Is It Clickbait?

Sey
May 23, 2024
7 min read

Are you ready to rumble?!?! The theme this year in rap seems to be TRY ME. From the very beginning of the year different rap beefs brew to aerial heights. Artists' personal and professional lives were called to question and generated social media civil wars. Of course, this tactic is not necessarily new, but the nostalgic drama is generating hella viewership. #TheMove this week are the rap beefs.

"Beef" has been apart of rap culture for many years prior to the Slavedot and BBLDrake posts. It is typically cemented by a diss track-a song insulting the opposing party. Some earlier beefs from Hip Hop culture consists of artists like Pac vs. Biggie, Roxanne Shante vs. MC Lyte vs. Salt and Peppa, Lil Kim vs. Foxy Brown, Jay Z vs. Nas, Nelly vs. Chingy just to name a notable few. The hype of a good beef comes from how celebrities move around each other and most importantly the music! From the beefs I mentioned, we've gotten hits like "Ether", "Who Shot Ya" "Hit Em up", "Right Thurr", and "Guess Who's Back" .

Notorious B. I.G. and Bad Boys — Courtesy of Henry Gillis

Every generation has their own rap beef that they remember even if it's short lived. This generation is finally getting theirs and then some. These examples aren't anything extraordinary or exceptionally new. In fact, to some this may be obvious information. However, for everyone else, these are some of the beefs that skyrocketed in the Hip Hop industry this year.

Megan Thee Stallion vs. Nicki Minaj Both female rappers have killed their hot girl summer vibes when it comes to any relationship between the two. Their beef allegedly started when Megan Thee Stallion did a very successful feature with Cardi B. Nicki then went on to diss Meg in her "Red Ruby da Sleeze" song. Who knows what happened behind closed doors to finally make Meg snap but she responded this year with "Hiss" which shook the internet and Queen Nicki herself. Twitter was in shambles for 48 hours straight, Instagram lives were filled with drama, and plenty of memorable moments were made, including Nicki's rebuttal "Big Foot". (If anyone cares I'm with Meg's perspective but we all know who the queen of rap is. I don't care how crazy Nicki is, she was putting in work for the female rap scene we have now).
Latto vs. Ice Spice This beef is actually a subsidiary of Nicki Minaj's beef with Latto. The two fell out after Nicki Minaj's single "Super Freaky Girl" got moved to the pop performance category while "Big Energy" remained in the rap performance category. Fans (as well as Nicki) teased Latto about looking up to her but not having her back. The rift between Latto and Nicki grew when Ice Spice hit the scene. Fans and spectators couldn't help but point out how Latto and Ice Spice favored each other in looks. Ice Spice getting the coveted Nicki feature and turning into her social bestie was an easy recipe for drama, since Nicki fans claimed Latto wishes it were her. The two may make little quips here and there but got direct when Latto leaked a teaser on TikTok for her unreleased single at the time, "Sunday Service".

In the TikTok, fans noticed Ice Spice's video playing and immediately communicated via social media that Latto was dissing Ice Spice. Once a diss is dropped it's like you have to respond and that's exactly what Ice Spice did. After hearing the snippet and admitting to seeing herself in the TikTok. she dropped "Think you the Shit (Fart)" where she taunts Latto for not being anywhere close to the shit. I like Ice Spice but I don't see her out rapping Latto. The two have been keeping it cute, but I wouldn't be surprised if something else sparked before the end of the year.

Ice Spice tweet — Courtesy of @icespicee_

3. JT vs. Yung Miami

This may be considered more of a breakup than a beef, BUT they're rappers so we're counting it. Anybody that's ever lost a bestie probably took this beef a little differently. JT and Yung Miami aka the City Girls are a popular rap duo from Miami. As the group was starting to become mainstream, JT was arrested then later served her sentence for fraud. After her release, the two were inseparable and made the decision to start doing their own personal endeavors. Their dating lives also became public with JT dating Lil Uzi and Yung Miami dating or entertaining Diddy. The two are famous for always being around each other while fighting like cats and dogs but their last bout seemed to be the final straw. The City Girls were going back and forth on twitter with Yung Miami calling JT weird and mad all the time while JT claims that Yung Miami knows exactly why she's mad and isn't as supportive as she claims. I hate the division especially before they could really tour their album. However, JT's singles have been keeping the City Girl energy as she just celebrated charting in the Hot 100 BillBoard chart for "Okay".

4.Kendrick Lamar, Future, Metro Boomin, vs Drake + J. Cole

Now for the main event! This beef escalated so quick you wouldn't have even seen it coming lol. It may also have been the beef that was brewing the longest. Drake and J. Cole teamed up in the beginning of the year to make a super collaboration, "First Person Shooter". Both are considered A-list talent and top contenders for the best rappers of the mid-2000's. In the song, J. Cole references himself, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar as "The big 3" in the rap game. Well things took a turn when Metro Boomin and Future dropped their collaboration album, We Don't Trust You. The single "Like That" was dropped and the next thing you know chaos unraveled.

I don't think people were expecting the disses when the song first started so it makes the beat that much better when you realize it's a producers way of cussing someone out LOL. J. Cole was actually the first person to respond to Kendrick (probably because he said f*ck the big 3 and that was Cole's bar). Cole ain't no hoe either! Not only did he drop a whole new album-Might Delete Later- unannounced, but he also made the diss-7 Minute Drill-the finale of his album. It quickly gained traction and the stage was set. This was all towards the end of March and beginning of April prior to J. Cole's festival Dreamville. At Dreamville, J. Cole then recanted his diss track, got it removed from streaming platforms and said he basically let the people get into his head. Lucky him. Drake had other plans.

Tweet supporting Drake — Courtesy of @HarrietEve9

Drake actually stepped up to the plate and dropped "Push Ups" directly calling out Kendrick back. THEN Drake in true outlandish and over the top fashion did another diss track-"Taylor Made"-with an Ai Snoop Dogg and Tupac dissing Kendrick alongside him. I can't lie. I was impressed. Drake was coming different! Using his flow through a "ghost" was almost ingenius. But, Drake's victory didn't last long because Kendrick did his own double drop with "Euphoria" and "6:16 in LA". Both songs were much more personal calling out faults in the way Drake carries himself. Drake fired right back with "Family Matters". This went on some more creating "Meet the Grahams","Not Like Us", "The Heart pt. 6" and "BBL Drizzy". Tons of people have been tuned in or at least heard whispers of something going on with Kendrick and Drake. This was truly exciting and as of now seems to be the end of the feud. But, Movers you know I couldn't just leave us to the superficial stuff. Follow me.

Alright, so does anyone remember during the 50th year of Hip Hop or maybe the year before a bunch of older veterans in the genre were coming out speaking of Hip Hop dying and how we have to remind people it's here to stay; Or is that just me? Either way, according to Billboard, "Hip Hop and R&B market shares" decreased by 1.8% while other genres like Latin grew by 6 or 8%. Not only that, but when asked his view of the feud, Compton rapper, Vince Staples mentioned the cutthroatness of the music business for artists and those behind the scenes as well. He mentioned that he, "felt like the beef is a distraction from what's really going on." That got me thinking! Y'all I know dissing is apart of rap, but when is the last time we had beefs that popped off like this. I mentioned 4 above but I didn't even get into J.T. and Glorilla's possible scuffle and Chris Brown vs. Quavo. That's a lot going on in one industry. Is it a coincidence that it's during an election year cue ominous music. There are theories about the government infiltrating Hip Hop that seemed a lot more far fetched before Diddy began getting exposed for insane allegations including blowing up Kid Cudi's car. I'm not saying there are direct ties, but the best way to do something sneaky is to distract people.

Not to get all political on y'all but we're already in the midst of getting major laws overturned that contribute to women's rights, safe abortions, Black history, our social footprint, and the economy. Think about the state of the country right now. This is the perfect time for a distraction (not in a good way). So you tell me Movers, are these beefs real or is it just clickbait?