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Drake v Kendrick Lamar’s rap beef has turned very ugly – who is benefiting from such a spectacle? | Nels Abbey

This verbal boxing match is great entertainment, but the real winners are the artists and label executives getting rich off the spectacle, says the writer Nels Abbey

We see all the modern tools of warfare deployed: high- and low-tech espionage, infiltration of enemy camps, artificial intelligence (Drake released a record with AI-generated verses from Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur, both, like Lamar, west coast icons). There has been kompromat ( including accusations of Ozempic usage and Brazilian butt lifts), leaks, disinformation events, racial propaganda, social media hostilities. They spring from the parallel tradition of hip-hop which is still highly entertaining but full of substance, and drenched in social nourishment ( both are influenced by Phonte Coleman, perhaps the most influential rapper you’ve never heard of).

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