In the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, the ones losing are the women

Disses, in rap and hip-hop, are certainly nothing new. Rappers have always referenced each other in songs, insulted each other, competed to see who earns more, who is more successful, who sleeps with more women. Too often, these factional clashes end up spilling out of the music scene, resulting in street attacks and shootings. Even in Italy these feuds are imitated. There's the one between Fabri Fibra and Vacca, or the one between Fedez and Marracash. Now, to monopolize the attention of social media users, Kendrick Lamar and Drake have taken the spotlight, exchanging metaphorical shots for days, hurling heavy and personal accusations that not only involve their success, music, or careers but delve into personal lives, also dragging other people close to them into the fray.

Drake vs Kendrick Lamar: the story from the beginning

The story of the two musicians has deep roots. Their first collaboration occurred in 2011, in Drake's album Take Care. In 2013, here comes the first diss. Kendrick, in fact, includes Drake in a list of rappers he wants to eliminate from the scene in the song Control. Ten years later, in 2023, Drake and J. Cole rank the best in rap, putting Kendrick in third place after them. The latter didn't take kindly to being placed on the lowest step of the podium, and in 2024 he responded with a series of unreleased tracks all focused on destroying the figure of the Canadian rapper and actor, released overnight and shared on Twitter, much to the amusement of all their fans and haters. Drake's response didn't take long to arrive.

The content of the latest diss tracks and the reactions on social networks

What are the two accusing each other of? An impressive variety of things. If Drake insinuated that Kendrick committed domestic violence against his wife, Kendrick responded by accusing his rival of being attracted to underage girls and not taking enough care of the education and growth of his children, even theorizing that he received information from a spy within the enemy's circle who revealed to him that Drake has an 11-year-old secret daughter. The feud has also shifted to the social and influence sphere in the hip-hop field, with Kendrick accusing Drake of mimicking the ways of speaking and dressing of African Americans, forcing himself into a subculture that isn't his own. Needless to say, social media users have been talking about nothing else for days now, memes abound, and so do analyses of the war. But one question arises: who thinks about these (underage and non-underage) women involved in these disses?

Shock-value and the role of women in dissing

Rap and hip-hop use in their lyrics and videos an outdated and often vulgarizing and abusive image of women. The same happens in diss tracks, where to create shock effects, the stakes are raised more and more, and it doesn't matter who gets caught in the crossfire. Women are victims to be defended only if those who offend them are our enemies, only if they can be used to spin a negative narrative about someone we don't like. Is Kendrick Lamar really violent, guilty of hurting his wife Whitney Alford? And what about the underage girls who Drake allegedly preyed on? On social media and beyond - in the adrenaline of the challenge, everyone is busy trying to figure out who is winning this war of increasingly serious and heavy accusations - one thing is lost sight of: if these accusations were true and not just a marketing and image action, would someone pay the consequences? They should, but we know only too well that often it doesn't happen. So who is supposed to think about these women? In practice, us, in theory, society and showbusiness, which too often neglects them and hides them under male egos too cumbersome to even be questioned.