European Underground Rapper Beef With Drake

Who Really Loses With Drake's Diss Track Grammy Nod?

Say what you will about the infamous Meek/Drake Twitter beef of Summer 2015, but let's be real. This beef wasn't really about the music at the end of the day, but the Internet's reaction. The memes! The tweets! The gifs! The jokes! THE MEMES! And, yeah, I guess the actual diss track too.

To recap for anyone who lives underground, Meek Mill complained on Twitter that Drake used a ghostwriter for a verse on Meek's album "Dreams Worth More Than Money," and it only took Drake a matter of days to clap back at Meek's Twitter firestorm of complaints with TWO diss tracks, the mellow "Charged Up" and the more firey "Back to Back."

Long story short, "Back to Back" became a bonafide hit song, after a maximum of three days effort went into it. It was a phenomenon. When Drake performed the track at OVO Fest, with a montage of memes running behind him, it was clear who had won the battle, musically and Twitter-wise.

After a month or so, this social media conflict, one that no longer required a lot of real-life macho behavior of rap beefs past, seemed to die down. Though media people and interviewers still desperately bring it up (like we are right now), both the rappers involved and those music people surrounding the "beef" seem done talking about the damn thing. Petty beef is entertaining but it never stops being petty, and a diss track that falls back on disrespecting not only your opponent, but ultimately a woman you have worked with for years and supposedly hold in the highest regard, didn't seem something to be particularly be too proud of.

Yet, Monday morning, Grammy nods were released, and with that, Drake's Back to Back was nominated for Best Rap Performance. Which, now that anyone unaware has the background, is troubling for two major reasons.

The first of those reasons is that the diss track had little effort put into it. It was filled with some sly digs and clever insults. It had a catchy chorus. The production was trendy, but dude: it was a diss track! In a category that so often ignores rap that doesn't include so many lesser-known rappers as it is, to include a track that was made with little to no effort is insulting to the genre. It's insulting to Drake, who has easily made at least ten better tracks this year. It was insulting to every rapper who put thought into their music, who meticulously formulated beats, who spent weeks in the studio perfecting their craft. It's also insulting to the bundles of better diss tracks that have never come close to garnering a Grammy. Frankly, "Back to Back" shouldn't win an award if there was a Beef Grammys dedicated solely to diss tracks, so why the hell is it nominated for a regular one?

The second issue with Drake's diss track taking up space with a nod is that, it shows yet again, that the Grammy's doesn't take rap seriously. The track was a bit of a joke. A good joke, a funny joke, but a joke nonetheless. And while other categories were filled with serious rappers making serious, incredible music, the nomination of this track is akin to giving Macklemore the Grammy for best rap album. Rap is this incredibly complex genre, and while that diss track was a defining moment in the popular culture of rap, it is overshadowed in the body of work to be produced this year. Run the Jewels, Chance the Rapper, Alex Wiley, Future, Big Sean, Migos, you name it, came out with rap that had more intent than this diss track.

And, okay yeah. The Grammy's aren't a make-or-break moment for an artist anymore. An awards show is at the end of the day, just a show. But this awards show is supposed to honor artistry, talent, dedication, and sometimes (all the time) sales. But this diss track didn't do that. And while Meek Mill is probably feeling like he took the major L today, I would argue that Drake is losing more in this deal.

[Image via YouTube]

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Source: https://nyulocal.com/who-really-loses-with-drakes-diss-track-grammy-nod-91ebbcfb2914

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