. His first feeling was that he was being trolled by his chat, which then turned into despair when he found and listened to the savagery of it.
The second drop came just shortly after DJ Akademiks went live again hours later. The timing of it highly suggested that Kendrick was deliberately waiting for AK to go live in order to force him to react and again forcing one of Drake's highest-profile defenders to listen to his idol getting accused of/called out for truly despicable stuff, set to a DJ Mustard beat, and exposing his audience to the spectacle.
FYI: I've been mainly getting this through clips and commentaries on TikTok (like it or not, it seems like that's where a lot of the dissemination of this information is happening).
posted by mhum at 1:35 AM on May 5 [3 favorites]
The first one, meet the grahams was dropped only something like 15 minutes after Drake's Family Matters dropped. DJ Akademiks had just finished listening to Drake's volley in this very public battle and was still basking in the commentary afterglow when his chat notified him that Kendrick had already dropped his response. His first feeling was that he was being trolled by his chat, which then turned into despair when he found and listened to the savagery of it.
The second drop came just shortly after DJ Akademiks went live again hours later. The timing of it highly suggested that Kendrick was deliberately waiting for AK to go live in order to force him to react and again forcing one of Drake's highest-profile defenders to listen to his idol getting accused of/called out for truly despicable stuff, set to a DJ Mustard beat, and exposing his audience to the spectacle.
FYI: I've been mainly getting this through clips and commentaries on TikTok (like it or not, it seems like that's where a lot of the dissemination of this information is happening).
posted by mhum at 1:35 AM on May 5 [3 favorites]
Kendrick's new song Meet the Grahams is jawdropping. Kendrick directly addresses Drake's entire family: his son, mom, dad, Drake's rumoured abandoned daughter, and Aubrey himself.
Kendrick accuses Drake of:
- not writing his own songs,
- trotting out his absent Black dad to claim fake thuggy Blackness (there's merit to this, since Drake was largely raised lower-middle class by his white Jewish mom in a wealthy Toronto suburb. I know several of his highshool classmates who can attest that Aubrey did not remotely act like a tough Black rapper when he was in high school or as a weathy child actor on Degrassi from his teens to his early 20s),
- changing his accent to sound "Blacker" (1000% true),
- getting plastic surgery,
- being a pill popper, alcoholic, and gambling addict (the gambling is known to be true),
- abandoning Adonis until Pusha wrote a song that forced Drake to claim his son (true),
- having an 11 year old daughter who he has also abandoned (this seems likely; a kid of the right name and age was found, and she sure looks like Drake),
- disavowing his Judaism,
- disrespecting Black women,
- being likely to abuse the young daughters of friends like LeBron James and Steph Curry,
- and most chillingly, being a pedophile who grooms young women and is co-running a human trafficking ring.
- He likens Drake to Harvey Weinstein as a serial abuser of very young women.
It's a devastating list.
Play it here on 50% speed while you read the annotated lyrics here. It is extremely well-written and absolutely riveting.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:32 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
Kendrick accuses Drake of:
- not writing his own songs,
- trotting out his absent Black dad to claim fake thuggy Blackness (there's merit to this, since Drake was largely raised lower-middle class by his white Jewish mom in a wealthy Toronto suburb. I know several of his highshool classmates who can attest that Aubrey did not remotely act like a tough Black rapper when he was in high school or as a weathy child actor on Degrassi from his teens to his early 20s),
- changing his accent to sound "Blacker" (1000% true),
- getting plastic surgery,
- being a pill popper, alcoholic, and gambling addict (the gambling is known to be true),
- abandoning Adonis until Pusha wrote a song that forced Drake to claim his son (true),
- having an 11 year old daughter who he has also abandoned (this seems likely; a kid of the right name and age was found, and she sure looks like Drake),
- disavowing his Judaism,
- disrespecting Black women,
- being likely to abuse the young daughters of friends like LeBron James and Steph Curry,
- and most chillingly, being a pedophile who grooms young women and is co-running a human trafficking ring.
- He likens Drake to Harvey Weinstein as a serial abuser of very young women.
It's a devastating list.
Play it here on 50% speed while you read the annotated lyrics here. It is extremely well-written and absolutely riveting.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:32 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]
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Personally, I like Kendrick Lamar's music better.
posted by Kitteh at 5:24 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]