The Evolution of Beef - by Jeremiah Johnson

I've been following the beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake for the past week. It's been enormously entertaining, but there’s also something else about it that has fascinated me in a way that I couldn't describe at first. This happens to me sometimes - the fascination comes first, and then it takes me several days to understand why I find something so interesting.

Four days ago, Kendrick released the track ‘Not Like Us’. It’s become an incredible hit, but it also crystalized for me why I can’t stop following this story - it represents how social media has changed the nature of rap feuds.

To understand where rap beefs are going, we need to understand where they used to be. So buckle up children, we’re going all the way back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth - the 1990s.

The ‘90s were a more violent time. The rate of violent crime in most of America was much higher in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And more than just crime, fighting and violence was just more normal as a reaction to slights. Kids got into school fights more often. When professional sports teams got mad at each other, they tended to throw punches in wild brawls. And this especially applied to the rap industry, where lyrical feuds could easily spill over into gunshots.

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