Kendrick Lamar and Drake‘s beef “really fucked the game up,” at least according to Hitmaka‘s perspective.
Taking to his Instagram Story on Tuesday (October 1), the producer expressed that in the aftermath of their conflict, aside from Future, he feels the only hot rappers now are women and, in his opinion, no male rapper is going to compete with a woman.
“Kendrick & Drake shit really fucked the game up cause now there’s no BAR/STANDARD,” he began. “Don’t nobody got nothing to aim at or copy off of.”
He added: “Now the hottest rappers in the game are women besides Future & ain’t no n-gga running home to make a beat or song in competition with a woman [shrug emoji]”
Meanwhile, the rap beef is proving quite advantageous — at least for Kendrick Lamar. Just this week, his Drake diss “Not Like Us” was named the third-best song of the decade — or at least of the part of the decade that has already gone by.
On Monday (September 30), Pitchfork released a list of their picks of the 100 best tracks from of the ’20s so far, which they described as “the greatest songs that moved culture, coined genres, and are still stuck in our heads.”
At No. 3 sits K.dot’s Mustard-produced banger, though other rappers are littered throughout the list including Lil Yachty with “Poland” at No. 100, Ice Spice with “Munch” at No. 41 and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion‘s “WAP” at No. 22.
Of their ranking, Pitchfork‘s Alphonse Pierre wrote: “Having contradicting feelings about Kendrick Lamar music isn’t anything new (hello, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers), but ‘Not Like Us’ feels like one of the most complicated rap songs ever. No matter what you say about it, you will be a hypocrite in some way. Forcing you to consider your listening habits, like barely any Billboard chart toppers have before.
“And like To Pimp a Butterfly’s ‘Alright’ on steroids, the phrase in the title of ‘Not Like Us’ was quickly commodified and absorbed into the cultural lexicon, turning what was initially Kendrick’s celebration of hip-hop culture and ousting of Drake from it into a branding opportunity chauffeuring Kendrick to the Super Bowl half-time show. That has gone on to soften the impact of ‘Not Like Us;’ one of the final nails in the coffin was Kendrick doing the track five times in a row on an Amazon stream. For that reason, giving it any larger cultural significance feels icky, though it will live on as the kind of omnipresent rap banger that doesn’t come along too often anymore.”
