Close, but not quite comparable. MJ wasn’t publicly engaged in a rap feud.
Drake lost the same way, many other past rappers have lost. They release a terrible response to a monster diss track and the public does what it does. Unless every blogger, reviewer, internet fan, TikTok, China, real life fans, etc were in cahoots with UMG to sully drakes public image, than this is an apples to orange comparison. Drake and his fans were flexing his standing within the industry all the way up until NLU dropped. The first week after Push-ups was released, it was literally hip hop media, Drake Stans, old head rappers, etc “ooing and ahhing” about drakes “50/50 Splits” bar against kendrick. How kendrick got hoed by Top, relative to Drakes contract and his standing in the industry. Then it shifted to JayZ and Roc Nation trying to take him down and being an enemy to the Universal/YoungMoney/Baby/Slim and that collective. But the whole time, it was universal trying to screw him over via “convincing the public” that Drake lost and causing him financial distress to lower his value? Why couldn’t the boy bounce back from Circadian Rhythm? Who the hell was saying The Heart Part 6 ate kendrick up? How could this not be sour grapes when ppls reactions to all tracks put out between the two artist were organic reactions? Drake was supposed to be Teflon. Michael wasn’t cosplaying as a rapper, and bravado and talking cash shyt was never part of his repertoire as an artist. Again, Drake never had to respond. He wasn’t contractually obligated to respond to kendrick.
digiday.com
