The Roots drummer and hip hop elder statesman weighed in on the war of words between the two biggest rappers in the game.
With a security guard hospitalized, their children dragged into the fray, and rap fans foaming at the mouth, the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef has perhaps gotten a bit out of hand.
At least that’s how Roots drummer, Oscar-winner, and noted hip hop shaman Questlove sees it.
Questlove took to Instagram to vent his disappointment at the ongoing feud, which produced a series of withering, downright volatile diss tracks over the last few days.
Kevin Winter/Getty; Stefanie Keenan/Getty; Stefanie Keenan/Getty
Drake, Questlove, and Kendrick Lamar
“Nobody won the war,” Questlove wrote. “This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.”
The rap battle started with each emcee going after each other’s skills, careers, alleged ghostwriters, typical rap battle stuff. But Lamar got very personal with the April 30 track “Euphoria,” dissing Drake‘s parenting skills and leveling accusations of cultural appropriation, followed on May 3 by “6:16 in LA,” in which Lamar claims he has moles within Drake’s inner circle.
Later that day, Drake quickly responded with “Family Matters,” taking shots at Lamar’s relationship with his fiancé Whitney Alford, claiming the Compton native is a domestic abuser and that one of his kids isn’t his.
Lamar then hit back, even quicker (some 20 minutes later) with “Meet the Grahams,” dragging the Toronto rapper’s son, mother, and even an alleged secret 11-year-old daughter into the mix, while claiming the Degrassi alum is also running a sex trafficking ring out of his mansion.
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The Pulitzer Prize winner then followed that up with “Not Like Us,” accusing Drake of being a pedophile. Drake responded to these allegations with “The Heart Part 6,” denying any sexual wrongdoing and revealing that he planted the secret daughter story in order to goad Lamar into rhyming about it.
While many fans have been eating up the drama, Questlove is dismayed by the collateral damage to the rappers’ innocent bystanders.
Related: SNL squashes ‘silly’ Kendrick Lamar vs Drake rap beef with Dua Lipa and a little help from ‘AI’
“Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘RIP’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem,” he added. “Hip hop truly is dead.”
The news of hip hop’s death have been greatly exaggerated before, but this beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has certainly taken its toll. Both camps have been quiet since the weekend, with most rap pundits siding with Lamar as the winner. But one has to ask, at what cost?
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