I at all times considered Yasiin Bey a fortune teller.

Nearly 25 years ago, I went to Circuit City and acquired Bey’s (then often known as Mos Def) debut solo album. . I used to be 13 years old and hungry for rap music that was like a full meal. The album became the premise for my understanding of the world as a black teenager in America. I told people on the time that this album was top-of-the-line books I had ever read since it taught me about gentrification, colonization, and racial double standards. But the song I kept coming back to growing up was “Water of the New World”, a track that originally didn’t impress me sonically.

The song is concerning the commodification of something as common as water, with prices rising and unsafe water being provided to the black community. I used to be fascinated by this song when water crisis in Flint, Michigan, it happened. I considered this after I was in my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi fought to maintain water clean. I take into consideration this as our global climate is falling apart by the day. Whenever I see these headlines I feel: Mos Def was attempting to warn us.

Maybe we must have seen Drake are available 2024 when it will be the identical fairy began the 12 months asking one critical query about Drake: “What happens when this thing collapses?”

Bey later walked back his comments, calling Drake “very talented,” but his original statements resonated all year long. At the time of Bey’s comments, the considered Drake’s empire falling seemed as not possible because it did for him and Bey to record a song together.

But almost a 12 months later, something that gave the impression of a fantasy is now more possible than ever. Drake’s profession is at its lowest point and he isn’t doing himself any favors. The once unquestionable, at all times calculating hit machine becomes the topic of viral lyrics, stadium-filling chants and accusations of cultural appropriation. It’s an odd place to see him. But possibly we, like Mighty Mos Def, could have expected it.

Of course, the impetus for Drake’s not-so-good, very-bad 2024 was a musical attack from now-bitter rival Kendrick Lamar. Throughout the summer, the 2 traded songs in a musical chess match that gave rap one in every of its most enjoyable feuds ever. When the songs aimed toward one another were first released – Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” and “Pushups” and Lamar’s “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA” – I used to be dismissive of the concept that the feud could be clearly detrimental to either of them. them. their careers. “When the dust settles, their careers will be fine,” I wrote in May. “They will both be safe.”

Lamar then ramped up his attacks, launching a calculated, military-level lyrical invasion that targeted every weak spot of Drake’s. Sure, other rappers called him corny. But Lamar examined every blemish with exquisite precision. At the core of the attacks was the claim that Drake was not, in truth, a part of the black American culture. He is an outsider. The knockout punch was “Not Like Us,” a chart-topping anthem that questioned Drake’s relationships with underage girls, called him a colonizer, and, frankly, made him look uncool. Even after Lamar secured the victory, it gave the impression of Drake would bounce back. All he needed was one hit, right?

But Lamar didn’t stop.

Was “Not Like Us” music video.“Pop Out” concert on June 11, the announcement of the Super Bowl halftime show and the promise that 1000’s of viewers and hundreds of thousands at home will be screaming “Minor” in harmony and a surprise album stuffed with latest hits and more reasons to have fun Lamar. One thing that each one of those moments had in common was that they featured groups of individuals – a community – large crowds from Compton, California, members of the Crips and Bloods performed on stage, and songs were played by bands from historically black colleges and universities. They all banded together to make fun of Drake to the purpose that Drake’s clowning became cool. Even brands and social media influencers hungry for a chunk of hip-hop loot dismissed Drake as low-hanging fruit.

With each passing day, it seemed less and fewer inevitable that Drake would find a way to undo all of it together with his next shot, largely due to his own mistakes. His latest rebuttal: “Heart, part 6″ was as ill-conceived a diss record as he could have produced, full of inaccuracies about Lamar’s music and an incredible attempt to create a narrative that would spread information into Lamar’s camp. Drake then slowed down gigabytes of content as a throwaway that didn’t move the needle. He randomly released loose songs that sometimes sounded great (“No face” is one in every of his best songs this 12 months), however it hasn’t been as well received because it often is, even in the event that they are only released to the general public. For example, his 2021 EP got here out of nowhere and still managed to chart, and “Wants and Needs” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. This may appear to be a contradiction or an overreaction, as Drake he wasn’t attempting to release a totally polished single with the goal of dominating the charts, but these moments matter.

Rap battles, like political battles, are sometimes won on the margins. A slight deterioration within the demographic situation can damage all the campaign. A neighborhood in Pennsylvania can change all the state. A mistake in a small town in Wisconsin can damage every thing. According to Drake, he has been on the sidelines for a while now.

When did he start? insinuating that Megan Thee Stallion was lying about being shot by Tory Lanez and in addition you are turning pale together with one other Canadian rapper, this resonated together with his black female fans, which contributed greatly to his success. The ghostwriting allegations which have dogged him for years have damaged his standing among the many same hip-hop purists who now rally around Lamar’s authenticity and writing style. And yes, strange exchanges with underage girls also turned off some segments of his base. These dents weren’t enough to scale back Drake’s overall popularity prior to this 12 months. Still, they matter when presented as a unifying whole – on this case, Lamar – who laid out all the explanations to hate Drake in clever, catchy, and sometimes hilarious rhyming couplets and chants.

And now Drake has delivered a suicide note that betrays the rapper’s history as the identical calculating, sensible warrior who crushed Meek Mill to dust in his clenched fist. Two weeks ago, Drake filed two complaints against the corporate own record label, Universal Music Group, for artificially amplifying “Not Like Us” and promoting a song that he claims spread false accusations about him. Other than that, Drake didn’t prefer to lose and successfully called the police on the black man. In a dispute based on Drake’s association together with his Blackness and his status as a hip-hop interloper, filing a legal challenge over words spoken during a rap battle discourages any motion Drake can have taken. While Drake has been memed and joked about throughout his profession, the uproar has never been like what we’ve seen over the previous few weeks.

There has at all times been a belief that Drake is one stroke away from forgetting every thing – disqualifications, accusations and banality. But I’m not sure that is the case anymore. We enter the aftermath of a feud that’s more paying homage to the lopsided beating 50 Cent received Ja Rule within the early 2000s, effectively ending his superstar profession, than the back-and-forth between Jay-Z and Nas that helped each side rise to the following level. their careers. It’s one-sided and the tide is popping towards the megastar greater than expected. Unfortunately, lots of the problems are Drake’s fault. Lamar masterfully took down one in every of rap’s biggest stars, but he also used Drake’s refusal to handle and fix a few of the issues that were already bubbling beneath the surface. Now the road to recovery is bumpier than ever, and Drake’s future is unsure. What once gave the impression of an obstacle is increasingly looking like a ditch from which it will take some serious work for the once biggest rap star to climb out of.

Nobody could have predicted this.

Except possibly Mos Def, after all.