Kendrick Lamar Disses Big Sean, Jay Electronica & French Montana in Leaked Track

2018 rap would have been different if Kendrick had released his leaked diss track that emptied the clip at all three of his rap beefs 🥩 In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Kendrick Lamar disses Big Sean, Jay Electronica, and French Montana in leaked track 💀 

• Lil Yachty says Drake’s For All The Dogs deals with “controversial things” 🐶 

• Viral AI-generated Drake & The Weeknd song submitted for the Grammys 🏆️ 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new Thursday and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Double Daily, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from August 25th to 31st.

Doja Cat overthrows Gunna for the #1 streaming revenue spot with “Paint The Town Red” pulling in $106K from 22M streams. Travis Scott’s “Meltdown,” “I Know ?,” and “Telekinesis,” earned a combined $140K from 29M streams, but “Fe!n” falls off the revenue chart.

Kendrick Lamar Disses Big Sean, Jay Electronica, & French Montana in New Leak

An old Kendrick Lamar track, which appears to be an unreleased version of 2017’s “ELEMENT.” and 2018’s “Paramedic!” has surfaced online, causing waves. In it, Kendrick throws shots at Big Sean, Jay Electronica, and French Montana, calling them out by name.

Below, the lyrics and history between the four rappers are broken down to determine whether the leak is real or just another AI clickbait.

Kendrick Lamar & Big Sean

Kendrick unloaded the clip on Big Sean, who arguably got hit the worst out of the three targets. In the Twitter post below, Kendrick raps:

“Big Sean, keep sneak dissing, I let it slide / I think his false confidence got him inspired / I can’t make ‘em respect you, baby, it’s not my job / You’re finally famous for who you date, not how you rhyme.”

The beef between the two rappers dates back to 2015 when Big Sean dropped his “Me Myself & I (Freestyle)” with lyrics that fans assumed were subliminally pointed at Kendrick. Big Sean’s verse questioned if a new up-and-coming rapper can really spit or if he hides behind his skits.

Not long after, in 2016, Big Sean released “No More Interviews” with similar shots at undisclosed rappers, but the criticisms of skits and fast-paced rapping suggested the bars were about Kendrick.

The timeline of this unreleased song is 2017-2018, based on the elements from DAMN. and the Black Panther soundtrack, and that aligns with the height of Kendrick and Big Sean’s beef. The line about Big Sean being famous for who he dates relates to either his high-profile relationship with Ariana Grande (2014-2015) or Jhené Aiko (2016-2019).

Kendrick Lamar & French Montana

Kendrick throws a quick one-two punch at French in the leaked track:

“Fuck subliminals, I’ll put you on the role call / French Montana speaking on me in interviews / Very cynical, dry hating something I don’t approve.”

Kendrick’s lyrics might be a response to French’s interview with The Breakfast Club in 2016. When Charlamagne asked French why street rap wasn’t doing numbers like Kendrick’s music, he said, “They position him, like they did at the Grammys, as the new music.” He continued to dismiss Kendrick’s talent and chalk it up to the industry, pushing a new sound.

Once again, the timeline of the leak aligns with French’s comments that would provoke a response.

Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica

Last but not least, Kendrick’s pen had a few words for Jay Electronica:

“Jay Electronica put silencers on my Grammy night / Another dead prophet hoping the God’ll give him life.”

On February 6th, 2016, Jay Electronica livestreamed on Periscope while driving around in his car. When a fan asked him to play a Kendrick track, he said “Fuck that,” and named “Cartoons & Cereal” as the only Kendrick song he liked. He also boldly stated that “Kendrick wishes he could be me.”

Less than ten days later, Kendrick performed and won five Grammys at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

It’s also worth noting that a snippet from this verse got leaked in 2019 without the new lyrics. Twitter u/CAWBBBB put together both leaks.

Why this matters

The validity of a leaked track is getting harder to prove in the age of AI, but what happened in the past is fact. Kendrick did have reason to diss Big Sean, French Montana, and Jay Electronica around 2016-2017. Could the track still be AI? It’s always a possibility, but the timeline of events compared to the lyrics and production in the song suggests that it’s a genuine leak from Kendrick’s vault.

Lil Yachty Says Drake’s ‘For All The Dogs’ Deals With Some “Controversial Things”

Earlier this week, Drake finally revealed the date for his upcoming album: September 22nd. It’s just two days shy of the 10-year anniversary of his third studio album, Nothing Was The Same. Since the announcement, Drake’s dad and Lil Yachty have weighed in with their opinions on the unreleased album.

Dennis Graham, the real Papi of Champagne Papi, posted the following on his personal IG, “I had the pleasure of sitting in my Son’s dressing room and listening to this new album, and I must say that it is some of the best music I’ve ever heard him do.”

Lil Yachty, speaking to MitchGoneMad on his podcast A Safe Place, confirmed that he worked on For All The Dogs and was trying to get it finalized around the time the episode was filmed. Yachty had multiple writing and production credits on Her Loss, so this comes as no surprise.

He divulged that while working on the album, it sounded “very current,” but he didn’t understand how Drake was going to pull all the songs together to make sense on an album. Referencing a recent conversation in Vancouver, Yachty said Drake explained his thought process, and then they drove to a video shoot, listened to the album, and it made sense.

It’s unclear if that convo took place when Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour stopped in Vancouver on August 30 and if the video shoot Yachty mentions is the same one a fan captured footage of days ago, but the podcast episode dropped yesterday (Sept 6), and the math could be matching.

In an effort to describe the project to Mitch, Yachty said, "I think some of the best Drake verses that I ever heard are on this album. … Some of the verses I’m just like, ‘Bruh, what’s wrong with you?’ You know what I’m saying? People gonna have a lot to say about some of his topics on this album. And I don’t think he does it on purpose, I think it’s just him—he just has a real...I will say he deals with some controversial things.”

You can find the full episode of Lil Yachty’s podcast here.

Viral AI-Generated Drake & The Weeknd Song Submitted for Grammys

Back in April, when AI-generated songs were the main character of the news cycle, one track in particular stood out. “Heart on My Sleeve” was an AI collaboration using Drake and The Weeknd’s voices made by an anonymous creator named “Ghostwriter.”

The song has been submitted for consideration for the 2023 Grammy Awards, even though Drake and The Weeknd had nothing to do with it. Why and how is this allowed? Find out below.

In an interview with The New York Times, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, “It’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human.” A representative for Ghostwriter confirmed that the song was submitted for Best Rap Song and Song of the Year. The loophole is that those categories are given to songwriters, not performers.

But there’s a catch…

Ghostwriter shouldn’t prepare his Grammys speech just yet. If the song is considered eligible from a creative standpoint, it must meet the requirement of commercial availability. The Grammys defines this as “the broad release of a recording, available nationwide via brick-and-mortar stores, third-party online retailers, and/or streaming services.”

“Heart on My Sleeve” was initially released on YouTube and streaming services, but Universal Music (the parent company of OVO and XO) issued a quick copyright strike, and the song was removed. It’s since been uploaded on unofficial third parties, but that won’t be enough to meet the commercial availability rule.

Ironically, Ghostwriter is gunning for the most prestigious award in music by using the vocals of two artists that famously do not fuck with the Grammys. For the last two years, neither Drake nor The Weeknd has submitted their solo music for consideration despite being nominated for their guest features.

Context for those of you out touching grass

Earlier this summer, CEO Harvey Mason Jr. clarified the Grammy’s rules on AI-altered music, saying no awards would be given to an AI computer or someone who just prompted AI. “That’s the distinction we’re trying to make. It’s the human award highlighting excellence, driven by human creativity,” Mason said. Any work with no human authorship isn’t eligible for any category, but the use of AI to assist in creation isn’t forbidden.

Why this matters

It would be unprecedented for an anonymous Ghostwriter to be nominated for a Grammy. Major artists (especially rappers) write their own music, and even if there are other songwriters in the credits, the performing artist goes up on stage to accept the award. Why? Because the likeness and voice of an artist are what makes songs popular, more than the songwriting.

“Heart on My Sleeve” had the internet in a chokehold because it was an AI-generated version of Drake and The Weeknd. There’s a disconnect for neither of them to be involved in the AI song’s creation and for it to receive such high recognition if it's nominated.

New Music Friday

A Boogie Wit da Hoodie drops his three-track EP tonight as a warm-up for his new album. Here’s all the music dropping tonight—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ How Do You Sleep At Night? by Teezo Touchdown

• 💿️ B4 BOA by A Boogie Wit da Hoodie

• 💿️ Speshal Machinery by Conway The Machine & 38 Spesh

• 💿️ BACK2DATRAP by Lancey Foux

• 💿️ ItWasntEnough by XXXTentacion (streaming release)

• 🎶 “Bongos” by Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion

• 🎶 “Peaches & Eggplants (Remix)” by Young Nudy, 21 Savage, Latto, Sexyy Red

• 🎶 IDGAF by Tee Grizzley, Mariah the Scientist, Chris Brown

• 🎶 Chocolate Rain by Flo Milli

• 🎶 You Don’t Even by iann dior

• 🎶 Diamonds by Lil Peep, ILoveMakonnen

• 🎶 Down Like That by Bryson Tiller

• Kanye raps about encounter with the devil in new song with Al Be Back. Titled “Israel,” the track was previewed by Al Be Back on social media and isn’t the only Kanye feature on his new album Dying Near A Charger.

• SoundCloud’s TikTok-styled discovery feed is rolling out to everyone. Users can listen to a 30-second song clip in a vertical feed to decide if they want to hear the entire song.

• 21 Savage, Cardi B, and Drake lead nominations for the 2023 BET hip-hop awards. 21 Savage and Cardi B were nominated for 12 out of 17 categories.

Like sports? 🏀 🏈 Get up-to-date analysis and unique insight that’s actually interesting to read with the Playmaker Newsletter.