On March 22, 2024, Metro Boomin and Future released their highly anticipated collaboration project, We Don’t Trust You. Track 6 of the album, “Like That” showcased a triumphant beat from Metro, which was then perfectly complimented by a scathing, visceral, and career-defining feature verse from Kendrick Lamar.
In the verse, Kendrick airs out all of the frustration he held for the current state of hip-hop, while, in typical Kendrick fashion, proclaims himself to be the best rapper in the game. Kendrick has done this throughout countless verses, and a verse calling yourself the best rapper isn’t exactly a notable occurrence in the Hip-Hop world.
What made Kendrick’s verse so poignant, however, were his direct shots at fellow kings of hip-hop, J. Cole, and Drake; the ladder receiving the more intentional disses. This was entirely unexpected and came as a well-needed boost of energy for the increasingly depraved hip-hop world.
J. Cole would be the first to respond to Kendrick’s verse on wax, with his song titled 7 Minute Drill. The diss was underwhelming to say the least, and the ever-too-humble J Cole would publicly denounce the song, and his involvement in the beef just days after its release.
The violent battle that was really looming, however, was the extensive, exciting, and almost never-ending battle between hip-hop’s most critically acclaimed artist, and its most commercially successful one.
The mano e mano battle would span 2 months, and nine tracks long, with Kendrick’s disturbing, methodical, and genius analysis of Drake’s character in “Meet The Grahams,” being the most jaw-dropping.
For the first time in years, it felt like the whole hip-hop world, spanning from fans of the artists involved in the beef to fans of more underground and contemporary hip-hop, were all encapsulated in the content of the lyrics that these songs had. This felt like a rarity, as the majority of current hip-hop has been marked with more focus on melodies as opposed to lyrics.
This momentum carried throughout summer, into the present, where some of the most skilled curators in the genre have all dropped fantastic music in a remarkably short period. Tyler, the Creator, Westside Gunn, and Freddie Gibbs have all released studio albums in the week of October 28th, to November 1st, and there is still more to come in the way of high-quality hip-hop.
Ab-Soul released his album Soul Burger on November 8th, just a week after Gibbs and Gunn dropped, and Cordae released his first album in two years, The Crossroads, on November 15th.
All of the aforementioned artists are individuals who push the genre forward, with modern flows, ideas, and production, but still keep the intrinsic lyricism, and consciousness of hip-hop alive.
Though, as competitive as the space of hip-hop is, there is no doubt that Kendrick, a true preserver of hip-hop’s ideals, influenced the release of these artists’ music.
