why kendrick won the beef

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you the last week has been a crazy one, consumed by the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, two titans of modern hip-hop.

The beef has taken many unexpected turns, and I tried to address as many as possible in this video. However, one track still sticks out to me as particularly masterful: Kendrick's "Euphoria".

The first true Drake diss song from Kendrick Lamar, the track is hard-hitting, propulsive, and most interesting to me, rooted firmly in the narrative of Kendrick Lamar, hiding deeper narrative secrets underneath the surface.

It's those secrets I hope to sift through today as I break down the current Drake and Kendrick beef and explore the hidden genius of "Euphoria".

Video Shot On-
• Panasonic LUMIX G7

Audio Recorded On-
• Samson Q2U

Timecodes-
0:00- 1. a crazy few weeks
2:34- 2. connecting the dots
5:21- 3. the euphoria of a great rap beef
8:11- 4. the heart plays...
10:11- 5. staying power
11:48- 6. but wait, there's more
19:01- 7. outro

#kendricklamar #drake #makingmediamatter

[GeniusSays]

Why?
Because Kendrick just crip walked on Drake’s dead body..

[muthomi]

I now fully understand not to mess with someone who has fully dissected and made peace with his strengths and weaknesses, cause he knows how to do the same to another person

[alejoparedes]

This ain't a rap beef, it's a cultural reckoning

[poleelop]

This is such an intellectual breakdown. The fact that "who is the best" is still up for debate in some people's minds is nothing less than insane.

[tristanchuey]

I think euphoria was more of Kendrick telling Drake to go sit with himself before getting messy. It was a friendly fade but of course Drake had to make it personal and Dot took it there

[unluckydreamer]

I definitely think kdot started from a semi friendly place or a respectable place. He was trying to keep it a battle for the number 1 rapper and Drake turned it into a gossip battle and still lost. I definitely respected Cole from the start because we all knew where Drake was gonna take things and that’s something Cole has no business doing

[Prince_Luci]

I’ve never understood Drake sending subliminals for years when everyone would’ve told you this would be how it’d end. Bro kept sticking his hand in a bear trap and has the audacity to call himself a victim when it finally took his hand off.

[TheLongestTake]

This was so much fun to experience. If it is over, beef ended with a whimper with the hear 6. If we broke it down into 4 rounds, each diss against one another, I'd say that Kendrick won 4-0.

[browndamon]

Yes: It is a criticism of his own flaws as much as it is his opponent’s because, as you said, he already did the inner work on Mr. Morale. That’s why his work is ringing true now.

Great take here.

[Becauseimme]

It’s a deep outward conflict between the real culture and the plastic culture Drake represents. Kendrick seen and watched Drake play around with and tear down everything that our pioneers fought to get. Kendrick had to remind the culture of what it needs to get off life support and recover. My six year old son is an amazing rapping prodigy and that’s because he understands the importance of our peoples history and the history of Hip Hop. The youth is going to usher back in real Hip Hop once again with integrity because Kendrick is showing them the way.

[flamesblac]

That's deep where kdot reached out to God before going in on Drake.

[MasterIceyy]

I think to some degree Kendrick needed to get this off his chest, like the story of Mr. Morale wouldn't be complete if he didn't go after Drake, this has been bubbling for 10 years now, it wouldn't surprise me if Kendrick felt like he couldn't really mature or move forward without finally burying this resentment he's carried for Drake for 10+ years

[ryanmuhlenberg]

Great video. I’ve seen a lot of people say Kendrick contradicted his “leader” status by ruthlessly going at Drake, likely because Drake himself tried to discredit Kendrick as a leader. Thing is, Drake and everyone making those comments misinterpreted Kendrick’s entire artistic purpose. Kendrick has never claimed to be perfect in any way; he’s even made a point of portraying himself as a fairly fucked up person. Take the last verse on Mad City, or these walls, or u, or mortal man and the entire poem that runs throughout TPAB. He didn’t really believe in the “leadership” pedestal even before DAMN. and Mr. Morale.

The point of Kendrick’s music is that acknowledging your own imperfections is the first step towards being a better person. Not a perfect person, or even a good person, just better. Better tomorrow than you are right now.

That’s why he had to go after Drake: Drake, like Kendrick, is a deeply flawed person, but whereas Kendrick makes an effort to get better, Drake revels in his own degeneracy. Drake’s complacency within his costume of vile personas is what allowed him to sink past the point of forgiveness most good people draw. You don’t just start out like that… Drake is what happens when you let the worst parts of human being fester. His music is pacifying because there’s no internal conflict: Drake should get everything he wants and everyone in his way is a hater. It’s a narcissist’s dream, and it caters to the narcissist within all of us who’d rather pin are struggles on other people than ourselves. Kendrick’s music is often challenging and uncomfortable because he represents the internal conflict we need to engage in. Kendrick is the flawed man trying to be better. Drake is what happens when you give up.

[brandonburton]

Thank you for taking the time to consider the artists body of work into account when talking about The Beef. Context is everything/a key factor in media literacy. This was an awesome watch.

[maxcalderon]

I love the perspective that this is all kendrick building his character between album cycles 😂 what a legendary musician/artist/cultural figure

[MMoturi]

Slight correction: Section 80 was Kendrick's debut album. Just wanted to mention it because it is criminally overlooked in his discography in spite of it being the strongest debut of any artist on the level of College Dropout, Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt

[sebooski]

this beef got youtubers workin overtime 😭 euphoria is defo underrated tho imo it’s insane how many layers is in almost each bar (W vid btw)

[HaussVonHorne]

Sometimes, despite all context, meditation, and wisdom, you just hate a mfer.

No matter what, I just hate De Niro’s character in ‘Raging Bull.’ I understand why and how he became the person he is, but I still hate him.

[austinthesan-antonian]

Thank you for this video.
And particularly for mentioning the first half of 6:16 in LA because it really isn't getting the flowers it deserves right now.
That music absolutely solidifies, like you said, Kendrick's perspective and it's not just about trying to kill Drake, to mudsling, to dominate (as much of the discourse on Kendrick's blowout victory has understandably orbited around, because he was done pure traditional offense phenomenally well) but to rebirth Aubrey with an incredibly harsh love.

It's beautiful, it's art, it's where we need to be gravitating towards as an audience or as commentators instead of either trying to wrap everything up into a neat little bow (which many journalists/YouTubers have been making content about —"Who Won?", "Recapping The Beef", etc.—) or immediately criticizing either participant or either fanbase for going "over the line" without word from investigative or persecution oriented organizations yet or literally anybody else who's actually qualified to "bring receipts" or bring justice.

Let's be honest: we don't want Drake posting Ring footage implicating Kendrick for abusive behavior, ala Steven Crowder, on his Instagram story.
We don't want Kendrick posting a video of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the phone saying that they're gonna raid The Embassy or him revealing what Drake's supposed daughter's Instagram account is in a Not Like Us music video.
That goes beyond poetry over bars (which YES is still where we are); that would be interfering with justice.

So, what can we actually do?
What SHOULD we do as an audience?
We can't wrap things up and we can't get justice.
And making posts like Questlove's isn't going to make us better people; it's just going to make us depressed people who feel like we wasted a week of our lives.
We can find positive meaning (LIKE YOU HAVE), we can find morals, confessions, advice, and maturity here even if this got "really personal" or "really serious".
We should.

Now, to still be competitive, I think that Kendrick has made art with greater potential for that kind of positive therapeutic impact for listeners or Aubrey than Aubrey has for his listeners or for Kendrick.
That's just my vibe and that is how I've determined MY winner.
At the very least, let's use the metric of who's made the better POSITIVE story with this beef instead of just immediately going to how Kendrick has buried him or going full K-Anon with an inevitably flawed paper trail on Drake or just throwing everybody into the garbage by stating or implying that Kendrick or Drake or rap beef in general or Hip-Hop in general or "straight cis black men" in general are troglodytes or misogynists.

TLDR: we get to manifest what this cultural event means to us.
And the most important and useful and unproblematic way that we can add meaning to this is by interpreting the beef as ways to make better people or a better world.

TLDR 2: Meet The Grahams is a masterwork and HP6 is mid.

[Negrido]

Won’t lie this video was an educational breakdown as if from my literature teacher I love it