Not Like Us Either: The Kendrick Lamar/Drake Rap Beef as a Case Study for Critical Mixed-Race Ethics

Written by a scholar who identifies as African American and Ashkenazi Jewish, this paper analyzes the recent rap beef involving Kendrick Lamar and Drake as a case study that highlights the need for the development of critical mixed-race ethics within religious studies. This viral rap beef captivated North American pop culture, not just for the stinging lyrics and West Coast beats, but also because of the ways it unveiled dynamics of power, race, and identity in hip hop. The paper argues that such dynamics within hip hop reflect the presence of the same dynamics in broader North American culture. 

This paper employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining textual analysis of the artists’ lyrics, public personas, and reception history within larger culture with critical race theory, critical mixed-race studies, and ethics. Reception history, in this framing, refers primarily to social media and other popular media sources, as well as the awards bestowed upon Kendrick in the aftermath of the feud. Taken together, these sources examine how the beef has been framed in popular culture and the implications of these narratives for understanding race and identity in contemporary society.              

One particular example of media analysis is Michael Eric Dyson’s “Why Kendrick vs. Drake is a Proxy War,” in which he argued:

“The astonishing and deflating speed with which Drake was tarred and feathered as inauthentically Black says less about him and more about the reactionary nativism of cults of pure identity that police the boundaries of Blackness like a rogue and racist cop. In a single spurious stroke of Kendrick’s claustrophobic Blackness, Drake went from a brilliant embodiment of rap’s genius to a cultural carpetbagger who must prove that he deserves to be called Black when a white supremacist culture sees him as little else.”

Dyson goes on to argue that the beef also belies the dichotomy set between Black and Jewish identity within popular understandings of race and identity formation. This paper takes Dyson’s analysis seriously, while also arguing that it is Drake’s own performance of race that creates questions about his identity rather than his identity sine qua non. Reading Dyson’s analysis alongside “Nella Larsen’s Quicksand: Mourning Through Biracial Identities” by Arthur Pressley, this paper argues that critiques of Drake’s Blackness are necessary for the development of critical mixed-race ethics in religious studies. 

In this light, a critical mixed-race ethic is an ethic that takes seriously the hybridic understandings of race crafted by people who identify as multiracial, while also conceptualizing multiraciality in ways that do not reinscribe Whiteness and its affinity for supremacy.  Within such an ethic, harmful performances of race by multiracial individuals should be critiqued— from a space of care— rather than absolved as the symptom of being a tragedy. Thus, rather than a beef to which to respond defensively, the Kendrick/Drake feud can be seen as an invitation to critically probe the power and identity dynamics present in current constructions and performances of multiracial identity. 

J. Cole serves as a peripheral yet still important figure within the rap beef and within its framing as a case study for critical mixed-race ethics. By including J. Cole in the analysis, this paper looks at the way Cole removed himself from the feud. Originally received as a sign of weakness, popular reception of Cole in the battle shifted toward an understanding of the decision as a sound business move after Kendrick was seen by many to have decimated Drake. Through the lens of a critical mixed-race ethic, this paper argues that J. Cole is emblematic of the importance of knowing your lane and staying in it for people who identify as multiracial. By analyzing J. Cole’s construction and performance of biracial identity alongside Drake’s, and their varying subsequent involvement with the feud, the paper points toward positive constructions of biraciality that embrace Blackness and critique Whiteness. 

The paper finishes by analyzing the presence of Black women in the beef, arguing that both Kendrick and Drake allowed Black women to “catch strays” in the midst of their battle. If the beef is to be used as a case study for critical mixed-race ethics, then the harmful treatment of Black women by both artists must be contended with in order to point toward an ethic that centers Black womanhood in the crafting of racial identities. The centering of Black women and their holistic well-being is essential for any ethic that looks toward liberation from supremacist ideologies, thus a womanist framing of the battle is necessary for the development of a critical mixed-race ethic. 

Overall, this paper contributes to ongoing conversations about race, identity, and ethics in popular culture and religious studies by offering a critical analysis of a viral pop culture battle that extended beyond hip hop’s usual fans. By centering the framework of critical mixed-race ethics, it seeks to deepen our understanding of how mixed-race identities are crafted and performed. The paper will be of interest to scholars in critical race studies, pop culture, and religious studies, as well as broader audiences engaged in conversations about racial identity formation and ethics.