DJ Akademiks Says Kendrick Lamar Left Hip-Hop Directionless After Drake Beef

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares
Link Copied to Clipboard!
DJ Akademiks Kendrick Lamar Hip Hop Directionless After Drake Beef
Jan 28, 2018; New York, NY, USA; Kendrick Lamar accepts Best Rap Album during the 60th Annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY
Add HNHH as a preferred source on Google
DJ Akademiks thinks only Drake's "ICEMAN" can get hip-hop culture back on course after Kendrick Lamar sought to "Watch The Party Die."

Kendrick Lamar and Drake are still the main topic of conversation for hip-hop Stans, so much so that even fake albums are confusing folks' timelines. But DJ Akademiks misses a time in which this wasn't the case, and he blames the former for this much more than the latter.

During a recent livestream caught by CY Chels on Twitter, he spoke with What's The Dirt about various Drizzy-related topics, including his new album ICEMAN. Ak thinks this will set hip-hop back on a proper course, as he thinks K.Dot wanted to "Watch The Party Die" instead of leading the culture forward after beating the Toronto artist.

"After Kendrick did his thing in the battle and dropped GNX, he basically says 'Watch The Party Die,' and nobody acknowledged that was probably the worst ideology to exist," he remarked. "'Watch The Party Die' was actually watching the culture of hip-hop die, watching music that existed in all facets and forms die. You can't kill something without giving an alternative, and all he wanted to do was kill it.

When Is Drake Dropping ICEMAN?

"I get it," Ak acknowledged. "There's a lot of people saying we rock with people like Kendrick, we rock with some of the woke stuff, the 'He's super cultural' thing, whatever you want to say that's defined as... What do we do now? 'I didn't think that far.' That's the problem... They kept d**k-riding, 'Dot era.' There's no Dot era... What's the next step? [...] He don't give a goddamn f**k, he's just doing whatever the f**k he wants. He's left the people in shambles."

"We're looking for Drake to give us a bridge to a f***ing time machine to literally three to four years ago, when we felt it was a little nicer," Akademiks continued. "The f***ing Grinch came through, destroyed Christmas, told us we're watching the party die. Where is the next iteration of this? [...] I understand there's different perspectives on hip-hop. There's always going to be a counter. I'm not knocking that. My thing is... There's no instructions coming. There's nothing left. If we're waiting on Kendrick, it's not going to happen. So the entire music form is waiting to see if Drake can kind of restore the feeling."

Drake is dropping ICEMAN on May 15. We'll see if he "restores the feeling," whatever you think that might mean as a fan or hater.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

Comments 0