Perhaps the dust has settled on the Drake-Kendrick rap beef that exploded over the last few weeks, but maybe only for now. Thrilled, excited, giddy fans instantly jumped on the bandwagon and curated countless side-picking explainers with immaculately researched timelines of the ‘this happened, then this, and then this’ trope. While this rap beef shot ripples across pop culture, elsewhere, it left many concerned about the content of their releases. 

The allegations, both Drake and Kendrick accused each other of, are damning and escalating in severity with each release. In Kendrick’s song Not Like Us, Drake was accused of exploiting underaged women and compared him to Harvey Weinstein, the convicted sex offender now serving a sentence for sexual assault (Song: Meet the Grahams). Kendrick was charged with being abusive and violent against his long-term partner, Whitney Alford (Drake’s song: Family Matters). (She is yet to make a statement regarding the same.)

Following are some excerpts of accusations from their songs:

In Drake’s Family Matters:

“You the Black messiah wifin' up a mixed queen. And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem”

For Not Like Us, Kendrick put the cover art as one of Drake’s alleged Toronto mansions with red markers, used similarly to mark the homes of sex offenders:

“Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young.”

These instances force one to examine why women, and families, get dragged into men’s fights. More urgently, it inquires why men bring light to other men’s offensive crimes only when it serves them.

India’s rap scene is as problematic, if not more

Misogyny in mainstream rap music is neither new nor restricted to the West. Being a male-dominated space with most of its stars struggling out of individual class and caste struggles, rap gives men ample space to perpetuate their biases and patriarchy by abusing women, encouraging violence, and taking away their agency. Research analyzing rap music confirms how there is a sustained inclination to portray women in derogatory ways rather than as ‘independent’.

Indian rap scenes, and its biggest artists, characterize in making headlines for writing trendsetters. Lamentably, most of these chartbusters hold the coarsest lyrics demeaning women. From Yo Yo Honey Singh (think Blue Eyes) to Badshah (the entirety of his career), they are all known to objectify and sexualise women. In fact, Badshah, writer of the lyrics “Body teri hotter than Chinchilla fur” claimed the following in an interview: “I don’t approve of music that glorifies objectification of women… my music comes from a place of responsibility and respect.” He was later trolled for his evidently contradicting statements.

Rappers like KR$NA, Raftaar and Emiway Bantai have kept up with long-standing feuds and degraded each other’s partners in their lyrics. In one of his diss tracks Grind, which holds over a staggering 116 million YouTube views, Emiway wrote & rapped the following lines: “Hey tu toh itni hot hai / main cross karun line / wo karna chahti grind / main bhi baitha masti mein.” In KR$NA’s Blowing Up with over 11 million YouTube views, he included the following: “But I heard that your girl is a freak though.”

How can one expect any understanding of respect and consent when the theme of women’s sexualisation is so overpowering and all-pervasive within the rap scene?

Worryingly, misogyny tends to transcend landscapes

Music is art, and art is a reflection of society. The more disturbing issue, hence, is how rappers writing such ideas about women and violence rarely confine them to music. A study confirms rap music videos have the highest portrayals of violence across all genres (20.4%).

Drake and Kendrick’s beef couldn’t stay limited to music tracks. Amid the releases, Drake’s security guard was shot and seriously injured in Toronto.

In India, MC Stan, a rapper from Maharashtra who himself admitted to having anger issues, wrote songs about leaking his ex-girlfriend’s address online and sending his men to thrash her. Yo Yo Honey Singh, who struggled with alcoholism for years, glorified liquor in most of his songs: ‘Chaar Botal Vodka’, ‘One Bottle Down’, ‘Main Sharabi’ and many more. He was also charged with domestic violence by his now-divorced wife.

Their songs promote violence and make it socially acceptable, overlook women from being independent individuals and rather view them as sex objects – either theirs or of whom they are dissing. When any power-rending space becomes too homogenous, it's bound to become tyrannical. Rap music is no exception. Exacerbated by the evident lack of women in the field, global and Indian rap scenes remain as pinchingly patriarchal as they can be. Men battle to preserve their egos, women and families get crushed in between.

Rap is a glorious, historical, vibrant cultural phenomenon with a unifying strength. It sews communities together to challenge and resist the status quo, especially against systemic oppression and class-caste struggles. However, the consequences of abusing one's global appeal are worth noting when they are so far-reaching.

‍

Reference Articles:

Sagepub | Pubmed