The Kendrick-XXXTentacion Conspiracy + Stream This Weekend

What’s poppin y’all,

I usually write these right before sending them out, so you’re getting my raw, early-morning thoughts when my brain is firing the most. I don’t know if I’ll turn this into a video, but it’s an interesting conspiracy theory that I haven’t seen many people talk about.

If you remember back in 2017, when XXXTentacion dropped his debut EP 17, Kendrick Lamar was one of the few—if not the only—high-profile artists to publicly support it. He didn’t just acknowledge it; he gave him two tweets praising the project. This was a big deal because, at the time, X was facing serious domestic violence allegations, making him one of the most controversial rappers out. Kendrick was seen as a hero in hip-hop, a respected figure who didn’t just cosign artists lightly, and showing love to X was a risky move that could’ve backfired on his career. But he did it anyway.

Fast forward to today, and looking at Kendrick’s ongoing beef with Drake, I started thinking: what if Kendrick Lamar's support for XXXTentacion wasn’t just about the music? What if it was also about his hatred for Drake?

XXX vs. Drake: The Start of the Drama

If you remember, XXX blew up while in jail with Look at Me!, a song that Drake then copied the flow from for KMT (on More Life). At that time, X was one of the only rappers who had the nerve to call out Drake, especially as a newcomer. He didn’t just diss him—he went nuclear, cursing out Drake, taking shots at his mother, and making it clear he had zero respect for him.

Knowing that Kendrick has disliked Drake for years, what if he saw XXXTentacion as someone he could elevate—not just because he liked the music, but because X was openly attacking Drake?

Kendrick & TDE's Spotify Power Play

This theory gets even crazier when you consider that in 2018, when Spotify tried to remove XXXTentacion’s and R. Kelly’s music from algorithmic playlists due to their legal troubles, TDE (Kendrick’s label) publicly threatened to pull their entire catalog from Spotify. This move forced Spotify to reverse their "hate policy."

At the time, even R. Kelly hadn’t been convicted yet—it was just accusations. But regardless, the policy itself was a dangerous precedent, and Kendrick took a stand against it. Was this just about fighting censorship, or was it yet another indirect way of supporting an artist who had been an enemy of Drake?

Now that we see what Kendrick has done years later with this Super Bowl performance and his direct shots at Drake, it makes me wonder if this connection played a role in why he first noticed XXXTentacion. Maybe he liked the music and saw real potential, but was that initial spark of interest also fueled by the fact that X hated Drake?

It’s a wild theory, but man, it makes you think.

Underground Listening Stream This Weekend

Moving on from that—this weekend, I might be doing a listening stream. Most likely, it’ll be on Twitch (twitch.tv/helloyassine), because YouTube keeps screwing over music-related content with the copyright and I don’t want to get a strike.

The plan is to do an underground listening stream, where I check out established underground artists that people actually listen to and vouch for. (Don’t send me your own music—this isn’t that kind of stream. Maybe in the future.)

I'll likely start between noon and 3 p.m., but I’ll confirm the exact time soon. It’s still Wednesday, so we have time to lock that in.

No Song of the Day today—I didn’t even listen to music yesterday.

That’s all I’ve got for now. More soon.

— HY

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