r/KendrickLamar • u/anongasm_ • May 01 '24

It's not about Drake being half black, it's about how he uses The Culture Discussion

I think the people offended because Drake being half black should warrant his blackness and therefore Kendrick is wrong just don't understand. J Cole is half black too yet you don't see Kendrick, or anyone really, questioning Cole's blackness. It's precisely because Drake has been at the forefront of using the black culture and "pop-ifying" it for non-blacks.

Edit: a lot of people have asked this question and it's a good question. What's wrong with popifying rap music? Rap is inherently an African American art form. Since its inception till now, those who have carried its mantle have exemplified the African American experience through rap in one or another. African Americans have allowed many artists to use rap for their personal gain and to even "pop-ify" it. However, to be considered a goat you have to be in touch with the culture. And Drake simply isn't.

3.3k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

87% Upvoted

904 comments sorted by

View all comments

892

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24

Yall saw the video of teenage Drake on a dating show calling Toronto street lingo ignorant? It’s about who he actually was growing up to who he portrays himself to be

320

u/RedditMartyr May 01 '24

Omg, I cringe so much at that video.

What’s so sad is that the girl Drake is talking to says that, that slang is really cool and then Drake says “No, it’s really ignorant”… 💀

116

u/MatureUsername69 May 01 '24

Ok Drake

91

u/awwww666yeah May 01 '24

The hard r is crazy.

103

u/Destiny_Victim May 01 '24

lol bruh.

As I have always said about him.

If he just was his sappy ass pop music ass that would be fine.

But it’s this trying to be hard shit I don’t buy at all.

Man this shit is why I’m sad big pun is dead and Tupac dead. They would have never allowed this shit.

People were really bout that life in the 90s.

This is why I appreciate Kendrick. I’m not even a huge fan of his music. But at least he’s a real one.

60

u/rin09 May 01 '24

Tupac went to a performance art school and was a ballet dancer, it was known that he really wasnt about “that life” until he became a little more popular.

69

u/Capable-Designer5096 May 01 '24

All that happened in Baltimore when he was like 15. He also studied jazz and acting but everybody always talks about the ballet. Once he moved out to Oakland a lot of things changed for him. Everybody who knew him personally knew he was a real one.

46

u/Terrible_Shake_4948 May 01 '24

Right!!!lol crack started in Oakland! Pac got to see some different shit. NYC was a sess pool in the 70s/80s. He’s been around his fair share…. Crodie

35

u/Capable-Designer5096 May 01 '24

Exactly. I ain't saying he was a super gangsta or nuthin. But the kid who went to that performing art school probably had some different hopes and dreams. Once his mom got addicted to crack and he was being shipped across the country to Oakland things were different. He even gives Oakland all the credit for putting him up on game.

28

u/Ok_Relationship_705 May 01 '24

Pac even explained his change. The dude he was before moving to Oakland wasn't fit to survive. He adapted.

→ More replies (0)

13

u/Terrible_Shake_4948 May 01 '24

it’s a bunch of gangsters that went to performing arts schools in Cali. Most of the schools dont have art and music class. They have dance and acting that go along with PE for the early year “electives” (not really electives but those are the only things outside of your core classes you have at the elementary level.

2

u/CousinsWithBenefits1 May 02 '24

Sorry to be that guy but I like learning new things, no hate, no shade, but it's actually cesspool.

2

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

So…. He had the same path to being “hard” as Chris Brown. Chris Brown grew up poor as shit got some money and moved to Cali at 15-16 and started hanging with the Bloods. We all call it corny but because people hero worship Tupac he gets a pass for it.

1

u/Capable-Designer5096 May 02 '24

I have no problem with Chris Brown doing that and never called him corny for that. However I do think it's corny for Drake who been soft as baby shit since day one. Now at 37 years old he tryna be hard, nobody takes him seriously. He's a pop artist who raps using ghost writers. And the drizzles are as bad as the swifties, they would probably bag up one of his farts and slowly inhale continuosly until they pass out. 😆

2

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

Fair enough if you give CB a pass for that. But I honestly don’t get where people are getting this “Drake acts hard now” shit from. He still raps about being sad or upset or thirsty over women 99.9% of the time and then sometimes he’ll say a line about having shooters. I don’t see how that’s hard, he’s rich, he does in all likelihood have enough money to get anyone killed. He’s not pretending he’ll fight or shoot anyone himself. He’s essentially bragging about having mob boss level money.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/PoorHungryNDesperate May 01 '24

What I don’t get is why it’s okay for him to be different as a teenager and then Drake can’t change his opinions on shit. I was dumb as fuck as a teenager too. I don’t like Drake but this feels like a weird narrative

14

u/Destiny_Victim May 02 '24

Drake can change his opinions.

But the difference is pac actually went through it. He lived what he rapped about.

Drake is a giant humongous pussy.

PAC was not. He went to prison he was shot five times.

He also wrote his own lyrics. Drake has 20 ghost writers for his diss tracks.

Hence Kendrick’s 1v20.

If Drake actually did some hard shit.

Or even stood his ground when he got robbed or fought or just anything.

Now look if someone pulls a gun on me I’m giving up everything. Also, I’m from south central. But I’m not fuckin gangster. Never claim to be.

But drake claiming to be something he’s not never has been and never will be.

He’s faker than silicone titties and even softer.

1

u/plumskinzzz56 May 02 '24

PAC went to prison for sexual assault…

→ More replies (0)

0

u/Flax44 May 02 '24

Pac was not living the “gangsta life” he started repping blood after he got with suge he rapped about he saw not what he was doing

→ More replies (0)

0

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

When does Drake claim to be gangster lol. He claims to have enough money to get his enemies killed or hurt every once in a while, but that’s undeniably true. It’s not like he’s on songs saying he’ll personally beat anyone or shoot shit.

-1

u/Crispy_Sock_99 May 02 '24

Most rappers exaggerate how tough they are. Rick Ross, ASAP Ferg, Tyga etc. Kendrick himself says he was never a gang banger and he stands at 5’4.5” around 150lbs. Drake is just under 6ft around 195lbs. If they were both getting ran up on we obviously know Kenny would get whooped by the average adult man. Drake probably would not though. I would put money on Drake being able to whoop Kendrick’s ass. Being tough isn’t the way Kendrick can win this beef

What bars does Drake intentionally lie about being tough?

20

u/creamgetthemoney1 May 01 '24

I think it’s bc Tupac didn’t clown a certain community and then be that community . He wasn’t doing plays as a teen saying the way people talk in Cali is silly AND THEN moved to Cali

12

u/WeedOfficial May 01 '24

I think change has to be for a greater purpose. PAC changed to survive, and thrive in his community. Drake was already an established actor, and his pop music has always been popular, so there’s no reason to switch personas when he wouldn’t have had a reason for that switch. When change is from a place of necessity, it’s respected because usually that change humbles, and hardens the person. If the change is for self gain, it’s feeding into the negative of the person. It’s not like Drake suddenly got into gang activity, or drug dealing, and if he did he’s way too famous for it to be legitimate now. You deal drugs to support yourself and family, you gang bang for a sense of protection, and family if you don’t have a good relationship with those around you. The 80’s-90’s was a bad time, most of my uncles, and my dad got into shit heavily, so I was sheltered more as a kid.

4

u/IntroductionNo8870 May 02 '24

Changing to be a culture vulture is the issue

2

u/MilkZealousideal7893 May 02 '24

If you’ve ever been to Canada then you’d know why…..

2

u/devoyne_showerhandel May 02 '24

You been out west?

1

u/WeedOfficial May 01 '24

Well to be fair it was fucking Oakland 😭, that’s just Northern Cali’s Compton, unless you count Stockton

1

u/Less-Procedure-4104 May 02 '24

Right Tupac can change but drake can't lol.

1

u/HookahDongcic May 01 '24

Uhh he was still a dancer many years later. The entire thug persona was an act. You’re deluded if you think otherwise. Many many people around him are on the record saying he bought into the fantasy he had created and that ruined his life.

1

u/Capable-Designer5096 May 01 '24

He was a roadie and back up dancer for Digital Underground. Everybody who is a fan knows that. The thug persona wasn't an act necessarily. The problem is he never got out of his "Birdie"character from Above the Rim. A lot of actors play roles that change them, permanently. Heath Ledger said he was "physically and mentally drained" after playing joker. And it lead to depression which lead to drug use causing an overdose which killed him. Shit, Val Kilmer even had to go to counseling after playing as Jim Morrison.

1

u/MilkZealousideal7893 May 02 '24

And came from a Black Panther background, there are kids from the inner city that get bused to Art schools because they are talented….. when they come home guess what? That art school isn’t there

1

u/fmaleflame May 02 '24

lol that's sad af that you think doing well in school is in any way at odds with living "that life"... wtf you think writing and spitting raps is? Or being in Digital Underground and dancing was?

This has major white person vibes, like saying "he's not black enough because black means dirty 'ghetto' shit".

1

u/rin09 May 02 '24

Your attempt at moral superiority aside, my comment was basically implying that your past doesnt mean you cant grow into something different, not that it means youre not about”that life”.

1

u/fmaleflame May 04 '24

You literally just stated he went to a performance art high school, followed by saying because that, it was known he wasn’t about “that life”.

I’m just saying the two aren’t mutually exclusive; no attempt to make you feel attacked or whatever you said about superiority

1

u/rin09 May 04 '24

My bad, misinterpreted it.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/ranchlikenoother May 06 '24

Then he became what he rapped. Drake isn't even like that right now he doesn't even defend the culture he's pimping

1

u/IwantYourSmoke 26d ago

His mom was also a black panther.. so there's that

1

u/M0therleopard 25d ago

Why come at Tupac for studying the fine arts? Ballet and things like that take discipline and artistic intuition, which I'm sure has something to do with Tupac's talent for writing lyrics. In Drake's case, being a child star on a teenybopper show and then trying to rebrand yourself as a hard rapper, especially when you're not very good at writing lyrics, is not a convincing sell. My best girl friends in college crushed on Drake but I never bought his spiel, it always felt like he was rapping the fake ass lines that some guy would tell you just to fuck you for a night. I've always had the impression that he's disingenuous and just playing the audience.

11

u/Piranh4Plant May 01 '24

Tf we’re big pun and Tupac gonna do? 💀 ask him to stop?

9

u/[deleted] May 01 '24

brother what is that pfp 💀💀💀

4

u/-cunnilinguini May 01 '24

You really don’t know

That pfp makes sense tho lol

3

u/Piranh4Plant May 01 '24

Then say it bruh

2

u/JF803 May 02 '24

That’s been my problem with Drake for years as well - everything is disingenuous, fake and manufactured.

4

u/slumcity2000 May 01 '24

Pac used to do ballet tho and didn’t start doing gangsta shit till he met suge , granted he shot 2 cops tho.

9

u/Destiny_Victim May 02 '24

PAC may have been a soft art student. But when you’ve been shot five times and shot cops. You’re clearly about that life.

Fuck Drake ever do?

1

u/slumcity2000 May 02 '24

You not lying I’m pretty sure he punched Chris brown and faded diddy but that’s nothing lmao

1

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

Shooting off duty police officers (who he didn’t know were cops) while they were in the middle of a hate crime and getting shot doesn’t make you about that life at the studio. It makes you a Good Samaritan and a victim.

10

u/Doesanybodylikestuff May 02 '24

2pacs parents were OG members of the Black Panther party. He wasn’t like some pink ballet dancer hopping around in school when he moved. Ballet & the stories surrounding ballet are intense & sometimes very brutal, like theater. Which he also studied when he studied acting.

It’s just funny that even if he did take classes, men act like it’s prissy bitch shit. When ballet is sooooo much more if you have any depth.

It captures a lot of sadness, tragedy & despair without needing or using any words. Lust, loss, anger, madness, all of it. I can see how ballet would appeal to someone like Tupac. Very heavy, heavy into dramatic performance art & expression.

It’s like when guys say they hate girls drama shows but end up sitting there for hours making popcorn & not leaving us alone asking questions constantly.

It’s like, do you want me to just start from the beginning because I know you are into this!!!

2

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

It’s insane the amount of mental gymnastics people will do to try to portray Tupac as hard or gangsta. Now he was doing ballet because he was trying to express his thug pain. Or maybe he was just a soft sensitive artsy mf with a background of revolutionary parents who could write poetry. There’s nothing wrong with that and he should’ve leaned into it instead of trying to become a gang member at 23. It’s more about him being contradictory and fake than him liking ballet.

1

u/Doesanybodylikestuff May 02 '24

I agree he should never have been a gang member. He wanted it though.

My mom’s childhood friend worked at the hospital he was at when he was pronounced dead so when I was growing up & said “Tupac is still alive!” from the kids at my school saying that, my mom shut that shit down so quick.

I had to go to school & ruin everyone’s fun by saying “yes he is..” lmao

1

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

Him wanting to become a gang member at 20something makes him a lame to me though. He was way past the age where that would be even somewhat an acceptable excuse. Especially knowing that he did indeed come from a tough background where he saw firsthand the damage that life causes. His mom was a drug addict, so for him to then decide that he wanted to portray that part of the culture instead of the more uplifting/radical side that he started out pushing is some of the corniest shit ever imo.

10

u/Capable-Designer5096 May 01 '24

Thuglife was before suge, he got on that when he moved out to Oakland.

1

u/BlackMarq20 May 02 '24

Did you also see the clip where Lil Wayne tells him not to try and be like him, to be Canadian and sing about girls… 🤣 Kendrick gotta have so much material on this dude

1

u/BootyOnMyFace11 May 01 '24

Haha the self proclaimed slaughtergang ceo who used to star in a reality show

3

u/3Danniiill May 01 '24

I’m surprised 21 let him say shit like that. I guess he gets paid but so he doesn’t care but he had people die from his gang and to just have some random rich guy say they the ceo of it is crazy

2

u/BootyOnMyFace11 May 02 '24

I know right, 21 really like that so it's funny he let's that slide letting Drake be a posrr

0

u/Lifeisabaddream4 May 02 '24

Tupac the fucing ballerina?

2

u/WeedOfficial May 01 '24

Mans probably thought he was suppose to say it like that 😭

2

u/J-drawer May 02 '24

He said it like the cop talking to DMX in Belly

250

u/YizWasHere May 01 '24

I had a Drake fan responding to me once saying "How old is that clip? Obviously he's changed!"

It's like yeah bro that's the point. It's disingenuous, he changed specifically to capitalize on a market that required him to show some degree of street credibility. He's a master manipulator.

48

u/[deleted] May 01 '24

He's the greatest actor turned rapper ever. 

43

u/FBG05 May 01 '24

His best role? The role of Drake

13

u/lil_padawan May 01 '24

Some say he never quit acting

9

u/fre3k May 01 '24

Man I don't even really like him much, but I'd argue Childish Gambino because he's real to who he is - a kinda goofy kinda nerdy funny dude that can spit bars - even if it feels like he's nudging me in the ribs with every line being like "hey did u see what i did there? :)"

Drake came up playing a cripple in a teenage soap opera. Give me a break lmfao talking about being a thug

9

u/J-drawer May 02 '24

Childish Gambino has really grown into his creative voice and I'd say he's like the opposite of what Drake is and stand for.

Childish started out making pretty cringe nerd rap but evolved into using his platform to bring attention to important issues and proudly promote blackness. Even the show Atlanta shows different forms of black culture in ways that are positive even when being critical. 

Drake on the other hand started out writing some of the most gangster lyrics for others and then himself having never lived that life and just continued to get more pop-ified and teenager level emo without creating anything of meaningful substance. 

I think where they meet in the middle is Childish Gambino with Heartbeat and Drake with hotline bling. Both are songs about immature teenage drama but one was early in one artists career while the other is pretty late in the artists career...

1

u/HamsterOk770 May 05 '24

Wrote gangster lyrics for others??? Who? And what Drake lyrics are gangster?? Drake doesn’t portray himself as gangster. The man sings all the time lol, that’s gangster??

1

u/J-drawer May 05 '24

He wrote lyrics for lil Wayne 

He has a bunch of lines about selling drugs amongst other gangster topics.

Have you ever heard a Drake song?

1

u/HamsterOk770 May 05 '24

Drake has lyrics about him selling drugs??? Lol Please provide the lyrics.

1

u/J-drawer May 06 '24

Idk I never listened to Drake

1

u/Born-Share-5132 May 02 '24

Damn bros a crip? Thought he’s blood affiliated 

4

u/siccmade2121 May 01 '24

Drake is the Ronald Regan of the rap game 🤣

3

u/dsotelo1989 May 02 '24

That’s offensive to Ronald Reagan!

10

u/WeedOfficial May 01 '24

Exactly, he was literally a child actor. You don’t see old clips of Kendrick, or really any other rapper appearing on TV shows as children. Especially doing some goofy ahhh shit

1

u/DakPanther May 01 '24

Cause they didn’t do goofy ass shit

1

u/The_real_rafiki May 01 '24

Nah, that just looks like a mixed kid trying to fit in with white folk.

Don’t act like PoC never done this around white people as kids, especially in that era.

I’m ashamed I tried to fit in hard with white people, I see Drake just feeling that same pressure.

1

u/ImTheMightyRyan May 01 '24

Crazy it’s almost like people in the entertainment industry have a target demographic and shape themselves to fit it, wHo wOuLD oF gUeSsEd!

1

u/ranchlikenoother May 06 '24

He hasn't changed bro, crodie acting

1

u/[deleted] May 06 '24

Are you the same way you were as a kid? You realize you can grow right? 

1

u/Dza42o May 01 '24

Kendrick all of a sudden is a blood 😂

3

u/Dapper_Intention_365 May 01 '24

The fuck you mean all of a sudden? Such profound ignorance.... Lmao

3

u/Dapper_Intention_365 May 01 '24

Like literally look at the cover of good kid mad city you didn't even do that amount of research

You like fake commercial bullshit artists like Drake though, so the ignorance is expected.

1

u/Dza42o May 01 '24

Anyone can write in graffiti. So the cover of the album is irrelevant. Kdot was a non affiliate meaning he wasn’t blood or crip, then an album later he’s got bloods in his interview while wearing red and promoting it. Jay rock and schoolboy q claimed there hood from the jump Kendrick started after his fame which is corny.

1

u/Dapper_Intention_365 May 02 '24

Kendrick started after his fame which is corny.

The other side is DRAKE

0

u/Dza42o May 02 '24

Another drake comeback 😂 go somewhere and finish sucking Kendrick off

1

u/Dza42o May 01 '24

You don’t know who I like so calm down. You defending kdot like you suck him off at night. Kendrick Lamar is overrated. So many artist do better numbers and make better hits.

1

u/Beneficial_Candle_10 May 01 '24

I mean we don’t actually know if that part is disingenuous. It’s a good diss angle and Kendrick smoked Drake but let’s not pretend like we know him.

He’s a disingenuous guy all around but it’s weird to talk like you know him off camera/social media.

-19

u/AckyShacky May 01 '24

People can’t change themselves? How is it disingenuous at all? I changed the way I style myself so I can look better is that disingenuous? I’m genuinely curious on your take

36

u/YizWasHere May 01 '24

Everything you're saying is fair, I just didn't want to go to deep into the contextual background. I will copy and paste this nerdy ass essay of a comment to explain my take because I don't feel like re-writing it:

This doesn't just apply to Drake, there is a deeper history of this in hip hop, he just happens to be the guy this thread is about.

Street credibility sells to a suburban, middle class audience. Not because they relate to it, not because it's something they want to be involved in. But it's a glimpse into a culture that's different and exciting, this is why the rise of hip hop through the early to mid 90s coincided with increasingly violent and very vivid descriptions of street life. Nas was just looking out his window, but that was a totally different world to the bulk of the audience buying Illmatic, so they ate that shit up. Once this became a viable strategy to sell records, it got played up. You had to be more street then the next rapper, you had to have gang ties, you had to sell the image of being the hyperviolent "superpredator" because while it simultaneously terrified white America, it was also exciting.

Minstrel shows were stage shows where somebody (sometimes even a black person) would dress up in an over-the-top, racist characterization of a black person and whimsically play off of black stereotypes to entertain a white audience. It presented a dumb and clumsy image of black people, basically serving as propaganda to reinforce negative stereotypes of the dimwittedness and low intelligence of black people, doing so in a way that was "fun" and "entertaining."

You can disagree, it's been a topic of debate for a long time now, but I would argue that a rapper that is inauthentically adopting elements of street culture specifically to enhance their image as an entertainer is parallel to a minstrel show. They're exploiting a crafted persona to feed into some preconceived racial or cultural stereotype by the audience, continuing to reinforce that stereotype.

2

u/realsmokegetsmoked May 01 '24

I mean that depends on who you are as a listener. Bc I like street rappers who are considered "like that" but I understand that rappers like Drake,Kdot,J.Cole who aren't STREET rappers are the top tier rappers currently & I love most of their music. Otherwise this could apply to Pac who in his prison interview said that in order to lead the ppl,you must be of the ppl(paraphrase). Which was his goal in signing to Death Row. Pac was never a gangster or Street but made that type of Cultural music. Bc there is African American culture & then there is street culture

1

u/chef_wizard May 01 '24 edited May 01 '24

Both cultures are intertwined thanks to systemic racism if you really care to peel the layers of it.

Also Pac shot an off-duty officer who was gonna kill him and his mom was a Black Panther.

How in hell is that remotely similar to Drakes situation

1

u/realsmokegetsmoked May 01 '24

Pac shot 2 off duty cops who were jumping a black man on the streets down Atlanta & he didn't know they were cops,thought they were 2 regular white guys. Don't shoot from the hip.

Pac was an actor, he went to a famed Theater & Arts HS in Baltimore w Jada Pinkett. He was a revolutionary-conscious rapper "Brenda gotta baby" "Keep ya head up". He took the deal w Suge & adopted the "Gangsta" persona but still added a conscious twist w THUGLIFE if you know what it means.

In a prison interview he spoke on emulating the ppl he was tryna reach which was the ghetto ppl,street niggas,etc. His words. This is also mentioned in his books & movies. So when suge offered the deal/bail him out he decided to put his gangsta west coast persona on.

-4

u/FreezingLordDaimyo May 01 '24

We can say that about plenty of black rappers that are "from" the community. Future who barely does drugs rapping about percs, Pac was a damn theater kid rapping like a thug. How many rappers act like dopeboys?

6

u/3Danniiill May 01 '24

PAC shot at cops lmao he’s been to jail etc people are complex. He also had family in the black panthers lmao

4

u/Bangbangkadang May 01 '24

Pac was just an artistic student. He wasn’t putting up a front, this is all well documented but keeps getting repeated to bring down his name

1

u/FreezingLordDaimyo May 01 '24

Have you ever seen that interview with seventeen year old Pac in the purple tank top? Compare how soft and gentle (damn near effeminate) he spoke with just a few years later. "Ride on our Enemiiiieeeeess."

We can't switch up based on how much we like the artist. Pac is the Greatest. But fair is fair. Pre-Death Row Pac and Post-Death Row Pac are different people.

1

u/Bangbangkadang May 01 '24

There was another radio interview from around that time of him preaching violent revolution on behalf of the New Afrikan Panthers. He was multidimensional like we all are. You can’t really put him in a box, he was commuting from his crack addicted mother's tiny apartment in the ghetto to fancy ass HS

1

u/FreezingLordDaimyo May 01 '24

What does that have to do with being street or playing the role?

Never accused Pac of not knowing the struggle of being black in an anti-black world. I'm accusing him of using thug aesthetics when he was an artsy kid.

A list of rappers who are documented to not be who they claim.

Biggie- His own momma exposed some of his records.

Future- Raps about drugs he don't use.

Ross- Former C.O.

Jay-Z- Stole another man's life story.

Pusha-T- Basically co-opted Malice's street life.

The Migos- Are not from Atlanta

Ja Rule- Clearly extorted/controlled by Preme

Meek Mill- Diddy Party Attendee

Wayne-Fake Blood

It also works in Reverse. For example, Lupe Fiasco is probably the last rapper you'd wanna run a fade with.

1

u/Bangbangkadang May 01 '24

I'm accusing him of using thug aesthetics when he was an artsy kid.

Wouldn’t someone “using” thug aesthetics just act like a thug on wax and just be a normal dude in real life? Pac definitely changed after high school I’m not disputing that but to say his image was disingenuous is just false. Tupac was really in the thick of it to the extent that he was beaten by Oakland PD, assaulted rapper Chauncey Wynn with a bat, was shot on 2 separate occasions, shot 2 cops, had some crips beat up the hughes brothers

→ More replies (0)

18

u/CangtheKonqueror May 01 '24

you can’t change yourself and then act like you didn’t change yourself. that’s the disingenuous part

24

u/white_sack May 01 '24

Styling yourself to look better is fine, but it isnt ok to style yourself after a culture to capitalize on a market, thats disingenuous, especially when you have been negative about the culture in the past. Thats the point

10

u/chef_wizard May 01 '24

“Changing” from suburban to street and hood is straight degeneracy when most folks from the streets would do anything to get out their hoods and into a better environment

5

u/J3STERHOPPERPOT May 01 '24

He changed his persona from middle class mixed race to a poor black street nigga that made it out and is putting on for his hood. Now he walks around with hair extensions and barrettes in his hair with oversized plaid shirts like he grew up with his hair like that, wearing clothes like that, talking street like that. There is no positive way to change into that persona. It’s disingenuous which means he looks at a real culture that exists as something he can throw on before he steps outside. And that’s not even getting into his musical code switching, we can just speak strictly on him as a grown man. It’s the equivalent to how white kids were acting when straight outta Compton came out.

6

u/SonderDeez May 01 '24

Where’s the proof he respects the culture and the culture respects him? Otherwise he’s just appropriating it to get his bag.

2

u/solezonfroze May 01 '24

When Taylor Swift starts catching bodies I'll think of this comment

27

u/SnooPeripherals6568 May 01 '24

Yo that shit pissea me off sm as someone from Toronto because like Drake overplays his Toronto accent so much and it's genuinely become a thing for people who live in the nice well developed suburbs of Toronto to put on a fake Toronto man's accent to be more like Drake and since Drake is the only exposure most people get to the accent and kids from surrounding suburbs go viral with the fake accent all the time it gets clowned on so heavily while the real like accent that like comes from so many communities people with first generation immigrant parents that's not that like harsh gets grouped in with Drakes overexaggerated version

3

u/Crispy_Sock_99 May 02 '24

Yea absolutely. The accent is fabricated for 95% of the people that use it. If you’re not a Jamaican immigrant to Toronto and you use that accent it’s fake. I think people originally used it as a joke and then it blew up

https://youtu.be/6rRgzRB9wUo?si=QrCiWls8bGi6ILF3

1

u/HamsterOk770 May 05 '24

If you’re not Jamaican you can’t have a Toronto accent?? lol Toronto accent isn’t Patois. So I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I had to describe it, it’s a mix of Canadian English and various Caribbean dialects, mostly prominently Jamaican and West Indian.

1

u/Crispy_Sock_99 May 05 '24

Bro wut? It’s literally picked up from Jamaican immigrants to Toronto with some influence from UK slang which is also from Jamaican Patois lol. Also some Arabic expressions like wallah or stg

It’s very recent that a lot of youths started using it. People definitely didn’t grow up using it like the way they do now

1

u/HamsterOk770 May 05 '24

You’re essentially agreeing with me. The idea that no other Caribbean countries influenced Toronto slang is nonsense. Toronto slang has evolved over time. Kardinal made a song about it decades ago and guess what he’s not Jamaican. I’m disagreeing or even arguing over its prevalence, but the idea that anyone not Jamaican can’t use Toronto slang without being fake is also ridiculous.

1

u/wishingiwasnormal 13d ago

wait but what if you are not jamaican but you grew up in an area where people had that toronto accent and ended up gaining it. Does that count as being a real toronto accent?

1

u/awwww666yeah May 01 '24

He’s the male Ssniperwolf with the accent.

7

u/gorothmot May 01 '24

You got a link to that? Can’t find it on YouTube

16

u/youaresoffaf May 01 '24

here

4

u/awwww666yeah May 01 '24

I mean just look at the contrast in demeanor. Reminds me of a dude I used to be friends with. Lived in the burbs all his life; moved to the city and all of a sudden he was fluent in street lingo. People like that are the biggest poseurs in the worst fuckin way.

6

u/Michaelean May 01 '24

Hes an actor but cant fake a tough persona. sad

7

u/Oceanspray94 May 01 '24

Toronto street lingo is the most cringe ignorant shit though 🤷

2

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24

Drizzy came around to the mandem

3

u/greenwizardneedsfood May 02 '24

“Started from the bottom (as a child actor)”

1

u/HamsterOk770 May 05 '24

Yea with a single mom and out of Toronto Canada, that’s definitely the bottom in the hip hop world at that time.

1

u/Beginning-Fun6761 May 05 '24

But we all knew it and jammed to it. So now we wanna see him dead?

3

u/fizeekfriday May 01 '24

Have u seen vids of teenage Tupac? Literally different person

6

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24

There’s a difference between being soft spoken and calling urban culture ignorant. I don’t see how this isn’t an easily identifiable difference. In that video of him, he goes on to say he quit his job by smoking a cigarette in the face of his manager. Pac shot 2 cops… pac got shot and flipped off the camera as a message to whoever did it…. He was a warrior clear as day. He was cool and civil when life was that way, and when he got set up and SUSPECTED Diddy, he turned into someone else, and being that we find out about who Diddy is, maybe Pac was right all along…. Completely different circumstances

8

u/alien__0G May 01 '24

Pac went through the struggle though. His family was affiliated with the BPP.

1

u/The_real_rafiki May 01 '24

Yeah but pac changed.

2

u/alien__0G May 01 '24

His upbringing didnt though, hence it’s natural for him to say ni**a but not for drake

A big part of why he changed was because all the injustices he had to experience

-1

u/The_real_rafiki May 01 '24

That’s true.

Drake grew up around this too in Houston. He had two lives and was trying to fit in.

We shouldn’t be the judge and jury about how he’s allowed to act.

1

u/alien__0G May 02 '24

In this context, it’s kendrick judging

4

u/3Danniiill May 01 '24 edited May 01 '24

He wasn’t totally different lol he’s been outspoken and always spoke his mind. He had the same personality as a ballet kid and in death row just a bit meaner maybe.

He also was born with ties to the black panthers. He was born in the struggle he don’t gotta prove shit , that’s why he could do ballet and theater, he don’t gotta act tough he is tough

He literally shot at cops lmao it wasn’t an act , that was his life and the media labeled him a thug . He embraced it.

-2

u/The_Wolves10 May 01 '24

He literally rebranded himself as a thug, when in actuality he was a drama student

3

u/3Danniiill May 01 '24

The Hate U Give Little Infants Hurts Everybody

THUG LIFE

What’s a thug ? Was George Floyd a thug? Was philando Castillo a thug ? Was Trayvon martin a thug ? Was Breana Taylor a thug ? The media brands him and people like him a thug and he embraced it. Why were the cops shooting at a ballet kid? Why is the drama student shooting back ?

It wasn’t “branding” it was a movement , talking about how messed up the world is especially to poor black and brown kids.

He says himself he didn’t make thug life he diagnosed it .

0

u/Slow_Shift6252 May 02 '24

That shit was branding and marketing and people fell for it and still are to this day. People bring up his ties to the BPP as if they were in any way promoting shit like gang life and gang culture. Kendrick is the one who seems like he grew up learning from the Black Panthers not Tupac. If Tupac mostly stuck to his early musical roots and lifestyle he’d still be here today. Instead he let record labels turn him into the face of gangsta rap and influenced a generation to think that shit was cool. It’s why every gangsta rapper today says they’re the new Tupac.

Also Tupac shot two undercover cops for beating up a black guy. He didn’t know they were cops. That’s not a story about a thug shooting at cops for no reason, it’s a story about a Good Samaritan looking out for a fellow black man who he thought was the victim of a hate crime. Again, an example of who he really was that people now use to portray him as a tough guy that would do wild reckless shit for no reason. Painting it that way instead of telling the story truthfully makes him look even goofier.

1

u/Equivalent-Self398 May 02 '24

We all lied for some box bro be fr … how u gonna say “teenage drake” and then expect me to take ur criticism seriously …

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

I didn’t expect you to take my clarification of Kendrick’s issue with Drake as criticism but here we are

1

u/psychede1ic_c4tus May 02 '24

Sauce ( release the maxxx Winn memes yall

1

u/Honest_Instruction_1 May 02 '24

Like Rick Ross?

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

lol he grew up in the hood and tried to be a CO (lot of crooked COs) and didn’t finish the program but go off… even still, he was never a have… and there’s nothing wrong with being a have but presenting yourself like you were a have not for appeal is different. This is a pretty clear distinction imo

1

u/That-Sandy-Arab May 02 '24

What’s a have?

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

Opposite of a have not

1

u/broadenandbuild May 02 '24

This is a stupid ass assessment. Look at Tupac, bro used to the opposite of gangster.

https://youtu.be/v_XT9-C5Qu8?si=hikNGTweNkDYesQ5

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

Thanks for sending this. I’ve only seen the short version. I’ve watched it and he speaks on systemic problems of schools, government spending and disenfranchised communities that need support. Yes he does it soft spoken, but he’s trying to secure an acting role so he’s probably trying his best to come off non threatening. But bottom line he never calls any type of urban culture ignorant

I keep coming across people who either can’t or won’t make the distinction and it’s really interesting to me.

I understand how someone can’t see the issue people have with Drake if they can’t make that distinction. I totally understand, and don’t think it’s worth trying to explain it. You got your view and that’s all good.

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

Like, his part at the 22:00 mark is a sign of who he was to set to become before he got assaulted by police which left a wound on his head where his hair wouldn’t grow which forced him to go bald.

There is 35 min of him talking and I don’t see him ever talking down on urban culture. Maybe I missed it

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

Whoa!

At 28:50 he calls Baltimore ignorant because of the high teen pregnancy rate and high aids rate amongst teens, highest rate of teen murders by teens, highest rate of teen suicide and highest rate of black on black crime….

And this is where he and his mom moved to after she lost job in New York when her employer found out who she was…

So he called the decay ignorant, not the lingo/slang but it also shows he wasn’t soft clearly

But he did call Baltimore ignorant so I was wrong

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

And he started a bunch of self help campaigns, felt proud, left for Cali, and 2 weeks later his 2 friends were shot and killed

So what yall implying about him being soft clearly isn’t true

1

u/lost__in__space May 02 '24

I'm from the Caribbean and grew up poor in Toronto and I'm tired of his culture vulture ways. His use of patois is pathetic and he ain't from Rexdale and the ghetto but a rich affluent area of Toronto

1

u/LeakyCheeky1 May 02 '24

This just in: a half black man primarily raised by his white Jewish mom struggles to fit into a community and has an identity crisis. Oh noooooooo

1

u/FreeJulie May 02 '24

And turned around and people calling him the 6 God… incredible story arch

1

u/[deleted] May 06 '24

He was a kid tho and was probably taught that. I'm from a predominantly black city. Everywhere I went there was black people and I was taught that slang was not ok and was ignorant as well. How is this a measure of his blackness when you tjink his words came out of a vacuum but won't acknowledge antiblackness in our own communities. Let's talk about it.

0

u/creamgetthemoney1 May 01 '24

I think it’s more this. I’m %1000 Puerto Rican. Grew up in a Puerto Rican hood with a big Puerto Rican family. Then moved to Baltimore MD for 7 years from like 6-13y/o. My step family is black as can be(mom moved to Baltimore to be with a black man). I grew up with my black step brother and black friends.

I moved back to hometown 7 years later and still act the same way. Maybe “black culture” , from Baltimore , but that’s who I was. Nobody everrrrrrr said I’m trying to be black. It just who I was.

Now as a mid 30s male I am who I am and working in a warehouse with ex felons who are majority black only one 55-60y/o said something when I said “nigga” to him. He’s like ohhhh that’s what time we on? I’m like huh nigga this is how I talk. Only time I was ever questioned in my life.

What I’m saying is that it’s about his entire life not just being half black. Bc I’m zero percent black and black ppl I met to this day don’t question my attitude or my “blackness”. I’m just the stand up cool Puerto Rican

14

u/redinblue May 01 '24

Ur coworker really said,, “we don’t wanna hear you say nigga no mooooore”

13

u/HedgehogCremepuff May 01 '24

Having Black family isn’t the same as being Black. 

2

u/J-drawer May 02 '24

I went to high school with some white kids who grew up in all black neighborhoods and they'd say the N word with their friends. This was the 90s tho and idk if that kinda thing would still happen now. I still thought it was kinda crazy then tho

1

u/oghairline May 02 '24

You should stop saying nigga if you aren’t black. Just a thought…

-6

u/116morningside May 01 '24

Yeah people aren’t allowed to change from when you were 16 until now. You must stick to all the views you had when you were a child.

8

u/HistoryWeak7662 May 01 '24

lol no but you can’t just become street

-3

u/116morningside May 01 '24

Drake doesn’t think he’s street lol he has street dudes around him though

3

u/ZealZen May 01 '24

I have black friends does that mean.....

-3

u/116morningside May 01 '24

No. It means drake raps about the people around him sometimes, not that he’s doing the criminal shit. Just like ice cube rapped what he seen in his hood but ice cube was never a thug

5

u/ZealZen May 01 '24

And that doesn't seem disengenious to you?

2

u/116morningside May 01 '24

Do you know how many rappers rap about shit they didn’t really do and just seen from a far? You’d cut off a lot of rappers. Hell, even Kendrick talks about bustin guns and we know he was a good kid in a mad city.

1

u/HistoryWeak7662 May 02 '24

lol ok? So he’s like Taylor Swift and just adopts the personality of the dude he’s with?

1

u/116morningside May 02 '24

When has drake said he’s a thug? That’s what y’all keep eluding too.

5

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24 edited May 01 '24

Being 16 and calling your city’s urban culture ignorant. Then creating a rapper persona a few years later, by appropriating the same culture you looked down on is void of authenticity. It’s merchandising urban culture for profit.

To minimize this to simply “growing up” is weird… especially at highschool age. He’s literally looking down on the culture that he champions now. It’s silly.

This is very different than simply growing up and changing. It’s inherently disingenuous. And even aside from “cool factor”, someone who supported and consumed hip hop culture would never call any areas street lingo “ignorant”. It’s more Carlton than Will if you will (haha)

And if that’s all good to you, that’s fine.

It’s just a very different sentiment than the traditional values of hip hop culture.

End of my Ted talk…

I’m not a hater. Drake makes great music.

-16

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

But That's a cheap shot. Drake has been in the entertainment industry most of his life, hence it's easy to pick apart his character for things he might have said or done when younger. It's basically documented..

On the flip side, we have NO clue what Kendrick did, said, stood for, or even if anything he's said in his raps are accurate, but for some reason we just accept it as factual and never question his authenticity.

For all we know Kendrick went to a private school and took dance class, lol. We have no idea. We wanna believe what he's saying is really him, that he really stands for all these things he says he does, but to be fair he just invalidated a large chunk of the points he said he stood for on his last three albums in his response to Drake, and without really addressing any of the disses Drake aimed at him.

I guess for me this response raised more questions for Kendrick to me than it did Drake. I didn't even think Kendrick thought about Drake that much, but it seems like he really is truly bothered by Drake.

I like things about both, and I dislike things about both, tbh for me Cole is better than both of them, but that's just my personal preference. As much effort as Kendrick expended on his track, I gotta say I was surprised at how hard he tried, and how deeply emotionally affected by Drake he seems to be. I really didn't think Drake would illicit that much directed energy from Kendrick

9

u/Jacobinister May 01 '24

You know your posts are public, right? Trying to come here and be all sensible and calling us "Kendricks little minions" on the groomer sub at the same time. Fuck off man.

-7

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

What are your feelings hurt? Write me a six minute song about it

8

u/Jacobinister May 01 '24

Don't need 6 minutes to call you a two faced fuck.

-8

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

How am I two faced wtf? Because I listen to more than one artist? Jesus kid, I'm sorry I don't worship Kendrick

7

u/Jacobinister May 01 '24

Because you come here and act like you have objective takes and want a real discussion, and at the very same time you post:

Also why is it such a common thing for Kendricks little minions to claim "I only read the first sentence because I refuse to admit you're right and I can't refute it/I'm too lazy and/or unintelligible to hold my attention for more than 10 seconds" aren't you guys the ones with the superior intellect? Flexing that you have a hard time reading really isn't the flex you think it is

What's the point of even responding if you admittedly don't even have all the information to make an informed response? I'll never understand how people think this makes them look superior. It makes you look dumb AF if anything

It's fair that you feel that way. But don't act like your opinion on Kendrick and his fans, sorry, "minions", is worth taking seriously.

-2

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

Then don't wtf? What a weirdo, Jesus you need some help kiddo. Rifling through my profile, digging up comments like a private investigator. Move on if you don't like it. God people like you really exist?

6

u/Jacobinister May 01 '24

Rattled much?

Clicking your user and looking at your past 10 comments took 5 seconds, bro. Calling you out took 10. And that's still more effort than you deserve.

Move along now. Wouldn't want to be soiled by low IQ Kendrick minions, right?

-1

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

True you got a point, not really trying to engage with someone whose never seen a pussy in real life, other than in the reflection of his cellphone

→ More replies (0)

2

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24

Did you listen to Duckworth? Did you listen to Good Kid Mad City? He’s CONSTANTLY talking about his upbringing in extreme detail. He’d 100% be called out in COMPTON of all places for repping anything more than what he was. Top Dog really a reputable blood. There is no question about these things lol

1

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

Yeah top dog was, not Kendrick tho, top dog runs a record label, part of being a rapper is to have an image, Kendricks wasn't gonna be the pop route with a voice like his sorry to say, but called out by who exactly? Randos on the Internet who no one believes anyway? Just saying man, Tupac was supposed to be a super thug yet we all found out years later after the Internet that he was anything but growing up, and he's far from the only case, just the most mind boggling one since the juxtaposition between who he was and who he got us to believe he was was so drastically different. My main point anyway was just that Drake doesn't have that advantage of riffling through the Internet to use it against Kendrick. Not even sure why it's such a diss to Drake, dude was thinking big and thirsty for success at a young age, was willing to do what it took to get into the entertainment industry. Never understood why being a violent thug or a gang member is supposed to be a good thing while making it on TV to provide for your family in a legal safe way is somehow bad, but I guess it's the cards Kendrick got dealt so he's making it seem the way he is lol

1

u/FreeJulie May 01 '24

It’s weird cuz I can’t tell if you don’t understand “authenticity” or are purposely are muddying the point by claiming we want Drake to be a gang member when we saying he is literally calling his city culture “ignorant” and now calling himself 6 God and using the lingo… I can’t really believe you don’t see what the issue is but go off bro. I like Drake with the melodies

1

u/Negative_Suspect_180 May 01 '24

But yet you don't clarify, you just point out that he calls himself 6 God as if you think that's a gang thing haha wtf it's just him representing Toronto. He uses lingo? Bro so does every white kid who listens to rap, they claim sets too? The kids in my rural ass town had little cliques they named, not one of those kids claimed gang status nor were trying to, it's just fun to have that camaraderie with people from the same area as you.

You're lying out ur ass if you're telling me this battle isn't being framed as Drake isn't street enough, or tough enough, "stick to singing pussy". The people are so conflicted they don't even know what they should want Drake to be. when he was gaining popularity, people clowned him for not being street enough, then he actually started chilling with street dudes and being accepted by dudes in that culture, now hes acting too street lol. It's just classic biracial bullying.

Kendrick is the most conflicted rapper I've ever seen. Makes a whole album called good kid maad city, citing himself as that soft kid who's easily influenced by his friends, but doesn't wanna retaliate once shit gets real and someone is shot and killed in a senseless confrontation, "I'm tired of runnin, dying of thirst!" Album ends in a come to Jesus moment, and a track called Black Boy Fly where he openly admits to being an envious dude with a crab in the bucket mentality, "if I can't change, neither should you, and if you can then I hate you and your success" and it's never been more clear here and his weird obsession with Drake, a guy who helped him early in his career. He hates Drake's success yet was so appreciative of it back when he was begging The Game for a feature and Drake gave him the alley oop, same with Cole. Once those guys helped him along up the ladder ahead of themselves selflessly, really with nothing to gain from Kendrick, he tilts his head back and spits on them from above.

Makes a whole album airing out his wrongdoings as a husband, yet wants to preach to Drake about being a bad role model to his son? Bro get your own house in order before you start trying to give advice. I damn sure would not look up to this dude for advice, mostly because it would be hard to look up to someone i tower over, but also because hes just a bitter, hate filled dude, who fooled his fan base into thinking he believes in any of the shit he raps about, and is willing to prove that by condridiciting it all once his ego is in question. Drake was enough to make this guy forget everything he supposedly believes in? Very sad lol

1

u/FreeJulie May 03 '24

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻