Kendrick Lamar and Delayed Gratification

I tried to tell him, I really did. If we do get a proper diss track from Kendrick, it's going to be legendary. This is the story of how Drake and some others would indulge in instant gratification, looking good at first but ultimately losing, versus how Kendrick would invest in delayed gratification, appearing weak at first but ultimately winning enormously. I got a comment that says I need to stop talking about Kendrick Lamar and to that I simply say, NO! Let's take it back to where my last Kendrick video left off. Mind you, after Kendrick released Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, we didn't even know if he was gonna make music again. His final message was a mantra of self-love, of choosing family and health and his own well-being above his music. And as fans, we were like, is Kendrick breaking up with us? As I said in that last video, if Mr. Morale was his last album, then I'm happy for him. But if he chooses violence and gives us more music, I'm here for that too. There we were, in March of 2024, when reactors were listening to the new Futuro Metro Boomin album, We Don't Trust You. when one track with a hidden feature caught people's attention. These niggas talking out of they necks. Don't put no coughing out of your mouth. I'm way too paranoid for a threat. Just these few seconds contain so much information, it's insane. First of all, Kendrick is making music again. I'm way too paranoid for a threat. Yes, Kendrick! Kendrick! Yes, Kendrick! And he sounds impassioned. Like, right off the bat, he's saying three different things very concisely. He tells us that people are lying, he warns them to stop, he explains why. Which brings us to our first lesson, concision, or the quality of being concise. There's a common misconception that being concise means keeping things short, and that's not exactly true. Concision is about density of value. It means all killer, no filler. It's the opposite of adding meaningless fluff to pad word counts in your essays. It's cutting out everything that's not essential or impactful. For words are like sunbeams, they are stronger the more they are condensed. This is something that I would praise much of Kendrick's music for, but I think that he really epitomizes with this feature. Because Like That is an extremely concise one-minute verse, and for that length, it says and does so much. And what's extra fascinating to me about this is, as concise as he is in this verse, it's not so robotically airtight as to have no swagger in it. Tell em' all, yeah, I mean all, what? Nigga bum! If you- want you could min max how many words you squeeze into a verse but it ends up sounding overly technical and robotic this this sounds stylish yeah get up with me fuck sneak this he makes it sound easy okay let's get it up and at this point you might be wondering where is all this aggression coming from wasn't his whole last album about choosing peace like going through therapy he answers that in one line it is by being concise that when this verse first came out Kendrick knew his message would be heard loud and clear. He didn't do anything but put it in the art. And he didn't even post about that art. It was a hidden feature. He knew that people were gonna be listening to the future Metro Boomin album. He knew that when people heard his voice it'd be exciting and by making his verse concise, there's no way we could miss what he's saying. It's impossible to miss what he's saying. I think anybody who's good at writing will tell you need to practice taking out what is not essential. You need to remove clutter. This is why creative firms spend months working on ad placements that are only 15 or 30 seconds long. This is why copywriters work to get slogans down to as few words as possible. Concision promotes clarity. It promotes quality over quantity. About 25 seconds in, we get the first major callout. We fuck sneak deaths and first person shooter, I hope they came with these switches. I crash out like a cop, rap this, and I'm another hot dog too. And for anyone who's not aware, briefly we'll give the context this deserves. Only a few months before, Drake and J. Cole came out with a song called First Person Shooter. And I won't lie to you guys, I like the song. It's hype. Big as the what? Big as the Superbowl. And most of all, I'm a video guy. And my favorite video director of the younger generation, Gibson Hazard, made it, and I think he did a fantastic job on it. That's why in one of my videos you see a quick shot of it, because there was a point in time where I was going to break down this music video. So this was a hype video, one that we would later learn Kendrick was allegedly asked to be a part of, and he denied. Surprise, you wanted that feature request, you know that we got some shit to address. So those two went on to make it anyway, and Cole would still include this line about how the three of them are the big three, but Drake would only refer to the two of them. It's just who it called. And the video would show them being depicted playing two-player games like ping pong and chess. Now, do I think these guys were intentionally trying to push Kendrick out of the Big 3 narrative with this imagery? Not really, no. Do I think Kendrick took it personally? Yes. Is it Kate Dyer, is it Aubrey or me? We the big three like we started a league. That's all I needed. That's all I needed for him to do that. And it became personal with me. Motherfuck the big three. Nigga, it's just big me. Nigga. So as an artist, you should aim to be concise. It promotes clarity and quality over quantity. This is about respecting the time and attention span of your audience. And make sure your message is heard. Remember. You don't have to talk a lot to say a lot. We the Big Three the best rappers to be. They're really gonna like that man. I can't wait to celebrate being the best in the game with my friends. Drake's a fucking bum! Cole's a fucking bum! Fuck the Big Three, y'all bum! Part 2, Instant Gratification. So because of this verse, understandably, there was a lot of pressure put on Drake and J. Cole to respond. Only a couple weeks later, on April 5th, J. Cole's mixtape Might Delete later comes out, which features a song at the very end called 7 Minute Drill. This was clearly him feeling the pressure to respond, and so he did. Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic, your second shit put niggas to sleep but they gassed it. And he ultimately deleted it later. That shit don't sit right with my spirit, that shit make me feel... That shit disrupts my fucking peace. J. Cole called to pimp a butterfly boring and then couldn't sleep for the next couple nights. I got my chin out. Take your best shot. I'm gonna take that shit on the chin. You can hit me if you want. I'm sorry, Kendrick. Take your best shot. Now let's take a sec to remember the golden rule that once published, art is forever. No takesie backsies. It doesn't matter if you delete it later. We can literally still go listen to it. Digital copies have already been made and will exist within the digital beast forever. And also, you can't rescind the impression that art has made on its audience. You can't make them unhear or unwatch it like Mr. Krabs. And I think this is a wonderful illustration of some instant gratification. Four albums in 12 years, nigga, I can divide. This is the dumbest angle I've ever heard. You're saying on average it takes them three years to make an album? Do you know what fucking albums we're talking about? This is Good Kid, Mad City. This is to pimp a motherfucking butterfly. An album that you might only see once a generation or at least a decade. I know that he's quoting Jay-Z here. Four albums in ten years, nigga, I could divide. That logic is still dumb there, too. If you're in the interest of quantity over quality and trying to do as many numbers as you can, there's a different word for that. Rick Rubin calls it commerce. They're not being made by a person who cares about it. They're being made by people who are trying to make something that they think someone else is gonna like and that's not how art works Art doesn't that's something else. It's not art. That's commerce And so maybe you should go into business because some of us are trying to make great art over here So in conclusion don't pull a seven-minute drill the whole thing with instant gratification Is that it feels good at first but ultimately is a net loss And the whole thing with delayed gratification is that it doesn't feel good at first, but it's a net gain. It's a much larger win. It's like that popular experiment where you can either have one marshmallow now or wait a little bit and have several marshmallows later. As an artist, you should generally avoid instant gratification. Okay, so that was Cole's instant gratification. Let's move on to Drake. I have no good information that both sides went in the booth and came out. They're ready. And what I'm hearing about. Both sides is that it's nuclear. Now, push-ups was actually a great diss in my opinion. I think this was the peak of Drake in this battle. He was looking really strong here. I felt like the Ghostwriters cooked with this one. The main narrative he's painting with this song is that Kendrick has a bad relationship with his label, that they might be taking 50% of his money. Hence, Drop it, give me 50 likes for push-ups. Cool. Cool. dropped to the ground and gave me 50 push-ups, dropped music and gave me 50% of the money. And so it was like, damn, if Kendrick really is losing half his money to his former label and that's why he's left, that's some crazy shit. Push-ups is actually a really great diss until he overstepped his bounds with that one line. Yes, a clever double entendre, but a sincere lapse in judgment identical to the mistake he made with Pusha T when he mentioned Pusha T's fiancee. That was the reason why Pusha T escalated and told us, and was promptly bullied into fatherhood ever since. That was back in 2018? So minus the Whitney line, this track doesn't really commit the instant gratification sin, but the next one does a lot. The TaylorMade Freestyle, quotes Freestyle, is the centerpiece. to this chapter because it really is, as a strategic play, Drake going all in on instant gratification, which is to say he's placing his bet on the short-term events while either lacking or willfully disregarding foresight of its long-term effects. So in this song, Drake brings back his back-to-back tactic, his back-to-back dick, where he drops a second song before his opponent can drop their first as a point to how long it's taken them to respond. and perhaps winning the crowd in the process. It worked great against Meek Mill and their beef when he dropped Charged Up, and then he came out with Back to Back, which was very catchy, very energetic, and Meek Mill did take so long to respond that by the time he did, Drake kind of already had the crowd won. Back to Back was a really fun track that kind of killed Meek Mill with the memes. Literally, the visuals for his show those nights were just meme compilations about Meek Mill. But back to TaylorMade, I think it's safe to say this move was a big gamble on Drake's part. Not only using this new and controversial AI technology to change his voice to two rappers, two idols of Kendrick's. Ness, yo. What the fuck you really got to do? But one of them being deceased was really walking the line. Kendrick, we need ya. The West Coast savior. And the conversation was necessarily brought up. Is this okay? They did what? When? How? Are you sure? Snoop post it, tailor me, I pray they're worth the edibles. There's a couple ways of interpreting this. The favorable interpretation is this is a brilliant 4D chess move, psychological warfare, to get in Kendrick's head and to force out a rushed response. While I do think it is distasteful, there is some validity. Forcing out a rushed response might have been Drake's best strategy. It might have worked. So this was a big, huge move of instant gratification. Yes, this is distasteful, but... it could win the whole battle it's a gamble life's a gamble and so here drake is in push-ups in taylormade begging him to drop saying he won't drop since like that your tone changed a little you're not as enthused saying what the is taking so long we waiting on you saying you're supposed to be the boogeyman go do what you do unless this is a moment that you tell us it's not really you and because of all this the world was wondering where kendrick lamar was more than ever More than his five-year hiatus, we were looking to hear from him. I was waking up every day texting my friends saying, Lord, please let this be the day that Kung Fu Kenny destroys this man. Please let this be the day that King Kunta annihilates this fool. I wasn't worried about Kendrick not being a good enough writer. I always believed he was the better writer and the better storyteller. That's why I placed my bet on him publicly before he responded. But what I did worry about is the digital beast, the internet. because we live in an era of mass communication and miscommunication. Don't believe what you see on the internet. Abraham Lincoln. The internet is a big confusing mess. Would Kendrick be able to win the narrative with his minimalist approach to digital communication, where he never posts any stories, any tweets, he only ever puts his communication in the art? If you want to know what Kendrick has to say, you have to listen to his music. And so there we were. when the world was wondering where he was more than ever before, when we needed to know what he had to say more than ever before, was precisely the moment that he would drop his six-minute, densely-packed record, Euphoria. Don't tell a lie on me. I won't tell a truth about you. But don't tell no lie about me, and I won't tell truths about you. You know, one thing I've observed in great performers like Michael Jordan is they're not only really skilled at what they do, but they're also really skilled at managing their own performance psychology, because they understand what things get them to perform better. For Michael Jordan, that was people shit-talking him. Oh, you're gonna get that? Okay, then I'm gonna get this. It became personal for me. It's a joke, but it's also serious. I imagine that he had a strong reaction to TaylorMade, but he chose to put it in the art and not- post it and I think that is the key. You should take those feelings of anger, you should put it into the art, but don't release it at least not immediately. Give it some time to sit on it, to edit it, to really make sure that it's what you want to say. Calculated, not rushed. Why? Because once published, art is forever. And so now by Kendrick not falling for the gamble, by not giving in and rushing response, Drake's tailor-made freestyle gamble would now backfire. That is the pain of instant gratification. It looked good at first, but now what has he done? It didn't force out the rest response. So now all it's done is added fuel to the fire. Now Kendrick has so much more to go at him with. Oh, you mentioned my family? Oh, you're going to disrespect our legends? And so as an impatient person, this was a tremendous learning experience for me. That when Euphoria came out, I realized, you know what? No, it doesn't matter how long he took. Because whenever Kendrick did respond, we were going to listen to it. It's not like we weren't gonna listen to it, it's Kendrick fucking Lamar. And so as long as he addressed everything and addressed it well, that's all that matters. Time is secondary. Again, if you want to hear what he has to say, and the demand is sky high, the only place we can get that supply is right here in the art that he releases, Euphoria. All he did was tweet a link to the song. And oh my god, what a masterclass of a first rounder this is. The first part prophesizing how the rest of the battle is going to play out, predicting what Drake is going to do. The famous actor we once knew was looking paranoid and now spiraling. That was like fine at the time, but a year later, that line has aged extremely well. Remember? Remember? Obviously there's fan favorites like Cole and I, you know I'm a selfish nigga, the crown is heavy. I pray they my real friends, if not I'm YNW Melly. I don't like you pop Is he not the best, nigga? Is he not? Is he not the best? Shut the fuck up, bro. His delivery is second to none. The way he says pushing me. Yeah, fuck all that pushing pee. Let me see you push a T. You better hop spinning again on him when you think about pushing me. Doesn't that sound like siblings arguing and you like fold your arms and go, Hmm, pushing me. Hmm. It's just fun. It's fucking silly. The juxtaposition between how silly this is and how serious the track is is just wonderful. As an artist, use the principle of supply and demand to your advantage. By opting for quality over quantity, you not only make better things, but you're building a rarity so that when you do post, it's something people aren't gonna- a mess but some people predicted that there might be another track from kendrick based on a couple things one how he said back to back i like that record i'm gonna get back to that for the record and how the second definition on the cover art said they had almost a week to recover from tuesday's series winning victory well kendrick was planning to back to back the back to back let's talk about integrity On 616 in LA, Kendrick grapples with the fact that he's going to war. I know this type of power has gone cost, but I live in circadian rhythms of a shooting star. This track was an important conversation with himself, a conversation with God, about what he's doing and why he feels justified that he does have to go to war for now in order to ultimately earn peace. So that's him having integrity with himself, but giving Drake a final warning has integrity with the rest of his message. Because at the end of Euphoria, he clearly warns him about family. Don't speak on the family, Crotty. It can get deep in the family, Crotty. If you take it there, I'm taking it further. That's something you don't want to do. Kendrick gives him another warning and says, bro, you are compromised. I have a mole in your camp. She must be a terrible person. Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it. So both on the end of Euphoria and at the end of 616 in LA, Kendrick says, don't do it. Don't do it. And despite Drake on pushups telling Kendrick that he's begging Kaisa not to stream his reaction, Drake begs Kaisa not to stay on stream. Drake has just texted me, stay on stream. So that he can come to the premiere of Family Matters, which dropped that night on May 3rd. Drake says Family Matters, and to that I say Integrity Matters. That middle verse was not part of the assignment. This song is called Family Matters. It's supposed to be a message to Kendrick that paints the picture saying, hey man, family matters. You gotta be a better family man. What the fuck does this middle verse have to do with that? To put this whole middle verse in the song called Family Matters that's not even about Kendrick, that just doesn't have integrity to the song. What the fuck is this middle verse? It feels like you're padding the word count. This feels like me in high school writing essays just to get my homework done. Just saying random shit. By the way, the music video for Family Matters is a shitty music video. It is much more of a visualizer and a lyric video than a music video. It's kind of insane. When y'all are counting the days that Kendrick hasn't responded, what were you doing? Because you previewed Family Matters on Push-Up, so you presumably had that shit ready. And all you did that whole time we were waiting on Kendrick is shoot this shitty visualizer lyric video? Not even a rhyme. real music video. But as a quality over quantity rock, wouldn't you agree this song is just so much better without the middle verse? It doesn't have so much more replayability, if that's what Drake is going for, making a hit song that puts him over the record for most hit singles over MJ. It's a seven and a half minute song with this awful middle verse gonna go number one? Come on, man. So the conceptual integrity of the song sucks, but really is the lesser point here. What matters far more is the integrity of one's character. It has a lot to do with your credibility and whether or not people should believe what you're saying. So in saying that, now's a good time to pay a visit to our pal Ter again. Remember Terry? Terry! Terry! He has a great lesson in this book that applies to what Drake's done here with Family Matters. And it goes, uh... Thou shalt not make shit up. I mean, this is once again the critical difference between making art for the short term versus making it for the long term. As Kendrick predicted on Euphoria, Drake's whole angle, because he didn't have any actual dirt on Kendrick, is to spread rumors, to stoop so low to discredit some decent people. Things that a year later have had absolutely no substantiated proof in reality of being true. So as an artist, your integrity matters. While it is possible to sway people in the moment with bold claims, with fabricating lies, time reveals all in the end. The truth will be revealed! And history will always favor those who speak the truth, who have integrity, because hindsight is 20-20 and they'll see that shit clearly. So as an artist, your integrity matters. The integrity of your works, but more importantly, the integrity of your character. So I think integrity is intertwined with your reputation. I think your reputation comes as a result of your integrity. Now listen, we're still here on Friday, May 3rd. Most Friday nights, you probably want to go outside and touch some grass. You probably want to be hanging out with friends, maybe sharing some drinks, making memories. But on Friday, May 3rd, 2024, oh how it paid to be sitting at home on your phone. I will never forget that night. As Family Matters had just came out, And I texted my friends rapidly about my thoughts saying, wow, those were some big claims. That's crazy stuff. I don't know. But Kendrick's camp is tweeting and they don't seem too bothered by it. I remember seeing someone in Kendrick's camp say, that was the nuke? I'm in like the middle of a sentence typing to them. And I get the notification at the top of my screen. Kendrick Lamar tweeted. Meet the Grams. Can you drop? You're lying! You're lying, bro! You're a cap! Bro, you're a cap! He did? Oh my god, he did! Oh my god! This is actually insane! He didn't even let this nigga breathe! Woah, what? What? What are you saying to me? What? Woah, wait! Wait, he actually dropped! Wait, what the fuck? Wait, he dropped! Kendrick dropped! Kendrick dropped! Kendrick dropped! Wait, wait, what the fuck? No fucking way. What Kendrick say? Kendrick dropped immediately? No fucking way. No fucking way. No way! The way that the first words of the song were already crazier. Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest. This is how you set the tone. This is concision. Because in the first two... Two words of the song. The child that Pusha T had revealed that Drake was hiding. And their beef several years ago. Adonis is your son. And he deserves more than an Adidas press run. That's real. Kendrick is now writing a letter to Adonis. Saying I'm sorry that that man is your father. Now, you guys. I gotta be honest. Let me be honest. When I made that prediction. This is what I was imagining. This was the magic current that I sensed from the future. This is the greatest district. track I've ever heard. The concept of writing to his family, not even talking to Drake anymore, but talking past him to his son and to his parents is some of the most sinister, disgusting, disrespectful things I've ever heard. Incredibly disrespectful in concept alone. All you need to do is hear Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that that man is your father. Let This song is dark art, and it has cursed Drake and his family forever. The fact that something with their last name baked into it exists, there is no way Adonis will not hear this song. Adonis will be going to middle school and high school, and people will be saying, Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that man is your father. It's actually insane. This is dark art. Personally, I like dark art. That's why my last video is about a piece of dark art. It kind of means tragedy and horror. that last video didn't do so well. You like that record? It is crazy to me that this bluff, Drake said he had a nuke and it was just making up some stuff about Kendrick's family. He didn't actually have a nuke and he just sat there for 17 days and did nothing. Like, and actually thought, he actually thought he was so smart. When Euphoria came out, they were like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He said he's gonna drop another one. So let's wait for him to drop that other one and then that's when we get him. He's gonna drop the next one and then later that same day, we drop Family Matters. It'll be the ultimate prank. And so he does that, and 30 minutes later, Kendrick says, I knew you were gonna do that. Meet the Grams. Drake! What is that? What is that? This is about reputation, and what Meet the Grams is, is an absolute real nuke on Drake's reputation. And in true Kendrick fashion, it does get deeper as it progresses, culminating in a final verse that's to Aubrey himself, not Drake, that can- character of the actor with the man underneath taking the mask off and talking to Aubrey himself the man behind the mask Kendrick cut through to the depths of this man's soul why believe you you never gave us nothing to believe in a rap battle that's a long life battle with yourself i have never what the fuck he's not even battling him anymore he's just trying to educate you be a better man just do better please drake thought he was clever bringing his mom into the beginning of family matters maybe in this song you shouldn't start by saying drake brought his mom into the beef and then 30 minutes later kendrick is like son just sit down what i'm about to say is heavy now listen As if everything we've heard so far isn't insanely heavy. Your son's a sick man with sick thoughts. I think niggas like him should die. Hit my wine stain, she get fucked up in a cell for the rest of their life. He hates me. Okay, um, Drake? Uh, Drake. Drake. I don't know if this is like protected legally, how he says he should die. You know, like he ought to. Like it'd be for the greater good. We would be better off as a collective without him. Imagine a situation where one of the greatest living writers has made a song and posted it to the world about you, in which they are telling your parents... You should die so all of these women can live with a purpose. This is beyond anything I imagined. I thought it would be crazy, but somehow this is some psychotic shit that I never saw coming. He hates black women. Nah, this nigga Kendrick, yo, psycho pal, bro. This nigga is a psycho pal. Yo, yo, Kendrick. Bro, you scaring me, bro. And quickly talking about this third verse. Much like how there has been no substantiated proof to come out about Drake's allegations of Kendrick. This allegation of Drake having yet another child a year later has not been proven true. Personally, and this is just me, I think she exists. And I could be wrong. I just don't think Kendrick would write this whole verse and publish it if he wasn't certain that this child existed. Because this song is a nuke even without that verse. If you take away the daughter verse, the song is still insane. And so I don't think he has a reason to fake that. I really just don't think it's like him to put something in there that he's not sure about. So I could be wrong. He could be wrong. As incredible of an artist as he is, he is a human that makes mistakes. Look at the Joel Osteen bar. He meant to say Haley Joel Osment. He got confused with Joel Osteen, which is pretty fucking funny. But it is proof that he is a human being. He got the names confused. It's fine. Anyways, that's my two cents. I feel like the daughter is real. And why haven't we seen her yet? Because they're not going to dox a child, you know? If she's real, it'll come out when the time is right. But we're not going to dox a child for this rap. All right, moving on. So Meet the Grams is one of the craziest songs I've ever heard. Wake up Saturday, May 4th, just stunned of what had just happened the night before. And I think people forget that what Kendrick did with Meet the Grams would be the setup for the next track, Not Like Us. The next day, he would drop Not Like Us, which in parallel, if Meet the Grams was a nuke on Drake's reputation, not only was Not Like Us dancing on the grave, but it was solidifying Kendrick's reputation as a guy standing for his virtues, standing for his beliefs. That's what he told SZA in that interview what he believes the song is about. This is where many would say that Kendrick beat Drake at his own game by taking the diss track crown for the most replayed. Kendrick would back-to-back the back-to-backer twice, but to a much higher level. because Charged Up into Back to Back was a pretty good combo. Euphoria and 616, pretty good combo. But Meet the Grams into Not Like Us is the most insane combo I've ever seen. At this point, we're getting a whole Kendrick hates Drake EP, but they're progressing the way an EP does. Not only are they changing in style, but the way one track follows the next is so well put together that you could only drop Not Like Us right after a Meet the Grams, after Kendrick had just bogeymaned him how drake thought he had the leg up on him and 30 minutes later kendrick appears behind him with the real nuke there's something you don't want to do i see and then this would go on to be the song the most replayed the victory anthem the anti-pdf file anthem so if i love a boy so if i better fouls what A minor has been so catchy that people forgot that is a flow rebuttal to what Drake did with the Day Free line. Once again, those Tupac lines. The gamble has been so catchy that people forgot that is a flow rebuttal to what Drake did with the Day Free line. backfired. He was trying to rush his opponent, you know, to cheese him, to go all in real early, but it didn't work. Kendrick used that against him. This song would go on to get a billion streams. It would go on to win five Grammys for calling Drake a PDF file, which Kendrick got as many Grammys as Drake with Not Like Us. So as an artist, your reputation matters. It shapes what people expect from you. It can work for or against you. And finally, let's talk about coherence. Not the indie film movie, great film you should see if you haven't, but talking about the consistency of your message. Because The Heart Part 6 is not just the worst diss track I've ever heard, not just the worst Drake song I've ever heard, but it is fiercely competing for the worst song I've ever heard. The Heart Part 6 is so bad, it almost does as much damage to Drake as the previous two Kendrick tracks did. I think three nukes were dropped on Drake and one of them was the heart part six. Pro tip, in the unfortunate circumstance that someone is comparing you to a sex criminal, don't compare yourself to a whole other sex criminal in your defense. He simultaneously refers to it as this Epstein shit and says, I'm too rich to get away with this. He is literally talking about a person who was so rich he could get away with running an underage sex ring. Only fucking with Whitney's, not Millie Bobby Brown's. I never looked twice at no teenager. I knew y'all thought I was a pedo. That's not a thing normal people say. I'm not attracted to Millie Bobby Brown. No one even brought her up. Where are you getting these talks? If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested. You thought you left D-flat, D-major. Don't claim that you fed them information seconds after saying whoever they're getting their information from is clowns. Don't say that your opponent would be a worthy competitor if you were really a predator. You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator. Ugh. It hurt itself in its confusion. The coherence of your message is paramount. It should be consistent and cohesive. And Drake went from begging Kendrick to drop to begging Kendrick to stop. Just within the art that Drake has submitted, there is so much contradiction, let alone the real life antics that he's doing now with the lawsuits and whatnot. There is so much incoherence, so much contradiction. In stark contrast to Kendrick, who simply told us what was going to happen. and then that happened. He has been saying the same thing the whole time. It is crystal clear in the art, and the fact that he doesn't communicate outside of the art makes it that much clearer for us, because this is all we have to look at. I'm not gonna lie, this shit was some good exercise. Like, it's good to get out, get the pen working. This is not a diss track, this is a defense track. His energy and intensity on the subject matter is at an all-time low. It does not properly follow what is before it you have lost the plot dude this shitty oh mother i mother i it is unforgivable oh it is so there's so many bad moments on this this song is f tier maybe double f tier there's so many profoundly bad moments on this song that's that one record where you say you got my ass there oh fuck me i just made the whole connection then he proceeds to misinterpret the point of the song And even if he correctly interpreted it, what a terrible angle. Drake is looking weaker and weaker every day. TikTok videos you collected and dissected. This guy really thinks that Kendrick is out here collecting and dissecting TikToks. What are we doing? What is this Mickey Mouse bullshit? What are these high school antics? But fortunately, you don't have to stoop to that level of Instagram comments. Because this is a battle of art. And Kendrick can put his rebuttal in the art, and that's exactly what he did. In this beautiful moment where we finally get to not even hear what Whitney has to say, but to show us how she feels about the battle. It is the epitome of show versus tell. Drake is telling us a suspect how Dave is commenting on Whitney's post, and why isn't Whitney denying all of the allegations? They show us them dancing on this man's grave with their kids. It is up- utmost importance that both kendrick and whitney chose to stand for this form of communication to set the standard for the future moving forward that you don't have to reply on that level you don't have to get on social media and post your response there you can take your time and on your own schedule take your truth and put it into the art and that's what they did it's probably the most beautiful part of this battle is whitney dancing on drake it's a far healthier and far more impactful way of communicating in the digital age and it's probably a big reason why i won a fucking grammy This 10 to 15 second moment would be one of the most memorable of the entire battle. I think it's undisputedly the best shot in the music video. I think the second best is the type wrote one. That one is insane. Really the coup de grace. And even though this man was already dead, what little was left of his argument was this. And they obliterated it in spectacular fashion. I am a war general seasoned in preparation. Dude, you need help. Stop it. Get some help. So as an artist, the coherence of your message is paramount. It should be consistent and cohesive. I don't know. I just look at the heart part six and it's like this. Just remember our golden rule, man. Like this is what you chose to say on wax in the art forever. It's just, oh, it's so bad. Hey, hey, hey, hey, one for your life. Is he going to get a Grammy? Is he going to get a Grammy? Maybe. The whole point of delayed gratification is that while it's hard at first, it ultimately wins big later. And so, this has been a tremendous learning experience for someone who's impatient like me, who's grown up in the digital age, the era of instant gratification, that it didn't matter that it would take 17 days or whatever for Kendrick to respond, and that Drake would get to paint the narrative first, because the picture that Kendrick ultimately painted was so much more coherent and so much more potent that it completely won the narrative. While Kendrick had clearly won the battle, now J. Cole and Drake are actually just spiraling with some of the definitively worst features we've ever seen from them. It's, it's, it's, um, grippy. She said she was gay until I slayed, now she's strictly dickly. As soon as she plays, I'm on her way, and I'll be showing up. Yeah, we doomed. We, bro, J. Cole fans, we cooked. No, no, no, no, no, no, this is a joke. This is not, this cannot be real. No, no. No, hell no, this is not real. This is not real. No, bro, no, no. Jake, get up! Jake! There's no fucking way, bro. So, what have we learned? Kendrick won because he takes art seriously. And serious artists respect the fact that once published, art is forever. They recognize that art is a long game, and therefore artists should play the long game, because what we're making will outlive us all. Drake played for the instant gratification, which lasted all of 17 days. Kendrick played for the delayed gratification, or all the days after those 17. And it has now been 306 days since push-ups dropped, the same day I posted my last Kendrick video. And just look at what has happened since. Winning the battle in May would result in a victory concert in June. A victory lap album in November, five Grammy wins, and a historic, record-breaking Super Bowl performance in February. But while Kendrick takes his art seriously, some of you don't, and that's a problem. You see, I get a lot of compliments much worse than the one I showed at the beginning of this video. Some of you probably saw the one on my community post just before posting this. You don't have to like everything that I like. You might not be into hip-hop as a genre, but to say that it's not music. To belittle the art form that I love is ignorant at best and straight up racist at worst. When people talk about rap, man, the conversations I hear, they think it's just rap and it's not an actual art form and like kind of like belittle it. So I love to see that it gets that type of recognition for just straight raps from awards to the billboards, all that, because this is truly just as big as an art form and a genre as any other genre. And you know what? Maybe you won't get it right now. And that's fine. Because real artists play the long game. And I see new people discovering the art of rappers like Kendrick Lamar every year. It's so good! It's so fucking good! People are still discovering his work that came out over a decade ago. New people are diving into the stories. New people are digging into the goldmine of lyricism, wordplay, and poetry. New people are finding songs they can't help but dance to. New people are finding songs that make them cry. That was a powerful song. I'm crying, man. And that's why I love rap, Sam. That's the power of art. And that's the art of delayed gratification. Because art has the power to touch the hearts and minds of not just everyone alive the moment is released, but anyone and everyone who comes after us forever.

Mind you, after Kendrick released Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, we didn't even know if he was gonna make music again. His final message was a mantra of self-love, of choosing family and health and his own well-being above his music. And as fans, we were like, is Kendrick breaking up with us? As I said in that last video, if Mr. Morale was his last album, then I'm happy for him.

But if he chooses violence and gives us more music, I'm here for that too. There we were, in March of 2024, when reactors were listening to the new Futuro Metro Boomin album, We Don't Trust You. when one track with a hidden feature caught people's attention. These niggas talking out of they necks. Don't put no coughing out of your mouth.

I'm way too paranoid for a threat. Just these few seconds contain so much information, it's insane. First of all, Kendrick is making music again. I'm way too paranoid for a threat. Yes, Kendrick!

Kendrick! Yes, Kendrick! And he sounds impassioned. Like, right off the bat, he's saying three different things very concisely. He tells us that people are lying, he warns them to stop, he explains why.

Which brings us to our first lesson, concision, or the quality of being concise. There's a common misconception that being concise means keeping things short, and that's not exactly true. Concision is about density of value. It means all killer, no filler. It's the opposite of adding meaningless fluff to pad word counts in your essays.

It's cutting out everything that's not essential or impactful. For words are like sunbeams, they are stronger the more they are condensed. This is something that I would praise much of Kendrick's music for, but I think that he really epitomizes with this feature. Because Like That is an extremely concise one-minute verse, and for that length, it says and does so much. And what's extra fascinating to me about this is, as concise as he is in this verse, it's not so robotically airtight as to have no swagger in it.

Tell em' all, yeah, I mean all, what? Nigga bum! If you- want you could min max how many words you squeeze into a verse but it ends up sounding overly technical and robotic this this sounds stylish yeah get up with me fuck sneak this he makes it sound easy okay let's get it up and at this point you might be wondering where is all this aggression coming from wasn't his whole last album about choosing peace like going through therapy he answers that in one line it is by being concise that when this verse first came out Kendrick knew his message would be heard loud and clear.

He didn't do anything but put it in the art. And he didn't even post about that art. It was a hidden feature.

He knew that people were gonna be listening to the future Metro Boomin album. He knew that when people heard his voice it'd be exciting and by making his verse concise, there's no way we could miss what he's saying. It's impossible to miss what he's saying.

I think anybody who's good at writing will tell you need to practice taking out what is not essential. You need to remove clutter. This is why creative firms spend months working on ad placements that are only 15 or 30 seconds long.

This is why copywriters work to get slogans down to as few words as possible. Concision promotes clarity. It promotes quality over quantity.

About 25 seconds in, we get the first major callout. We fuck sneak deaths and first person shooter, I hope they came with these switches. I crash out like a cop, rap this, and I'm another hot dog too.

And for anyone who's not aware, briefly we'll give the context this deserves. Only a few months before, Drake and J. Cole came out with a song called First Person Shooter. And I won't lie to you guys, I like the song.

It's hype. Big as the what? Big as the Superbowl.

And most of all, I'm a video guy. And my favorite video director of the younger generation, Gibson Hazard, made it, and I think he did a fantastic job on it. That's why in one of my videos you see a quick shot of it, because there was a point in time where I was going to break down this music video. So this was a hype video, one that we would later learn Kendrick was allegedly asked to be a part of, and he denied.

Surprise, you wanted that feature request, you know that we got some shit to address. So those two went on to make it anyway, and Cole would still include this line about how the three of them are the big three, but Drake would only refer to the two of them. It's just who it called. And the video would show them being depicted playing two-player games like ping pong and chess.

Now, do I think these guys were intentionally trying to push Kendrick out of the Big 3 narrative with this imagery? Not really, no. Do I think Kendrick took it personally?

Yes. Is it Kate Dyer, is it Aubrey or me? We the big three like we started a league.

That's all I needed. That's all I needed for him to do that. And it became personal with me. Motherfuck the big three. Nigga, it's just big me.

Nigga. So as an artist, you should aim to be concise. It promotes clarity and quality over quantity.

This is about respecting the time and attention span of your audience. And make sure your message is heard. Remember. You don't have to talk a lot to say a lot. We the Big Three the best rappers to be.

They're really gonna like that man. I can't wait to celebrate being the best in the game with my friends. Drake's a fucking bum!

Cole's a fucking bum! Fuck the Big Three, y'all bum! Part 2, Instant Gratification.

So because of this verse, understandably, there was a lot of pressure put on Drake and J. Cole to respond. Only a couple weeks later, on April 5th, J.

Cole's mixtape Might Delete later comes out, which features a song at the very end called 7 Minute Drill. This was clearly him feeling the pressure to respond, and so he did. Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic, your second shit put niggas to sleep but they gassed it. And he ultimately deleted it later.

That shit don't sit right with my spirit, that shit make me feel... That shit disrupts my fucking peace. J.

Cole called to pimp a butterfly boring and then couldn't sleep for the next couple nights. I got my chin out. Take your best shot. I'm gonna take that shit on the chin. You can hit me if you want.

I'm sorry, Kendrick. Take your best shot. Now let's take a sec to remember the golden rule that once published, art is forever. No takesie backsies.

It doesn't matter if you delete it later. We can literally still go listen to it. Digital copies have already been made and will exist within the digital beast forever.

And also, you can't rescind the impression that art has made on its audience. You can't make them unhear or unwatch it like Mr. Krabs. And I think this is a wonderful illustration of some instant gratification. Four albums in 12 years, nigga, I can divide. This is the dumbest angle I've ever heard.

You're saying on average it takes them three years to make an album? Do you know what fucking albums we're talking about? This is Good Kid, Mad City. This is to pimp a motherfucking butterfly. An album that you might only see once a generation or at least a decade.

I know that he's quoting Jay-Z here. Four albums in ten years, nigga, I could divide. That logic is still dumb there, too.

If you're in the interest of quantity over quality and trying to do as many numbers as you can, there's a different word for that. Rick Rubin calls it commerce. They're not being made by a person who cares about it.

They're being made by people who are trying to make something that they think someone else is gonna like and that's not how art works Art doesn't that's something else. It's not art. That's commerce And so maybe you should go into business because some of us are trying to make great art over here So in conclusion don't pull a seven-minute drill the whole thing with instant gratification Is that it feels good at first but ultimately is a net loss And the whole thing with delayed gratification is that it doesn't feel good at first, but it's a net gain.

It's a much larger win. It's like that popular experiment where you can either have one marshmallow now or wait a little bit and have several marshmallows later. As an artist, you should generally avoid instant gratification.

Okay, so that was Cole's instant gratification. Let's move on to Drake. I have no good information that both sides went in the booth and came out.

They're ready. And what I'm hearing about. Both sides is that it's nuclear. Now, push-ups was actually a great diss in my opinion. I think this was the peak of Drake in this battle.

He was looking really strong here. I felt like the Ghostwriters cooked with this one. The main narrative he's painting with this song is that Kendrick has a bad relationship with his label, that they might be taking 50% of his money. Hence, Drop it, give me 50 likes for push-ups.

Cool. Cool. dropped to the ground and gave me 50 push-ups, dropped music and gave me 50% of the money. And so it was like, damn, if Kendrick really is losing half his money to his former label and that's why he's left, that's some crazy shit. Push-ups is actually a really great diss until he overstepped his bounds with that one line.

Yes, a clever double entendre, but a sincere lapse in judgment identical to the mistake he made with Pusha T when he mentioned Pusha T's fiancee. That was the reason why Pusha T escalated and told us, and was promptly bullied into fatherhood ever since. That was back in 2018? So minus the Whitney line, this track doesn't really commit the instant gratification sin, but the next one does a lot.

The TaylorMade Freestyle, quotes Freestyle, is the centerpiece. to this chapter because it really is, as a strategic play, Drake going all in on instant gratification, which is to say he's placing his bet on the short-term events while either lacking or willfully disregarding foresight of its long-term effects. So in this song, Drake brings back his back-to-back tactic, his back-to-back dick, where he drops a second song before his opponent can drop their first as a point to how long it's taken them to respond.

and perhaps winning the crowd in the process. It worked great against Meek Mill and their beef when he dropped Charged Up, and then he came out with Back to Back, which was very catchy, very energetic, and Meek Mill did take so long to respond that by the time he did, Drake kind of already had the crowd won. Back to Back was a really fun track that kind of killed Meek Mill with the memes. Literally, the visuals for his show those nights were just meme compilations about Meek Mill. But back to TaylorMade, I think it's safe to say this move was a big gamble on Drake's part.

Not only using this new and controversial AI technology to change his voice to two rappers, two idols of Kendrick's. Ness, yo. What the fuck you really got to do? But one of them being deceased was really walking the line. Kendrick, we need ya.

The West Coast savior. And the conversation was necessarily brought up. Is this okay?

They did what? When? How? Are you sure?

Snoop post it, tailor me, I pray they're worth the edibles. There's a couple ways of interpreting this. The favorable interpretation is this is a brilliant 4D chess move, psychological warfare, to get in Kendrick's head and to force out a rushed response.

While I do think it is distasteful, there is some validity. Forcing out a rushed response might have been Drake's best strategy. It might have worked. So this was a big, huge move of instant gratification.

Yes, this is distasteful, but... it could win the whole battle it's a gamble life's a gamble and so here drake is in push-ups in taylormade begging him to drop saying he won't drop since like that your tone changed a little you're not as enthused saying what the is taking so long we waiting on you saying you're supposed to be the boogeyman go do what you do unless this is a moment that you tell us it's not really you and because of all this the world was wondering where kendrick lamar was more than ever More than his five-year hiatus, we were looking to hear from him. I was waking up every day texting my friends saying, Lord, please let this be the day that Kung Fu Kenny destroys this man.

Please let this be the day that King Kunta annihilates this fool. I wasn't worried about Kendrick not being a good enough writer. I always believed he was the better writer and the better storyteller. That's why I placed my bet on him publicly before he responded. But what I did worry about is the digital beast, the internet.

because we live in an era of mass communication and miscommunication. Don't believe what you see on the internet. Abraham Lincoln.

The internet is a big confusing mess. Would Kendrick be able to win the narrative with his minimalist approach to digital communication, where he never posts any stories, any tweets, he only ever puts his communication in the art? If you want to know what Kendrick has to say, you have to listen to his music. And so there we were.

when the world was wondering where he was more than ever before, when we needed to know what he had to say more than ever before, was precisely the moment that he would drop his six-minute, densely-packed record, Euphoria. Don't tell a lie on me. I won't tell a truth about you.

But don't tell no lie about me, and I won't tell truths about you. You know, one thing I've observed in great performers like Michael Jordan is they're not only really skilled at what they do, but they're also really skilled at managing their own performance psychology, because they understand what things get them to perform better. For Michael Jordan, that was people shit-talking him. Oh, you're gonna get that? Okay, then I'm gonna get this.

It became personal for me. It's a joke, but it's also serious. I imagine that he had a strong reaction to TaylorMade, but he chose to put it in the art and not- post it and I think that is the key.

You should take those feelings of anger, you should put it into the art, but don't release it at least not immediately. Give it some time to sit on it, to edit it, to really make sure that it's what you want to say. Calculated, not rushed. Why? Because once published, art is forever.

And so now by Kendrick not falling for the gamble, by not giving in and rushing response, Drake's tailor-made freestyle gamble would now backfire. That is the pain of instant gratification. It looked good at first, but now what has he done? It didn't force out the rest response. So now all it's done is added fuel to the fire.

Now Kendrick has so much more to go at him with. Oh, you mentioned my family? Oh, you're going to disrespect our legends?

And so as an impatient person, this was a tremendous learning experience for me. That when Euphoria came out, I realized, you know what? No, it doesn't matter how long he took. Because whenever Kendrick did respond, we were going to listen to it. It's not like we weren't gonna listen to it, it's Kendrick fucking Lamar.

And so as long as he addressed everything and addressed it well, that's all that matters. Time is secondary. Again, if you want to hear what he has to say, and the demand is sky high, the only place we can get that supply is right here in the art that he releases, Euphoria.

All he did was tweet a link to the song. And oh my god, what a masterclass of a first rounder this is. The first part prophesizing how the rest of the battle is going to play out, predicting what Drake is going to do. The famous actor we once knew was looking paranoid and now spiraling. That was like fine at the time, but a year later, that line has aged extremely well.

Remember? Remember? Obviously there's fan favorites like Cole and I, you know I'm a selfish nigga, the crown is heavy.

I pray they my real friends, if not I'm YNW Melly. I don't like you pop Is he not the best, nigga? Is he not?

Is he not the best? Shut the fuck up, bro. His delivery is second to none. The way he says pushing me. Yeah, fuck all that pushing pee.

Let me see you push a T. You better hop spinning again on him when you think about pushing me. Doesn't that sound like siblings arguing and you like fold your arms and go, Hmm, pushing me.

Hmm. It's just fun. It's fucking silly. The juxtaposition between how silly this is and how serious the track is is just wonderful.

As an artist, use the principle of supply and demand to your advantage. By opting for quality over quantity, you not only make better things, but you're building a rarity so that when you do post, it's something people aren't gonna- a mess but some people predicted that there might be another track from kendrick based on a couple things one how he said back to back i like that record i'm gonna get back to that for the record and how the second definition on the cover art said they had almost a week to recover from tuesday's series winning victory well kendrick was planning to back to back the back to back let's talk about integrity On 616 in LA, Kendrick grapples with the fact that he's going to war. I know this type of power has gone cost, but I live in circadian rhythms of a shooting star. This track was an important conversation with himself, a conversation with God, about what he's doing and why he feels justified that he does have to go to war for now in order to ultimately earn peace.

So that's him having integrity with himself, but giving Drake a final warning has integrity with the rest of his message. Because at the end of Euphoria, he clearly warns him about family. Don't speak on the family, Crotty.

It can get deep in the family, Crotty. If you take it there, I'm taking it further. That's something you don't want to do. Kendrick gives him another warning and says, bro, you are compromised.

I have a mole in your camp. She must be a terrible person. Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it. So both on the end of Euphoria and at the end of 616 in LA, Kendrick says, don't do it.

Don't do it. And despite Drake on pushups telling Kendrick that he's begging Kaisa not to stream his reaction, Drake begs Kaisa not to stay on stream. Drake has just texted me, stay on stream. So that he can come to the premiere of Family Matters, which dropped that night on May 3rd.

Drake says Family Matters, and to that I say Integrity Matters. That middle verse was not part of the assignment. This song is called Family Matters. It's supposed to be a message to Kendrick that paints the picture saying, hey man, family matters.

You gotta be a better family man. What the fuck does this middle verse have to do with that? To put this whole middle verse in the song called Family Matters that's not even about Kendrick, that just doesn't have integrity to the song.

What the fuck is this middle verse? It feels like you're padding the word count. This feels like me in high school writing essays just to get my homework done.

Just saying random shit. By the way, the music video for Family Matters is a shitty music video. It is much more of a visualizer and a lyric video than a music video. It's kind of insane. When y'all are counting the days that Kendrick hasn't responded, what were you doing?

Because you previewed Family Matters on Push-Up, so you presumably had that shit ready. And all you did that whole time we were waiting on Kendrick is shoot this shitty visualizer lyric video? Not even a rhyme.

real music video. But as a quality over quantity rock, wouldn't you agree this song is just so much better without the middle verse? It doesn't have so much more replayability, if that's what Drake is going for, making a hit song that puts him over the record for most hit singles over MJ. It's a seven and a half minute song with this awful middle verse gonna go number one? Come on, man.

So the conceptual integrity of the song sucks, but really is the lesser point here. What matters far more is the integrity of one's character. It has a lot to do with your credibility and whether or not people should believe what you're saying. So in saying that, now's a good time to pay a visit to our pal Ter again. Remember Terry?

Terry! Terry! He has a great lesson in this book that applies to what Drake's done here with Family Matters.

And it goes, uh... Thou shalt not make shit up. I mean, this is once again the critical difference between making art for the short term versus making it for the long term.

As Kendrick predicted on Euphoria, Drake's whole angle, because he didn't have any actual dirt on Kendrick, is to spread rumors, to stoop so low to discredit some decent people. Things that a year later have had absolutely no substantiated proof in reality of being true. So as an artist, your integrity matters. While it is possible to sway people in the moment with bold claims, with fabricating lies, time reveals all in the end. The truth will be revealed!

And history will always favor those who speak the truth, who have integrity, because hindsight is 20-20 and they'll see that shit clearly. So as an artist, your integrity matters. The integrity of your works, but more importantly, the integrity of your character. So I think integrity is intertwined with your reputation. I think your reputation comes as a result of your integrity.

Now listen, we're still here on Friday, May 3rd. Most Friday nights, you probably want to go outside and touch some grass. You probably want to be hanging out with friends, maybe sharing some drinks, making memories.

But on Friday, May 3rd, 2024, oh how it paid to be sitting at home on your phone. I will never forget that night. As Family Matters had just came out, And I texted my friends rapidly about my thoughts saying, wow, those were some big claims. That's crazy stuff. I don't know.

But Kendrick's camp is tweeting and they don't seem too bothered by it. I remember seeing someone in Kendrick's camp say, that was the nuke? I'm in like the middle of a sentence typing to them. And I get the notification at the top of my screen.

Kendrick Lamar tweeted. Meet the Grams. Can you drop? You're lying!

You're lying, bro! You're a cap! Bro, you're a cap! He did?

Oh my god, he did! Oh my god! This is actually insane!

He didn't even let this nigga breathe! Woah, what? What? What are you saying to me? What?

Woah, wait! Wait, he actually dropped! Wait, what the fuck?

Wait, he dropped! Kendrick dropped! Kendrick dropped!

Kendrick dropped! Wait, wait, what the fuck? No fucking way. What Kendrick say? Kendrick dropped immediately?

No fucking way. No fucking way. No way!

The way that the first words of the song were already crazier. Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest. This is how you set the tone.

This is concision. Because in the first two... Two words of the song. The child that Pusha T had revealed that Drake was hiding. And their beef several years ago.

Adonis is your son. And he deserves more than an Adidas press run. That's real.

Kendrick is now writing a letter to Adonis. Saying I'm sorry that that man is your father. Now, you guys.

I gotta be honest. Let me be honest. When I made that prediction.

This is what I was imagining. This was the magic current that I sensed from the future. This is the greatest district.

track I've ever heard. The concept of writing to his family, not even talking to Drake anymore, but talking past him to his son and to his parents is some of the most sinister, disgusting, disrespectful things I've ever heard. Incredibly disrespectful in concept alone. All you need to do is hear Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that that man is your father. Let This song is dark art, and it has cursed Drake and his family forever.

The fact that something with their last name baked into it exists, there is no way Adonis will not hear this song. Adonis will be going to middle school and high school, and people will be saying, Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that man is your father. It's actually insane.

This is dark art. Personally, I like dark art. That's why my last video is about a piece of dark art. It kind of means tragedy and horror. that last video didn't do so well.

You like that record? It is crazy to me that this bluff, Drake said he had a nuke and it was just making up some stuff about Kendrick's family. He didn't actually have a nuke and he just sat there for 17 days and did nothing.

Like, and actually thought, he actually thought he was so smart. When Euphoria came out, they were like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He said he's gonna drop another one. So let's wait for him to drop that other one and then that's when we get him.

He's gonna drop the next one and then later that same day, we drop Family Matters. It'll be the ultimate prank. And so he does that, and 30 minutes later, Kendrick says, I knew you were gonna do that.

Meet the Grams. Drake! What is that? What is that? This is about reputation, and what Meet the Grams is, is an absolute real nuke on Drake's reputation.

And in true Kendrick fashion, it does get deeper as it progresses, culminating in a final verse that's to Aubrey himself, not Drake, that can- character of the actor with the man underneath taking the mask off and talking to Aubrey himself the man behind the mask Kendrick cut through to the depths of this man's soul why believe you you never gave us nothing to believe in a rap battle that's a long life battle with yourself i have never what the fuck he's not even battling him anymore he's just trying to educate you be a better man just do better please drake thought he was clever bringing his mom into the beginning of family matters maybe in this song you shouldn't start by saying drake brought his mom into the beef and then 30 minutes later kendrick is like son just sit down what i'm about to say is heavy now listen As if everything we've heard so far isn't insanely heavy. Your son's a sick man with sick thoughts. I think niggas like him should die. Hit my wine stain, she get fucked up in a cell for the rest of their life.

He hates me. Okay, um, Drake? Uh, Drake. Drake. I don't know if this is like protected legally, how he says he should die.

You know, like he ought to. Like it'd be for the greater good. We would be better off as a collective without him. Imagine a situation where one of the greatest living writers has made a song and posted it to the world about you, in which they are telling your parents... You should die so all of these women can live with a purpose.

This is beyond anything I imagined. I thought it would be crazy, but somehow this is some psychotic shit that I never saw coming. He hates black women. Nah, this nigga Kendrick, yo, psycho pal, bro.

This nigga is a psycho pal. Yo, yo, Kendrick. Bro, you scaring me, bro. And quickly talking about this third verse. Much like how there has been no substantiated proof to come out about Drake's allegations of Kendrick.

This allegation of Drake having yet another child a year later has not been proven true. Personally, and this is just me, I think she exists. And I could be wrong. I just don't think Kendrick would write this whole verse and publish it if he wasn't certain that this child existed. Because this song is a nuke even without that verse.

If you take away the daughter verse, the song is still insane. And so I don't think he has a reason to fake that. I really just don't think it's like him to put something in there that he's not sure about. So I could be wrong. He could be wrong.

As incredible of an artist as he is, he is a human that makes mistakes. Look at the Joel Osteen bar. He meant to say Haley Joel Osment. He got confused with Joel Osteen, which is pretty fucking funny. But it is proof that he is a human being.

He got the names confused. It's fine. Anyways, that's my two cents. I feel like the daughter is real.

And why haven't we seen her yet? Because they're not going to dox a child, you know? If she's real, it'll come out when the time is right. But we're not going to dox a child for this rap. All right, moving on.

So Meet the Grams is one of the craziest songs I've ever heard. Wake up Saturday, May 4th, just stunned of what had just happened the night before. And I think people forget that what Kendrick did with Meet the Grams would be the setup for the next track, Not Like Us. The next day, he would drop Not Like Us, which in parallel, if Meet the Grams was a nuke on Drake's reputation, not only was Not Like Us dancing on the grave, but it was solidifying Kendrick's reputation as a guy standing for his virtues, standing for his beliefs. That's what he told SZA in that interview what he believes the song is about.

This is where many would say that Kendrick beat Drake at his own game by taking the diss track crown for the most replayed. Kendrick would back-to-back the back-to-backer twice, but to a much higher level. because Charged Up into Back to Back was a pretty good combo.

Euphoria and 616, pretty good combo. But Meet the Grams into Not Like Us is the most insane combo I've ever seen. At this point, we're getting a whole Kendrick hates Drake EP, but they're progressing the way an EP does. Not only are they changing in style, but the way one track follows the next is so well put together that you could only drop Not Like Us right after a Meet the Grams, after Kendrick had just bogeymaned him how drake thought he had the leg up on him and 30 minutes later kendrick appears behind him with the real nuke there's something you don't want to do i see and then this would go on to be the song the most replayed the victory anthem the anti-pdf file anthem so if i love a boy so if i better fouls what A minor has been so catchy that people forgot that is a flow rebuttal to what Drake did with the Day Free line. Once again, those Tupac lines.

The gamble has been so catchy that people forgot that is a flow rebuttal to what Drake did with the Day Free line. backfired. He was trying to rush his opponent, you know, to cheese him, to go all in real early, but it didn't work.

Kendrick used that against him. This song would go on to get a billion streams. It would go on to win five Grammys for calling Drake a PDF file, which Kendrick got as many Grammys as Drake with Not Like Us.

So as an artist, your reputation matters. It shapes what people expect from you. It can work for or against you. And finally, let's talk about coherence.

Not the indie film movie, great film you should see if you haven't, but talking about the consistency of your message. Because The Heart Part 6 is not just the worst diss track I've ever heard, not just the worst Drake song I've ever heard, but it is fiercely competing for the worst song I've ever heard. The Heart Part 6 is so bad, it almost does as much damage to Drake as the previous two Kendrick tracks did. I think three nukes were dropped on Drake and one of them was the heart part six.

Pro tip, in the unfortunate circumstance that someone is comparing you to a sex criminal, don't compare yourself to a whole other sex criminal in your defense. He simultaneously refers to it as this Epstein shit and says, I'm too rich to get away with this. He is literally talking about a person who was so rich he could get away with running an underage sex ring. Only fucking with Whitney's, not Millie Bobby Brown's. I never looked twice at no teenager.

I knew y'all thought I was a pedo. That's not a thing normal people say. I'm not attracted to Millie Bobby Brown. No one even brought her up. Where are you getting these talks?

If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested. You thought you left D-flat, D-major. Don't claim that you fed them information seconds after saying whoever they're getting their information from is clowns. Don't say that your opponent would be a worthy competitor if you were really a predator.

You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator. Ugh. It hurt itself in its confusion. The coherence of your message is paramount.

It should be consistent and cohesive. And Drake went from begging Kendrick to drop to begging Kendrick to stop. Just within the art that Drake has submitted, there is so much contradiction, let alone the real life antics that he's doing now with the lawsuits and whatnot. There is so much incoherence, so much contradiction. In stark contrast to Kendrick, who simply told us what was going to happen.

and then that happened. He has been saying the same thing the whole time. It is crystal clear in the art, and the fact that he doesn't communicate outside of the art makes it that much clearer for us, because this is all we have to look at. I'm not gonna lie, this shit was some good exercise. Like, it's good to get out, get the pen working.

This is not a diss track, this is a defense track. His energy and intensity on the subject matter is at an all-time low. It does not properly follow what is before it you have lost the plot dude this shitty oh mother i mother i it is unforgivable oh it is so there's so many bad moments on this this song is f tier maybe double f tier there's so many profoundly bad moments on this song that's that one record where you say you got my ass there oh fuck me i just made the whole connection then he proceeds to misinterpret the point of the song And even if he correctly interpreted it, what a terrible angle. Drake is looking weaker and weaker every day. TikTok videos you collected and dissected.

This guy really thinks that Kendrick is out here collecting and dissecting TikToks. What are we doing? What is this Mickey Mouse bullshit? What are these high school antics?

But fortunately, you don't have to stoop to that level of Instagram comments. Because this is a battle of art. And Kendrick can put his rebuttal in the art, and that's exactly what he did.

In this beautiful moment where we finally get to not even hear what Whitney has to say, but to show us how she feels about the battle. It is the epitome of show versus tell. Drake is telling us a suspect how Dave is commenting on Whitney's post, and why isn't Whitney denying all of the allegations? They show us them dancing on this man's grave with their kids. It is up- utmost importance that both kendrick and whitney chose to stand for this form of communication to set the standard for the future moving forward that you don't have to reply on that level you don't have to get on social media and post your response there you can take your time and on your own schedule take your truth and put it into the art and that's what they did it's probably the most beautiful part of this battle is whitney dancing on drake it's a far healthier and far more impactful way of communicating in the digital age and it's probably a big reason why i won a fucking grammy This 10 to 15 second moment would be one of the most memorable of the entire battle.

I think it's undisputedly the best shot in the music video. I think the second best is the type wrote one. That one is insane.

Really the coup de grace. And even though this man was already dead, what little was left of his argument was this. And they obliterated it in spectacular fashion. I am a war general seasoned in preparation. Dude, you need help.

Stop it. Get some help. So as an artist, the coherence of your message is paramount. It should be consistent and cohesive. I don't know.

I just look at the heart part six and it's like this. Just remember our golden rule, man. Like this is what you chose to say on wax in the art forever.

It's just, oh, it's so bad. Hey, hey, hey, hey, one for your life. Is he going to get a Grammy? Is he going to get a Grammy? Maybe.

The whole point of delayed gratification is that while it's hard at first, it ultimately wins big later. And so, this has been a tremendous learning experience for someone who's impatient like me, who's grown up in the digital age, the era of instant gratification, that it didn't matter that it would take 17 days or whatever for Kendrick to respond, and that Drake would get to paint the narrative first, because the picture that Kendrick ultimately painted was so much more coherent and so much more potent that it completely won the narrative. While Kendrick had clearly won the battle, now J.

Cole and Drake are actually just spiraling with some of the definitively worst features we've ever seen from them. It's, it's, it's, um, grippy. She said she was gay until I slayed, now she's strictly dickly.

As soon as she plays, I'm on her way, and I'll be showing up. Yeah, we doomed. We, bro, J. Cole fans, we cooked. No, no, no, no, no, no, this is a joke.

This is not, this cannot be real. No, no. No, hell no, this is not real. This is not real.

No, bro, no, no. Jake, get up! Jake!

There's no fucking way, bro. So, what have we learned? Kendrick won because he takes art seriously. And serious artists respect the fact that once published, art is forever.

They recognize that art is a long game, and therefore artists should play the long game, because what we're making will outlive us all. Drake played for the instant gratification, which lasted all of 17 days. Kendrick played for the delayed gratification, or all the days after those 17. And it has now been 306 days since push-ups dropped, the same day I posted my last Kendrick video. And just look at what has happened since. Winning the battle in May would result in a victory concert in June.

A victory lap album in November, five Grammy wins, and a historic, record-breaking Super Bowl performance in February. But while Kendrick takes his art seriously, some of you don't, and that's a problem. You see, I get a lot of compliments much worse than the one I showed at the beginning of this video. Some of you probably saw the one on my community post just before posting this. You don't have to like everything that I like.

You might not be into hip-hop as a genre, but to say that it's not music. To belittle the art form that I love is ignorant at best and straight up racist at worst. When people talk about rap, man, the conversations I hear, they think it's just rap and it's not an actual art form and like kind of like belittle it.

So I love to see that it gets that type of recognition for just straight raps from awards to the billboards, all that, because this is truly just as big as an art form and a genre as any other genre. And you know what? Maybe you won't get it right now.

And that's fine. Because real artists play the long game. And I see new people discovering the art of rappers like Kendrick Lamar every year. It's so good! It's so fucking good!

People are still discovering his work that came out over a decade ago. New people are diving into the stories. New people are digging into the goldmine of lyricism, wordplay, and poetry.

New people are finding songs they can't help but dance to. New people are finding songs that make them cry. That was a powerful song. I'm crying, man.

And that's why I love rap, Sam. That's the power of art. And that's the art of delayed gratification. Because art has the power to touch the hearts and minds of not just everyone alive the moment is released, but anyone and everyone who comes after us forever.

Transcript for:Kendrick Lamar and Delayed Gratification

Transcript for:
Kendrick Lamar and Delayed Gratification