After nearly a decade of bubbling beneath the surface, Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s clash has blossomed into essentially the most influential hip-hop duel lately.

It began with a direct call out to Lamar during his performance of Metro Boomin & Future’s “Like That” on March 22. This battle is a singular product of the fashionable streaming era, where scathing diss tracks arrive at higher volumes and faster than another in history. Just on Friday, May 3, Kendrick received a 3rd response: “Meet the Grahams“arrived just 25 minutes after the second Drake”, “Family matters” The following weekend, they gave strategy to additional songs from each artist, making for a complete of never-before-seen songs with wordplay going backwards and forwards over the course of about 6 weeks.

It’s a really different take on the hip-hop conflicts of the ’90s and early ’90s, waged for months and years through responses to mixtapes, single pages and comments in magazine articles and radio interviews.

“Before, you had to wait for a Kay Slay mixtape or you had to wait for someone to come to the radio station [with the recording]and it didn’t necessarily happen in real time,” says the veteran rap host and Sirius XM hip-hop host Torah Carr. “The fact that these guys can go into the studio, upload a file to social media and get people reacting before it even hits the DSPs is just a testament to where we are with technology.”

“Streaming and real-time social media feedback have added new layers to some of the tactical issues around these issues,” says Nadeska Alexis of Apple Music.

This is clear from the covers chosen for these diss tracks – Kendrick’s assortment of Drake’s alleged personal effects, a Google Maps photo of his palatial Toronto estate, peppered with pins from the sex offender registry; Drake uses friend Kendrick Lamar’s Instagram comment and creative partner Dave Free pictured is Kendrick’s partner and kids. Combine that with the near-instantaneous reactions to IG stories, the cacophony of fan reactions on TikToks, dance battles on diss tracks, and podcast debates, and there is rather more to the song than simply the lyrics that set the rhythm and temperature of every emcee’s response.

As things heat up and the attacks turn into more personal and revealing, the audience swells in recognition that THIS is what hip-hop has been missing. The sparring, the focused, multi-threaded lyricism, the energy and excitement of wondering what each MC will say next and what personal and skilled revelations fans will likely be left with when the dust settles.

“It’s rare to see two rappers fighting each other in music these days,” Alexis says of the palpable excitement surrounding the newest rap. “We are used to seeing tension in tweets, on Instagram live, in DMs… literally everywhere in music.”

“This year we were fortunate to see two of the greatest rappers of our time – literally two generational talents – battle it out in a feud that has been simmering for over a decade. “Being able to see the lyricism and pageantry at the exhibition truly feels like a once-in-a-generation event.”

But while men go head-to-head for rap’s respectability in musical moments like these, women on their periphery often take the brunt of essentially the most damaging slings and arrows, used as pawns to harm their opponents where it hurts most. This is a tactic rarely utilized in female hip-hop feuds. It seems that whatever the beef’s origins, the ladies related to the goal of every opponent’s ire are weaponized, whether through their sexuality, integrity, identity, or some combination of traits. Shopping mall.

Tupac poked fun at The Notorious B.I.G. by describing an affair along with his wife Faith Evans within the famous opening line of 1996’s “Hit ‘Em Up.” Nas’ ex-girlfriend Carmen Bryan was drawn right into a fight with Jay-Z when the Brooklyn-born rapper hinted that each he and then-76ers guard Allen Iverson had “more in Carmen” together – so to talk – in “Super” from 2002. -Ugly.” Drake’s baby mother, Sophie Brussaux, revealed her past in adult entertainment when Pusha T exposed her and son Drake’s existence in 2018’s “The Story of Adidon.” But why are women on the sidelines so are sometimes the fundamental goal when the true problem lies elsewhere?

“This is your weak point, especially if you are married, in a committed relationship or in a public relationship. “It’s a place where a rapper can pierce your armor if all else fails,” Carr says. He explains why essentially the most common response is, “Okay, ‘well, your girlfriend likes me,’ or ‘I was with your girlfriend,’ or ‘I had your girlfriend first,’ or ‘Your girlfriend is a rebound,’ or whatever.” I believe that is when people feel they will do essentially the most damage.

“Misogyny is still alive in hip-hop,” says Alexis. “We have made some progress over the last 50 years, but trying to break it down would require more words than we have time for.”

Now Kendrick Lamar’s longtime partner, Whitney Alford, despite having no known industry contacts and a largely private personality, has been publicly accused of infidelity and paternity fraud by the preferred rapper on the planet. Her racial identity was also scrutinized and, without her consent or personal input, she was identified as a victim of alleged domestic violence within the lyrics of Drake’s “Family Matters” and again in “Heart, part 6“

As streaming numbers for dedicated artists skyrocket, fans have their hunger for genre-specific lyricism, gossip and excitement, and social media, blogs, podcasts and music journalism platforms have more to debate, debate and judge for weeks and months to come back women often have a always tarnished repute. But as history has shown us, these are constant victims of rap battles.

“Some people say there are no rules in war, but you don’t cross the line into disrespecting your family, because that turns a war of words into a beef,” Carr tells ESSENCE. “I think something like this is great. It’s competitive and it’s good for business, and both [rappers] being UMG artists. This makes the register ring. DSPs love it. But involving children, family members and people who are innocent bystanders, I think that goes too far.”

“After this dispute, I think it’s become clear that moms, partners, kids, your health records, your record deals – literally everyone and everything is fair game,” Alexis says. “It wouldn’t be the rules, but that’s the game.”

But what becomes of the ladies whose names remain the topic of jokes and whose lives remain a source of speculation long after the dust has settled on rap’s war grounds?

“We’ve seen Carmen Bryan write books, make public appearances, and figure out how to capitalize on her name while being in the spotlight,” Carr says. “Faith Evans has denied all claims made against her, but she has already been in the public eye.”

“But for those who are a civilian, like Lady Kendricka Whitney, who is solely not involved on this business in any respect, it’s unfair to her. “Now he has to pick himself up and explain this to his children and family members, and maybe even go public to try to clear his name.”

Throwing uninvolved partners into the fray becomes an excellent more disturbing tactic once we consider the credibility of every emcee’s claims. The two provided salacious details about one another’s private lives and relationships with their partners and kids, but provided no evidence for these claims. But just because the digital age has modified the speed and content of disses and replies, it also seems to have shifted the burden of proof onto investigative fans, if not completely erased it.

“Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish what is fact and what is pure fiction for entertainment purposes. I think this trend will continue,” says Alexis. The latest standards in hip-hop revelations appear to be barely different than 5 years ago.

“I’m from a different era and things like that. If you said something like that, you had to have evidence to back it up,” Carr says. “Now, because of the size of the audience and the fan base and how vocal people are on social media, they’re really just going to compare what’s being said. I don’t think it needs to be proven.”

“In light of this, I think fans will simply use different criteria to judge these diss songs, including timing and execution,” Alexis explains. “But trust and believe that internet sleuths will come here and invest in all the claims made in these pieces. It just adds another dimension to the beef in the age of artificial intelligence and streaming.”

Bravado and skill battles for respect and bragging rights have been a component of hip-hop culture since its inception within the Seventies. But because the genre has spanned 50 years of existence, the culture of emcees trading personal attacks has turn into increasingly pervasive, and bars have turn into increasingly more virulent, and sometimes spill out of the “wax” into the streets, ending in violence. It’s traditional at this point, but given the tragic outcomes we have seen previously, is hip-hop beef still a obligatory cornerstone of the culture?

“I really can’t say that [beefs are] ‘necessary,’ but I think they bring us back to the true essence and competitive spirit of hip-hop,” says Alexis. “Over the last few decades, hip-hop has become a commercial phenomenon, but at its core, some things are still dear to us.”

“I think this competition produces the best work,” Carr says. “Hip-hop is built on that, but anything that’s going to grow needs some kind of competition to push yourself to be better.”

“I think where we are in hip-hop right now, where everyone has an opinion and has a public forum to express it, Drake fans will say, ‘Drake got it.’ Kendrick fans will say: Kendrick did it. The media will go with whatever makes the most sense for what they do. At the end of the day, there are really no losers.”

No matter who wins or loses in a given battle, all wars ultimately involve casualties. As words are exchanged in lyrics and reputations are destroyed within the court of public opinion, the one real losers could also be those on the periphery, and the winner is the hip-hop fandom. Their trophies are latest cultural debates, latest party anthems for the summer, and renewed enthusiasm for a genre of black music that has just begun to lose its dominance on the charts.

“No marketing campaign could galvanize and revitalize the culture the way a clash like this does,” Alexis says of this now-historic rap feud. “As long as it stays in the music (and social media comments).”