Why Hip-Hop's Biggest Feud Is Good for Music

By John Mac Ghlionn

Americans love music. They especially love hip-hop. In fact, of all the genres that we listen to, hip-hop is now the most popular. Right now, the world of hip-hop is dominated by another thing Americans love: drama. More specifically, capital 'D' Drama. Proverbial shots have been fired, and Drake, one of the biggest music stars in the world, is, reputationally speaking, badly wounded.

For the uninitiated, Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, would have you believe that he started at the bottom. In truth, however, the 37-year-old successfully transitioned from his acting career on Degrassi: The Next Generation to becoming arguably the biggest hip-hop artist on the planet.

Then there’s Kendrick Lamar, a rapper who has elevated the industry to an entirely different level. Not only has the 36-year-old won numerous Grammy Awards, he is also a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Lamar and Drake do not like each other. In truth, one could argue that they absolutely hate each other. In recent weeks, the two artists have released numerous diss tracks (see here and here), with Lamar accusing Drake of everything from having a team of ghostwriters craft his songs to having a secret daughter that he refuses to see. Drake, meanwhile, has accused Lamar of being a liar and cheating on his fiancée, Whitney Alford.

The “beef,” as it’s come to be called, between these two artists may not be promoting civility and social harmony, but it is a good thing for hip-hop, and a good thing for music in general. That's because virtually every genre of music, hip-hop included, has been dramatically decreasing in quality, and something—even a nasty feud—is needed to shake things up.

The Sad State of Music

Studies have shown that the harmonic complexity and timbral diversity of pop songs are decreasing (they have been for quite some time). At the same time, as a 2012 National Institutes of Health study demonstrated, music’s loudness levels are increasing. In short, a preference for volume over sound quality is now the norm, with decibel quantity overshadowing musical quality.

In exchange for loudness there is now a reduction in dynamic range. That’s because when an entire song is loud, nothing stands out as being impactful or powerful. In fact, the 2012 study highlighted the fact that the volume of recorded music was increasing by approximately one decibel every eight years. If this continues, we could all be deaf by 2050.

The lack of timbral diversity is key to explaining what’s happened. Timbre—the character or quality of musical sound—serves to differentiate various forms of sound production, including vocals and instrumentation. Without enough diversity of sound, everything sort of merges together, and more and more songs start to sound the same. Timbre—more specifically, timbral diversity—is what generates an emotional reaction. Remove it, and we are left feeling numb, hollow and thoroughly disillusioned—which is where we are today.

Although the digital era has been a blessing in so many ways, in the music scene, it has been a curse. This, perhaps, explains why the days of bands full of guitarists, bassists, drummers, pianists and vocalists who actually play and sing appear to be numbered, and why “DJs” like David Guetta can push one button on an expensive machine and spend the rest of the time jumping onstage like a crazed lunatic.

Today, sophisticated software does all the heavy lifting. To compound matters, as a new study clearly demonstrates, the structure and vocabulary of popular music lyrics are becoming more repetitive and simplistic. Furthermore, the same study highlights a trend toward more personal and emotionally negative themes in songs as time has progressed. In short, lyrics are becoming stupider, sadder and more self-centered in nature—a bit like society as a whole, some could argue.

Interestingly but not necessarily surprisingly, the digital age also has resulted in rampant levels of plagiarism within the music industry. An eye-opening study published in 2022 examined 237 instances of music plagiarism and compared the YouTube view counts of the original songs with those of the plagiarized tracks. On average, songs that have been plagiarized, according to the study, tend to receive 211.3 times more YouTube views than the original works. More YouTube views means more money and fame for the plagiarizers.

The analysts highlight a number of pop songs that have dominated YouTube’s algorithms in recent years, including Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph,” which sounds eerily similar to Matt Cardle’s “Amazing,” and “Uptown Funk,” a collaboration between Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, which sounds identical to The Gap Band’s “Oops Upside Your Head.” “Uptown Funk” has amassed a staggering 5.2 billion views on YouTube. “Oops Upside Your Head,” meanwhile, has only 8.3 million views.

Still, the demise of pop music isn’t just about problems in the music industry; it must be viewed through a broader lens. Levels of creativity, a core ingredient of truly great art including music, are dramatically declining.

As Michael Easter, author of “The Comfort Crisis,” has noted, the precipitous drop can be traced back to the 1990s. He suggests we are in the midst of a “creativity crisis.” According to Easter, an expert on human health, our fast-paced and overburdened lifestyles, coupled with excessive engagement with electronic entertainment devices, are to blame. In essence, our lives have become so hectic and preoccupied that there is little room for creativity to flourish. We are overwhelmed and overstimulated, while creatively we are undernourished.

We made a deal with the digital devil and decided to outsource more and more of our cognitive capacities. For years, this meant leaning on Google Search. Now, it seems, ChatGPT is doing an increasing amount of our creative work, especially writing. Our brains, meanwhile, are atrophying—and so too are entire genres of music.

Which brings me back to the ongoing feud between Drake and Lamar. In recent weeks the two men have released a number of highly original tracks, responding to criticisms in creative, rather surprising ways. They are testing themselves and, more importantly, testing each other, desperately trying to prove to us, the listeners, that they (and not the other guy) are the GOAT. For the first time in a long time, hip-hop is alive again. There is an excitement within the community.

Maybe all of this is temporary, a blip that will soon fade on our way back to the turgid status quo. Or maybe this is the beginning of something new and creatively positive. Whatever happens, for now “the beef” is something worth celebrating.