I been thinking bout making this thread for quite some time. Since people's theories on "whether this beef makes Drake quit rapping for a long time then who's gonna keep rap relevant, and his presence will be missed"

And I'm gonna actually be respectful and say at the beginning? Yeah, Drake was special.

Yeah people could argue "oh Phonte clone! Oh 808s and Heartbreaks formula" but the difference is with Drake, he also could rap, like really well. And he was a good follow up in the spirit of ye in that, you had another rapper that was unique, while still flashy and "misogynistic" but still wasn't in the same vein as the (at the time) dying gangster trope. He was "sensitive" and "soft" and the receiving end of a lot of jokes but overall all of that only heightened his appeal.

In a sense, he made it ok to be vulnerable to a new generation. And even if at the time I wasn't a fan (I was in a huge #realhiphop phase back then), I can see and respect the impact that albums like Take Care had overall.

Up to now?

I think Drake is an actually great microcosm of what hip hop has become now. A genre blown up to such exposure that ANYONE of any location can fit in and camouflage themselves within any region or any style and find success. regardless of your actual background.

Ironically, with that comes the loss of culture with no one caring about regions. No one knows where people are from anymore.

Which imo, is a perfect description of modern Drake.

Who tf is he?

And who tf are white boys from Oregon that sound like they are from (as one @YoungNastyShawty would say) Cleveland Avenue? (yeat, who drake featured and features on 20943 whatever it was called)

who tf are white boys that sound like they from atlanta but...to my knowledge aint? (ian, who drake has also followed on ig)

My issue I've always had with Drake is, it seems (especially with his switchup during iyrtitl) he only looks to imitate and go towards the negative aspects of black culture. You can see that in the highly specific artists that he features on every recent album, you can see that in the artists that he personally stands behind (e.g. you have a girl who (i am a fan of btw) feels like at times so wild, a mere caricature of hoodrat & an R&B singer, that's singing in a shiesty....feel like I'm in a boondocks episode dawg lol)

It feels like he's grown up to only see hip hop through this one hypermasculine lens (which is wild, considering he is a fan of underground rappers...but hasn't given them niggas a feature in forever lmao)

So when people say "hip hop is gonna miss him" I err on the side of indifference. I feel like hip hop has been in dire need of a reset for quite some time. This whole rap beef imo has felt like a climax to an era, a beautiful rose that turned rotten along the way and prolly needs to be destroyed before it can heal again.

If what folks are saying about Drake is true, and bro ends up going down in more ways than one. I think hip hop as a genre gets hit heavy, that was one of our biggest stars we ever had.

And also, prolly one of our biggest mistakes we ever had.

"nigga I aint reading all that" 😂😂😂

(just gettin it out the way)

nigga I aint reading all that 😂😂😂

@ChiraqPalestine @browser @SegaDreamFlash @AmoryBlain

still got one of my favorite avis on this site dawg

drake is my dad

Baby girl?

he’s like the definition of jack of all trades, master of none

why I started off with love cause this is accurate asf.

mofos gonna call me a hater but mind you it's gonna HURT my f***ing HEART that a year from now I probably won't be able to play Jungle no more.

Drake didn’t kill regions, the Internet did. Once you didn’t have to break out in your local scene anymore and could gain audience online the lines blurred. He just happened to become the most popular rapper around that time. There are many rappers like Drake that are “region less” or influenced by different cities.

Drake showing love to local legends has done more good than bad.

Facts

He’s a backpacker at heart who knows better/knows what Kendrick is saying at the root but he chose to maintain a safe brand (while also somehow becoming a cosplay mob boss) rather than continuing his original trajectory and somewhat continuing the lineage of the Kanye/Pharrell/Andre/Phonte lane

It backfired on him over time as a whole with stuff like him having to acknowledge the reaction to FATD but also ironically in this beef itself as he tried to make club tracks instead of getting into a Dreams Money Can Buy or 5 AM bag. He got stuck in his fantasy world lol

And in a way he is definitely the precursor to Yeat and Ian type acts the way Wayne is to Thug Carti Uzi lol. You just gotta have the right song and a budget and you look like a cornball for saying (unprovoked) someone isn’t really what they’re portraying.

I'm going to set aside all of the allegations for a second as I type this because, if they are true, Drake has done a lot of damage to the world that extends beyond hip hop. But we're not talking about that, we're talking about the rap game.

Drake started really popping off when I was 18-19 years old and I didn't really appreciate him at the time. There were so many barriers the game put in front of him to be loved and respected and I had a very oldhead mindset about what made for good rap. I'm also a very album-centric person and his albums have never been as perfectly curated as an Illmatic.

Still, over time, I was one of those people who found a certain level of respect for Drake. Since his come-up, hip hop has, at various points, been the #1 genre in the western world and Drake had a lot to do with that. He's put a lot of great rappers on, challenged expectations of masculinity in rap and pushed the boundaries of what a rap song can sound like. I appreciate the musical restlessness he showed at his peak and I think he really answered the bell on a number of occasions as a lyricist, ghostwriting allegations aside.

My thing is that the Drake I came to respect between 2013-2017 is long gone. I think Drake's breed of masculinity has grown toxic and problematic over time, his instrumental choices have gotten worse without 40 around as much, and his sense of what should and shouldn't make the tracklisting of an album has completely gone out the window during the streaming era. Perhaps worst of all, his hooks have gotten worse and those classic melodic singles that were a given during his heyday are harder to find on his newer projects.

Would the game miss him? I think it already does because the Drake that was such a complicated figure to process in 2016 disappeared years ago. He's become a caricature of himself. The industry would miss today's Drake, sure, but I don't think today's Drake all that closely resembles the creative mind that was so impactful on hip hop 10 years ago.

The one thing I will say is that he can clearly still rap at a high level, as this beef and Scary Hours 3 showed. He needs to find some really creative and forward-thinking producers who can shake up his sound and really make him sound hungry again, not just as a rapper but as a songwriter.

But most of all, I think he just needs a break. And now is as good a time as any.

I’m only talking rap

The one thing I will say is that he can clearly still rap at a high level, as this beef and Scary Hours 3 showed.

I honestly think both of these things showed the opposite.

If you don't think scary hours 3 was high level raps from him then you've never thought he had it and thus this thread is uneeded

Nah he was rapping his ass off on SH3, Push Ups and Family Matters. The lyrical content wasn't always super focused or what I wanted to hear from him, but his flows and cadences have been top tier for the last 8 months or so.

I admit that was harsh. He can still rap yes.

What i mean is @Noir is like…you mentioned flows. What flows? Bro did the same monotone flow all over sh3, even in that it lowkey felt like a caricature of lyrical drake.

Like, IYRTITL to me is drake showing high levels of rapping. And actually different flows.

But he can still rap. It definitely dont got that umph to it tho

Middle of the ocean and I thinks hats just a symptom of Drake literally just rapping like himself and bar focused ONLY

I think Drake's turn is really that being so rich and famous and staying in your city means being insulated by criminals and he hasn't seen the outside of that bubble in over a decade. If you're surrounded by criminals and all the money trickles down from you, it's not hard to see how you could start believing you're a mob boss. Get tied in with larger crime syndicates and they immediately respect you on the surface because of your clout and the money that flows through your organization, just feeds that even more. He can IRL probably meet with any actual boss and feel like he's on their level. Meanwhile it's extortion all around, but hey.. One hand washes the other. I think Drake deciding to put on for Toronto like he did and remain here would lead to this exact outcome 9 times out of 10: identity crisis..

He did. Anytime he stepped onto a region like the colonizer he is, it becomes his and as soon as he leaves, no one is really peeping for the guy he featured. Unless you are a Travis Scott or a savage, drake will only give you that boost and leave you to fall off. The labels have realized this and seemingly their new strategy is for drake to hang around this new talent instead of collabing and leaving them. The guys a f***ing cancer

He gave us music to dance to and memes to laugh at .

He never had the opportunity to figure himself like kendrick did. He was thrust into the spotlight and every evolution from good to toxic has been shown in his music. The industry made it seem like he was needed, that without him the game would be dead. This made the industry lazy. Drake killed the industry. And I'm not saying he wasn't rapping hard, but he had his ghosts with him. HL is my favorite record by this nigga cause it feels like something he wanted to do with 21

Other than that, crodie was a terrible f***ing influence on artistry

I was about to say basically that

I am not a "materialist" or Marxist or anything like that, but I have to say (without taking anything away from the effort that Drake as an individual has undeniably put in), he is very much the avatar for larger social forces causing geographical social differences to be obliterated and formerly distinct groups and places to be meshed together because of the speed and frictionlessness of communication

And when ppl talk about him reflecting the most popular trends and embracing a more exaggerated parody of hip-hop excess, as the OP said, basically promoting the most Boondocks elements of Black culture, I think that's because with the internet there is a greater ability for the audience to demand and signal exactly what it is they want, and what they want are the most unsubtle, explicit, gonzo and instantly gratifying vibes

What drake since scorpion has represented more than anything is INDULGENCE. People get mad at him for pushing 40 (pun not intended) and still living the frat boy + gangsta lifestyle, but he just is what the collective wishes they could be. Someone who can enjoy wine, women and song -- sex, d**** and rock and roll -- in whatever the most currently culturally popular version is -- Forever

Papiconda

How does it hurt the newer artists tho? Either they’re good enough to keep their audience or they’re not and Drake gave them the initial boost. Weeknd, Migos, Jhene, Sexxy Redd, Popcaan, PND, Summer Walker, definitely used that boost.