I believe in collaboration and mutually beneficial solutions, but conflict is also a part of life - so this week, I'll be looking at four forms of conflict: rappers vs. rappers, man vs. machine, college students vs. college students, and cats vs. cats. If you've ever wondered why Kendrick hates Drake, how to tell the difference between a robot and a human, and are curious about the meanest cat on the internet, read on.
Kendrick Lamar and Drake's feud, explained
If you haven't heard about the ongoing war between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar, you'd have to be pretty out of touch with reality, but if you want to know what it's actually about , what makes the greatest rapper in the game turn on I will try to explain it all, God help me, about lyrical warfare and why it is important. Settle in; it's a deep dive.
The feud between Drake and Kendrick has been simmering beneath the surface for more than a decade, and as such there's a world full of personal feuds, tweets, interview quotes, verses on mixtapes and plenty of gossip and An abyss of speculation. Write a book about it, and I'm sure people will, but at the broadest level this feud begins as a war of styles: Drake is a more commercial pop rapper; is a more commercial pop rapper; Lamar is a more exciting, "conscious" rapper. Lamar mentioned on "Like That," the song that heated up the never-ending feud in March, that it was like comparing Michael Jackson to Prince. On the song Lamar, Future and Metro Boomin, Lamar raps, "Your best work is a lightweight bag, Prince outlived Mic Jack," along with a series of other jibes.
It probably starts with "Who is the realest?" A feud over style, but the feud between Kendrick and Drake quickly devolved into a war of words rivaling Biggie's viciousness with Parker, or the nerd-core rapper's rivalry with Alex Trebek at the time . Both Drake and Lamar have crossed the line by directing their lyrics at their rivals' families, and Kendrick takes it a step further.
A few weeks later, Drake responded to "Like That" with "Pushups." After dropping a few lines at Future and dismissing Metro Boomin, Drake simply mentioned that he should "shut up and play some drums," before moving on to the main course, taking a swipe at Lamar's work with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, his height, and shoe size , mixed reactions to Lamar's Mr. Morale & The Big Stepper album, and a litany of other rap beef insults, including saying Lamar couldn't respond because Taylor Swift's album was about to be released. Speaking of Swift, Drake also released "Taylor Made Freestyle," which uses AI-generated verses of Tupac and Snoop Dogg to mock Lamar, but it's pretty cool after legal threats from Tupac's estate It's about to be taken off the shelves.
Lamar responded with "Euphoria," which was definitely an upgrade. It's a blistering six-minute rant that references Drake being an absentee father and ends with an ominous warning: "If you bring it out there, I'm going to take it even further. Shhh, that's Something You Don't Want to Do." Lamar then dropped "6:16 in LA," a more impressionistic take on the diss track genre, which gave the overall image of Drake as a detached ghost haunting the city. A gleaming empty mansion, unable to sleep, surrounded by friends on his payroll who were disloyal to him.
Drake fired back with "Family Matters," in which he suggested one of Lamar's children was actually the father of Lamar's manager Dave Free and accused him of being abusive and unfaithful to his wife.
Lamar's "Meet Graham" is aimed at Drake's kids. It begins with this line from Drake's son, "Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that man was your father," and goes on to accuse Drake of having many children out of wedlock, hiring sex offenders, and paying for sex charges, and has a secret daughter.
In keeping with the two diss tracks on "You Get What You Get," Lamar also released "Not Like Us," which almost directly accuses Drake of being a child molester. It includes this classic line: "Why are you acting like a bitch? Aren't you tired? Try hitting a chord, it's probably A minor."
As of the time of this article's publication, the final shot in the war is Drake's "The Heart Part 6." In it, Drake says his so-called secret daughter is fake: "We plotted it for a week and then we gave you the information / An 11-year-old daughter, I bet he'd take it / We thought about giving a fake name or destination/but you're so thirsty you don't care about the investigation." He went on to say that he had never had sex with any minors and seemed to downplay the feud as something he didn't do anyway. Something to care too much about.
This is where the beef is as of May 6th.
As for who wins, that's a personal thing, but Kendrick wins. Drake was outclassed from the start, and his last song was just as weird. It feels like someone lost an argument on the internet. He mostly looks defensive and then he tries to act like he doesn't care, and the idea of him framing Lamar with false information is an interesting tactic; even if that actually happened, I'm not sure "you Without fully fact-checking” is a valid diss in 2024. Overall, it felt like Drake was trying to wave the white flag without losing face, so that might be the end of the beef. But I guess we'll see.
"Human or not" takes over the internet
From rappers versus rappers to man versus machine. A new website called "Human or Not" is promoting the Turing Test to the masses. A web-based game/chat program that lets you chat with faceless strangers for a few minutes and then guess whether they are a human or a bot. The original Turing Test required a five-minute conversation, but if you're good at spotting artificial intelligence, it only takes two minutes. This is my record for the first 10 games (yes, I'm bragging).
This is what happens when you (a human) try to sound like a computer, and the computer tries to sound like a human.
I'm open to the possibility that whatever data you collect from thousands of people trying to identify bots will eventually be used to make it harder for AI to identify, and that "human or not" doesn't matter Doesn't really tell you whether you are "human" or not. Talk to AI or not, because this is all AI. Also: I am already an artificial intelligence, and so are you.
Viral Video of the Week: University of Mississippi Protests
The third stop on my frustrating tripartite of dissent is this week’s viral video in which a group of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Mississippi were mobbed by a group of counter-protesters, and things got racist, ugly, and depressing. The video, posted by Ashton Pittman on Twitter/ A black woman makes monkey-like noises. It's a microcosm of what's happening on campuses across the country as pro-Palestinian protests become more common.
While most people reacted by condemning the guy who made the monkey noises (including his own fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, who kicked him out of school, and the university itself, which launched an investigation), Georgia Congressman Mike Mike Lee posted this video on Twitter/X with the title "Old lady taking care of business." Because that's where we are right now.
#2 Viral Video of the Week: POV Cat Chase
This week's viral video is a video about cats, but these cats aren't cute, they're as hard as Drake and Kendrick Lamar. TikTok user max20499 installed a camera on his cat and posted clips, street fights, and videos of him being chased around his neighborhood. The particularly thrilling chase has been viewed more than 78 million times since its release on April 25. I don't know enough about cat behavior to know for sure, but Max's cat seems to pose a serious threat to other cats in the neighborhood.
