The Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef did not end hip-hop’s dominance on the chart
TheGrio...
OPINION: Recent comments by The Game and Isaac Hayes III have added yet another layer to an on-going conversation that hasn’t let up for two years.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Stumble upon any corner of the hip-hop internet, and you will still find people arguing about the Great Rap War of 2024 between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. It makes sense. A generation prior, the same lunchroom and barbershop-style conversations were being held about Jay-Z and Nas during their Cold War, which turned hot during the summer and fall of 2001.
Yet, nearly two years after the battle emphatically ended following a barrage of diss tracks on Cinco De Mayo Weekend and one year after Lamar’s triumphant victory lap echoed in football stadiums across the country, there feels like there is more oxygen dedicated to discussing the commercial status of hip-hop after one of its much-ballyhooed successes—Drake—lost both a rap battle and plenty of cultural cache that was already slipping from his trove of good will.
On April 10, Isaac Hayes III, the founder of Fanbase and son of the late soul musician, declared that commercial rap music effectively died after the dust settled on “Not Like Us” and “The Heart Pt. 6.”
“It turned hip hop into an engagement art form, not a chart performing one,” he wrote. “Everyone showed up, debated, replayed, picked sides, ran the numbers up. The beef fed the masses and killed the charts.”
The statement caught the attention of The Game, who has obvious ties to Lamar, as both are from Compton and were once Dr. Dre’s proteges. He also has some allegiances to Drake, heightened by their “100” collab nearly a decade ago. In his Instagram Stories, the Compton rapper stated that fans really didn’t appreciate Drake and his “absence” which is why things are down 50 percent.
“Y’all ain’t appreciate one of the greatest now the absence & silence has the art form down 50%,” he wrote.
The thing about it is, Drake hasn’t been completely absent. He still posts on social media and is in the midst of teasing his upcoming “Iceman” album, with iced-out seats at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. He released a joint effort with PARTYNEXTDOOR titled “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2025, yet it didn’t yield a No. 1 hit. The biggest commercial song from the album, “Nokia,” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The highest charting Drake song since then? Last summer’s “What Did I Miss?” also peaked at No. 2.
He’s still present, just not to the levels of his hyperprolific peak when he argued the radio was “Drake featuring Drake.”
Longing for hip-hop’s presence on an arbitrary chart is a fool’s errand, especially when albums from J. Cole, Don Toliver and ASAP Rocky all hit No. 1 this year and Ye’s “Bully” debuted at No. 2. Of those names, only Toliver has a song within the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “E85,” a healthy response to the cries of hip-hop having a crsis for not having a song in the Top 40 late last fall.
What Hayes and even Game might be missing with the boldness of their statements is that for a large section of people, Drake releases aren’t considered “events.” His actions pre- and post-beef have soured people on him and his music, hence why none of the songs released since then feel like they have true staying power. People decided to move on. It happens with every “big” act of their day. Diehards will remain, but the desire to replay older material has won folks over.
Why else would Ye tout that his 2007 album “Graduation” was the most-streamed rap album of 2025? For context, Lamar’s “GNX” was the second-most-streamed rap album last year.
Considering Game’s statement, the Toronto rapper is an economy that seemed too big to fail in hip-hop; the onus falls upon the industry itself. And Hayes’ determination that hip-hop became an “engagement art form” ignores that, for decades, it has been about engagement in beefs. Jay-Z himself could attest to it when it came to him and Nas.
Why would fans seek out one rapper for the majority of their top singles? And why would any rapper be willing to unironically declare they need another rapper to keep things flowing creatively and financially for them to be happy? It absolves record label executives of the current state of affairs, as the investment in hip-hop and R&B acts has dropped considerably over the last three years.
“Labels may be less willing to invest in hip-hop as a genre,” “Trapital” founder and host Dan Runcie hypothesized in 2023. “If the genre is less helpful with the ultimate goal of gaining market share, then label heads will look to other genres for that bump. In turn, those genres will get the dollars that went to hip-hop.”
Whatever Drake does with “Iceman” will serve exactly who it is intended to serve. As the genre transitions into one that is more of a niche variety in terms of sounds and scenes, the focus needs to be there and stay there. Hip-Hop never truly needed a Superman to constantly save the day commercially.
It just needs music that sticks with people.