“They Not Like Us! They Not Like Us!” I’ve been hearing this song a lot on the radio. It’s actually a dope song.
This Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef or battle has been trending a lot lately in the Hip-Hop world. There was a controversy surrounding rapper J. Cole making a record against Kendrick Lamar and then apologizing. J. Cole said his spirit didn’t sit right with the dis song he made.
Now of course, in the toxic, instigating, and beef and drama thirsty world of Hip-Hop, people were criticizing J. Cole for apologizing. They wanted the insult and put-down-laden battle to continue. They wanted him to stand on his battle track and continue to throw insults and jabs at Kendrick Lamar.
Of course, the more conscious-minded people all said J. Cole’s apology was the mature, grown man thing to do.
The hardcore Hip-Hop heads said J. Cole should’ve stood on his dis because it’s healthy Hip-Hop competition.
Hip-Hop has always been about dis battling and sometimes skills battles. Dis battles are two rappers trading insults against each other over music. Skills battles is when two rappers just display their general skills for a compare and contrast to see who raps the best.
A lot of these rap battles have become more and more disrespectful over the years- even during my era of the 1990s. If it’s not rappers bragging about sleeping with each other’s wives and baby mommas, it’s rappers finding something incriminating and embarrassing about them and exposing it to the world for drama, and for the sake of seeing the opponent laughed at.
We all know playing the dozens is popular among Black people- or African-Americans- to use the bourgeois, mainstream term. If you don’t know, playing the dozens is an insult battle without the rhyming over music. Hip-Hop just added the music and rhyming to the dozens aspect.
I have mixed feelings on whether battling is good for the culture. As a youngin, I loved it. But the older I get, the more of a prim and proper square I feel. Just joking- almost. I’m just not overly into two grown men- young grown men, at that, trading poetic disses over beats any more.
We should still keep the battling, whether freestyle or wax battle for the rappers. We should also still keep playing the dozens for the comedians.
But I have an idea for a high vibrational battle. It would be nice to see a compliment battle where two rappers showed love and gave each other praises.in rhymes. Mix it up some.
But all in all, I don’t begrudge J. Cole for backing out of the battle. Maybe his vibration has raised past the level of dis rhyming- even if it’s for the sake of healthy Hip-Hop competition, let alone for the sake of messy drama for our entertainment.
I also don’t begrudge the ones who continue the insult competition- as long as it stays on wax.
We all know those record execs that don’t look like us, would love to see the words turn into physical violence outside of just rapping. They would also love to see a death. They have life insurance policies on rappers. Plus, dead rappers’ records tend to sell more and earn them more.
But all in all. I’m fine with rap battles that don’t turn into beef, and I’m all for high vibrational ignoring and rising above battles. We need the balance of mature rising above the madness like J. Cole, and good-natured, though sometimes, hard dissing.
