Even after months have passed since the releases of “Not Like Us” and “The Heart Part 6”, the dust has all but settled in the hip-hop game. That’s to be expected after two bulls of the culture locked horns the way rappers Kendrick Lamar Duckworth and Aubrey “Drake” Graham did. Dot accused Drizzy of being an abysmal father, a pedophile, and a fiscally irresponsible culture vulture, while the Canadian shot back with allegations of Lamar being a domestic abuser and a spineless cuckold raising his business associate’s child made with his fiancée, among other things. At the height of the beef, the joust produced world-shaking disses with scathing claims that could be career-damaging if ever proven true absolutely.
But then again, that has always been the nature of rap beefs: to cut deeply and to be as merciless to the opposition no matter the cost. That was the case between Nas and Jay-Z in the early 2000s. The division of NWA impacted the game and produced iconic disses such as Eazy E’s “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” and Ice Cube’s classic “No Vaseline”. The common thread though is that all these and other beefs saw the opponents take hits to the chin with a grimace. It was something of an anomaly then for Toronto’s crown holder to take legal action not once but twice over something that happened within the parameters of his battle against Compton’s reigning king.
(From left to right) Kendrick Lamar and Drake | SUPPLIED
Although “Meet the Grahams” saw Kung Fu Kenny throw around bold allegations of Drake being a sex offender with a penchant for younger kids, the song which drew most attention was the chart-topping, DJ Mustard-produced “Not Like Us”. With his first legal petition, the Views superstar’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, implicated Universal Music Group (UMG) as well as Spotify in artificially inflating streams via bots for “Not Like Us”, which in turn distorted people’s perception of Drake and the song’s popularity overall.
The second legal action against UMG, however, is one that’s most surprising, especially after the storm of the beef. In the latest foray, Drake’s company accused UMG of giving brown envelopes, i.e. payola, to iHeartRadio to play “Not Like Us”, while also arguing that the label could’ve done more to stop the record from being released since he claimed “falsely” accused him of being a pedo.
UMG responded and dismissed these allegations. These legal petitions, however, present a troubling dilemma for a number of reasons, more so on the “God’s Plan” hitmaker’s part.
Watch “Not Like Us”:
The first is knowing when to draw the line in the sand. In the hip-hop game, once a feud escalates to diss-sustained battling, it’s always a no-holds-barred affair. And it was no different between the two juggernauts, who both took serious knocks. However, a point worth noting is that Graham also made salacious claims not just about Duckworth but about his family. From accusing his fiancée, Whitney Alford, of cheating with Dave Free and having a baby in the process to him being a wifebeater, Drake made disturbing cuts on “Family Matters”, his strongest punch in the beef. After all, there is no reality that exists where an abuser is regarded better than a child predator – both are equally vile. And yet, within the realm of the beef, Kendrick was able to keep everything in the battle and let his music speak rather than running off to lawyers.
The whole basis of Kendrick Lamar even going up against Drake was for defending the culture, whom Lamar felt – and continues to feel – has been poisoned and corrupted by the likes of false representatives such as Aubrey. This is all written in his music. “Not Like Us” was a climax of this ideal: dancing on the grave of someone he has been trying to expose as a fraud and a covert enemy of not only hip-hop but Black culture in essence. Drake taking legal action against the popularity of the song rather than the actual chain of disses reeks of hypocrisy and misplaced priorities. If Drake’s qualm is about “Not Like Us” and UMG supposedly cooking the numbers through bots and payola, then why haven’t the same grievances been raised concerning “Meet the Grahams”, a song in which Kendrick explicitly wishes for Drake to die while also framing him as a failed father hiding another child? Taken into consideration, Drake moving the way he’s been doing is not only proving Kendrick’s claims right about him be a culture chameleon, it only makes “Not Like Us” sound even harder.
And that only means one thing: more streams. From actual human beings.
Listen to “Family Matters”:
The darker side of the legal action conundrum is Drake’s relationship with UMG itself, a record label he already has a contract with.
A few years ago, the globetrotting superstar signed a $400 million deal with Universal Music, a cheque which came attached with recordings, publishing, merchandising, and visual projects. To this day, it is regarded as one of the biggest music deals in the history of music. The licensing agreement gives UMG the authority to milk Drizzy’s works for a certain time frame. And over the past years, Drake has been making bank with his albums. While they haven’t been favourably received, they have been moving lots of units to justify the deal’s price tag. And with the last deal already sitting close to half a billion dollars, it’s a no-brainer that the next one was on course to exceeding that mark.
With Drake looking to negotiate for better numbers for his next contract, many have viewed Drake’s tactic of implicating UMG of manipulating public perception, by pushing Lamar’s streams more on Spotify and other avenues as already mentioned above, as a move that is meant to affect these negotiations. With Drake’s public image and likeability being affected by the beef and “Not Like Us” being at the heart of it, UMG might have a good reason to lower the cheese on the next contract. However, this is a theory many have chalked up to UMG playing a higher game of chess, with Drake being privy to the moves.
Whichever way the tree falls, Drake’s recent decisions will either redefine the game if things go his way or will be his downfall lest the situation births an undesirable outcome for him.
