A lot of dissing going around these days, you say? And if you didn’t know, read it here: Chris Brown and Drake have renewed a rivalry that was on yellow. Chris Brown started it, of course: he mocked Drake’s voice. He also petulantly claimed to have made Drake famous. So Drake responded like any other easily offended rapper would–by digging Brown with subtle change to the lyrics of his single “Energy” during a performance in New Zealand: “I got rap n#gg-s that I gotta act like I like…but my actin’ days are over, f*&k them n#gg-s for life, yeah.” Insert “R&B” where “rap” is and you got a lyrical punch in Drake’s face. Ouch! Brutal!
But this is not the only public rap beef currently on running lights: there’s Lil Wayne and Birdman, Azealia Banks and Iggy Azalea, Tyga and Drake, Jay Z and Drake (this last one is so 2014; but ridiculing Jay Z for his highbrow art-collecting talk has to be one of the most epic insults ever). Although Lil Wayne and Birdman is an odd mix of business and pleasure (here’s what the pleasure means), the beefs between the others are either petty, intellectual, or aesthetic. Now, this isn’t unusual in any art (art here used in its most basic sense), or among artists (likewise). Yet these ongoing feuds indicate there’s a bit of turbo exhaustion in the rap genre. So to all rappers: Yo, hit the brake, and chill!
