Kendrick Lamar and Drake have been trading insults since 2013, and recent performances have caught the eyes and ears of even those who are not fans of hip-hop.
“I just couldn’t ignore the beef. It was so big,” said Stephen Gomez-Peck, a music theory instructor.
Gomez-Peck analyzed the feud in an article titled “The Kendrick Lamar/Drake Beef by the Numbers,” in which he counted and categorized disses used in the eight songs that “form the core” of the feud — “Euphoria,” “6:16 in L.A.,” “Meet the Grahams,” “Not Like Us,” “Push Ups,” “Taylor Made Freestyle,” “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6.”
“I was hoping that organizing the lines into categories would show something about the trends,” Gomez-Peck said. “Coming up with different categories for both Drake and Kendrick was a bit of a subjective process.”
Gomez-Peck found that Lamar’s statements about Drake more regularly attacked his moral character based on alleged behaviors, while Drake spent more time responding to Lamar’s allegations rather than delivering insults.
“I think by streams, Kendrick definitely won as his diss tracks were much more popular. However, I think morally Drake kept a higher ground,” said Shifa Jalali, a sophomore majoring in psychology.
James Sauer, a sophomore majoring in finance and economics, had a different perspective.
“In and out of the lyrics Kendrick’s strategy was more impressive,” Sauer said. “He did ‘Meet the Grahams,’ which made a lot of people uneasy and overpowered Drake’s song.”
Jalali criticized Lamar’s comments about Drake’s son in “Meet The Grahams” and called Lamar’s jabs at Drake during the Super Bowl performance childish.
Gomez-Peck also offered criticism of the inclusion of the feud in Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance.
“That distracted from the symbolism about where Kendrick is from,” Gomez-Peck said. “The commentary that I think was not super subtle about America’s relationship with and treatment of African Americans.”
Gomez-Peck’s article was published prior to the feud being brought to the Super Bowl stage, yet his article still compared the feud to that of 2Pac and Biggie.
“I’ve referenced the 2Pac and Biggie feud in there because I thought it would be a way to invite readers,” Gomez-Peck said. “At the time when I was writing the article, I honestly thought that the Drake-Kendrick feud was going to fizzle out.”
Gomez-Peck noted that the feud between Drake and Kendrick was played out at a significantly faster rate than that of Biggie and 2Pac. He also highlighted the ways in which improvements in technology have allowed for the faster development of songs by artists and the release of music to a wider network of listeners.
Gomez-Peck said the unignorable relevance of Kendrick and Drake’s feud in discussions of popular culture made him feel that not interacting with it would cause him to miss a learning opportunity.
“It definitely has the same level of importance to hip-hop as 2Pac and Biggie,” Gomez-Peck said.
