It's no secret that Drake and Kendrick Lamar's infamous battle had a lasting impact on hip-hop as a whole. According to The Game, however, that's not necessarily a good thing. Recently, the Compton MC took to Instagram to claim that the genre has suffered as a result of the beef. "Y'all ain't appreciate one of the greatest now the absence & silence has the art form down 50%," he declared, per Kurrco.
His post arrived alongside a screenshot of a recent tweet by Isaac Hayes III, who had a similar take. "The Kendrick Drake beef killed commercial rap music," he wrote. "It turned hip hop into an engagement art form, not a chart performing one."
"Everyone showed up, debated, replayed, picked sides, ran the numbers up," he continued. "Meanwhile, the Billboard Hot 100 kept moving. The beef fed the masses and killed the charts. So I see why labels are cutting back. Black folks would rather tear down artists from both sides when collaboration is what drives expansion."
When Is Drake Dropping ICEMAN?
News of The Game's hot take arrives as fans continue to await the release of Drake's ninth studio album, ICEMAN. At the time of writing, the project still doesn't have an official release date, though it's expected to drop sometime this year. The hitmaker has been teasing the LP for some time now, and it will mark his first full-length solo release since 2023's For All The Dogs.
The news also comes as Drake maintains his commercial dominance. He even broke his own impressive streaming record earlier this week. He's reached a whopping 88.74 million monthly listeners on Spotify, more than any other rapper has managed to reach in the past. His previous record was 88.71 million monthly listeners.
Before that, it was reported that he's on track to have the biggest streaming year for a rapper ever. He's already managed to rack up 5 billion streams on Spotify in 2026.
