Hip-hop in 2024 was on a wild ride
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If I could travel back in time to 2023 and tell you that Drake would be taking on his own label after a dramatic fall from grace damaged what felt like an indestructible brand, you likely would have accused me of listening to too much Pusha T. I wouldn't have believed it either. But that was 2024 in hip-hop, full of massive, unexpected, culture-shifting turns.

When we celebrated rap's 50 year anniversary last year, amid claims of the genre's decline, we knew we were in for a wild ride.

But who would have imagined the first year of rap's second half century would be this eventful? I'm NPR music editor Sheldon Pierce, here with host and reporter Sidney Madden, and correspondent and critic Rodney Carmichael.

And we're breaking down the biggest stories in hip-hop this year. Yes, Kendrick is obviously among them. If you're like me, you're probably still spinning his new album, GNX. And we know Not Like Us was the defining song of 2024. We also know that his name has been on everybody's lips since then, and that his run has been analyzed and overanalyzed. Even so, Kendrick is a cypher, and there's still so much more to unpack.

They not like us. They not like us. They not like us. Like the Compton rapper using his takedown of Drake as a vehicle for regionalism. Or the ways in which his expression of masculinity is rooted in vulnerability. Or his hypocritical deployment of predatory allegations in the shadow of mounting charges against Sean Diddy Combs. But before we get into all of that, we're breaking down other moments and movements that defined hip-hop in 2024. Rodney, Sid, how are y'all feeling about rap right now?

I'm feeling like we have so much to unpack and you just already gave us so many ideas in that intro, Sheldon. That was fire. Yeah, it's been an incredible year. It's been a decade, I think. It feels like we've covered so much ground in such a short amount of time. We already know rap's demise was greatly exaggerated.

in recent years, but truthfully, it has remained at the center of popular culture in many different ways. Its influence has extended to one of the most unlikely places as well, country music, which made a big push on the charts this year. But I wanna start closer to home with the rapper Big X Da Plug. ♪ Say I'm the biggest ♪

Big X had a big year this year releasing the record Take Care, which spawned great songs like Change Me, which you can find on NPR's list of best songs. Rodney, I know this was one of your favorites. What about it resonates so deeply with you? You know what? Big X is just...

He, like you said, he feels so Texas. The drawl is there. The thing about this particular album that he put out, first off, it's a mixtape for me. It's like

He made, he took hip-hop back to that mixtape era because the samples are really big, recognizable. His producer didn't try to chop them up and hide them. You know, they're right out front and it feels like they didn't have to pay for these samples.

But it's something about just like the twanginess. There's a lot of guitars and there's a lot of... Honestly, it almost borders on cheesy at certain points. But so does country music. You know what I mean? So it just really fits to me. And I don't think there's an artist...

that can claim to be more country than Big X.

They say X Winner Chants probably cuz I got rich I ain't hurtin' my kids, they ain't wantin' for shit They say X Winner Chants probably came from a bitch Tried to hit now I'm up and they all on my dick They say X Winner Chants probably came from a nigga I fuck with my cunt, stand on ten with the gang How come all of these folks get to say the X Chants? I'm the same and I'm standin' on ten with my name Ayy

Yeah, there's definitely something almost like down home, like rural, like outside of city life about it. Almost rootsy to his music that feels like sort of deeply connected with Dallas, which is where he's from. I mean, Big X, Big

has also sort of talked about being connected to one of the biggest country music stars right now, Morgan Wallen, and working on music with him. He has a collaboration with Shaboosie, who maybe you've heard had the biggest song in the country this year, a bar song, Tipsy. My baby born to Birkin She's been telling me all night

And so he does feel connected to that world, both physically,

tangentially and like by proxy but he is just sort of one example of rap's influence in country music we talked about shibuzi just now who is a virginia native started in rap has a sort of like sing-song thing going on in his sound his big hit interpolates jay kwan's tipsy someone call me up a double shot of whiskey

And that song is tied with another country rap hybrid for the longest running Billboard number one in history, Lil Nas X's Old Town Road, which rained in 2019. And it feels like

There should have been a line drawn in the sand from then about country and rap and its connections, but we are still seeing sort of...

a divide culturally between the two sounds despite their relationship to each other. Yeah. I mean... Sig, can you talk a little bit about, like, Cowboy Carter's influence on Shaboosie? And, you know, Shaboosie got invited to the Country Music Awards, but... But then got shaded. Exactly. Yeah. I love how you said a line drawn in the sand because that is exactly what B's Cowboy Carter...

really calls out. There should be no line in the sand. There should be no subjugation and separation between these genres and their roots and their lineage. And all lines in the sand are clearly just racial lines and proxies for garnering power and keeping power and the capital out of the hands of the people who created the genres. And I think that's why it's really important to...

"Signal Boost," "Shaboosie," and "Big X" in this moment, because really the thesis, and I mean, there's points A, B, C, D, E, F, G all up and through "Cowboy Carter," but it was so much about dismantling our preconceived notions of what genre is and who can occupy certain genres. And I feel like "Shaboosie's" triumph this year, connected to Lil Nas X,

His previous rise with Old Town Road and then Big X The Plug's triumph, which again, like you said, six degrees of separation. They've worked on songs together. They've clearly influenced each other. They draw on their roots and their own fantasies.

family ties to being children of immigrants, to being first-time fathers in some cases. It shows you exactly where all of these lines need to be dusted out and need to be, um,

Even if you're a huge country listener, you want to say, but you've never heard of Big X, the plug, and you've never heard of this album, you're going to find something that fits your mood, fits your sentiments in it. And I think that's why it's such a standout this year. ♪ I see dead ends, but we're still going strong ♪ ♪ We've been heading down a one-way street, but it feel like it's wrong ♪

Both Shaboosie and Beyonce are Southern artists, and it feels like there's a threshold that they cannot cross that white Southern artists in the same spaces are being allowed to cross. We know that Cowboy Carter was created in response to the Beyonce song Daddy Lessons being sort of

Shut out at a previous CMA's ceremony. And then here you have Shabuzy who broke out on Cowboy Carter and has had the biggest moment of anybody in country music being shut out at this year's CMA's. But on the other hand, there are

country artists who are deeply influenced by rap if not former rappers who have moved into that space and been welcome i'm thinking about morgan wallen who we've already um talked about but also the rapper turned country star jelly roll i am not okay

the rapper turned country star Post Malone. Those guys made big inroads into Nashville, into the country music mainstream. Very quickly. Despite, yeah, despite having a deep connection to rap that was at points talked about as being appropriative. And so we see there's a clear disconnect despite all of these artists sort of existing in the same sort of context

Sonic Middle Ground. Some artists are being accepted by the country establishment and some artists aren't. You know what? Can I throw a question out there? I'm curious. When we mention artists like Post, Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen, were they more welcomed into hip hop than artists like Shaboosie and obviously Beyonce have been?

Into country? I would say they have been. I would say any pushback, especially to artists like Post Malone and Jelly Roll, who have donned very specific rap signifiers early in their career. Jelly Roll, he's face-tatted like a SoundCloud rapper. And then Post Malone jumped into the game, cornrows, like, gross.

Working with Kanye West before he even dropped his debut. Remember? Right. Yeah. So these guys, any pushback to them in rap circles was specifically about ideas of appropriation. But we've seen that before in other genres too. And I do feel like the critique of appropriation as hip hop has become more and more of a...

cultural signifier of just like American black culture. Hip hop culture, black culture is American culture. I mean, we see that with the AAVE being considered TikTok speak and TikTok slang right now, right? It's a recurring cycle that we see in other spaces. We've seen it in pop. We've seen it in R&B. But I think the added layer of hypocrisy that comes into play when you're talking about country is the

Country music has been appropriated from black people for so long. And it's been done so well and so systematically that there are many black Americans, black listeners and lovers of music who don't see themselves reflected in country and never... You heard the stories when Cowboy Carter was on a rollout. Black people, quote unquote, discovering country that they liked country for the first time or people even in the South, like Southern...

hip hop writers saying they never felt welcome at a country music concert, even though that is the genre that really runs their town and runs their beat more so than others. So I think that's why this huge like breakthrough of country in 2024 feels a little bit more laughable because it's all underpinned with black music and hip hop music specifically.

There has been a bit of a self-sabotaging element within hip hop from purists who are sort of not willing to accept genre fusion, folks looking to build a firewall between rap and

as like what they see as a formalist form and separating it from anything beyond that. There's this idea that a certain type of rap is the real rap and then everything that deviates from that is not true to that history.

Outsiders are sort of co-opting rap history for their own gains and in that transaction sort of like minimizing the efforts of artists of color who are doing that same work. But on the other hand, there's also artists inside the genre who are themselves pushing back against any possible action.

fusionist future. The lines between country and rap continue to blur, but country isn't the only sound dominating southern rap. There have been several artists that have set a new pace for the region in hip-hop itself,

The star Megan Thee Stallion continued her run and we've seen breakthroughs for several artists who seem to come into their own on new albums. The Atlanta rapper Lotto with "Suga Honey Iced Tea", the Memphis rapper Glorilla with "Glorious" and the Florida rapper Dochi with her TDE debut "Alligator Bites Never Heal".

Sid, it feels like these artists sort of had a big coming into their own moment this year, but they've all been sort of steadily churning out music over the years. Like, how do you situate their rises? I situate their rises as being moments of metamorphosis that are grounded in vindication and grounded in...

actually being able to have space to find their voice for the first time. And I mean, to me, women have been dropping the most exciting, challenging, illuminating projects all year. You know, like we can talk about Ray Khalil, we can talk about Rhapsody, Samara Sin, who's a newcomer, Mona Leo, who just dropped a really funny, really comical project. But to zero in on Lotto, Glow, Dochi, and Megan is,

They're the ones who are setting the pace for the Southern rap canon in an exciting way that I think has never been seen and felt before. And it's refreshing because all of these women have dropped...

You know, we can call it the negative annotation of women in hip-hop, women in hip-hop music calling it pussy rap, right? But all the projects you just really pinpointed there, Sheldon, is...

Yeah, there's pussy rap within those bars, but there's also so much more. And let me just say as an aside, if someone if a rapper wants to rap about their pussy all day, they absolutely should because what do men rap about all day? They're, they're Glock. Okay, so it's not any different. Exactly, exactly. So let's have some parody there. But

I think on all of these four projects that you just named, yeah, Lotto having a big breakthrough moment. Lotto is three albums in on her major label deal, but Sugar Honey Ice Tea feels like she's found her balance between pop sentiments and just this rough, rugged, kinetic bars and switch-ups.

She just has, I don't know, her finger on the pulse of bad bitchery and she's just giving us so much one-liners in ways that have

Honestly, kept foots on next, even since 2023, we put it on the floor and then the remix and all the remixes that she's been dropping. Glorilla, another one who's been able to

Shape the lexicon of what being a fully faceted flawed woman in 2024 feels like. And what it means to be overthinking and getting in your head. And how you can get over imposter syndrome. How you can get over listening to internet trolls or...

Or even how to get out of abusive relationships. She has two cuts on this album that talk about domestic violence and how she's trying to get her friend out of it and how she'll never put up with it herself in a relationship. And she grounds all that in her own choir girl gospel roots, too.

I think Dolce really just shot out of a cannon in the second half of the year. She's someone who's been signed to TDE for a while now and she's always exuded this theater kid, chaotic, bouncing off the walls,

eccentricity, but I feel like it's been channeled into real star power with this mixtape. And yeah, we do have to underline that it's a mixtape. It's not her first release on TDE, but it's absolutely the standout of her career. And it earned her four Grammy nominations. So I could just get back and sit my line in peace.

Easy breezy beautiful erratic scatter-minded manic borderline addict I try to take the sober route and end up on a dead end Now everything I joke about just ends up on the reddit Gator skin coat Florida heat no joke Feel like the Tiger King's remote joke Leo the sun sign I'm sipping the Cosmo Make money like Pronto and Gucci my poncho

ain't no rain up pain on me wetting up the block but they just ain't no me label always up my life why can't all these labels just let me be

And then you have Megan. Megan is absolutely a path breaker and a page turner when it comes to women's trajectory in hip hop. But I think this album specifically, it just oozes with redemption and vindication because it's the first thing she's been able to put out.

after the dust has more settled in the case of the shooting where Tory Lanez was convicted of shooting her in both of her feet. And we're just hearing, we're hearing her have fun again. We're hearing the reemergence of her alter ego, Tina Snow. We're hearing some of the work that she created when she was traveling in Japan and South Korea, which, you know, anyone who's a fan of her knows

She had a ball and she had a real homecoming of sorts there with her love of anime really illuminating her creative juices.

What I love about these four albums all placed next to each other is they show the variety and the dexterity of what women, not only women in hip hop, but women in the southern canon really have to offer now. And that's why they're setting the pace. There's been a lot of great albums that came out of the South this year. I mean, we just talked about Big X, right? I think Rod Wave is another one. Yeah.

Boss Mandilo, huge breakout moment. Denzel Curry. But to me, things like Lotto headlining Birthday Bash and selling it out and bringing out Usher and Mariah the Scientist and just bridging gaps and bridging generations. Things like Megan Thee Stallion hosting the Crunchyroll Awards halfway around the world and showing literally how far hip-hop can go in propelling star power.

These are the moments to me that feel like triumphs in the midst of so much adversity that hip hop went through in year 51. And that's why, I mean, they're the ones to watch and they're the ones setting that pace. I think that this year more than any other year in a long time, the line between mixtape and album has been blurred beyond recognition.

People calling their project a mixtape when it really seems to be masquerading as an album and vice versa. A lot of that this year. I mean, Dolce's...

I refuse to call Dochi's project a mixtape. That's the most album sounding mixtape I've heard. Yeah, I've had a lot of arguments with people about it. I mean, I wrote a piece on the site about it. Like if that's not an album, I don't know what an album is. I think she really wanted to call it an album because of how fast and frantic she made it and how she was trying to like

flex a lot of different ideas at once and coming to terms with her artistry and not wanting to cater to TikTok and battling with her label. I feel like it was a great appetizer of what she could give us with a full conceptualized album. But yeah, it's absolutely album quality. At this point, the difference between a mixtape and an album is really just sales

Because before, a mixtape would not be an official label release. Right. It wasn't in the marketplace. Exactly. You had to go find that. We used to go to Dat Piff. Or even before that, we used to go to somebody's trunk and had to get it out the trunk. Exactly. And people were doing things like not having to clear samples and, you know, calling people out. And it was a foreground and it was a setting for...

to do exactly what Doji did, like work through a lot of ideas, but also have the freedom from the label machine. And now it's much more about, you know, getting that exposure out, also flexing ideas and working through ideas. But it's all for the capital still.

Distinctions about what is or isn't an album or a mixtape aside, I think what really grabs me about all four artists is how distinct they are, how distinctly regional their music sounds, and how their voices and flows often seem to channel their hometowns specifically. I mean, that kind of...

regionalism, that kind of individuality was much needed in a time when rap has dealt with a lot of controversy and scandal and spent a lot of time in the courtroom. But we'll talk about that

after this short break.

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We've talked a lot about Southern rap, the amount of fun that was produced by the women who have had breakthroughs over the past few months, and how that was desperately needed. We faced tragic deaths that included seminal figures like Rico Wade and would-be stars like Rich Homie Kwan, and

And then we've also experienced the fallout from the greatest gut punch to that community, the suppression of Young Thug throughout the years-long YSL RICO case, which felt like it created a vacuum in the culture but finally came to an end this year. Rodney, you're an Atlanta native. Can you unpack that case? Yeah, I mean, it definitely...

created a vacuum in Atlanta, you know, I mean you could feel it and not just a vacuum but I think a lot of questions a lot of unanswered questions have been just hanging in the air. First off, it's just really ironic to be in this place, you know, we're talking about because I think we're talking about Young Thug, but we're also talking about Lil Durk. Yeah. You know, we're talking about a lot of really big, really big cases.

that are kind of happening simultaneously, which can make it feel like all of hip-hop is experiencing this to a certain extent. But the irony to me is, you know, like when you think about how many years, you know, rappers liken themselves to mafia dons, you know, but I think nobody ever saw the day coming when high-profile rappers like these would be facing actual recall charges.

You know, which was once reserved for Mafia dons.

You know, in the same week last month, Lil Durk got arrested on federal RICO charges at the same time that Young Thug got released after entering a guilty plea in, as you said, the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. These are rappers that were indicted on charges alleging that the record labels that they started are actually criminal street gangs.

with charges running the gamut from murder to racketeering, drug dealing, and in some cases, more. Now, there's a lot of detail that I think we could parse out about these cases, you know, the similarities, the differences, but I really want to hone in on

One specific element that I think ties both of these specific cases together and that's the use of lyrics as evidence of the alleged crimes that our prosecutors say were committed Something that's been going on for decades but it really feels like it's hit a tipping point in terms of how it might be impacting the art form and

Now, before the judge in the YSL trial sentenced Young Thug to 15 years probation on Halloween of this year, which for some reason seemed eerily fitting, she had something to say about street-oriented rap in particular. I want us to listen to this.

Because it's being referenced a lot as a harsher judgment than the one that Young Thug received, which is saying a lot considering he got 15 years probation. And I have a kind of a different opinion on that, but I'm curious what y'all think too. So let's hear what she had to say first. Having come up from where you came up from and living in and around that, you know that gangs are

are damaging to our community. And it may be that

a whole lot of rap music and the rap industry is, I mean, honestly, it sounds like a modern day version of kind of WWE wrestling that used to be on television where people would just get up and posture and act like they hated each other. And it may be that that's a lot of what is going on in the music industry with rap, but whether it is fake or not, um,

It has tremendous impact on kids and young people who think this is cool. This is what I want to do. Look at him. He's a millionaire. I can do that by being, you know, a gangster in the streets. So I'm curious, first off, what are y'all's thoughts on what she had to say? I think she definitely has a point. If you

If you listen to a lot of rap, hip-hop right now, it's pageantry, it's escapism, it's machismo, but it's a lot of times meant to be empowering. It's meant to be a boost. Because we live in a very fast food type of world.

social economy right now right so if you all you see is the end result of somebody getting a million dollar deal or getting however many diamonds or whatever it may be off of their raps like you don't think about the messaging that's being propelled in those raps and you don't think about the lived experience or even the the fantasy that's being used to fuel those bars yeah like it's

in your, let's say, an impressionable young mind, yeah, you're going to think A, B, C. You're not going to think about any of the tripwires or the consequences. I do think there's a weird sort of divide happening there. On the one hand, she's saying it's like WWE wrestling, which we know for a fact is not real. And then on the other hand, she's saying that

its impact is real because people believe it. So I'm like, nobody would accuse WWE wrestling of being a bad impact on kids. - That's the part of hip hop that is so entangled and gets really hard to unspool because if you talk to a lot of managers, label people, PR, even the artists themselves,

Like there is a lot of admission that, yeah, a lot of rap is cap right now. It's a selling of a dream. It's escapism. It's confidence boosting. It's living out a fantasy that the vast majority of us would not be able to understand.

to experience in our daily lives, right? Like that has become the message of rap as a conglomerate, let's say. But the roots of hip hop being so much about liberation and authentic lived experience and authentic storytelling, I think it all gets really intertwined and that's where it gets a little messy. And in that milieu, that's where the space comes in to criminalize rap lyrics.

This idea of authenticity is one that's pretty unique to us

or certain sub-genres of hip hop, right? I think we can all make the opposite argument that realism has been a very important element of rap for a long time. I mean, when Jay-Z is laying out his narrative about who he was before he was a rapper, he wants us to believe that, you know?

He is documenting his history and giving himself the street cred that comes along with that. And it authenticates him in a way that makes his story and his persona more believable. I think we've always understood that there's a line. But, you know, when you talk about drill rap today, people are expected to believe, at least fans, are encouraged to believe that there's less of a line.

The funny thing about that wrestling analogy, I heard the same exact analogy when I talked to the book Rap on Trial and co-author Eric Nielsen, who's also been an expert witness in cases like this. He used the same wrestling analogy to talk about why prosecutors should not be allowed to argue for literal interpretations of rap lyrics, right? Which is the same thing you're saying, Sid, rap is cap. But even that defense that you hear now in the arc

at least Eric is arguing, is a relatively new thing. And it's part of how this legal tactic is changing the art form, you know, and that part of it is another thing that's only happening to this art form that he says is part of the real impact that we're feeling from it. And

You hear it. A song Draco the Ruler put out a song a few years ago called Fictional, where he literally addressed all of this saying, you know, everything I'm saying is fictional. Of course, he was just getting off a bid and a trial himself in which his lyrics were being used in court to, you know, prove that to tie him to crimes that he was being alleged to have committed. Lil Durk, who we're also talking about right now.

And his indictment and his superseding indictment, they've added lyrics to songs. He has a song, "Aha," where he literally puts a disclaimer on the front of the song saying something to that effect that what you're about to hear is not real. Everything I'm saying to this motherfucker is all props. This shit is not real. Just in case the police listen, I don't know how speedy this is. Man, don't respond to shit.

Eric had this really funny kind of analogy to that too. Using the wrestling metaphor again, he kind of likened what's happening in rap now to if you went to a wrestling match

And you saw two wrestlers, you know, announced to the audience before they started battling. The wrestlers say, hey, my real name is Dave. This is Jim. We're actually really good friends. And, you know, what you're about to see here is totally made up. And, OK, we're going to get in the character now and let's go. Yeah.

He's like, you know, that would ruin the experience. This is why rappers keep up this image and portray this image. You know, you see them portraying it in social media, which a lot of times is being used in court against them. You see them portraying it, obviously, in their music and videos and their lyrics. And he says it's all part of an act that they're not allowed to take the mask off of because it would

in a lot of ways, make them seem like disingenuous artists. Obviously, in 2024, we can't talk about authenticity without talking about one of the biggest rap beefs. I mean, I think we can say the biggest rap battle in the history of hip hop. It's Kendrick Lamar and Drake, and we're going to talk about it some more right after the break.

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So let's finish where we started with the biggest conversation in rap this year. Kendrick Lamar, his feud with Drake, and the months-long build-up to his performance at next year's Super Bowl.

Few rappers have ever had a better run. He took a diss to number one on the Billboard charts, scored Grammy nominations for record and song of the year, held a Coast Gathering one-off event in Los Angeles, the pop out. And that was all before he surprise released one of the most successful albums of the year a few weeks ago.

Let's start with Beef producing the song of the summer. Syd, how did this happen? I mean, clearly it happened because there was long festering hatred that Kendrick as a petty Gemini couldn't wait to pop off. For sure. I think this battle really moved in so many unprecedented ways. It moved at the speed of the internet and internet.

It got really ugly really, really fast. So obviously Not Like Us was that, I don't know if I can even call it nail in the coffin because Kendrick keeps doing more and more to bury him. But the back and forth between Kendrick and Drake in early 2024 was,

It really ended. He put his foot down when "Not Like Us" and the beauty of it is he not only took crazy shots but it was on an undeniable beat so it ended up becoming the song of the summer. ♪ Let me break it down for you ♪ ♪ This the real nigga challenge ♪ ♪ You call future when you didn't see the club ♪ ♪ What, lil baby help you get your lingo up ♪ ♪ What, 21 get your 4 Street cred ♪ ♪ Thug make you feel like you a slime in your head ♪

♪ What? ♪ ♪ Craybo said you can be from Northside ♪ ♪ What? ♪ ♪ 2 Chainz say you good, but he lied ♪ ♪ You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars ♪ ♪ No, you not a colleague ♪ ♪ You a fuckin' colonizer ♪

The family matter and the truth of the matter. Here was God's plan to show you the lie. I've seen it played at graduations. I've heard it played at baby showers. There's been tick tocks of it being used as the walk up music in people's weddings, stuff like that. I heard it during Thanksgiving. I heard it during Thanksgiving. We giving thanks for hatred this year.

Truly, truly. Everybody is revealing that they're a hater in new ways. Everyone's taking a mask off if you want to talk about it like that. It's funny, Rodney, you mentioned so much about the cultural capital of authenticity that hip hop has because this is exactly what "Not Like Us" is about.

Kendrick is calling out every time. He's literally making a timeline of every time Drake, you know, went to Atlanta when he needed a check balance or pulling up old receipts of him calling people slaves. There's so many moments that are just like...

Blow after blow after blow. And then when you zoom out and you think about the Juneteenth event in L.A. or you think about the Super Bowl announcement, you see how Kendrick...

been able to parlay that division of like this guy who everybody thinks is the biggest rapper in the world is actually just a culture vulture and literally not like us. I mean, the Grammy nomination for Not Like Us is really wild to me. If you look at just the history of the Grammys and diss tracks being honored at the Grammys, the last time a diss track was nominated for a Grammy in the rap category was when Drake dropped Back to Back in...

2016 when he was dissing Meek Mill. And the only reason that lost out for the Grammy was because I think it was Kendrick's All Right that won the Grammy that year. So you see this little back and forth and this bubbling, this brewing between them for such a long time. But what really stood out to me that I feel like not enough people were honing in on or underlining or

wanting to grapple with was how women and children became the bystanders and the hardest punchlines in this battle. So if you look at Drake's track, his biggest shot against Kendrick, and there are many in there, is that he's abusive to his longtime fiancee Whitney and that he refuses to marry her even though he's had many children with her. And then on the other hand, Kendrick's biggest shot at Drake is that

He and other people in his crew have spent years grooming young women in their own personal circles and inner circles. And this moment, the fact that this is the moment that culturally kind of takes Drake off this untouchable pedestal, but at the same time there's been no answer and no retribution for, it just really rings true.

It rings kind of hollow considering this supposed reckoning that we're supposed to be having with all of the Sean Zitti Combs cases that are coming out, the myriad of civil cases, and the federal sex trafficking charges that he's facing. The idea that Kendrick is about to make this huge play on one of the biggest stages in America with the Super Bowl, it also is...

undoubtedly a flex, like let's say, it's a huge power move. And he took that from the school of Beyonce, Giselle knows Carter, we all know that. But it's also kind of antithetical to the message of this song because he's benefiting from Jay-Z's relationship with the NFL, right? And if we look back at the history of that, that was timely because it was kind of like a thinly veiled PR move to distract people from the way that the NFL never addressed racial inequality

Colin Kaepernick pointed out. So I mean there's a lot of great points made in this battle, right? And there's a lot of ambidextrous entertaining lyricism at play and like I said it moved like no other battle ever in the history of hip-hop. But along the way I think there's just so many moments within it and so many details and layers that if you really peel them back and

is gonna rub you the wrong way. - Yeah, I mean, it feels representative of where rap is for a lot of reasons that we've actually talked about. I mean, the role that regionalism is now playing, Kendrick essentially made this Compton against the world

Drake as an outsider, as not an American, as not from one of the sort of seminal rap cities being not just a culture vulture, but somebody who was not distinctly of the culture in the same way that he was.

But also it was a result of like how raps are clearly not evidence. I mean, Sid, you broke down very clearly how he has made claims about Drake and Drake made claims about him that were never interrogated and held up under scrutiny and used to sort of make cases against either of these rappers.

It's also proof of how rap misogyny still needs addressing, how we need to have long conversations about the way that women are treated in these songs, the way they are victimized, the way they are scapegoated. And it also is evidence of how rap is complicated.

still a super commercial property that in the wake of this, in the wake of these allegations, in the wake of everything that is being said, it is being put on the biggest stage that we have in America in the Superbowl.

One sort of unprecedented development is that in recent weeks, Drake has filed legal documents against his label, UMG, who also distributed Not Like Us, and the streaming company Spotify.

saying that they boosted the song illegally in an effort to sort of make the song more popular and as a result, like, his reputation was greatly damaged.

We've never seen beef go to court, essentially. We've seen a lot of different outcomes, but the idea that you would use legal action as a means to undercut your opponent and rap beef, that's a first. We've never experienced anything like that. - Drake ain't like us. I mean, clearly he's kind of proven the point that Kendrick was making.

I think the most interesting thing about his legal action is, if I'm not mistaken, after he filed this paperwork and it came to the light of day and the Internet had a field day with it, a lot of people were wondering, well, wow, he's more concerned with the streams and that part of it than all of the negative things that

All the character assassination that, you know, Kendrick attempted on him. And then the next day he added defamation to these legal filings, which is so interesting, so unprecedented and so hard to predict where it all might end up.

Well, one thing we do know about where it's going to end up is Not Like Us is Grammy nominated. He's performing at the Super Bowl, so he's about to have a really big February. And then he's heading out on a tour with SZA in early 2025. Kendrick, SZA, maybe Dolce, if we're lucky. I'm praying for Dolce. I would love that for Dolce. Before we get off of this Kendrick Drake situation...

Obviously, GNX is the exclamation point that comes out of this. We started off talking about Southern rap in 2024. As the resident Southerner, I just want to say like the West Coast, which is, you know, the horse that Kendrick rides in on and doubles down on with GNX.

Like West Coast has had an incredible year. California specifically has had an incredible year. When you think about, we can start with TDE, you know, school boy Q put out what I think arguably his best album. You got Ab Soul who put out a great project. And then you have artists like Vince Staples. You got to mention Tyler, the creator who just continues to,

evolve and raise the bar in terms of hip hop, in terms of production. I think this regionalism thing that's happening, which is part of Kendrick's bigger point, right? Basically saying to Drake, you have no culture to speak of, which is a really harsh statement to make.

Which, like, hey, let's not disrespect Toronto on this podcast. Toronto does have a rap history. I just want to say that. Right, no, very much so. That's Kendrick saying that. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, no, no, I'm just putting a disclaimer. We here, we don't want beef with Toronto. Like, we respect Toronto rap culture. That's all I'll say. But to his point, right, Drake has not always leaned into that other than, you know...

His accents on occasion. Right, right, right, right. Drake himself is not connected to that culture either. Like he has presented himself as like this universal, like omnipresent being at the top of the streaming apparatus, just like sucking in everything from all directions. Like he's not a Toronto rapper in that same way that Kendrick is clearly a Compton rapper.

This ends up underlining to me what I love about 2024, which is the return of regionalism in a really strong way. We talked about country and rap really making a mark there. These West Coast sounds that unless you've been a deep listener to like Draco the Ruler and a bunch of other people who haven't gotten that mainstream recognition yet.

Probably sounds like nothing you've heard of out of the West Coast before, not to mention all these other West Coast artists that did incredible stuff this year. It's doing what I think Kendrick's ultimate thesis and argument is, which is about steeping away.

rap back into the culture from whence it came in a way that is has nothing to do with charts and and grammys and industry stuff but really is about the the music and the culture we did a a full feature series last year for hip-hop 50 called all rap is local i still think it's true i mean you can look at new york

The drill scene up there, what Cash Cobain has done this year. I mean, you look at Detroit, it's all over the country. It's never going to stop. It's eternal. To your point about the West Coast, it does feel like some of the best rap of the year.

came out of Los Angeles this year. And I think that's a perfect opportunity for the three of us to talk about some of the best music that we heard. Syd, do you want to go first and talk about your favorite album and song of the year? I'm going to sound like I'm replaying it, but "Glory."

Glorilla has been one of my favorite artists of the last few years. And I think, to drop not only one but two like

authentically viral songs this year, to drop a mixtape, go on tour with Megan Thee Stallion, have just as many people come in to see you as the opener, as your headliner, who's already had many, many breakthroughs and mainstream successes, and then to top it off with this song

triumph of a debut album. I feel like she showed her dexterity in so many new ways. I feel like I have more sense of her as a person and her multitudes and her moods. And she's been able to link up with other amazingly powerful, hilarious artists

flawed women rappers. Like that Sexy Red song? Sheesh, you can't tell me nothing. First of all, "White Me Down." I'm not even the biggest Boosie fan, but "White Me Down" will forever be one of my top played songs on any playlist, whether it's a pregame playlist, a workout playlist.

A meditative playlist, yes I said it. And to absolutely give so much new life to that song and to make it an anthem for the women, like, she'll always have my heart for that one. She's very honest and

Self-deprecating when it comes to how she's been able to get out of her own way and stop overthinking and stop being a victim to analysis paralysis. Her collab with T-Pain on there. Her collab with Megan. I can't wait for a full Megan and Glow mixtape. We're hoping that for 2025. So yeah, that's definitely my album of the year. My album pick.

There's an artist called Dear Silas, which I think y'all are probably familiar with him. I hope y'all are. He's an independent artist.

Originally out of Mississippi. And I don't know what it is about this dude's viral game. But he was somehow just all over the place on my timelines. ♪ Flow wet but I can't slip ♪ ♪ If we don't leave right now ♪ ♪ Then something gon' be real blue like a nigga bankrupt ♪ ♪ So shorty let's ride ♪ ♪ Rim still spinning let's glide ♪ ♪ Now she asking me why I don't get high ♪ ♪ Cause I wanna be in my right mind ♪ ♪ When I go to dig in them bars ♪ ♪ Take a look in my eyes ♪ ♪ Better yet look in my heart ♪

He put out an album called Cadillac Leather in July. Speaking of what we talked about earlier, I'm not totally sure if it was an album or a mixtape. It's an EP. Maybe that's the best way to say it because it's under 30 minutes. It has some of the most infectious, like southern, very flow oriented, almost sing songy.

Rhythmic vibe Imagine if if somebody like pimpsy were like your personal motivator or like your

Your comedic alter ego, self-love. He has all of this kind of wrapped into this character. I would put him in sometimes and just start to feel so good that whatever I was feeling bad about, I would kind of forget about in the moment. So yeah, shouts out to that dude. His viral game is excellent. He puts out these little videos and clips of him

Just doing really funny stuff. He's got a song about his dedicated to his dog. It's basically what the hook is. You know, that's my dog. He's really kind of marked out his own space for sure. For me, the best rap album of the year was JPEG Mafia's I Lay Down My Life For You. Just an insane song.

furious record that sort of brings his vision of the past few years into focus but also reveals sort of a more introspective artist. But I've written about this record online, I've written about it in our best of package. I just want to give quick shout outs to some other records. The Rapsody record "Please Don't Cry" is awesome.

We talked about Vince, but also Chief Keef's Almighty So Too, Makami, Rich Ass Haitian, Mavi, Shadowbox, and the surprise of the year for me, and I think also for you, Rodney, LL Cool J's The Force. ♪

Produced by Q-Tip and sort of completely...

reimagined what the, the, the golden age rap album is in the digital age. It's, it's a truly, uh, exceptional record. Uh, I recommend all of those. Um,

But that's just a small drop in the bucket of what rap produced this year. It was an incredible year. And that's a wrap for it and for us. To see our lists of the 124 best songs of 2024 and the 50 best albums of 2024, visit us at nprmusic.org. If you have feedback for us,

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This podcast was produced by Simon Retner. We had editorial support from Jacob Gams. I'm Sheldon Pierce with Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael. Thanks for listening and have a good rest of your year.

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