The Art of War

What is it, the braids!?!?!?! ??

If you don't know why that phrase is relevant this week this is not the article for you. Please feel free to skip ahead. I promise to get back to AI, DEI and Leadership in future articles.

If you are still here though, let's talk Strategic Thinking... in a Hip Hop Beef. Over the last few weeks Hip Hop fans have been the undisputed winners while being entertained by two of the greatest Hip Hop artist of this generation. Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake. This article isn't about rhyme patterns or music selection, this article is about The Art of War and more specifically the importance of strategic thinking in a competitive environment.

I think regardless of what you think of the music, Kendrick Lamar put on an absolute Masterclass in Strategic Thinking, Planning and Execution

This beef has been brewing for years. Subliminal lines and some direct ones too have been fired from both camps. When Kendrick showed up on the "Like That" verse and directly took aim at Drake the gauntlet was thrown down.

Kendrick set the stage for the showdown on HIS terms. Drake was wrapping up an 84 city tour and openly talking about heading out on vacation for some much needed rest and relaxation. Suddenly no one wanted to hear anything from Drake until he responded to Kendrick. His current hit record at that time "First Person Shooter" featuring J Cole which he was still touring with Cole at that time was unplayable now that Kendrick had rained on the record by declaring there was no Big 3, but simply Big Me (Kendrick).

Drake is no lightweight. He is the heaviest of heavyweights in the rap game and he didn't duck Kendrick's punch or simply wait to fire back on a guest verse of his own. Instead Drake dropped "Push Ups" where he clowned Kendrick over a few things and had some memorable funny (but decidedly not complex) lines like "The way you are doing splits (in your contract), your pants might rip". After dropping this record Kendrick took 17 days to respond. It wasn't clear he would respond at all because Kendrick only talked on records. No tweets, instagram posts, radio interviews. Kendrick used silence to his advantage.

Learning to sit in the awkwardness of silence is an incredible skill for any business person. So many people feel provoked to fill silence with some kind of words. I have seen people negotiate against their own offer because they couldn't stand the silence. In this case, I would imagine Drake had to consider that while he has to be ready in case Kendrick drops (there goes the vacation!) its also possible he never drops another song, so Drake employed some strategy of his own to provoke Kendrick into "coming outside". He did this through a fun record mostly poking fun at himself but used AI to speak in the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. I get where he was going but this was a mistake and you could argue that Kendrick baited him into this mistake through his use of silence as a weapon. Drake inadvertently mobilized an entire group of people who don't like the use of Artificial Intelligence in this way, don't appreciate putting words in a deceased legends mouth like Tupac and managed to make the king of the jungle look like he was actually worried about sparring. Lions do not concern themselves with the opinions of sheep.

Kendrick waited until all of the initial hoopla about the beef died down and dropped his first diss record aimed purely at Drake, "Euphoria". By waiting until the anticipation had waned but not faded when he dropped the record the world exploded. I personally got push notifications, text and phone calls all saying the same thing, "Kendrick responded!!!" The response was a strategic masterpiece regardless of whether you actually like the record. It was a 6 minute track filled with Easter Eggs and Triple Entendres. Seemingly every hour for days someone on the internet would surface another hidden meaning buried in the lyrics. In hindsight, Drake could have and should have stepped on this immediately. If he responds to Kendrick a day later and says they no one has time to get a thesaurus to interpret rap songs and then rap the way that Drake can rap it would have cut short the days long analysis of a record that simply got better with each listen and explanation of its hidden meanings. By day 3 people were looking back at the lines on Drake's song about "pants might rip" and it sounded juvenile in comparison to what Kendrick was saying. Drake has been in quite a few hip hop battles and he has rarely lost the internet, but suddenly responding with Instagram post and tweets wasn't doing anything against an opponent who only speaks from the booth. Kendrick didn't explain a single bar, instead he used silence as weapon while everyone else peeled back the layers of his verses and praised him as a lyrical genius.

Before Drake could reply, Kendrick dropped another record. By going out of order Kendrick stole the mindshare of hip hop fans anticipating a Drake release. "Kendrick dropped....Again!!!" was trending on twitter and on my personal mobile phone text messages.

Drake had no more room to jab because now the underdog was gaining confidence and momentum, so Drake drops a certified haymaker in "Family Matters". As far as diss records go this one is incredible. Came with an accompanying music video shot on location in LA and Toronto. Towing the van made famous by Kendrick's classic album cover. Showing Drake eating and laughing in a restaurant that Kendrick had just name dropped in his previous song. A masterpiece all around and the kind of knockout punch that has made Drake the king, but Kendrick was waiting with superior strategy yet again.

A mere 20 minutes after the release of "Family Matters" Kendrick dropped (AGAIN!!) "Meet the Grahams". Regardless of what you think of either song it's undeniable that Kendrick stepped all over Drake's momentum. Kendrick responded to Drake's record before a bunch of people even heard it. I was following this closely and when I went to my timeline to see what people were saying about the Drake record there was just as much discussion if not more about Kendrick dropping. Kendrick took advantage of recency bias. People give more time and energy to the new thing. Even if you loved the Drake track you were forced to listen to the Kendrick track as well. Kendrick had some misses in the track from a factual standpoint but frankly even that was overshadowed because before the internet detectives could properly track down the "receipts" Kendrick dropped AGAIN

Kendrick disadvantage in this battle was supposed to be that he was a lyricist while Drake was a hitmaker, but when Kendrick dropped "Not Like Us" he lyrically danced around in Drake's own style. Kendrick turned a perceived weakness into a strength. The guy who supposedly needs a long time to write these deep thought provoking raps suddenly was dropping a call and response track over a DJ Mustard Beat. If you haven't heard this song yet all you have to do is open your window and you will hear someone playing it, but even that is calculated. Kendrick officially removed all copyrights from content creators reaction videos allowing them to make money for their content. Drake's team followed the standard protocol of tagging all of the videos featuring reactions to his songs thus retaining the rights for themselves. With one final strategic move Kendrick incentivized an army of content creators to post reactions to his hit song and get paid for doing it which is why the Kendrick videos are everywhere and the Drake videos are harder to find. Kendrick created an incentive structure that energized and mobilized the consumers of his product.

Drake's final response "The Heart Part 6" is a good song, but by the time he dropped the song he was mostly defending himself from accusations from a song Kendrick had dropped 2 songs ago. Drake was on defense during most of the song and the boastful confident King was forced in the end to declare the contest over no matter how many more songs Kendrick drops.

This isn't a career ender. Drake will continue to make hits and his place in history is solidified. His willingness to engage with the #1 contender while he sat comfortably upon the throne of Hip Hop is admirable and deserves praise.

To the victors go the spoils and Kendrick Lamar has elevated even further over the last several weeks. His skills on the microphone are undeniable. What is also undeniable is that he is a master strategist who executed his plan incredibly well. When I started in business I was naive enough to believe that talent or a great idea was enough to be successful but over my career I have learned that somewhere there is a graveyard field with great ideas because people didn't have the strategic vision to execute them. The way Kendrick executed his strategy here makes him worthy of the crown.