Uploaded and Unfiltered: Conversations about Personal Growth, Mindsets, and Advice with BIPOC Creators for Creators

Drake vs. Kendrick: A Lesson in Ego

• Jermaine Pulliam • Season 1 • Episode 44

Share episode

Send me a text! Be part of the show!

Are you ready to witness the clash of rap titans? Feel the pulse of the hip-hop world as we explore the intense rivalry between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, where the battle is not just of verses, but of egos and ideologies. Step inside the ring of lyrical warfare with us, your ringside commentators, as we analyze Drake's latest tracks "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle," scrutinizing his bold move to summon Tupac's voice via AI—a move that sparked waves of controversy. Contrast that with Kendrick's artistic ripostes, which showcase his skillful command of the genre, leaving fans and critics alike debating the true victor in this high-stakes duel.

Join us for this deep-dive into the heart of hip-hop, ego battles, and the ongoing quest for authentic self-expression. Subscribe and join the conversation, where every beat and every word counts.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of Uploaded Unfiltered, the podcast in which I, your host, talk to other creators in regards to their content journey thus far. This podcast is meant to be not only a place where creators share stories, but also a place where creators can get information in regards to their creative journey thus far. I wanted this podcast to be a place where you can learn about new concepts, learn about things that our brains do automatically without us putting having any inputs in it, but also wanted to use real world examples on how some of these mental concepts can affect our creative journey. Luckily, I love when my life, work life and the real world life combines and clashes and I can take something out of real world events and share it with my community and, luckily, of world world events and share with my community. And luckily, the rap beef between drake and mr kendrick lamar has provided me exactly with a a timely lesson about the ego. Now I'm not going to get into it right now we'll get into that a little later in the podcast but I want to first start by catching up everyone on the beef itself, where it is currently and it's been changing from day to day, and why I think not only is Aubrey, aka Drake, floundering, but he is letting his ego dictate his next steps, and I think that is his biggest downfall. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into this beat, or this beef, rather so this all started? I'm gonna say it started with the track like that. Like that came out with future, metro booming and kendrick lamar March 22, 2024. On that track, basically, lamar said yo, you're not who you think you are Stop playing. Said his name out loud, said fuck the big three, it's just big me Boom, of course. Almost a month later, drake comes out with pushups. Now I'm going gonna be totally honest. I should have referenced this, this talk, by saying this I'm 41 year old. I am 41 years old.

Speaker 1:

I have never partaked in drake's discography anytime I've heard him rap, it's because he was on a song with another artist on the outside looking in, not listening to any of his music, just watching him in interviews, watching clips of him talking, watching how he moves back and forth Between who he is. I don't know who Drake is, except for the only thing I know about Drake Is he lives in Canada, he used to be a child actor and for some reason he's at the top of the rap charts. On the outside, looking in, he looks like a poser. He looks like somebody who is imitating some of his favorite artists and getting away with it. I have a long and huge conspiracy theory and it's kind of playing out in these disc songs that drake has my behind him. That is pushing his narrative. So if Drake puts out the worst song in the world, he has the money and the power to push that song to the top of the charts and therefore he stays popular.

Speaker 1:

So Push Ups came out. I didn't listen to it, but he went in and he dissed a few people, but he mostly dissed Kendrick Lamar. Then he comes out with another track six days later called Taylor Made Freestyle. Now, in this song he used an AI likeness of both, not only Snoop, who is still alive. If he really wanted the track, he could have just hit Snoop up Both, not only Snoop, who is still alive. If he really wanted to track, he could have just hit Snoop up. Snoop probably wouldn't gave it to him, but he also used Tupac's voice in the track.

Speaker 1:

Basically, you're trying to egg Kendrick to come on, put on a track, put something out, put something out. It's been six days, so that already in my mind you lose. You've lost the war. You use, not not only do you already have Ghost Riders, we already know that, but you use AI of a dead, basically god in the rap game from the West Coast and Kendrick's from the West Coast. You thought that was going to slide, no. So already man's lost in my head, but I'm not going to say anything about it. So that was April 19th when he released taylor, made freestyle.

Speaker 1:

Then kendrick dropped euphoria. Euphoria was just. It's a great track. I don't want to be biased. I love kendrick, but euphoria on so many different levels I felt like that's where this beef ended. Kendrick showed that not only am I a lyricist, not only can I put words together, but I have double, triple, quadruple entendres in this track that you're gonna listen to for years and still grab new things out of it. That's the type of rap music I like. So he dropped that april 30th of may 3rd. He dropped 616 at 616 in the morning, 616 in la, complete with a. Now that we know it was the other car. The cover art was just a small portion of the larger cover art, but we didn't know that at the time. He just dropped this and we all went crazy. We're like, oh man, all right, so he dropped that may 3rd.

Speaker 1:

May 3rd also was when drake decided to drop family matters, and in family matters I believe he's just getting allegations like hey, yo, that kid might not be yours. Also, you beat your wife and also some other allegations, things that he talked about in old songs, and again, this is the, the scholar or the fan of rap music. Drake did not listen with his rap ears to those tracks because if he did, he would have heard what Kendrick was saying and unfortunately, again he showed that he's a novice in this game and he went with it. So that was May 3rd. The next day and I believe this was like right around the corner Kendrick dropped one of the most disrespectful tracks diss tracks that has ever hit the rap game and I'm going to be honest with you, I listened to it once. I can't listen to it again. It's nuts. He basically wrote letters to each family member in drake's family, including a daughter that allegedly he has, 11 year old, who he again he did this with adonis. He's like, oh, I don't have a kid. And then and push your t, call him out, and now adonis is here. He did. Kendrick is doing the same thing with his 11 year old allegedly child. All right, it was deep, it was dirty. Like you can't call my daughter and tell her hey, your dad sucks and I'll be cool to be your mentor in the future. That would infuriate me.

Speaker 1:

But on the same day, may 4th, he dropped a club banger called Not Like Us, basically calling out Drake for being a groomer, calling out his OVO crew for being pedophiles, for saying that they all need to be on a list, the sex offenders list, so their neighbors can know there needs to be a neighborhood watch so these motherfuckers are kept under surveillance. The whole song is a bop again. This was already over a euphoria. For me, this is just icing on the cake. This is kendrick saying hey, all your fans said that I can't make a club bop. Boom, here you go and I'm calling you out, and, and people are going to be chanting this for the rest of the summer. In my eyes, this is done.

Speaker 1:

I'm not even going to mention that Metro Boomin put out a track at some point in this beef. Stupidly, drake told Metro Boomin to go make some drums. And guess what Metro Boomin did? He went and made some drums. The track is called BBL Drizzy, if you know. If you know, you know, uh, essentially, metro booming has gamified a right, a rap beef, and has asked the public and you know how many soundcloud rappers there are out there ask the public that, hey, you make the best track to this song and you can have it for free. He didn't't say you needed to diss Drake in it, he just said yo, you make a badass song to this and it's yours. And the number of songs that have came out since that challenge was put up for the public is astonishing. There's so many talented rappers out there who are getting their shine because Kendrick is calling out some bullshit that a lot of us have seen our entire lives, especially with motherfuckers like aubrey. But kendrick is getting him the fuck out of here. But that's not it.

Speaker 1:

On may 5th, a day later after not like us, drake dropped the heart part six, in which he sounds defeated. He sounds like someone who knows that he's been caught and he's just scrambling at this point and this last song before this, I wanted to talk about ego in regards to how aubrey is moving, how kendrick is moving, but this last track made me put aside all of my plans. I had a podcast already ready to go edit it. It's good to go. No, we're switching it up. We're doing this today because because in the heart, part six, drake basically says hey, you know the information that you got for meet the grams. I planted that. But also in the beginning of the song he said hey, those people who are giving you information, they're lame anyways, they're not really my friends. Then proceeded to say and I planted all that information, ha ha. And then at the end of the song, he's just like yo, man, this is really good, but I think I'm done and I'll talk to you later.

Speaker 1:

In my mind, if you planted information for somebody to get, you wouldn't wait a week to go by while they dragged your name through the dirt. You wouldn't A you wouldn't lie and say hey, remember, when I hid my son Adonis, I did that shit again. Haha, just kidding. Why would you do that? Why would you? He is playing in our faces because he thinks that his clout, that his notoriety, his fame is going to save him this time, because that's how it's been in the past.

Speaker 1:

Kendrick is not like other artists that he has dealt with. Kendrick is not on the internet all the time like champagne poppy is. Kendrick is not instagram trolling and dropping memes when in a rap beef like champagne poppy is. So in the heart six, the heart part six, I feel like drake exposed himself. Not only I don't I, not only do I not think there's a leak oh no, sorry, there is a leak in his camp. There's definitely people in his camp who do not like him, who are sharing information with Kendrick or whoever wants to hear it, because I feel like Drake is up to some shady, dirty, soulless shit. And so, again, I do think that Drake is feeling this more than he has ever felt it Because, again, he is being delusional.

Speaker 1:

He thinks that because I've been doing this for so long, like this is what I'm used to, so he's still doing the same moves. Unfortunately, again, kendrick is a different beast, and so I said all that to say this. Kendrick is a different beast, and so I said all that to say this the thing that I think that is tripping up. Actually, let's say this you can tell the mindset of people and what they're thinking based on how they move. If they're doing some irrational things, if they're doing things that seem delusional, I can guarantee you that their ego is probably part of that problem, and so with that we are going to go down. I had written this video, I was going to do a short for it, but you know what? It makes perfect sense in this podcast. So so the word ego is thrown around a lot. It always gets flack because anytime you hear it it's in a negative connotation oh, his ego was too big, that's why he's failing, or whatever.

Speaker 1:

The ego could be understood in two main ways. The psychoanalyst way, freud, I think, is yeah, freud was the first one to come up with this concept of ego. Freud saw the ego as the mediator between our primal urges, aka our ed, and our moral compass, aka the super ego. It's the I quote unquote that navigates the world, balancing desires with reality and societal expectations. So, based on that, we are again. Everything in our human existence feels like it's split into two. We have our subconscious and our conscious. Well, in regards to the ego, you have your id and you have your superego. Your id is handling the primary urges and your superego is your moral compass.

Speaker 1:

Now, when someone says ego is not necessarily a bad thing, I've been preaching this for a while now. We have to redefine all of our meanings when it comes to everything in life, especially if we are just now awakening and seeing that we can think about things differently. So if I say the word ego, your first step is to not provide any meaning to it, negative or positive. You do a little more research. So a good ego is a great thing. It means that you have a healthy self-esteem. It has. It means that you have a healthy self-esteem. It means that you have a great sense of identity. The ego helps us form our unique self. The ego helps us form that unique sense of self, including our values, beliefs and experiences. So when we have a good ego, those are the things that help us out. Our self-esteem is on point. We're able to maintain healthy relationships and bounce back from setbacks a lot quicker if our ego is in good standing and intact.

Speaker 1:

Now, as the world has taught us, there are also bad traits of an ego. A bad ego can lead to an inflated ego, can manifest as arrogance, narcissism and a lack of empathy. This alone could damage relationships and make it harder to learn and grow. An overinflated ego, a defense mechanism, like if you're on a defense the whole time and your ego you're defending what people are saying about your ego, but that ego uses defense mechanisms like denial or projection to protect itself from anxiety. While helpful in the short, short term, overuse can hinder growth, and I feel like that is exactly what we're seeing in this rap beef right now.

Speaker 1:

Drake's ego has been obliterated. Drake has lived, I want to say for the last since he's been in this rap game, his ego has been in a place that is not reality. His ego has been overinflated to the point where he is defensive, and that's what these rap beefs are. It's him defending his fucked up ego. So in the past he's able to put out a track or two, make the people dance, hit up Instagram, make a meme, make a laugh about it, and then it goes away. That's exactly the tactic that he tried this time. He made pushups, he made Taylor, made a freestyle, he made family matter. Then he goes to Instagram, makes a meme or two and then he's like yo, I'm going on vacation, because he honestly thought it was over. Unfortunately, I think that he's going to be in a bad reality once Kendrick decides to drop this track. Kendrick has already said that he has like 10 in the chamber.

Speaker 1:

This man has called him a pedophile. He's called him a colonist. He's called him a culture vulture. He's called him a liar, he's called him a master manipulator, and I believe everything that kendrick is saying about drake has some truth to it. If it's not 100% true, it's like 80, 85% true. I think Drake forgets that we have access to the internet and there are a number of alarming events that has happened in his life that has caused question, and not in me, but in the public in general.

Speaker 1:

Having someone come out and make an entire song about you, calling you a pedophile, will make people think twice. The people who have logic and reason Think twice about some of the shit that you're telling us. We're not delusional, aubrey. We've seen the video of you at a concert with a, by her words, 17-year-old girl, and then you proceed to say hey, your breasts feel good on my chest, bitch, she's 17. Oh, I might get in trouble for this one. She's 17. I encourage everybody to watch that video. It's not doctored. Nobody forced him to say this shit. He said this on stage in front of a crowded audience. I don't know even how many years ago this was, and he's still. He's still alive. I don't want to say he's still alive. He's still doing his thing unscathed.

Speaker 1:

This motherfucker's a weirdo. Also. I just found out and I kind of forgot about this millie bobby brown Maybe you heard of her. She plays 11 on Stranger Things, I believe when she was 14, Drake reached out to her and they developed a friendship. They text back and forth. There's videos of her saying uh-huh, what we say about text stay in text. He helps her with boys. So boys, he's 14, bro, I'm going to tell you right now, as a father of two, there is no goddamn way my daughters are going to be texting and having a friendship relationship with a grown ass 31 year old man. It is not happening. That shit is weird. As a man, a 41 year old man, I have zero desire. I don't want to talk to people in their 20s, let alone their teens, like I don't understand. I don't understand how you do that and I think the motherfuckers gonna look at you weird. But that's not all.

Speaker 1:

The allegations against his ovo crew, his whole music crew or whoever the fuck these motherfuckers are, is high as a content creator. As someone who regularly hangs out with other people outside of my normal circle, I can tell you this with certainty, especially my little group of peoples. If there are any allegations or even a hint of someone doing anything outside of the norm, that is could be construed as like sexual assault or harassment any of that bullshit those fuckers get ousted. We're not making. We're not making. We're not even making money like that. We're not a multimillion dollar music group or music label. We are six or seven people who love content and want to make content, to make this world a better place.

Speaker 1:

When we see in our community somebody acting different, acting shady, acting sus, then we excommunicate those motherfuckers. Simple as that. Shady acting sus, then we excommunicate those motherfuckers. Simple as that. So for drake to have this many questionable people around him blows my mind especially. Listen, I'll say that once I become a billionaire, people around me are going to be upright standing citizens and they will be getting checked on on a daily basis because what you do, unfortunately, will reflect on me.

Speaker 1:

And so, in order to make sure that my camp is good and make, in order to make sure the people that I'm rocking with, that I am moving through life with, are good yeah, motherfucker, I got the money to check on everything that you do all the time. I'm doing it because I can't imagine being in that situation and not knowing. Hey, this motherfucker has a rap sheet. He used to touch kids, bitch. I would know that. That would be like you're out, you can't be around me, I don't want to see your face. You're lucky, I don't beat the shit out of you, you're out. Simple as that.

Speaker 1:

So the fact that Drake is just dancing around all these allegations means that he fucking knows and he didn't see a problem with it like that blows my mind that that in itself, drake, you got. You got a lot of you got a lot of cleanup to do. Um, you can try to go on vacation. You can try to dodge this ass whooping that's coming your way. But kendrick is not letting up.

Speaker 1:

And the thing that makes me most happy about this particular rap beef, not only is it historic, we have never seen MCs go back and forth like this. The caliber that Kendrick is displaying right now is immaculate. I love it. Keep on going. I've been looking at these, these songs. I okay. I love puzzles. Puzzles are one of my favorite thing in the world. Puzzles, that where you have to like escape room type puzzles, like you have to get this thing over here and figure out this puzzle to line this up, and I feel like that's what kendrick has been doing this entire time, specifically with that picture. First he showed a zoomed in um picture with like the gloves and like you can kind of see something in the background. And then, the next song, he revealed the bigger piece of the puzzle and was like hey, this is all your shit. Like that shit is exciting to me.

Speaker 1:

But I say that all that to say this when it comes to the ego, it is definitely important to make sure that we have our ego in check. An ego is well. There is a argument out there, there's something called an ego death, but we're not going to get into that right now. We're just going to stick with the super ego and assume that you can't get rid of your ego. There are ways to manage our ego.

Speaker 1:

Self-awareness is a great way to manage your ego. If you're aware of you and understand your weaknesses, your strengths and weaknesses, it's easier to keep your ego in check. Humility, also a great tool to keep your ego in check. Don't be afraid to be like hey, you know what I messed up? Don't be afraid to learn lessons. Don't be afraid to be humble. And the next one that goes in line with humility is empathy. Focusing on understanding others' perspectives can help balance self-interest with comparison, and you know what? I'm going to add this in there as well? Meditation. Meditating also helps you manage your ego.

Speaker 1:

Our ego is something that was created when we were younger, just like our subconscious. I feel like both of those are kind of tied in together, but our ego is developed as we're young. So anything that we ingested as we were young as far as media goes, cartoons, the people we're around, family members all that ideology is what forms our ego, and so if you look at the people that Drake has had around him, I encourage you to look up this video of Drake's dad when he's talking about the Me Too movement, and you can tell where Drake got his mentality. I'm not saying I don't even know if they grew up in the same household, but you can see how his dad moved and I can 100% see Drake being like, yeah, yeah, those women shouldn't have been in those places, which is the most like. That shit angers me. When people blame the victim for being victimized, like that infuriates me, but that's what his dad did. You should look that shit up.

Speaker 1:

But when you have those different influences around you. That's what causes your ego to become what it is. And if you have a lot of people around you that's hyping you up, that aren aren't telling you, hey man, maybe you should do that, that are yes-manning everything you say, there is no opportunity for you to affect your ego. There's no opportunity for you to correct your ego because everybody is telling you that, hey, man, you're doing the right shit right now. I think it's important to not only surround yourself with like-minded individuals, but also have those people around you who do have different um thoughts in the world as you maybe not completely different, because that would cause some chaos, unnecessary chaos, but I guess what I'm saying is I have a group of people around me who, for the most part part, see the world like I see it. Do they agree with everything that I do? No, but because of that, that gives me opportunity to grow again Humility and empathy.

Speaker 1:

If you have empathy for your friends and they're telling you something that they believe in that you don't, you're going to listen more than you would if somebody was on the Internet and your comment saying, hey, fuck you. In your opinion, that person doesn't exist. They don't get the, the right or the pass for you to take what they're saying at heart or take what they're saying with a little bit of thought behind it. Friends, loved ones, they get the not the benefit of it out, but they get that extra layer of. Okay, this is how you feel about it. Usually I don't, but let me see how you feel about it, because I love you, I appreciate you as a person and then potentially this can help me grow.

Speaker 1:

Internet trolls, people who are in your comments. They don't get that luxury. If somebody comes in your chat and you say you say one thing and they say the total opposite, they're trying to troll. You don't give that any energy. And unfortunately, drake is giving kendrick all of the energy. Not only is he on his back step trying to defend himself, but he's also missing all kinds of allegations that he's just like not saying anything to because he knows what. The last thing I just want to say this as a last thing because I just thought of this. The crazy part about this millie, uh bobby brown situation is kendrick never mentioned her in any of his tracks.

Speaker 1:

Drake basically called himself out, because you can tell that Drake is looking at Reddit, he's looking at TikTok, he's looking at Instagram, he's looking at Twitter for the response of the masses and he's seeing everything that people are saying are like oh, he had just an appropriate relationship with Millie Bobby Brown and he fucked up and put that in his raps. Like everything that the Internet is like guessing at. This man put it in his raps. Like everything that the internet is like guessing at. This man put it in his raps and this is why I can tell he wrote it himself. Like he didn't have the ghostwriters on this one. He sat in the room. He's like yo, I can rap, I know how to rap, I've been doing this for a while. And then he put this out Okay, this is for real. The last thing he said. Hey, he basically said I'm a superstar. I would never mess with underage kids.

Speaker 1:

Bitch, you hang out with like 20 people at least that have got caught doing the same thing. What are you talking about? Oh, you'll never see Drake on a sex offenders list. Yeah, bitch, your name is Aubrey Graham. Your name would be. That's the name that would be on the list. Drake doesn't exist. Drake is a figment of your imagination, and this is why I can tell this man has lost it. I don't think he can tell the difference between Drake and Aubrey anymore and unfortunately that is going to get him roasted and kicked out of the thing that he so-called loves, of the thing that he so-called loves being called a culture vulture. And not clapping back on that specific point is because you know, it's true.

Speaker 1:

There are numerous pictures or maybe there's just one of this man in blackface. There are pictures of him saying the hard E-R on the N-word because he doesn't know he is seeing hey, man, that looks cool. I want to be like that. Unfortunately, he has the money that where, for the last decade, he was able to do that. I think those days are over. I think his time in the spotlight is numbered.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, I feel like it's only a matter of time for cops show up at this man's house to investigate, to see what's going on there, and I'm here for it. It's someone who has never liked Drake, who has always seen him as someone who is a poser, someone who is like I don't understand Again. There are things in this world where people are just blind to, and I feel like his rap, his skill set, is all bullshit and he's not a good rapper, he's not a good artist. I've again never listened to a Drake album, never planned on doing so. The first one I did in its own in total, was the Heart 6, the Heart Part 6. Other than that, he's not somebody who does anything that I agree with. His music does not touch me in any type of way. It does not make me want to dance. If anything, it makes me angry.

Speaker 1:

So, kendrick, continue to do what you're doing. I hope that the I I cannot believe that the leak for meet the grounds was real, like there's no way. There's just no way. But other than that, yo, everybody, keep your heads up, keep creating content, remember to keep your ego in check, because doing so will help you miss some missteps that could happen. If you are being humble, if you are being empathetic towards your fellow creators and seeing how they move and making sure that you move in accordance, I think we'll be in a better spot. I can't wait to see what kendrick does next. That's just going to be exciting.

Speaker 1:

But other than that, if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast. Uploaded and unfiltered podcasts everywhere Spotify, apple Music, alexa and any podcast catcher of your choice. I truly do appreciate y'all listening. I just I had this on my chest, I had to get it off and here we are, we got it done. I appreciate y'all, but, as always, protect your mental, keep creating content and I will talk to y'all. But, as always, protect your mental, keep creating content and I will talk to y'all in the next one. Peace.