Quite a long article but i'll post the main body. It references Iverson, Jordan, Hov etc.
The legend of Allen Iverson crossing over Michael Jordan on that fateful March 1997 day is a bit more conclusive than the back-and-forth saga between Drake and Kanye West. Jordan won the championship the same year Iverson put him on skates, and he won it again the next year before retiring in 1999, leaving a void open for Iverson and others to reach their peaks uninterruptedly.
Drake and Kanye West, meanwhile, are still battling in the same arena, and even as Kanye readies the release of his massively anticipated Yeezus (G.O.O.D./Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) the tide is shifting in Drake’s favor.
That Kanye and Drake are still very much active throws off the A.I./Jordan analog just a bit, making the subtle tension of their coexistence more in line with, say, America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Drake’s a post-World War II U.S.A., newly acquainted with the idea of far-reaching power and influence. Kanye West is Communist Russia, the one who got into space first and reigns as a superpower with widespread authority, but a conceivably diminished hold on the masses.
Yeezus raises the question: Is the Berlin Wall fall of ’Ye’s career approaching? After listening to Yeezus, the answer is: Not now. Not yet.
But by the time Drake releases a record, Yeezus will be old news. Even if Yeezus collects a bunch of great reviews this week, in a few months, people will be looking for something new and Drake will be right there, waiting with a new album. He’s set himself up for total veneration.
Drake and Kanye have only existed in the same field, on the same level, for a short period, and the situation only continues to escalate. ’Ye’s latest attempt at impressing us comes at a time when a lot of people don’t want him to continue winning. Opposition to the praise that’s so routine around his albums has carved a significant place in the discussion surrounding Yeezus. Kanye’s had the top spot for so long, and the greater public is ready to hand the crown to someone else.
Radio is still an important, telling format, and Drake’s success there has given him the confidence and leverage to attack Kanye, however lightly. The developments of recent years almost make it difficult to remember that Kanye West is the man who directed (and some conspiracists argue, sabotaged) the video for Drake’s breakout single, “Best I Ever Had." Where Drake was once a loyal, Anakin-like apprentice, he's now in his Darth Vader phase, on a quest to murder and subjugate Obi-Wan Kanyebi.
With both artists releasing new material this year, expect more statements that keep the feud in motion, from the Grammys, to the public and media’s consensus on which album is better, to whatever Drake says during interviews on his promo run. Once we can contrast Yeezus against Nothing Was the Same, the conversation about Kanye’s and Drake’s ranks within hip-hop’s hierarchy will matter more, and if Drake doesn’t miss the mark on the album he promised would be “meaner” on “The Ride,” there’s going to be another regime shift.
That shift is something Drake himself predicts. Just this past weekend, after performing at the Birthday Bash in Atlanta, he told a reporter, “Right now, music is all about a changeover. It’s always gotta change over. A lot of the people that we looked at as icons for a long time, not to say that they’re falling off, but everything has to change over. That’s where music’s at right now, and all that other **** is about to go away.” There’s an opportunity to overthrow the establishment, and Drake isn’t hesitant about jumping at it.
(I knw, its crazy long and the rest of the article is
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I really want to know your honest opinions on this matter, since it seems we've reached that moment where those "old gods" are being displaced by the new gods, a new order has arrived in the form of Drake, Cole, Kendrick, TDE, A$AP, Tyler etc.
