Issues Finished Modified
After a long time of radio personalities and DJs being the go-to supply for sharing inside data and leaking new data, current beefs revealed a serious shift. Podcasters and streamers now maintain weight in how music and messages are disseminated.
Interview: William E. Ketchum III
Editor’s Notice: This story seems within the Summer time 2024 difficulty of XXL Journal, on stands now.
This previous March, the rap world was on its heels when Kendrick Lamar despatched photographs towards Drake with a shock verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s track “Like That.” Years of oblique subliminal photographs between Ok-Dot and Drake had lastly congealed into an all-out struggle, and followers had been prepared for 2 of rap’s heavyweights to sq. off.
When it got here time to maintain up with the minute-by-minute updates and commentary concerning the beef, the vacation spot was clear: streamers and podcasters had been taking on because the go-to supply for the real-time happenings in hip-hop.
Earlier than any solo songs had been launched throughout the feud, podcasts like The Joe Budden Podcast and New Rory & MAL acquired conversations flowing with buzz about what that they had heard relating to extra disses that Drake and Kendrick had been engaged on. When there have been questions concerning the authenticity of a leaked model of Drake’s “Push Ups” amid pretend songs circulating on-line this previous April, Drizzy reached out to streaming character DJ Akademiks, host of the Off the File with DJ Akademiks podcast, to verify that the track was real.
Drake even added an audio clip of Akademiks wildly reacting to the monitor on the track’s ultimate model. Different artists additionally enlisted Ak of their beefs all through April and Could: Rick Ross had Ak premiere his Drake diss “Champagne Moments.” Quavo hit Ak as much as drop “Over H*es & Bi**hes (OHB),” his diss towards Chris Brown, and The Recreation gave Ak the Rick Ross diss “Freeway’s Revenge.” The Recreation even gave the favored streamer a shout-out on the diss monitor: “Akademiks, get this ni**a Ozempic starter pack.”
All streamers and podcasters use totally different supply strategies. Akademiks reside streams for seemingly days at a time, spilling tea on trade drama, meshing his perspective with what artists have shared with him, and premiering songs. His streams reside on Rumble, a platform recognized for its embrace of conservative and right-wing voices, and likewise Twitch, a livestreaming platform which has a spotlight that spans throughout video gaming, music, sports activities and extra. He additionally hosts a pre-recorded interview present referred to as Off the File and makes use of X, previously generally known as Twitter, to announce streams and break information. The podcast New Rory & MAL supplies perception into the music trade, popular culture and leisure on the whole on a present that releases free episodes twice per week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, and one Patreon episode weekly. The Joe Budden Podcast commemorates main events like Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef with hours-long, line-by-line breakdowns of diss songs. They launch two episodes per week, and faucet into audiences with Patreon-exclusive episodes conversations on X Areas and an X-specific neighborhood.
Adam22’s No Jumper model makes use of YouTube to submit a sequence of hours-long sit-down interviews with up-and-coming artists and trade figures, freestyles and commentary on trade information. Burgeoning streaming powerhouse Kai Cenat provides reactions to songs and welcomes movie star friends for sleepovers which have them hanging out and taking part in video games.
Artists and their labels attain out to streamers and podcasters as a result of audiences belief them. Whereas rappers use their social media pages to attach with followers, talking by means of podcasters and streamers provides them a unique alternative to regulate the narrative. In doing so, artists can keep an air of inaccessibility that elevates movie star. Concurrently, additionally they maintain a protected distance from their fan base whereas nonetheless getting out the message they need to ship.
In the meantime, audiences have a good stronger relationship with podcasters and streamers than with artists generally. They watch and hear to those personalities as a part of a schedule of their common lives, chat with them on social media and see them in particular person or at reside occasions. These personalities are sources of data that followers can depend on between their favourite rappers’ album releases and provides views that gasoline conversations concerning the music as soon as it really comes out.
“[Listeners and viewers] gravitate in the direction of folks that they really feel have a unique perspective and a unique angle, particularly if in case you have a private relationship with the artist concerned,” MAL of the New Rory & MAL podcast says. “We now have actual data, not simply rumors on-line.
I believe [artists] respect it extra as a result of they know we’re not in the identical recreation as radio guys.
o r We’re not taking part in the programming recreation. We’re followers, we respect the music and we’re being trustworthy from our perspective.”
MAL has a private relationship with Drake, and he’s used his present with Rory to clue listeners in on Drake’s perspective. Forward of Drake releasing the Kendrick diss “Push Ups” in April, MAL hinted {that a} response was within the works. Rory even coyly referenced a lyric from the track earlier than it got here out.
After Rick Ross dropped “Champagne Moments” in April, Mal shared Drake’s response to the monitor on the New Rory & Mal podcast: “He was like, ‘He stated he was richer than me, and
I turned it off.’”
MAL additionally informed their pod listeners that Drake was unsure whether or not he ought to seem as a shock visitor at J. Cole’s Dreamville Fest this previous April as a result of any efficiency collectively can be framed as a response to Kendrick’s diss. “He would possibly get mad at me for speaking about this, however he is aware of he’s my ni**a,” MAL stated, referring to Drake on the present earlier than recounting the dialog.
MAL retains himself in examine by understanding what to maintain personal and what to share together with his viewers. He’ll usually use his relationships to dispel misinformation. Nonetheless, artists he has friendships with are nonetheless intentional about what they need to be shared and what they need to keep behind closed doorways. “Lots of people that I’ve had relationships with earlier than I had this platform, they really feel so bizarre saying, ‘By the way in which, this stays between us,’” MAL shares. “Whereas earlier than, they by no means needed to say that. It’s humorous to look at how dynamics have modified.”
Whereas MAL’s relationship with Drake has made for partaking dialog within the beef with followers who need to know extra, it’s additionally led to some listeners questioning the podcaster’s allegiances. An explosive debate between him and his cohosts after diss tracks from Kendrick and Drake had been launched had audiences accusing him of analyzing the battle by means of a pro-Drake bias. New Rory & MAL leaned into this with its promotional supplies, calling him “OVO MAL” on social media clips.
For his half, MAL insists that he’s not biased in any respect. “I’m a harder critic when I’ve an actual relationship with any individual,” he insists. “If that is my actual homie, I’m solely gonna inform you what’s actual and be trustworthy with you.” MAL understands that followers can have their beliefs both approach and that it isn’t value making an attempt to show them unsuitable. “I can’t struggle it. That’s a shedding battle,” he provides.
For his half, Akademiks spoke on streams late within the battle that appeared to go in opposition to his presumed allegiances: he pushed again in opposition to Drake’s assertion that he covertly fed Kendrick false data to rap about and alleged that each rappers lied about one another in pursuit of victory. Ak’s position as a supply to premiere the rappers’ diss tracks and share data from the MCs together with his viewers was well timed and environment friendly.
“As of late, individuals are far more engaged,” Ak informed XXL in April. “We reside in a TikTok period. Folks wanna devour the content material rapidly and get it as they need it, not because it’s served up.”
Hip-hop’s target market is the youth, and new media caters to a youthful viewers’s mind-set. “The expertise has solely superior now as radio has develop into much less of a factor that the entire tradition tunes into,” Ak stated. “Folks nonetheless need that reside premiere. So, that’s all the time going to be a factor…Most of hip-hop will not be making an attempt to sway the adults. It’s making an attempt to sway the youngsters. So, it’s like, what mediums are the youngsters going to and watching?”
Streamers’ means to disseminate messages loudly and speedily provides artists a strong device. Adam22, a podcaster and the founding father of the No Jumper content material platform, which features a common YouTube channel, social media accounts and a podcast, says that the technological benefits for streamers and podcasters make radio DJs “practically irrelevant.”
“If something, why the f**ok would we reside in a world wherein folks had been dashing to offer [songs] to the radio?” Adam22 says. “No person’s taking note of legacy radio station DJs or something like that. If something, it’s stunning that this transition took this lengthy.”
Adam22 understands that Kendrick Lamar and Drake had totally different methods for approaching their battle. Kendrick stayed inaccessible, merely sharing hyperlinks to his songs with out saying anything. Drake, in the meantime, wished to excite his presentation and gauge followers’ reactions earlier than pulling the set off on an official launch. Adam22 says he “couldn’t fathom a situation” wherein Drake would select one other media character to assist him accomplish that in addition to Akademiks.
“I really feel like Drake actually wished to regulate the rollout of lots of these songs,” Adam explains. “I believe Drake wished to get a vibe for what the folks thought concerning the songs earlier than he absolutely dropped them. Releasing it by means of an Akademiks stream is an effective way to get everyone speaking about it, nevertheless it’s not as committal as placing it on streaming companies.”
Adam had his personal small position within the beef as effectively. As different artists started to diss Drake, Adam revealed on X that somebody despatched him an early hyperlink to Ye’s remix of Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That” that includes Kendrick Lamar. Nonetheless, Adam was “forbidden” to launch it. “I’ve the Kanye ‘like that’ remix. I’ve been forbidden to leak it right now,” he tweeted.
Adam ended up leaking the track in what might be seen as daring or disrespectful. Sadly, Ye’s supervisor, John Monopoly, reached out to ask Adam to share a completed model as an alternative; the leak Adam had, they stated, was really early and incomplete. Adam often likes to obtain unreleased music early provided that he can share it or he’ll discuss it in an interview with the artist.
“I believe that that particular person simply had [the song] from a unique supply, they usually simply knew that I used to be any individual who would most likely inevitably find yourself getting it on the market,” Adam maintains. “[But] I don’t know why the particular person had it. At first, they appeared very severe about me not leaking it. After which I leaked it, they usually completely didn’t give a sh*t. Type of a shock, from my perspective, as a result of I don’t suppose I’ve ever actually leaked a file earlier than.”
Not too long ago, Adam22 introduced that he was reducing the each day information present from No Jumper. He says that commentating on extra common artists is totally different from the channel’s specialty and that he’s extra prone to get satisfaction from an interview with an up-and-coming drill rapper that will solely prime out at a pair hundred thousand views. The podcast and streaming panorama could be simply as numerous because the artists themselves, and there’s a unique possibility for everybody who needs to maintain up.
Up to now, a lot of hip-hop’s iconic real-time moments have come by means of DJs on radio airwaves. Angie Martinez performed Nas’ “Ether” on Scorching 97 in 2001, allowed Jay-Z to react to the track in real-time and welcomed calls from listeners round New York Metropolis to vote for the meat’s winner. Famed Scorching 97 DJ Funkmaster Flex excitedly premiering Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis” in 2011 is the stuff of web legend, as followers listened by means of a hilarious 20-minute assault of fixed restarts, screams and bomb drops each few bars. Mixtape DJs akin to Whoo Child and Kay Slay had been recognized for releasing tapes that had been jam-packed with unique diss data.
Nonetheless, streamers and podcasters carry simply as a lot character since they’ll entry worldwide audiences as an alternative of the region-specific listenership that radio DJs have had.
Justin Credible, a DJ who hosts Justin Credible’s Liftoff Present on Energy 106 in Los Angeles, embraces the adjustments that streamers are bringing to the trade. He acknowledges the benefit that 24/7 streamers have over his devoted five-hour radio time slot. Credible admits that he loves streamers’ means to play soiled variations of songs and communicate their unfiltered opinions, in comparison with radio DJs’ requirement to edit out profanity. However placing his aggressive nature apart, Credible prefers having an quantity of leeway to offer his enter on what’s occurring in hip-hop as an alternative of getting to maintain up in real-time.
“I like really lining my geese up and making ready,” Justin Credible insists. “I do know the sensation of being reside on the radio, and also you’re making an attempt to digest one thing. All people needs that real-time response; I get it. However I’ve to reside with this perpetually. Earlier than I get too deep into ideas, opinions and reactions, I need to digest and listen to all the knowledge. And with as onerous as Kendrick and Drake had been going, we would have liked a second to essentially digest.”
Radio DJs can nonetheless carry artists by for on-air freestyles and interviews. Credible insists they’ve an important position in amplifying songs as soon as they’re out, even when the preliminary unique isn’t within the playing cards anymore. As a living proof, examine the closing chapters within the Drake and Kendrick beef. Although streamers and podcasters stored followers up to date all through the face-off, radio nonetheless performed a necessary half. After Kendrick Lamar launched “Not Like Us” on a Saturday night in Could by way of his YouTube channel, DJs embraced it on the radio and at events that proved to be the track’s coronation.
Rick Ross shared footage of the track taking part in at a pool social gathering in Las Vegas, and personalities in Los Angeles and the Bay Space spoke about how the track was uniting the West and the file trended on X and YouTube for a number of days. When “Not Like Us” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 chart in Could, it made an early case for the most well liked track of the upcoming summer season and propelled the idea that Kendrick had received the battle.
Even Drake is aware of that DJs carry a sure stage of credibility. He might depend on personalities akin to Akademiks and MAL to share some messages, however he begins “Push Ups” with a drop from DJ Whoo Child, who hosted 50 Cent’s war-path of disses within the 2000s.
However streamers and podcasters are operating the sport now. “Everyone seems to be realizing the cultural shift and the way issues are occurring,” Akademiks says. “And that is taking part in part of that.”
MAL acknowledges that he has a platform however downplays his position in how the meat turned out “What half did I play? I believe I used to be not more than only a man that was simply watching it unfold,” he says. “I used to be lucky sufficient to have entry to the dressing room and communicate to the artist earlier than the struggle.”
Stream on.
Learn how podcasters and streamers are taking part in a serious position in rap beef within the Freshman difficulty, on newsstands now. Along with interviews with the 2024 Freshman Class and producer Southside, there are additionally conversations with Sexyy Crimson, Ski Masks The Stoop God, Mustard, Rubi Rose, Ken Carson, Ghostface Killah, Lola Brooke and extra, plus, a glance again at what the 2023 XXL Freshman Class has been doing and a deep dive into the continued scamming and fraud plaguing hip-hop. The problem is on sale right here, together with some unique Freshmen merch.