Questlove Declared “Hip Hop Is Truly Dead” and That Nobody Won The Drake vs. Kendrick Beef
Billboard - While Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s heavyweight battle has been a spectacle sweeping pop culture for the last few weeks, Questlove isn’t thrilled with the messy feud and its “mudslinging” antics.
The Roots drummer scoffed at Drake and K. Dot’s war in a fiery Instagram post on Tuesday night (May 8) where Quest put fans on blast for their visceral reactions to the haymakers exchanged on the scathing diss tracks.
“Nobody won the war. This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned,” he wrote before declaring hip-hop to be dead. “Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
Questlove’s post made references to both Drake and Kendrick bringing family and children into the beef in a very personal way to attack one another. K. Dot accused Drizzy of hiding an 11-year-old daughter on “Meet the Grahams,” while the 6 God alleged that Lamar’s manager Dave Free was the father of one of the Compton rapper’s children on “Family Matters.”
“Here We Are Now…Entertain us,” Questlove captioned the post, quoting Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
BOLD words coming from the guy who plays drums in the lamest guy on Late Night's band.
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Also BOLD words coming from the guy who played drums alongside Jay-Z during his MTV Unplugged performance in which he performed "The Takeover". One of the nastiest diss tracks Jay Z ever delivered aimed at Nas.
(Sidebar - this episode, album, everything was so fucking good. Why did MTV ever stop doing these performances? They always came out incredible.)
Here was Questlove's post-
Hmmm, remember those lyrics to "Takeover" Questlove? The ones that also mentioned women and children?
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Is hip-hop dead? Yes. Basically.
But NOT for the reason Questlove wants to make it out to be. Not the sole reason he thinks the genre is dead, but the last nail in the coffin.
It's been dead for years now. The new wave of next-generation rappers, their collective lack of talent, coupled with the horrific style that's "in" right now, put the whole thing on life support a few years ago. The perfect , and latest example is Sexy Redd going from a legit mockery-
(seriously, I blogged this last year before anybody knew who this train wreck was, calling it "the song of the summer". Sarcastically. Obviously.)
to now a bonafide star with songs on the top 25 charts.
Ironic that the guy who wrote and performed "Hip Hop Is Dead" was Nas.
p.s. - I'm just exaggerating. I have no problem with Questlove. He gave us some of the best music of the early 2000's. Before he sold out and joined Fallon.
p.p.s. - still two of the best songs of my lifetime.