The Manipulation of Narratives in the Music Industry Is Wild

What’s poppin y’all,

There’s a lot of weirdness going on in the post-beef aftermath of Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake—not just chart manipulation, but also manipulation of narratives.

Take this recent claim from XXL Magazine, which was originally taken from Billboard. They reported that Kendrick became the first rapper to ever earn four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 within a 12-month span with Like That, Not Like Us, Squabble Up, and Luther.

But then LosPollos, a Drake stan to an extreme degree (maybe even more than Akademiks), called it out. He pointed out that Drake already did this in 2018 with God’s Plan, Nice For What, In My Feelings, and Sicko Mode. He said:

> “All these Kendrick stats don’t seem genuine, feel forced, make no sense statistically, just completely feels inorganic and wrong.”

When I looked into it, the numbers backed it up. God’s Plan hit No. 1 on January 20, 2018, Nice For What on April 21, 2018, In My Feelings on July 21, 2018, and Nonstop on August 18, 2018 (this was Canadian charts, it peaked #2 on US). Some tried to argue that Sicko Mode doesn’t count because Drake wasn’t credited as a lead artist, but now we’re just playing with weird and inconsistent rules.

For example, people bring up Travis Scott’s Goosebumps, saying Kendrick wasn’t credited, but that comparison doesn’t even work because Goosebumps didn’t even go No. 1—it peaked at No. 32 and was more of a sleeper hit that accumulated streams over time.

The bigger picture here is the industry-driven narrative trying to push Kendrick into a numbers-based competition with Drake. But the reality is, Drake was never being held back, and even Akademiks admitted he doesn’t believe there was any suppression. This is all business. The industry still wants Drake to do well because his streams make them money, but they’ve just decided to put Kendrick at the center of everything right now.

And this reminds me of the early 2010s and late 2000s, when it felt like everyone in hip-hop hated Drake, or at least didn’t respect what he was doing. You had people like DMX, Charlamagne, and others taking shots at him, but the reality was, Drake was unavoidable. His music was on every radio station, being played everywhere, and the stats were undeniable.

But within hip-hop, it didn’t feel like he had that universal support. I talk about this all the time—back in 2011-2012, I was a huge Meek Mill supporter, and if you were listening to hip-hop exclusively, Meek felt bigger than Drake. He was crashing mixtape sites, while Drake was dominating charts and crossover audiences, especially women.

Now, Kendrick is getting that same treatment. I don’t know if Drake was even aware he was getting that treatment back then, but it’s interesting to see a modern version of it playing out today.

No song of the day today. I don’t even think I listened to music yesterday.

Also been working on an interesting script that will likely be for a video next week, a bunch of people will hate on this but I think it’s a really cool story that should be followed.

Hint: It’s about two women (again)

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