from rhyming battle to true crime

The hip-hop “battle” is certainly a classic of the genre. But after a few weeks of clashes between pieces, the conflict between the two rappers took a worrying turn with a shooting near Drake’s house.

IThere are those who find this exciting, unprecedented in the history of hip-hop. Think, a battle between the two biggest rap stars of recent years, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, ex-friends turned worst enemies, in bits and pieces. Never has a clash produced so much music so quickly. Seven titles in the space of two months with streaming records, already cult repartee, comments by the millions on networks between fans and detractors, and even votes and rankings to determine who released the best title . Conversely, there are those who find this verbal battle of rare violence, “miserable and sad” as the site Pitchfork titled it, collecting in the process a ton of negative comments (“you don’t understand anything about hip -hop”).

And then there are the facts, which are starting to turn sour: a shooting occurred this Tuesday, May 7 around Drake’s house. A man was injured and taken to hospital. Enough to cast an icy chill on what from a distance could almost look like a good marketing move between two stars. This shooting unfortunately reminds us that insults, when they go beyond a certain stage, are repeated, spilling over into those around them (the two artists accuse each other of pedophilia, of not being black enough, of being too short, of raising the son of another…), often precede the gestures. Even in hip-hop, even when “battles” are part of the history of the genre. To the point of becoming an exercise in style, but with its codes, its limits which have been exceeded in the present case. We remember the bloodbath in which the conflict between 2Pac and Notorious BIG ended at the end of the 1990s. Their songs have certainly become rap classics, but both artists are well and truly dead. So, yes, indeed, it would be terribly sad if this “beef” of the century announced the start of a new bloody rap war.