Questlove’s suggestion that “hip hop is truly dead” because of Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s beef is a nonsensical, crazy take

I’m a fan of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Dot. I believe his cultural curation through his podcast (“Questlove Supreme”), documentaries (“Summer of Soul” and the upcoming documentary “Soul Train”), books and musical direction of award shows are essential and make him an important part of hip-hop and black culture.

With that said, and at the chance of never being a guest on “Questlove Supreme” – which, by the way in which, makes me very sad – his latest take states that “hip-hop is truly dead” attributable to the direction of the recording being the Kendrick Lamar dispute and Drake are truly silly, pointlessly short-sighted, and revisionist in a way that should impress even Malcolm Gladwell.

IN latest post on Instagram during which he needed to turn off comments because he was figuratively murdered, Questlove has this to say in regards to the feud between the aforementioned hip-hop top dogs (no pun intended):

Le sigh and IKYFL at the identical time.

I do know this is not the identical Questlove who played drums for Jay-Z “Take over” from the live album “MTV Unplugged” released in November 2001. Maybe it isn’t Michelle Leslie Brown from 225th Street playing soccer within the park… it’s Michelle Leslie Brown from 225th Street playing soccer within the park. Hell, throughout the live recording of the part where Jay-Z mocks Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, they even played clips of “Shook Ones Vol. II.” And then, as the Nas verse faded away, they played “Oochie Wally” and “NY State of Mind.” I’m sure social media identified to him ad nauseum that he was an energetic participant within the beef, but I mean how does everyone have a problem NOW when he was PART of the issue in 2001? Every week later, Nas released “Ether,” which was as big a buzz as there might have been on the time. Actual? Eh. Banger? Absolutely.

Everyone involved in rap revolves around facts. Do we all know needless to say that Tupac slept with Faith Evans, Biggie’s estranged wife? According to MOST people on the time, no. But he said it and that’s why “Hit ’em” is one of essentially the most scathing diss records of all time. Perhaps Questlove shared his disappointment with the album (which many individuals felt went too far, but in addition think was the largest diss track of all time) or a small step down, Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” (which many say is a candidate for the best diss track of all time), but I’d be surprised. “No Vaseline” is definitely an album that could have killed someone; the number of street people involved on this mess is astounding. Besides, it would not make sense because he played drums again on Jay-Z’s most iconic album in 2001. Deliberately. AFTER each Notorious BIG and Tupac were murdered because the beef had gone too far. It’s not like he didn’t know what songs can be played.

Just for the record, Nas is the principal character for this yr’s Roots Picnic, which can take place on June 1-2 in Philadelphia. The organizer and curator of the Roots Picnic is The Roots. Questlove and Black Thought are… Roots. By the way in which, I’ll be there. Because hip-hop.

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Then there’s the entire aspect of what he does NOT find disturbing. Drake and many other rappers JOKED that Megan Thee Stallion was shot within the video and called her a liar, despite the fact that we all know she was shot AND there is a verdict within the case. As far as I do know, he didn’t call there and say, “Enough!” This is only one example, however it’s quite telling, right? There has been a huge amount of diss records, diss posts from hip hop artists, and every kind of violence that has turned the hip hop community the other way up, which I’m sure Questlove respects, and it could possibly be regarded as going too far, but Drake and Kendrick’s beef Is this the moment hip-hop really died? Come on, brother.

Are innocent women and children dirty work? Yes, absolutely yes. Is this the primary time this has happened? Absolutely not. This is how hip-hop beef has all the time worked. Things all the time went “too far.” Misogyny, low blows. In fact, throughout the break “Message for BA”, which precedes the Ice Cube diss album “Real Niggas” from NWA’s album “EFIL4ZAGGIN” begin talking about raping Ice Cube with a broom.

I’m not suggesting that any of this is okay; but when mudslinging and wrestling match-level knockdowns aren’t hip-hop, then hip-hop died DECADES ago. I highly doubt Questlove would take it that way.

I do not see any significant difference, at the very least on the artist side, in the extent of vitriol that existed between Jay-Z and Nas in 2001. The only difference is the degree of fan involvement within the discourse. Does the audience want blood? Eh. I do not think anyone wants this to finish on the Tupac and Biggie bandwagon. Do people want their guy to win in any respect costs? Of course. People select sides and want their sides to win. But if that killed hip-hop, then hip-hop has been dead for many years.

Interestingly enough, I believe we got some of the very best raps from Drake on this battle, but they each took it into gossipy and evidence-free territory (to date) and THIS happened when Pusha T modified the diss game with “Adidon’s Story”. I’m wondering if Questlove felt like hip-hop was dead that day. I doubt it.

Perhaps Questlove is attending to the purpose where he has seen an excessive amount of as an elder statesman and thinks the beef is pointless. Maybe. Or perhaps he forgot that this art form to which he contributed a lot has all the time been this fashion, but now all of the conversations we needed to have in person are on social media. Does this modification it? Not to me. It’s all hip-hop. If you wish to argue that hip-hop is now and all the time has been problematic, especially for girls, then of course, let’s talk.

But THIS beef absolutely didn’t kill hip-hop anymore like The Roots being the support band on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” did – there was a time when THIS can be seen as just a sell-out move and definitely not hip-hop bullshit. Was it dead then?

In each cases, perhaps we just never thought hip-hop would go this far. Once again, I’m a fan of Questlove and I really like hearing how detailed his knowledge of music and hip-hop is. I learned a lot from listening to his podcast about artists I really like and people I do not even know who’ve influenced my life. But this approach is really bad, especially his execution.