HIP-HOP, HOORAY?

In the appalling game of he-said-he-said that is the Great Rap Feud of 2024, Drake and Kendrick Lamar show that the only winner of the beef is the owner of the slaughterhouse.

- INDRAN PARAMASIVAM

“WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP” that may sound like a victorious chorus, a fitting and final end to a diss battle that began on 22 March and screeched to a stop on 5 May, spanning a grand and dizzying total of 15 (diss) tracks and involving some of the most accomplished architects of the last 20 years of hip-hop. But it’s not.

“Wop” may sound like the cathartic cry of the victor as he stands over his fallen rival, certain of his superiority and proven in his righteousness. But it’s not. Not in the conclusive, all-encompassing sense where his victory is as unproblematic as it is unquestionable. In the court of public opinion — indistinguishable from the Internet, these days — Kendrick won and Drake lost. Even if it comes down to whom you ask, there is no informed opinion that holds that Drake didn’t take more of a beating than Kendrick. A member of Drake’s security team getting shot in the chest outside his Toronto mansion on 7 May drives this home unignorably.

As it’s plain to see, there are problems and there questions. But it seems like both Drake, the ladies’ man, and Kendrick, the peoples’ man, will pick themselves up, retreat into their million-dollar removes, and not address the deeper truths of the wreckage they left behind.