By now you’ve heard that Apple has recently jumped on the
subscription-based streaming bandwagon. On Monday, the company revealed
its new initiative, Apple Music, at the Worldwide Developers Conference
(WWDC) in San Francisco. The service is said to launch June 30 and will
cost subscribers $9.99-$14.99 a month. Of course, launching a music
initiative wouldn’t be complete without the presence of a mega-star to
co-sign. Apple went with Drizzy (or rather, Drizzy went with Apple).
Rocking a throwback Apple jacket,
Aubrey “Drake” Graham
aligned himself with Team Apple during an endearing keynote speech. “As
an artist I can say, for all those kids sitting at home, it is truly
amazing to be a part of something that I believe in.” Drake continued,
“This is something that simplifies everything for the modern musician
like myself, and the modern consumer like you.” Aubrey, your training on
Degrassi has done you well.
Here’s the shade: In late March, Jay Z announced his quite similar
initiative, Tidal, on a star-studded stage (We see you, Madonna!). Hov’s
fancy streaming service
will charge subscribers $9.99-$19.99 a month and boasts high-fidelity
audio along with artist exclusives, as incentives. According to
Billboard,
Drake was initially courted by Tidal. The rapper was slated to be an
artist partner with the company, but dropped-out last minute—as late as
two days prior to Tidal’s launch. Fast forward to June and Drizzy claps
back with a major endorsement for Apple Music.
So the rivalry ensues.
We’ve entered a new era in the music
industry. It comes with a distinct turf war, and it’s happening online.
Today, file sharing and new technologies have redirected the interests
of rappers, and the arena in which they battle. Artists like Jay Z and
Drake will gain dominance through commerciality, streaming supremacy,
and aligning themselves with the right brand. This is the new hip-hop
rivalry in the Internet age: Drizzy vs. Hov, gone digital.
In
the present, a perfectly crafted rap song (even songs that take shots
at other rappers and fill up tabloid columns) doesn’t have the same
effect, in terms of profitability.
“Beef”
is pretty common in hip-hop, an arena that is as much about swagger and
braggadocio as it is street poetry. And hip-hop rivalries have been
ever-present: Back in the day, B-boys and B-girls would battle on the
dance floor and MC’s would lay down a pithy verse or two for anyone that
tried to “step” to them. For as long as there are wack rappers there
will always be another, perhaps more talented, rapper to check him/her
and remind them of their wackness. Rappers were also targeted based on
where they lived. Old-school notions of owning the streets was key.
Feuds in the realm of rap were often driven by battles over turf, or a
struggle to establish a dominant community, and neighborhood. And your
’hood dictated your clique.
One of hip-hop’s most prolific beefs boiled down to a competition of
the coasts: East vs. West. Twenty years ago, the dominant names in
hip-hop were The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. The rappers took
shots at each other (and crew members), one line at a time. Biggie’s
“Who Shot Ya” poured salt on a (literally) wounded Tupac just after he
was shot in New York. Tupac’s “Hit Em Up” took no prisoners, with the
face of Death Row Records bragging that he’d slept with Biggie’s wife,
and would be Tupac’s last diss track before his death. B.I.G. and Pac
led the lives they depicted in their music, and repped their ’hoods til
the days they were gunned down.
Jay Z is no stranger to a good old hip-hop battle. In 2001, Hov went
head-to-head with Queens rapper Nas. This was yet another classic
hip-hop beef. The rivalry was, once again, based on territoriality and
crew control: Nas’s group The Firm vs. Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella. “Ether,” the
2001 track aimed at Jay, also attempted to establish borough dominance:
“Queens niggas run y’all niggas, ask Russell Simmons,” said Nas.
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