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Drake & Kendrick Lamar’s Rocky Relationship Explained —Billboard, June 20, 2024 |
The origin of a hip-hop beef is seasoned
with special sauce and
Slauson’s finest hype men.
A feud rooted in accusations of
appropriation is a (rap) battle for the ages,
authenticity, and
audience approval.
Wop, wop, wop,
wop, wop!
It becomes personal when a man’s
motives, morals, and music
are called into question
all in one.
Calling out and crip-walking all over
one’s (stage) name is no doubt
a slander to be handled
because being hard
protects a soft ego.
Hoodlife, my ass more like phony contrive /
Street cred, psh, boy you rep Rodeo Drive.
It’s a fickle world, this rap game—
where artists go from
collaborators to haters,
from OG to enemy,
from riding
to dying.
Daniel Romo's latest book is Bum Knees and Grieving Sunsets (FlowerSong Press 2023).