In the war of words between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, creators are the true winners. Commentators and streamers who have reacted to the feud have raked in revenue thanks to the rappers’ decision to release copyright claims on their respective diss tracks.
What began as a clash between rap heavyweights Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole has evolved into an intense beef co-starring the favorite sons of Compton and Toronto. Lamar and Drake have exchanged several rounds of highly personal diss tracks, all of which have racked up millions of plays on platforms like YouTube and Spotify. Lamar’s “Euphoria” has become a particularly big hit, collecting more than nine million Spotify streams in a single day.
Lamar and Drake’s back-and-forth is a polarizing and highly meme-able event that has generated widespread chatter on social platforms. No Life Shaq, a streamer who has provided extensive coverage of the feud, said he has made a “ridiculous amount of money” from those broadcasts. He praised the artists for releasing their claims on the song, which allowed creators to monetize associated content without trouble.
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“For Kendrick Lamar to double back and think about the reaction community and remove all copyright from his songs…that’s a W,” Shaq said. “That’s a big deal, because there’s a lot of smaller channels that have a lot of views from this beef. Their channels got seen by a lot of people just because of this beef.”
Though the embattled artists have shared “life-changing money” with commentators in the rap community, they have also earned plenty of attention on their official channels. In YouTube Music’s latest ranking of trending music videos, four of the top six spots belong to Lamar’s diss tracks. Drake’s retorts claim the remaining pair of top-six spots. Oh, and for those keeping track at home, the YouTube charts are also showing the typical monthly spike for the ‘NSYNC hit “It’s Gonna Be Me.”
In terms of total YouTube traffic, Lamar is clearly ahead of his rival. Drake has brought in nearly 20 million views between “The Heart Part 6” and “Family Matters,” but the man known as K.Dot is far ahead of that pace. Lamar has picked up 70 million views between “Euphoria,” “Meet The Grahams,” and YouTube viewership leader “Not Like Us.”
Drake will need to issue more verbal jabs if he wants to keep up in the YouTube Music rankings. At the very least, both he and Lamar can claim an extraordinary victory: They figured out how to bump Taylor Swift from the top of the charts.
