Canadian hip-hop legends Choclair and Shad analyze the latest rap battle
⭐️HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW⭐️
- Music rivals Drake and Kendrick Lamar are feuding.
- But why do rappers diss each other and how serious is it?
- CBC Kids News talked to Shad and Choclair about it.
- Diss tracks are a natural part of hip-hop culture, they say.
- Keep reading to learn more about the hip-hop battle. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
Rap has a long history of rivalries, and the latest beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is generating a ton of online buzz.
The artists – one from the US and one from Canada – are widely considered to be two of the best rappers of this generation.
They have been trading indirect verbal jabs through their music for years.
But in March, they started taking more direct shots at each other, when Lamar dissed Drake in a guest verse on another artist’s track by implying Drake was not among the best rappers.
They’ve been going at it since then.
The insults traded back and forth have ranged all over the place, from Drake making fun of Kendrick’s height, to Kendrick criticizing Drake’s parenting.
Drake dropped the latest diss track against Kendrick, called The Heart Part 6on May 5.
CBC Kids News sat down with Canadian hip-hop experts Shad and Choclair to talk about the history of the diss track and what this particular rivalry means to hip-hop.
They said fighting is a natural part of the culture and there’s a difference between art and actual violence.
Rappers Choclair, left, and Shad talked to CBC Kids News about the art behind diss tracks in hip-hop. (Image credit: Lee Solo, Alex Lupul/CBC)
It’s like Pepsi vs. Coke’
Lamar, who is from Compton, California, has won 17 Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize for his album DAMN.
Drake, who is from Toronto, Ontario, has five Grammys and is one of a few artists to have spent more than 500 weeks on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart, which ranks artist popularity.
“These are two huge heavyweights. This is like Pepsi and Coke battling with each other,” said Choclair, who is a four-time Juno-award-winning rapper.
“I would call this the biggest battle I’ve ever witnessed in hip hop,” said Shad, who is a hip-hop historian and producer of the TV series Hip-Hop Evolution.
Part of hip-hop culture
Choclair, who is considered a hip-hop pioneer in Canada, said that diss tracks and battling, which is when two rappers trade verbal jabs with each other, is a natural part of hip-hop culture.
Shad said that battling has been around since the beginning of the genre and it exists in all of the elements of hip-hop, including breakdancing, graffiti, DJing and rapping.
The point of a diss track is about proving who the best rapper is, Shad said.
“Diss tracks are these … important moments in hip-hop history where you know two greats are going at each other and then you find out who was really the greatest of that moment.”
Other notable battles in hip-hop history include KRS-ONE vs. Marly Marl and the Juice Crew as well as Jay-Z vs. Nas.
Nas, left, and Jay-Z had one of the biggest battles in hip-hop history. (Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Could this battle lead to violence?
Drake and Lamar have made some pretty serious accusations against each other in their ongoing battle.
On May 7, one of Drake’s security guards was shot outside the rapper’s multimillion-dollar mansion in Toronto.
Drake’s mansion in Toronto was the site of a shooting on May 7. (Image credit: Patrick Morrell/CBC)
People were quick to make a connection between the shooting and the ongoing feud between him and Kendrick, but there is no known evidence of a connection at this point, according to Toronto police.
Shad said that hip-hop was started as an alternative to violence and that he would like to see people honor that history.
Choclair said that rap battles were traditionally used to generate excitement among fans and to see who the best lyricist was.
He said that there is always a potential for violence with rap beefs, but he hopes that it remains artistic and that “cooler heads will prevail.”
“In the ’90s, people were getting killed over battles…Tupac and Biggie, they were both killed,” Choclair said. “Nobody wants to see that happen again.”
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With files from CBC News
TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Amy Sussman/Getty Images, Santiago Bluguermann/Getty Images
Tags: Diss tracks explained story Drake Kendrick Lamar rap beef story
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