Drake Suing UMG is simultaneously the lamest but most important thing in music
Yesterday news hit that Drake was suing Spotify and Universal, claiming that Kendrick Lamar's smash hit and final nail in Drake's coffin, "Not Like Us." was artificially inflated by bots and fake views/downloads. Drake dropped a lawsuit before he dropped a good response record. Naturally, the internet is going bonkers. The memes and jokes are flying. The clowning is incessant. Drake is essentially suing the guy who beat him in a rap battle???? You can't script a lamer response in the world of hip hop. Rap battles are supposed to be like gladiators going at it. Like heavyweight boxing champions stepping in the ring. And this would be like getting your ass beat and then suing because you lost.
So, I understand the reaction from people. But at the same time, Drake is taking on the music industry. Hes taking on the labels, the music execs, the DSPs, who are quite literally the WORST. In a modern era of digital streams, the music industry is basically holding artists hostage as slaves under some of the most despicable business terms ever. We're talking artists accumulating billions of streams and receiving literally - not virtually - pennies for it. Its a model that one day inevitably will have to break. Once music became digital these platforms out of the gates who could host the music seemingly held all the cards and basically had all the leverage over every single artist save a few names. And as it has become more and more public that you could become a mega famous artist with millions of people listening to your music, but the only way you'd really become rich is by busting your ass for years on end on a world tour, it just feels like eventually there was going to be some sort of a revolution. Like a writers strike in entertainment, I always personally believed that eventually musical artists would band together and reject that. I dont know enough about the music industry to know whether thats possible. That maybe artists could do it in a literal sense as some sort of union, or maybe in a figurative sense in a less official and legal capacity - but whether it was a year from now or 20 years from now, eventually that model would be broken. Labels, while still doing their best to keep their strangle hold over the industry with bullshit tactics, are becoming less and less necessary in the modern age and the DSPs, while are extremely important in terms of tech and distribution, simply dont have a product if artists dont create. So, to me at least, that seems like a formula where eventually the lightbulb goes on in some artist's head, and they say "alright fuck this system we are putting an end to this indentured servitude." Drake starting testing those waters when 100 Gigs dropped. Not only because new record deals are paying artists based on their online footprint and what better way to show your internet value than having your fans listen to your music on your own website and social media pages...but also because he wanted to start showing how an artist his size doesnt need those corrupt fucks involved in his business.
So with all that being said, theres 3 things all happening simultaneously:
A) Suing over a diss track being too popular is objectively lame. Litigation, in general, isnt cool. Its snitching. Its pussy. Its weak. All of those things are lame. But particularly in the rap world. If ego and pride and power are currency, suing your opponent, in any fashion, is showing you're currently bankrupt. Hip hop culture is never going to embrace any form of snitching. And in a battle where the war cry was that Drake is "Not Like Us," this solidifies it. I'm not fully qualified to speak on the matter, but I would imagine that a lot of the rap industry and black culture view this as white people shit. Suing when you lose is Karen behavior. Thats what white people do. They ask for the manager. Suing is asking for the ultimate manager. So not only is suing over a diss track when you lost a battle objectively lame, but theres another layer of that for a guy who is a light skinned biracial half Jewish rapper who has always been accused of not being truly being a part of the culture and only taking from it. Its like, Drake - your white side is showing. And whether thats right or wrong or racist I dunno, but that is simply a fact. And with the exception of a few guys from Eminem all the way back to MC Serch, white people shit is generally viewed as lame in hip hop. Again, just a fact.
2) While all of that is true, simultaneously what Drake is doing what might be the most important thing in modern music history, and thats taking on the music industry. Exposing Spotify and labels for colluding and forcing them to potentially open up the books for public record could potentially change music, for the better, forever. The lawsuit isnt about Kendrick Lamar. Its about the shady, shadowy, seedy billionaires getting exposed for being the shit bags that they are. Think about anytime theres been a labor dispute in sports. Yes, there's the typical take of "this is just all millionaires arguing with each other over a game," but anyone with half a brain knows that its the owners who are being greedy scumbags. While, yes, athletes make millions, owners make billions. And while every athlete's contract is public knowlege, the owners books are completely private. No public knowledge over the sort of profits they take in from televisions rights and ticket sales and all the various ways owners make way WAY more money than individual contracts handed out to players. So while there is always a few assholes being like "I have no sympathy, that guy makes millions to swing a bat a few times a day," anyone with half a brain usually recognizes that its a multibillion dollar industry and that the athletes who make it as popular as it is, deserve an equitable amount, if not the lionshare, of the money generated by it. Whether or not you think the job itself is difficult is irrelevant. The comparisons you make to coal minors and ditch diggers are irrelevant. Pro sports makes billions of dollars for a reason, and that reason is the athletes that play.
So that detour we just took to sports applies here. If you're siding with UMG and Spotify, you fucking SUCK. Its like you're siding with the owners in sports. The guys like John Fisher the owner of the Oakland A's who would rather watch his team flounder and fail and eventually have to move cities before he reached into his fat fuckin billionaire wallet and pay for a product that the fans deserve. The Spotify's and the UMG's of the world are the John Fishers. Paying $0.003 per stream is Oakland A's behavior. Just exploiting the system and keeping all the profits for yourself simply because you can. Minus a few artists like Taylor and Drake himself, there is nobody making what they deserve in music. And legitimately no regular person - as a music fan or as just a normal ass, working class person - should ever side with the big business shitheads who care about nothing but their own self interests. Which brings me to the third thing happening here:
d) Drake is so hated, by so many people, that there actually ARE people out there doing just that. Siding with the labels. You are really so anti-Drake it makes you side with Univeral CEO LUCIAN GRANGE?? With Sony Music's Rob Stringer or Warner's Robert Kyncl??? How the fuck you gonna side with a guy whos name is spelled K Y N C L??? How the fuck do you not have a single vowel in your last name? Thats some true villain shit if Ive ever seen it. Can't even pronounce his name. Feels like some Mxyzptlk shit from Superman. Simply saying that asshole's last name and you disappear or something.
I promise you, no matter how much you hate Drake, and believe me, I know all the reasons. Like DMX and then Kendrick said, I hate the way that he walks I hate the way that he talks I hate the way that he dresses. Drizzy BBL. The hair braids. The code swtiching. The culture vulture behavior. The overall corniness and cringiness. Add up ALL OF THAT, and you're still not approaching how much music labels and executives fucking. suck. If it was a different artist taking it to the labels & executives, you'd be praising them. Because based on the facts of the matter, the general public would ALWAYS, AUTOMATICALLY side with artist over label. If some anti-establishment, punk rock, fuck the man artist was leading this cause, they'd be regarded as a hero. If this was Rage Against The Machine before they became Rage For The Machine, it would be called a revolution. But its Drake, so people are failing to see the forest through the trees. People are letting their hatred for one guy blind them to the actual substance of the argument here. Being unable to separate the facts of the matter, the substance of an issue, or the right & wrong of a situation simply because of personal hatred for some of the parties involved is, legitimately, and I say this without an ounce of exaggeration, one of the biggest problems in the world today
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I hate to do this because Lord knows it gets injected into just about everything these days, but this whole Drake situation has spiraled so far out of control its turning into politics. For real, I know, nobody wants another political diatribe, but its pretty interesting to see how the political practices have made its way into just about every matter in the world now. Because right now this is a situation where people will look past absolutely anything just to say that the side that they hate is losing. Like think about it this way - Drake is trying to take down the establishment, the same one that Kendrick Lamar is bed with. (I suppose thats a matter of opinion, not fact. But I believe 100% that the bots and payola and corruption mentioned in this lawsuit is most certainly going on. Not just for Kendrick, though. I believe this is happening with everyone and its a system that some people - like Kendrick & Drake himself - benefit from, and its a system the rest of artists get completely fucked by) Drake is basically blowing the whistle and taking on the Man, while Kendrick is riding every possible wave of every institution he possibly can - from music labels, the corrupt ass Grammys, to the fucking Pulitzer Prize committee, but yet somehow, Drake is the problem. Mr. Watch The Party Die Kendrick Lamar, who's name has basically become synonymous with every single name in Big Business from music to now the NFL, is somehow the People's Champ?? Thats about as ridiculous as Middle America making Donald Trump the working class hero.
The Party is not dying, and Kendrick ain't the one killing it. He IS the party right now. But nobody wants to hear that. Why? Because some of the shit Drake does is viciously lame and indefensible. Its the same thing that goes on with Lebron James. Man is a thousand years old putting up triple doubles draped in titles and awards and accolades but there are people that will treat him like he's some bum because its unbearable when he complains and flops and pretends to read books and makes up stories that never happened etc etc. I can totally understand being a Drake hater. Particularly with all the aforementioned cultural implications I'm not really qualified to speak on. Like I see tweets like this:
A well articulated albeit overly dramatic thought that I can't deny. All of what he said there is true. But it doesnt take away from what is really going on here. The people who are still talking about the beef? The people who are still really thinking this is about Kendrick Lamar? Are 1,000 miles off base here. This is well above Kendrick Lamar's paygrade. Give Kendrick a run of like 10 more years on this level where hes sitting at the table with the guys like Lucian Grainge and he'll be sitting in the same ass seat Drake is. This goes much deeper than this battle. The beef was the Shot Heard Round The World that launched the real war.
I say all that while still knowing that this is all absurd coming from Drake, who benefitted from this same corrupt system for YEARS. Pretty much everything I said about Kendrick can be said for Drake's career, right up until this moment. Althought there are some people who think this started a little while back and is actually political:
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But I aint touching that one with a 10,000 foot pole.
Ultimately it comes down to this: I know Drake was and is the Machine and he benefitted greatly off of it until all the sudden they extended the same benefits to someone else that he didnt care for. And using his big fat L as the jump off point for this war with the Man is lame. I wish he used a better catalyst and didnt tie it to his embarrassment. Because thats how you know that deep down this is all coming from a place of his ego being injured, and not caring about the rest of the artists and the music world itslef. If he wins the Kendrick battle hes not rocking the boat like this.Thats very obvious. But 2 things on that matter:
1) Sometimes you do the right thing for the wrong reason. And on some "enemy of my enemy is my friend" shit, you should side with Drake in this particular matter. Kendrick Lamar himself should ultimately want what Drake wants here, which is to break up this sort of monopoly the labels and tech apps have together. Right now hes riding the ultimate high, provided by those same entities, so he'd never admit it. But again, give it a decade of realizing you're their puppet and not their partner and things probably change. Which brings me to point number 2
2) Looking at it from Drake's point of view, I can understand why now he's turning around and saying FUCK YOU to the guys he got in bed with. While its super convenient to pull all this after losing the battle, it also makes perfect sense. He signed a deal that is a much bigger partnership deal than the average artist. A $400 million deal that made him basically a part owner of the team, not just playing for it. And then a) not only does he realize hes propping the WHOLE RAP INDUSTRY UP and is probably still wildly underpaid, b) at the first chance they get, they side with Kendrick Lamar and try to take him down. Imagine you team up with someone, basically make a company with them, and then at the first chance during a rap beef they side against you????
(Thats a JOKE, btw. And a very funny one and I hate that I'm even clarifying it. But I, much like Aubrey, have people who hate me so much they will twist a simple and well executed blog joke into some shit where I'll have to end up on Unnamed Show with Kirk and Whit pretending they want to be there (thats another joke, 2 for 2) explaining myself and I dont want to do that.)
Anyway, it boils down to Drake realizing, wait a minute, aside from Taylor Swift I basically keep you rich and in business, and then you turn around and invest it in the guy specifically trying to take me down? My revenue being used against me??? All the work I do for you, and this is the thanks I get??
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(3 for 3, he's on fire! BOOMSHAKALAKA!)
I'm just saying I can understand where he's coming from. Maybe not perfect, maybe not fully justifiable, defintiely not coming from a heroic place and certainly not relatable to an average person. But I get the logic when one of the MAJOR pieces of the music puzzle all the sudden is cut out of the pie and says fuck off I'm gonna burn it down. I personally think siding with Kendrick only expedited Drake trying to take them down, but I think they view it as trying to take him out before he can take them out. Run this near perfectly executed smear campaign on him so he doesnt have the popularity, power, or sway to win this war. He tested them with 100 Gigs and a separate website to listen to music, and now hes going right after them.
Its hard to reconcile the motivations behind it. And its hard to reconcile a lot of Drake's behavior. But at least try to see the bigger picture here. And if not, fine, continue to talk about the battle and K Bot. Continue to think its about Bot Like Us. I know thats where this all stemmed from. But like I said, the rap battle was like two heavyweight boxers going at it. Just try to imagine that after losing a match one of those boxers went after the boxing comission and Vegas etc for being the most corrupt sport imaginable. Has nothing to do with the opponent he just lost to, other than the fact that the loss he took hurt him enough that he started the larger battle.
Or, if you want to just say Drake is a corny bitch who lost and now is lawyering up because he's a 2010 F word who cant take his loss like a man, you can do that too. I get it.