Kendrick and Drake: in reflection

Kendrick’s playing the Superbowl and Drake gets, well, this New Yorker article opening with a less-than-subtle question:

Has there ever been as clear a loser as Drake?

At the time of the roaring ‘20s greatest episode of rap fisticuffs (calling it early) opinions were split, but several months after the Drake v Kendrick beef, the victor is pretty clear. Just check the charts. ?

No, we’re not going to rehash a play-by-play of the title fight. But it is interesting to look at where Drake went wrong and what businesses might be able to learn from an apparently unrelatable mega star. Specifically, how he fell out of conversation with his audience.

1. Act

When is enough enough?

A passage from the afore-mentioned New Yorker article reads:

In the past, stars searching for a narrative reset likely would’ve looked to a national magazine profile, a “Saturday Night Live” hosting spot, or a Netflix documentary. But, in 2024, Drake has landed on the modern solution of flooding the Internet with content. Last month, he released a documentary-cum-data dump, 100 Gigs for Your Headtop, a low-tech Web site with a list of alphabetized folders featuring new music, unused promotional material, and nearly eighteen hours of behind-the-scenes footage dating back to 2010. (Recently, he uploaded more content to the site, much of it from recording sessions for the 2013 album “Nothing Was the Same.”)

Although the clips are bunched into loosely organized groups, there’s no shape or structure to them, no clear way to discern what matters and what doesn’t. In the first dump, we see Drake as an attentive father, walking with his toddler across an empty stage; we also see him as a caring friend, dapping up his bros and saying he loves them. Other clips depict him as an obsessive artist, poring over every detail, incapable of leaving the studio, and as a benevolent and jovial kingpin with a private plane and a distressing number of tracksuits, a hookah always smoldering. When women appear, they’re strippers counting money in the club or dancers doing choreography to Drake songs. In the subsequent dump, which features content from a few years prior, we see a charming, idealistic version of Drake, a wide-eyed kid desperate to actualize his greatness.

Is it wise to give your fans everything? Radical transparency is in. Gen Z will choose an authentic, lo-fi chat to camera 10 times over anything curated, or more polished. Check out any megastar sub-25 and their feeds will be a haphazard series of photo-dumps that span screenshots, selfies, lo-fi memes and God knows what. It’s laconic, nonchalant and riddled with layered references.

It’s a stark contrast to the days of colour-curating an Instagram feed with heavily edited, professionally taken one-shots.

The article – correctly – name-checks T-Swift and Post Malone as great examples of artists who have demonstrated this maximalist strategy in releasing music, with multiple vinyl editions or albums that exceed 30 tracks (followed by surprise albums).

Part of the reason this stuff is in vogue is something we chatted about in our Heartbreak High issue. Subcultures, particularly those online, are fostered and grown through discourse, analysis and repurposing of content. In the case of Heartbreak, by leaning into the Australianisms, the show sparked curiosity among foreign audiences. Viewers went the extra mile to get to the bottom of all the Easter Eggs and the result was a deluge of user-generated content around the show’s language.

Remember this: If you give your audience more content that encourages them to discover something new and compelling, they will do the work. Especially if it gives them some inside knowledge or lingo they can reproduce as proof of their cultural subscription.

And back to the point? You'll have to read the full issue for the rest!

2. Explain

There was a time when Drake stood out in the world of hip-hop not just for his hit-making prowess, but for his vulnerability. He was the rapper who dared to be transparent about his insecurities, heartbreaks and awkward emotional moments. He was almost too in touch with his sensitive side.

Just look at his early lyrics (we’ve outlined some below, don’t fret). They were cringingly self-reflective, capturing the attention of listeners who found his honesty refreshing. It was this willingness to bare his soul — whether confessing his loneliness or admitting his flaws — that made him feel relatable.

Dare we say it, Drake’s sentimentality made him the “everyman’s rapper”. with a rise to fame not dissimilar to Donald Glover – a self-aware sitcom kid turned musical superstar – being someone grappling with their fame while staying grounded.

But somewhere along the way, something shifted. Badly. Drake’s lyrics are now largely flexes about his wealth, his luxury cars, and his women. His persona has morphed into that of an untouchable superstar who seems more concerned with showing off his riches than connecting with his audience. In fact, many of his more recent lyrics — about gambling, cosmetic surgery and substance abuse — have alienated the very fans who once saw themselves in his songs. Instead of the humble guy struggling with fame, we now have a man whose insecurities seem to fuel a hollow display of excess. It’s pity the reader in sheep’s clothing; you’re supposed to envy him, but the more effort he puts into stunting, the less likeable he becomes. It’s a narrative that feels more like a cautionary tale of ego than an evolution in artistry.

For more on this (and more lyrical comparisons!) you'll have to check out the issue in full.

3. Amplify

When you’re trading punches, it’s not always about how hard you can hit, but how loud.

A huge part of Kendrick’s success in this whole fandangle comes down to the objective scoreboard: Kendrick’s streaming numbers during his feud with Drake were significantly larger across platforms. Not Like Us garnered over 70 million streams on Spotify in just a couple of weeks, while Drake’s Push Ups only reached around 40 million in the same time frame. Even tracks like Kendrick’s Euphoria pulled in 60 million Spotify streams compared to Drake’s more sluggish performances like Family Matters, which managed around 20 million streams in its first week.

How did Kendrick win the battle? Timing, strategy, and knowing when to hit hard and when to hold back are essential to staying ahead. Kendrick knew his audience and how to leverage every platform to create a narrative that would stick. In contrast, Drake’s approach was sluggish and lacked precision, letting Kendrick seize control of the conversation.

It’s not enough to release good content. You need to drop it in the right places, at the right time, and with a clear sense of who’s going to consume and share it. Kendrick leveraged platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Spotify, knowing these were spaces where his core audience already lived.

Not Like Us became a viral sensation because it didn’t just live on the charts — it thrived in memes, sound bites, and TikTok challenges. Kendrick knew how to make his content irresistible, turning fans into marketers. It wasn’t just the song that was shareable; it was the art, the message, and the controversies. He made it easy for his audience to become the amplification engine. In short: the tracks hit louder because Kendrick remembered the point of actually releasing music. He did it for the fans.

Speed, timing and channel selection are critical. Drop your message when it will have the most impact, like Kendrick did, and stack your releases to keep the momentum going. Whether it’s a marketing campaign or a PR response, keeping your message alive in the minds of your audience — before the competition has time to react — is essential.

But there's more on that, here.

Picks & Recs

OUR FAVOURITE DISSES, ACROSS HISTORY

It might be the romanticism of the letter medium, but there’s something so scathing about a typed out formal piece that punches that much harder. And it’s from Angus & goddamn Robertson.

A chronically-online Matty Healy inserting himself into a 20-year standing beef between the Gallagher brothers (only weeks before the final bell rang mind you) was truly a gift made in Mancunian heaven.

Read the rest of the disses in our full issue, right here.

Good conversations are never a one-way street. This newsletter is no exception. Reply to let us know what you think, what you love, what we’ve missed – or – spark a smarter conversation for your own business by working with SKMG.

See something that might be a good conversation starter?

Share the subscribe link with a friend.

All our past issues can be found here.