The Future of Rap Battles: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake in the Digital Age
May 6, 2024
Rap battles have always been a cornerstone of hip-hop culture, where artists showcase their lyrical prowess. However, the recent feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake illustrates how technology is revolutionizing these musical showdowns, bringing new dimensions and ethical debates to the forefront.
Kendrick Lamar emerged victorious in a tech-enhanced rap battle against Drake, marking one of the most digitally immersive conflicts in hip-hop history. The battle kicked off after J. Cole called Lamar, Drake, and himself the "Big Three" of rap. Lamar's scathing response, mainly targeted at Drake after years of going back and forth via subliminal disses, sparked a series of diss tracks. Artists from around the world also joined the fray after Metro Boomin, a producer that Drake is also feuding with, made an instrumental using an AI-powered sample ("BBL Drizzy"). The feud reached a technological climax when Drake used AI-generated vocals of Tupac and Snoop Dogg in a diss track, leading to legal threats from Tupac's estate. This battle has underscored the transformative role of AI and social media in music, with fans and artists engaging in real-time and using platforms like YouTube and Twitch for instant reactions and interactions. This rap battle will go down in history not only as one of the biggest rap battles ever, but as potentially the biggest rap battle of the digital era.
Kendrick and Drake both notified followers of every new diss track release on their social media accounts.
Internet personalities, YouTubers, and streamers reacted to the disses virtually in real time. Below is a compilation of reactions to Kendrick Lamar's Euphoria, one of the most scathing diss tracks of the entire battle.
Thanks to social media platforms, both artists were able to release their diss tracks promptly. At one point, Kendrick Lamar released his "Meet the Grahams" diss track, arguably the most scathing diss track of the entire battle, 30 minutes after Drake released his "Family Matters" diss track. Personalities on YouTube commented on how quickly releases were happening - so much so that their previous reactions hadn't finished uploading yet.
Drake leveraged AI to create artificial Tupac and Snoop Dogg vocals. This would later prompt a cease and desist from Tupac's estate to Drake for the usage of Tupac's likeness without permission.
In addition to releasing their diss tracks to streaming services officially, Kendrick Lamar leveraged Instagram as a distrubution platform by exclusively releasing his "6:16 in LA" diss track on Instagram.
Metro Boomin, a popular producer that is also feuding with Drake, leveraged AI to create a custom sample for an instrumental diss track.
Computer systems that simulate human intelligence processes.
Synthetic media in which a person's likeness is replaced with someone else's.
