Voxels

Hi, I'm Sonic.

And you know, I, I kept watching that one slave anime from the last time to redeem itself.

It didn't, it really got, it got way worse. So, so basically watch the last episode whenever we

did the anime pickup, we're talking about that one. We're like, he buys a slave, he frees the

slave, right? Just the dater. No, he buys a slave and he wants a dater, right? So here's how down

bad and how terrible it gets. All right. I'm spoiling the shit. Skip ahead to the next chapter,

this chapter markers bell, spoiler bell here. So he, a few episodes later, gets enough power

to find the key to her chains and freeze her. Yeah. And she comes back to him and says, no,

I want to be with you and tells him to put the shackles back on her.

I, that's, there's a lot to unpack there. And we do not. I'm also, I'm also a Christian,

but yeah, but anyways, this is Voxel, it's a podcast about culture and games.

And I speak about people with problematic views on slavery. Let's talk about Drake.

All right. Let's, let's, I think we need to like set the stage here a little bit. I think,

I don't know, I don't know how many of our listeners, I know some of our listeners are

definitely following this, but just to like, we should go start the origin of this. The origin

of this is, I mean, the origin of this is deeper than we probably know, but like the track that's

sort of started back in 2013, Kendrick, it's 2014. When did control drop? So Kendrick dropped

the verse called control and Drake in 2013. Yeah. And so it's been like a decade, not like that.

So it's basically been since control drop that we've known publicly that Drake and Kendrick do

not fuck with each other. So all of this has been simmering for a while, right? Like it's

sort of just like background in the background. Kendrick has not like, I think, I think the hard

part six, hard part four or three, what was it was called? Yep. Hard part four, the one before damn,

that's the one that called out Drake. The one, the line is, if you, if you tell lies about me,

I'll speak some truths on you. Yes. That and that's, that line specifically is very relevant

now in this particular era of this beef, right? So we, the first instigating incident is it was

thing is, is from first person shooter, the track with the Drake and J Cole on it. And the line

where, where, where J Cole goes that is it K-dot, is it Aubrey or me? We the big three, like we

started a big league, started, started a league. And that is the line that sort of kicks this off,

which I, I did not expect anything to come out of that line. I thought just, just like that,

like first person shooter as a song, I didn't expect anything to like happen because of it.

Like it just felt like, you know, whatever, like it's just another Drake song. Drake just doing

his, I don't know, like try to be Michael Jackson, like whatever the fuck he's doing in that music

video. Like it's whatever. And, and Kendrick responds with, with like that, which, which I,

I think we talked about this. I don't know if we talked about this on the podcast or we talked

about it elsewhere that we, I didn't think we didn't think that Kendrick's response on like

that was serious. Like we didn't think he was being like, actually like he was actually pissed

off. Like it just felt like kind of like, you know, just like kind of like a fun brag track,

like, like a verse that didn't really mean much. But coming back to that, like where he's just

like, you know, I'm like, I'm, I'm the big, you know, like there's only just me, just you two are

not like relevant to this conversation. And that, you know, Prince outlived, your favorite line,

right? Prince outlived Michael Jackson, right? At which, because, because Drake's made the

reference to him being Michael Jackson and then first person shooter. That's, I didn't think

this was this, this whole, that whole verse was serious. Like I, I just really, so what do you,

what do you think, think about this sort of like J Cole was almost involved in this and he,

he backed out? Like, do you think? Well, we, we, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta take a step.

Like we gotta still focus on first on, on first person shooter and like that. So I think the,

the bigger issue is, is that in, in the game of rap, cause rap is a competitive sport. Hip-hop

is a competitive sport, as everyone knows. Basically that you have a problem where not

many people like Drake. Cause we, I think we have to take a moment to talk about what the culture of

it, because there's like the beef stuff, but so Drake, Drake, Drake is an artist from Canada who

came into the U S and then basically is like the number one streaming artist, I think on all

streaming platforms globally. And maybe Taylor Swift, maybe like him and Taylor Swift are like

tied neck for neck. Yeah. I mean, Drake is, is, is massive. Like, and it's, it's, it's not a like

Drake and Taylor Swift are like, I would say equivalence in that. And it's, it's kind of

interesting to see as someone who's been sort of here for Drake's rise, you know, when, you know,

the way to win, like, I remember when I was in like high school, like when the track, like,

hold on, we're going home, you know, with magic Jordan became like the track, like everywhere,

like, you know, everybody was playing that. Like our, we started from the bottom now, now here.

Well, you have a different context though. Cause you're, you are actually from Toronto,

that area you're from, you're from the GTA, the grand theft auto, as they call it.

Yeah. I'm from Toronto. Yes. But the thing is Drake's, I think Drake's popularity

sort of peaked with views, like the album views. Right. And I think after views, I slowly,

but surely, like, I think Drake sort of, I think Drake like still put out music that people listen

to in the, in the sort of abstract concept. Like it's, there's this, obviously he's making a lot

of money with a lot of streams and, you know, concerts and all that. But like,

I feel like as a cultural entity, he sort of started falling down, like sort of in people's

estimations of who he was as a person. And like, or not just that, I think accusations of being

like a culture vulture, like a, like a cultural people, someone who's like, sort of just borrows

like trends from different cultures, different, different countries, different cultures.

Like that's part of why he tried to be British, you know, where he tried to like do like a UK

rap style, you know, like, or he tried to do like a Caribbean thing. Like, you know, he's just

trying to like, Well, I think there's a different aspect of it too, that it doesn't, I mean,

it doesn't, I think matter much for you in Canada, but I think from a, from the US perspective,

for a lot of like American artists, you basically have Drake being what the voice of hip hop is,

right. And that gets exported around the world. And I feel like a lot of like US based artists

have a problem with that since that's not necessarily what, what they want the culture

to be. Right. Like, I think that's why you have Kendrick who quite obviously has studied hip hop,

right. You know, Dr. Drake co-signed soup dog on all of his records, the ending of fucking

to have a butterfly being an interview with Tupac, right. Like all of that just being

in his core DNA of his character and the music he puts out, that would put you at natural odds

of what Drake is doing, which is basically like, I'm, I'm going to go for these trends and do

whatever I want. And you know, it's like, if I had to talk about whole alive for the nerds here,

right. Drake's Cali Mori, hip hop didn't work for her. So now she's making anime music.

I think, I think what, what happened, what, what, what, what feels like what an app like

analogy here, Drake is putting on a costume, right. Like when he raps, right. I, I, Kendrick

sort of alludes to this in, in his, in his, in the tracks that he released recently with,

for the desk, like Drake is not like that is not his real self. Like Drake is not a person

who like lived that life as it were, right. He's not, he's not like that, right. He's not like us,

you know, specifically, like he's not, he didn't grow up like that. And he, it sort of always felt

like Drake was putting on, like, like he was an entertainer right first. Like he was not speaking

from a place of genuine. Okay. Now let me rephrase that. So it's like all like rap is like an

entertainment genre, but like, he's not speaking on it from a place of authentic lived experience,

right. Like he's not, it's not, it felt fake, like it felt extremely fake. So, and increasingly as

time went on, it got a more and more obvious how it was just so fake. It was how sort of, you know,

how much Drake doesn't respect the culture, et cetera. Like it, it, it sort of, and obviously

I think this shouldn't be like discounted. I think the quality of his music decreased. I think people

are willing to forgive a lot of fake shit in music if the music is good, but the music wasn't good

after views. I think the musical quality, musical output of Drake just sort of careened off like a

pit, like into a pit. It's just like, not, I don't, I don't think I've, I don't think I've

disattracted any real tracks after if you're reading this at Stoolite or views where I'm just

like, this is a good track. It's just Drake hasn't made a good song in a long ass time.

And that sort of didn't help, right. Because once your music is bad and you're also, you're also

like culturally appropriating from these different hip hop sub genres around the world, nobody's

going to have any respect for you. Right. Like if that doesn't, it doesn't, doesn't, doesn't matter

that you're popular. It just means that, you know, your, your popularity is built off the backs of

like, you know, there's a lot of artists that, you know, this is, this is an old, old Drake sort of

trope where Drake has these artists in his, I guess you'd call it in his, in his crew where he

just like uses their beats and their melodies and songs and ghostwriters that he doesn't really give

them anything else. Right. Like he sort of just used them as a resource and treats them poorly.

I think definitely some artists who could speak to that probably would have chosen not to.

And I mean, it's a great, it's a broader issue in the music industry. I think there's a lot of,

and part of it, I don't think is like artist driven. I think some of it is also labeled,

but most of it's probably labeled driven. It's like the same reason that why did,

why was Culture 1 a classic 12 tracks, perfect length, right? Culture 1 by Migos is perfect

length. Culture 2, 30 tracks. Culture 3, fucking 35 tracks. It's this entire cycle where

in Spotify and streaming, I think is partly to blame also where you kind of get incentivized

to make music not for artistic sake, but music for to get put in playlists to get put in

recommendations. Right. So you can have gaming streams and then end up getting more money from

your music that way because otherwise you don't get paid shit for streaming. And I think that's

basically the way that Drake has written, right? He's written being, sure there's good tracks,

but also he makes the kind of music that any editor at Spotify or Apple Music can put it in

the rap playlist. Yeah. It's a safe pick, right? You can put a Drake track on a rap playlist or

on a magazine cover or whatever. It's a safe option. Drake is, as you say, the music that

gets played on department store. When you go to a store and the music that's, if they're playing

hip hop, it's going to be Drake because they know it's going to be the safest option. Right.

That's just going to be it. So he became this sort of bland, it sort of created this homogenized,

sort of just stripped hip hop of its, of the actual cultural power and make it into this

commodity. We can talk about that. That's a different topic, but it's all kind of tied

together on why Drake exists as an industrial complex. The industrial complex of Drake is

basically because the music labels aren't paying artists to make real art. So artists are going to

make music that games and streams that he just happens to be really good at it. And that is why

Kendrick is a culture vulture because Kendrick has, I mean, Kendrick has made pop shit before,

like tracks off a dam. But I think we can all kind of argue, we can all agree on the general

consensus that at least with a Kendrick album, at least with, let's compare what is it for all the

dogs and Mr. Morale, right? Mr. Morale is a problematic album, but what's Kendrick saying

on Mr. Morale? Hey, I fucked up. I need to hold myself accountable. I cheated on my wife. I had

problematic views about trans people, even if put the slur stuff aside. Right. The point of that

song was I had problematic views on trans people. I need to change that about myself. My cousin

called me out on my shit for using slurs. And then you got Drake, which is making songs about

how you need a man and it's called Amen. Yeah, it's just, I think Kendrick, like a straight up

like concept, conceptual level bar for bar. I think Kendrick has all obviously always been the better

rapper, just in general for everybody. And I think this is an old Jay-Z line is where he said that

if rap is what's sold, like if rap or just just rapping is what's sold, that he would be rapping

like Common did. Right. And I think what he meant was that Drake has just taken the playbook of

it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to make any sense. It doesn't have to be deep. It just has to

be catchy and have a hook. And he's a pop. This is pop artist. This is the key that we are just

of Drake is Drake is a pop rap artist. Right. And that is the niche niche. But that is the.

But he thinks he's real hip hop, though. Yeah, that he does. Yes. Sort of illusion that

he is. So let's talk about I think the some of the tracks here I think that we're talking about.

I think yes, we have first person shooter. We went through like that. So now we got I think

we take a detour to J. Cole, though. Just get J. Cole out the way. So J. Cole released seven minute

drill, a terrible song, objectively, where he's dissing Kendrick. And then a few days later,

he on stage said he had a change of heart and deleted the track off a string. But thankfully,

the Internet never forgets. So there's an archive track of it in the show notes.

I think basically the the most we can say about J. Cole is I kind of wish he was on this in the

beef for one reason. One reason Kendrick dropped the track saying trans rights. J. Cole dropped

the transphobic track. Imagine a not like this called J. Cole transphobe. Listen, listen,

humanity would be a better place if there was a club banger calling out transphobes

are being pieces of shit. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. I think Drake Drake.

I did not drink. J. Cole made the wisest decision of his life to just get the fuck out of there.

Like just straight up here. He realized that this was going to go someone. I feel like someone

Kendrick's camp reached out to him. I was like, oh, bro, no, no, no, no, no. Like this is not

just leave. Just go. Just go by the same like who can rap better be better beef. This is like

someone's about to get some charges beef. Yeah, exactly. It's it's not it's not casual. Like

this is not a casual beef. So the first big first we like we talk about like that sort of Drake

response to that right with two tracks. First of all, first track, which is push ups, which

honestly, I this is just I'll be honest with all the audience here. I'll be real with you.

None of the none of the Drake responses to this have been particularly like, but a good

and the only interesting one was obviously family matters, mostly because not because of the song

itself, really, but because of the video. I thought the video was like kind of like, you know,

like, like very that's the only respectable part of this of this whole beef where Drake actually

put in like an effort into something. And it was that video. So that's not about push ups. Like,

is there anything that we need to talk about our push ups? That's important. Like, like, you know,

how he talks about, like, you ain't in no big three says that guy you wiped out. I'm like,

what does sizzle have anything to do with this? Like, why is she here? Why is she getting so the

issue is this push up sets up a core problem with Drake's attack offense, right? If we got to go

eSports on this shit. So yeah, Kendrick was always a target. And, you know, Rocky and other people

on not we don't trust you, right? We're throwing shots at Drake future was to so even the, you

know, the weekend, right? He had a line reads like, I'm glad I didn't sign to OVO. And then

Drake decided to go after all of them. And that's where you got the tracker that says, you know,

what is a 20 v one. And that was like his mistake. It's like, what is? Oh, no, you took down ASAP

Rocky. Okay. Like, okay, he is not involved. Yeah, like, it's just between you to Kendrick

and his fatal flaws that he kept focusing on everyone. It's like, like, the way you be for

the weekend about like, what is this? What are your weekend bars? You're weirdo? Like, no,

that's not. That's not the way you put your energy yet in a fight like that. No. Yeah, I think I've

heard Rick Ross. Fucking Rick Rock was just it just feels on. It just feels unfocused, right?

Like Drake Drake is spread his sort of lyrical energy here towards people who are not involved

in this, like really at all. And he just gets distracted by like, I think the point I think

sort of overarching point here is that Drake can't just go at Kendrick because he doesn't.

He can't like he doesn't know. He doesn't have the lyrical ability, nor the ammunition to really,

like, take Kendrick on head for head. Right. And which means that he's like, just distracting

distracting himself with these like bars about the weekend, like a sap rocky, like the Pharrell

and like, you know, all these people like that are not involved in this at all. Right. You know,

why is for what's for earlier, like, for all y'all leave for a lot of this. Like, all these like

lines, like, you know, like the whole line about, you know, this line where he's like, then we need

a verse for the Swifties. Like what? What is that even like, like, what is that a reference to?

The problem is, it's not developed well. So basically, there's I mean, there are ways you

could attack Kendrick right outside of the short jokes. The short jokes are kind of funny, though.

I love a short joke. Sure, sure. There's nothing wrong with a short joke. Sorry,

the short kings out there. But like, he could have built a good narrative on how Kendrick's

early success of Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift was based off the fact that his

record label was forcing him to collaborate with white artists. Like there is a threat,

and he kind of pokes at it, but he doesn't develop it. Right. It's like, this is appetizers. And we

want the main course. Yeah, yeah, he just he's just sort of jabs, right? He does these like

little, little jabs. He never like expand like he doesn't like dig deep into these any of these

topics. And it's like, like, everybody's getting hit by like casual shots, like Metro booming is

getting hit by I mean, Metro booming is technically involved in this in a way. So we can't really be

like, you know, Metro booming is not involved. But Metro didn't need any shots. Like, you know,

it's like, it's all this shit. Like, I listened, I listened to push ups. And I was just like,

like, is this really the best that Drake can do? Let's put an Overwatch terms, right? Like how?

Oh, my God, no. What? What? What is it? I don't know. I don't play enough Overwatch. What's the

play? Like, how is this compared to like, you know, he got ganked, he was trying to gank and

he didn't get ganked. Like, how does that work? Okay, so so if you really doing this analogy,

I think this is Drake is playing a game where he is not focusing targets, right? He I mean,

one of the core principles of playing Overwatch is when you play as a team, you, you, you focus

around a singular objective and a singular target or, you know, so, and Drake has not focused his

like, he's not focused on on Kendrick, he's just spreading his attacks on multiple,

like, he's not doing enough DPS to Kendrick here, you know what I'm saying? Like, he spread his DPS

across multiple targets, which which means that at the end of the day, he's strategically from a

gameplay perspective, he's sort of gonna lose because he's not pushing the objective. Yeah,

he's not pushing the objective. So that's a good I didn't expect to be making an Overwatch analogy,

but there we go. Anyways, Overwatch has Porsches in it. I don't understand. Taylor made freestyle

that was also equally terrible for doing AI to pocket AI Snoop Dogg. I okay, this one I think

is where I sort of, I was just like, after I saw this, and I was just like, really? Like,

is this is this what we're doing? Where we so super put into context, Taylor made freestyle

has a verse from an AI, quote unquote, AI generated verse from Tupac. And this is like disrespectful

on like, so many levels, right? Like, this is, this is so edgelord behavior, right? Like, this

is just the kind of shit where you do that you're a troll, like you're an edgelord. Like, we all

know that Kendrick is, you know, Tupac is massively important to Kendrick as you know, for various

reasons, as we alluded to earlier, we don't get like the whole verse at the end of the thing with

at the end of the two paper butterfly. If anyone hasn't listened to that, go listen to that. It's

Tupac is a significant figure. It's sort of like the canon of West Coast, hip hop, and to sort of

insult Kendrick using Tupac's, like a beat up Tupac voice is just like, from my perspective,

that's an automatic L like you for forfeited this whole thing, just by doing this, like it is like

it doesn't even matter to me what Drake does after this point, because after this point, I just look

at Taylor Beat freestyle. And I'm just like, well, how can I take anything this man says seriously

ever again? And I was like, it's just it just doesn't sit right with me as a person who got

introduced to hip hop with Tupac. It's kind of like, sitting wrong with me on that front as well.

Like it's just disrespectful to the culture. And this is the thing. Like Kendrick has been talking

about how Drake has, we have all these examples of Drake being, you know, disrespectful to the

culture. And this is this here, this right here is like, like exhibit a in like, a prime example of

like, why Drake is like, how Drake is being disrespectful. This is like, it's just the own

goal. Honestly, like this is, this is just

more importantly, beefs are a battle of public opinion, not like, yeah. And you don't,

yeah, you don't win public opinion by shitting on things that people like.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's just like, like, like people, again, people who are not

involved, right? Tupac is not involved, obviously, like nor is Snoop Dogg. Like,

why is the Snoop Dogg verse like a AI generated Snoop Dogg? And you're like, it's just this shit.

Like, just, just bad. Like, this is not, it's not, it's not good.

Then we talk about, unless you have anything else to say about Tailor Made Freestyle,

I think we can talk about Euphoria. No, it's garbage track. I mean, also Drake's,

Drake ain't right for leaking it out first, an unmixed version. And then once there's a response

to it, putting out the actual mix version, that's whack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, yeah,

that track should have never have been made. Honestly, that was a, that was a, that's a bad

one. Euphoria, on the other hand, is quite possibly, honestly, like, straight up just like

a really good, like, Kendrick track in general. Like, it's, I think it's the best track from this

entire beef. If we take a production writing, like, cohesive song perspective, I think it's

the best track overall. Yeah, it's just like, you know, like, it starts off with that sort of

slow Kendrick spoken word style. And then it, like, it has multi-layers with like three

beat switches, right? And it starts building this, like, narrative, right? It started building this,

like, the beat changes also sort of play into that, like, the beat gets more intense.

And this Kendrick's rapping gets more and more intense, right? So I think there's, like,

multiple things in this track worth talking about, right? He's talking about how, like, you know, he

inherits the beef from Pharrell, you know, like we refer to Pharrell, and that, you know, he's like,

he's Terrence Thornton, I'm Terrence Crawford. Like, the whole thing about, you know, how,

the story of "Add It On," right, I think is worth bringing up in this instance, just as a,

as I think, sort of like, the start of the downfall of Drake would have, I think,

start with the story of "Add It On," because that, I felt like, laid the groundwork for

other rappers to come in and like, Kendrick just sort of twisting that knife in a little bit.

What do you, what do you think about this track? Like, I think it's really good, actually.

So, I think the thing with this track is, from a lyrical perspective, the amount of foreshadowing

and retrospect is wild, because Drake, Kendrick wasn't even making PDF downloader allegations,

right? Like, he wasn't even making, I don't even know why I said we're not on TikTok,

we're not on YouTube, I don't know. Actually, I mean, this is going to YouTube, I don't know,

I don't know if this is, I don't want the channel to get striked. But this is the algorithms,

they dictate how you make content, I gotta fucking say PDF file. It's gotta be like,

call people acrobat readers nowadays. The real L of this whole beef has been Adobe.

Fuck Adobe, though. But so basically, though, with this track, it's like,

there's so much great writing, great foreshadowing. And you could tell Kendrick's having fun with this

shit. It's all the weird vocal inflection. He kind of does a not like us, but what is this,

fuck, fuck, push and pee, I want to see you push a T.

Yeah, I love this. This is sort of my favorite, one of my favorite aspects of Kendrick is where

he's not the first time he's done this, but he does these voices. He's like, he sort of switches,

he takes on these personalities, kind of reminds me of Eminem in that way, you know, like he kind

of like, takes on these like, voices and like, sort of, like, really has these inflections.

Like he moves his voice higher and lower. And that sort of inflection on push and T is it was just

like, so good, like all these little old. And then you have the bar where he's like,

I love y'all to death and eight bars, I'll explain that phrase. And then eight bars later,

he's like, if y'all don't do that, I'm Y&W belly. Guys, he's saying it like that. It's so good.

Euphoria is just so well written. And it's so like, he's taunting him at the end of it saying

he's taken away he took away the N word pass. Yeah, he sure did. Oh my god.

Only part of this track that doesn't really make sense or work is the part where he talks about

what Drake's record label cut is, right? Like record label contract is like, because that

I think it's not like it's not really applicable anymore, right? To either Kendrick or Drake,

right? No, it's a 360 deal. I think Drake's in a 360 deal. I think that's what it is.

Do you know what 360 deal is? I mean, I should explain for listeners even if you do. So 360

deals are basically where you take a loan from the record label, they... You don't make enough

to I think pay it back. So you're kind of stuck continuously producing albums until it's paid

back. But because the amount of money they're fronting you, you don't get paid for it. So it's

360 in that you're continuously stuck making records for the rest of your life. Kendrick

is obviously not in one because he just started his own record company. He's no longer a top dog.

But Drake's been at the same level since day one. So I think Kendrick is kind of saying, "Hey,

I have the freedom to do whatever the fuck I want. I'm not stuck in this." While meanwhile,

you're stuck in a 360 deal. Yeah, just all these little references like, "Am I battling ghost or

AI?" Right? And they're like, "It's just... Tell them run to America. They're imitating heritage.

They can't imitate this violence." All these small... And the whole thing with the crony thing.

No, listen, they called you out. Someone here in Toronto from here.

I'll be real with you. I've never heard anyone use that word in my life. I'll be real with you.

I've lived in the city since I was 13. I've never heard somebody use that line.

Never been to New Hoking?

I don't think New Hoking is... I don't think that's a Toronto restaurant.

It's a Toronto restaurant. Yeah, let me search it up right now.

It might be.

I don't even know your city, bro.

Yeah, New Hoking, Toronto is... Let me give you the address. It's on

410 Spadina Avenue, Toronto.

Yeah, that's way outside my usual zone of being in the city. So that's not surprising.

Yeah. So that whole sentence with New Hoking and eating fried rice with dip sauce.

Just... It's just...

Oh my god. The Google Reviews first place or fire. I'm so sorry.

This is from 10 hours ago. Food here is great, Krotie. Fried rice and a dip sauce is the best,

Krotie.

Oh my god. Of course, the Google Reviews. Well, I guess good for them, I guess.

So Euphoria, I think, marks this... Euphoria feels... I think the... Euphoria and 6/16 in LA.

So Euphoria came out first. And then it was 6...

I think of the order mess up. It was Euphoria, then Push Ups, then TaylorMade Freestyle,

then 6/16 in LA. So 6/16 in LA was only released on Instagram, I think, probably because you can't...

It's an outgraded sample. You probably couldn't have cleared. And basically 6/16 in LA is just

telling Drake, "Hey, I know your next move. You have people in OVO who are leaking shit to me.

Are you sure you really want to do this?"

Yeah. Yeah. That whole album art is like a glove, right? And with the...

You can sort of make out a receipt on the side of it, sitting on some sort of sports jersey.

I think that's a reference to something. I don't know what that's actually a reference to,

but it feels like it's a reference to... Yeah. It's just... 6/16 in LA is just the end of the

nice Drake, nice Kendrick. Kendrick's not... He's like, "All right, if you really want to do this,

we can actually go into it." Do it!

Also, him calling DJ Akademiks out is very funny.

Yeah. Yeah. DJ Akademiks. Speaking of culture vultures,

Family Matters is, I think, the last time Drake is actually making any relevant points, right?

Anything that could be considered a good... In the sense that is relevant to the beef.

What do you think... First of all, my question is, the whole music video thing,

what did you think of the music video? He got the wrong car for the Good Kid,

Mad City van. Yeah. I think it was the town and country that Kendrick had on it.

It's a different... They look the same, but it's not the right car. And that is, I think,

ultimately a microcosm of how to take... The smallest point of Drake's issue is that he can't

even be fucking bothered to buy the correct car to crash or to smush. Because in the video, basically,

Drake ends up compressing or junking a brand new minivan that's supposed to look like the one from

the Good Kid, Mad City album cover, but it's the wrong fucking model car. That's just Drake in a

nutshell. Now, the video, they shot it in New Hoking, which is very funny because it's like,

did Kendrick know that in Euphoria? Or did Drake do that because of Euphoria?

Yeah, that's a point of what's the timeline on that? I feel like either way is possible.

Okay, so this whole thing where Drake implies that Kendrick's kids are not his,

where he implies that Dave Free... I forget who Dave Free is. Who is Dave Free? Is he a producer

or a friend of Kendrick's? Okay, so we'll take a moment back. So basically,

in the actual track, there's a few allegations. So Drake spends the first half of it going after

Rick Ross for being on Ozempic in the weekend for being apparently not straight, which is fucked up.

And he goes after a bunch of other people because whatever, because Drake can't focus on one person.

But when he talks about Kendrick, his beefs are Kendrick's son is actually his manager,

Dave Free's kid, who fucked his baby mama, and that Kendrick beat his wife. Those are the two

big allegations on this track. Yeah, those are two big allegations. Yeah. So the Dave Free

allegation has nothing back. There's nothing there, as far as we know. I mean, there's nothing

also with the whole being is white thing. And I think to be clear, there's a lot of allegations

that we have from here on out. And normally, we believing victims is the MO. The issue being,

is who am I more subject to believe, Drake or Kendrick on an allegation?

And the reason I'm less subject to believe Drake on these actually being true,

I think it's pretty obvious we have a biased source Kendrick here. We're not going to lie

about that. Is the fact of is that Whitney, the person who Drake was claiming he beat,

is all over Mr. Morale. If someone beat you and they're separated, they're no longer together,

that's made clear Mr. Morale that she left him for him cheating on him. And he admitted about

cheating on him. He admitted he cheated on her. And he was pretty honest about that shit.

I don't find that to be credible because it just doesn't make sense. There are some lines you can't

cross. And that's one of them. Because she's a famous stylist or something like that. She runs

like some kind of studio in LA. So it's not like she's not a private person in terms of doesn't

have a public job. She does do actual work with celebrities in LA. So we would be hearing more

about that. Yeah. This just feels like, I don't know, this feels like something that Drake heard

secondhand and is just putting it out there. Just more... What's the term for it? Flack.

It's just noise, really. It's a thing that he's just putting up. And he's bringing colorism

into this. Because colorism here is a complex topic. Because I think, I don't know if you're

equipped to talk about this, but... I think we're equipped to talk about one thing. And it's that

Drake has no... Sorry. A Canadian man, I don't care what color you are, has no right to tell

someone in the US that you're rapping like you're freeing slaves. There is a historical amount of

ignorance in that line. Yeah. Yeah. That's a given. Yeah. The colorism stuff is... Kendrick

is also playing with this. Kendrick is obviously playing with this. He's implying that Drake

wants to be black. Drake doesn't feel like he's... This is not even a thing that only Kendrick has

said. And many critics, many people talking about this have long spent... A lot of Drake's

sort of culture, vulture aspects are him trying to be black. He is trying to embody this identity

that he feels he doesn't have. He really wants to be black. That's Kendrick implying that multiple

times. And over here in Family Matters, he's talking about you, the black messiah,

wiping up a mixed queen. The colorism is coming from both sides. But this is what is...

Well, I think Kendrick's arguments towards Drake are a little more rooted in

actual reality. Because I don't... Reality. Yeah. Yeah. We have to try carefully here,

but I don't know. You have an actor from the rich part of Toronto who grew up with a white mother,

who yes, is mixed. But there's a cultural aspect of it. Race and ethnicity are always tied together

in weird ways. But I think for someone from my angle, or my perspective, rather, I grew up in

New England. I grew up in the States. I can't really claim some of the Central American-ness

that if I grew up there, even though that's technically my ethnicity, you just don't have

that claim because you're not from there. I can respect it. I can learn it. I can go there and

partake in it as a visitor, but I'm not always going to be 100% from there. And it's not...

Family roots, sure, but not my actual roots. It's the same way if you had... If you end up having

kids in Toronto, it's not like your kids could ever really claim some of the stuff that you had

growing up where you grew up. Exactly. Yeah. So it's a matter of life experiences and not just

like what you inherit necessarily. Yeah, this is a complex discussion. And obviously,

there's a lot there and we could spend a lot of time just dissecting why Drake...

But still, Kendrick at least unpacking it in a thoughtful way, I think. Whereas Drake is just

like, "You rap like you're free and slaves," which is like, I don't know. I don't know if

that's really the angle. That's a bad bar. Although he does have some funny one-liners.

When you're standing up, your back's against a curb. That's a fun short joke. That's a good one.

Yeah. That's all he's got though. He's just got short jokes. And at this point,

yeah, that's all you got. It's not enough for anything to actually have any sticking power

or any strength behind it. What he says on some Bobby shit... Who's Bobby? Is he referring to

Whitney and Bobby Brown? Because Bobby Brown beat Whitney. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. The Whitney.

Okay. Now, Whitney Houston. Yeah. Whitney Houston. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. Family Matters.

Just like, yeah. He's implying that if Drake Shooter's doing TikToks, that he's like,

"Realest shooter in your gang that's P's brother. Y'all ain't getting shit shot."

He's implying that Kendrick isn't actually from the hood. He isn't about that life.

If you go zoom out for a bit, Kendrick is an extremely popular and rich artist. He's not from

the hood anymore. He's not. I think factually, that's correct. But from a narrative perspective,

talking about Kendrick as a whole, I don't think that's true. It's not.

It doesn't work too, because he's basically calling out Kendrick saying he doesn't even

put a city on anymore. Where Top Dog Entertainment runs annual food and charity drives in Compton.

There's whole food banks and stuff. They do run over there. There's proof to it. It's factually

incorrect. That's the thing. So, from a content perspective, Family Matters is just really wack.

From a beat perspective and a rapping perspective, this is the closest we've gotten to...

If you're reading this, it's too late, Drake. In a while.

Yeah, sure is. This is the closest Drake has gotten to actually rapping properly.

It's a long-ass track, too. So much of it is just taking shots at other people as well. Pharrell

gets mentioned again. He's making reference to the Prince and Mike thing with "Sure" or whatever.

The only reason this track was even remotely interesting to me was the music video. That's it.

A Drake music video is the only interesting part we got out of this.

So, we want to talk about the next track on this. Didn't this come out basically 45 minutes after?

It came out 30 minutes after it.

30 minutes after Family Matters. So, Kendrick already had Meet the Grams recorded and all that

before Family Matters came out. He instantly just hit publish on that. It's kind of crazy

to have that happen. I don't think we've ever had that sort of response being so fast.

Meet the Grams is...

I think the most harrowing diss track I've ever heard in my life. So, what Meet the Grams is,

Meet the Grams is basically Aubrey Graham is Drake's name, right? And Kendrick is basically

addressing everyone in Drake's family and then addresses Drake. And it's in the most monotone,

like, "I'm just going to sit you down and talk to you, Flo." So, first he starts by talking to

Adonis, Drake's son, and says, "Dear Adonis, I'm sorry that that man is your father," which,

to be clear, is a wild thing to tell a seven-year-old.

Yeah, that's... Yeah. And to be fair to Kendrick, he's also saying that you don't listen to this

until you're old enough to listen to this, right? Like, he's the last...

Yeah, but the way he's addressing it is like, "Hey, your father ain't shit. Let me teach you

how to... Let me put you on real game. Here's what it's like to be an actual human and be a

Black man, even though you're mixed." And then he goes after Drake's mother, and then he calls out

Drake's father and says, "I blame you for all his issues. You raised a fucking horrible human."

And then here's the part where it gets to the PDF downloader allegations. So, basically,

the argument in Meet the Grams is OVO is fronting a sex ring in Toronto, and that there are sex

offenders on payroll, and that they are knowingly aware of that. And Drake is just completely

complicit in it. And this one doesn't actually say PDF downloader. It hints to it, though.

It hints. It's not a straight call out of it. It hints to it and says, "Hey, if your sister's like

Drake, tell your nieces to stay away from him." And I think the reason that these hold way more

water than any of the claims Drake made in Family Matters is... Yeah.

There's been enough noise about this for years, right? Of Drake DMing young kids on Instagram.

Yeah, he does. The Millie Brown girl, right? The whole thing with Millie. So, this has been

in the background for years, as you mentioned. So, it just does feel more credible.

Also, too, there is an actual sex offender on BACA, whatever his name is. BACA on OVO. BACA

not nice. Was arrested... Was credibly arrested. Let me see. There's a complex article. He was

arrested for... What does complex say? Yeah, he was arrested for forcing a 22-year-old woman

into prostitution in 2014. He pleaded guilty to it in a Toronto court, but the charges were

dropped against him because the woman refused to testify. So, you pleaded guilty, but the charges

got dropped. He refused to testify. There's a certain level of power and influence on that.

But these are not allegations. That's in the legal record there. So, that is true. That is true.

I would classify that person as a predator. But yeah, the claims are valid. And it's just the way

that Kendrick delivers that. There's no funny bars about it. But I think afterwards, the next

part though, when he addresses Drake's daughter, it doesn't matter if it's true or false, I guess.

Because I think everyone's freaking over this track because he pulls out that you're hiding

a child line again, and Drake has an 11-year-old daughter, which is fine and all. But if we take

the grand scheme of things, a child no one knows about or running a sex ring in Toronto, I think

the former... Or rather, the latter there, the more important claims to even address.

But there's that. And then he calls out Drake's character. It just basically ends it by yelling

at Drake saying he's lied about everything. I think my favorite line of this is, "I tried

to empathize with you, but you've never gone through anything tough in your life."

Whew. This track is so heavy. This track is just... It's written in the form of this letter,

which just... And it feels so personal and so heavy in a way that's not a track that you can...

The first time I listened to this, I was like... And honestly, we got to talk about the production

on this. The fucking... The alchemist produced this beat. And it's the most harrowing shit.

The beat and the juxtaposition with the lyrics here just feels so weird. So just harrowing.

It's just bizarre. It's kind of such a... One of the things I get away from this track is Kendrick's

talking about how soliciting women problems, therapy's a lovely start. He's talking about how

Drake has all these issues, and he needs therapy. And he keeps lying about all these things.

And the last line of the song is the mic drop, I think, which is like, "Fuck a rap battle. This

is a long-life battle with yourself." Which... It's a lot. It's a lot going on. This, I feel,

could have been the end of the beef. Not end of the beef, but end of this particular section.

I felt like this was a definitive track. It was a track that sort of... I felt like the last line

concluded things in a way that felt like it was Kendrick just being like, "Okay,

I've said my thing. And it's a problem that you need to deal with yourself."

And I felt that was going to be the end of it, but it was not. This was like a weekend. We're

just sitting here just chilling. I'm just like, "Oh, this new track." There were a few tracks,

three? I mean, one of them is not really a track, it's just instrumental, but we've got to talk

about that a bit. Which one do we want to talk about? I think I still got BBL Drizzy out of the

way. BBL Drizzy. I'm sorry. Every time I mention the name of the song, the melody plays in my head,

and it's just the catchiest melody, I swear to God. So when he insulted Metro Booming and told

him to shut the fuck up and make some drums, Metro Booming responded with a BBL Drizzy.

Taking that shit to heart. Yeah. He said, "All right, I'm going to make some drums." And

he made this... I think it's like the vocals are AI-generated.

The vocals are AI, yeah. The vocals are from AI.

Yeah, the vocals are AI-generated. But there's these heavy drums on this, and it's this catchy

melody of best BBL in the world, thicker than a snicker. Is that one of the lines? It's just a

sample looped over and over again. It's so good. Honestly, it's just the funniest. This BBL Drizzy

is the funniest track out of this. It doesn't even actually have any verses on it. It's truly

a masterpiece in that sense. And there's a challenge for Metro City to give $10,000

and a freebie to anyone who has dropped the best verse on this. God.

That's just like Chef's Kiss, the best way to handle that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now we got to talk about Not Like Us, right?

Which is a banger of the summer. One of the most streams tracked on Spotify right now.

This song actually slaps, and I'm not afraid to say it.

It is. This is the thing he made. He accused Drake of some very serious things and put it

on a mustard beat, which and not even just like it with a hook on it and with like a club banger.

This is the song you could play at the club and people are singing along to this. So let's get

into this. There's so much going on here. He's memeing on it. Okay, listen here. Listen,

it's really clouding on some... And the best thing is too, it's always okay to make fun of

abusers in this capacity. Once again, the allegations are serious. I'm going to put

that aside for a moment just to say it's never not funny to make fun of shitty people. It's never not

funny to make fun of shitty people. And to him, he's just being like, "Hey, Drake, I heard you

like I'm young. Certified lover boy, certified PDF file. You're trying to strike a chord,

but it's probably a minor." That is probably my favorite line. Not just the way, not just the

line, but the way he delivers that line where he says a minor and he stretches the note, right?

Like he like lingers on the note, which is just like from now on, every time I hear the phrase

a minor, it's just going to... This song is just going to come. Kendrick's is going to be in your

head saying it that way. Yeah, it's just stuck now. It's a cultural object now. It's stuck.

There's an implied threat here too. I think that Oakland show is going to be your last stop.

Did Cole file, which is I think the second time J. Cole got referenced or J. Cole got like a...

No, on Family Matters, Drake called Cole a bitch. And even better is the album cover. So basically,

it's a Citizen app, right? Which to be clear, fuck the Citizen app. That app is problematic

for so many reasons. But it's like all the registered sex offender pins and it's on Drake's

home in Toronto. It's so fucking funny. It is so funny. Yeah, this one is Kendrick

like sort of doing a victory lap really. And like so many... What was that? What's OVO for?

The other vaginal option. He's just called Drake a bitch in so many different ways.

And there's references to stuff like fucked on Wayne girl while he was in jail. That we know

for sure. Actually, this is like a thing that we actually know because Wayne talked about it.

Right? Lil Wayne here specifically. He talked about it in some memoir or like some...

Yeah, in a book he wrote while he was in jail.

Yeah. So he talked about that this is a real event that happened, which... Okay. He's talking about

better not speak on Serena. And Serena I think is referring to Serena Williams.

She's from Compton. Yeah. Also, Drake makes fun of 40 for having... Or Kendrick makes fun of 40

for having MS. He says, "Better straighten their posture. They got famous all up in Compton."

Oh my God.

He's hunched over like he's 80.

Oh Lord. Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. What should T make fun of? That line was fucking...

That's...

You even get freaking wrestling references. Sweet chin music and I won't pass the ox.

Yeah. Switching music. Yeah. Yeah. There's wrestling ref... So he's just having fun,

right? Like it's just... This is...

He's calling him a 69 God. It's just so... It's everything. It gets even better.

And then the best part is though, he's meaning for the first half of the song,

they get to verse three. And I'm just... I don't like reading bars a lot, but I have to for a

minute. "Once upon a time, all of us was in chains. Homies still doubling down, calling us slaves.

Atlanta was the Mecca, building roads and trains. Bear with me for a second, let me put you on game.

The settlers using town folk to make them richer. Fast forward to 2024, you have the same agenda.

You run to Atlanta when you need to check balance. Calls him and says,

"You're not a colleague, you're a fucking colonizer." Like, yo.

Yeah. It is... He just says... This is like... You call future when you did see the club,

right? Little baby helped get you... He also, I think on a previous track, he...

I think it was at Euphoria where he says, "I don't care who you hang out with. Little Yachty is not

gonna make you cool, right? Hanging out with Little Yachty is not gonna make you be in this culture.

21 gave you false street credit, like... A thug made you feel like a slime in your head.

Like, all these lines, it ends with, "It was God's plan to show y'all the liar," which,

great line. The whole reference is... And we got the 69 God, the A minor certified lover boy line.

These are just like... I feel like we're gonna look back on this decade of hip-hop and be like,

these are some of the most iconic lines of hip-hop we've had for a long time.

This beat is so good. I love... I cannot get enough of the "DJ Must Be Like This." It's so good.

It's perfect. It's a perfect track. The thing is, Kendrick made a club band. Kendrick usually...

We talked about how Kendrick doesn't... Kendrick is not really... A lot of his music is not really

meant for parties or clubs or whatever. But this is just Kendrick just being like, "I'm gonna just

have some fun and make a club banger. I'll put a DJ Mustard beat on it, and I'm just gonna meme on

this idiot. Just straight up meme." It's so good. And the thing is, too, it's like... Meet the Grams,

I think it was Kendrick playing his own game. And then Not Like Us is Kendrick playing his Drake

game. Because Drake all... It's like, "You okay? You say I don't make record hits, I don't make

club hits? All right, fair enough. Here's the club hit. Here's one that people can dance to."

Yeah. And I know that you're not a colleague, you're a fucking colonizer. It's just like,

that's a line people are gonna not forget. And not content with taking Ls, I guess,

Drake responded to this with quite possibly the worst response to a track, to a diss track I've

ever heard in my life. First of all... The first one I can believe that Drake wrote himself.

Yeah, because it's bad. It's real bad. First of all, he called it the "Hard Part 6," which is

just like, bro, you don't get to use that name because, first of all, you're not even close to

being able to rap anywhere like Kendrick does, like he did on the "Hard." And it's just like,

he starts on the line... So the thing with this track is, his basic defense against being a

"pedio-like drinker," as Empty Signifier likes to say, is, "If I was fucking young girls, I'd

promise I'd been arrested. I'm way too famous for this shit you just suggested." We have so

much historical evidence of that not being true, what the fuck? Yeah! Yeah! The whole Jeffrey

Epstein thing, there's so much historical events that point to extremely powerful and famous people

being able to get away with extremely heinous acts, that kind of shit. So Drake just saying

that he's too famous to do that is just like, what are you on about? That's literally one of

the problems, is you're too famous and you think you can get away with it. It's just not good.

None of this track is... Drake doesn't have any proper response. It's just Drake trying to...

He's coming out empty, there's nothing here. It would have been better for him to have not put

this out. It's just not... I think what did you once tell me, it's free to shut the fuck up?

Yeah, it's free to shut the fuck up. It's free to shut the fuck up. And Drake knows this because

Drake never responded to Pusha T. Drake never responded to the story of Adidon directly.

So he could have, after Not Like Us came out, I felt like he could have just shut the fuck up.

Just stop talking. Also too, I just want to be very clear. People who have seen It's Always Sunny

in Philadelphia know this, but you don't address allegations of being a diddler by making a song

saying how you don't diddle. That's literally not what you do in those cases for those allegations.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's speaking the day free stuff back again. He's just like,

it's not, it's nothing here. Because no one cares too in the culture. No one cares.

Because even then, if one of Kendrick's kids is like, "Okay, that's great. That means Kendrick's

the kind of man that is okay being a father to a child not its own just because it helps build

family value." Drake, what you want? What you want? The nuclear family? Well, you only want,

it's 2024. Families come in different sizes, dude. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't actually really make

Kendrick look bad in that context. Because Kendrick is here talking about how he's a family

man. He's taking care of the kids, all that shit, spending time. He's like, which I don't forget,

which is like, my life ain't crap. And I'm not out here trying to dig up dirt on people.

It was on 616LA. He's like, "I'm sorry you put money in the streets and you get nothing back.

What can I say? I love a peaceful life." Yeah. Man's out here trying to live a family life.

This is just, it doesn't work. What is this line where he says, "This Epstein angle was

the shit I expected." Like what? That's the funniest part. He's trying to say he planted

his information. To be clear, this is for anyone on planet earth. If you're like, "Hey, you know

what? I'm gonna get someone. I'm gonna plant a fake flag that I'm a PDF file." No, that's the...

Yeah, what? Yeah. No, you don't do that. Like what? And the worst part about this track is where he

implies that the only reason Kendrick is making these raps about him being a period like Dricker

is that Kendrick was abused himself, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of one of Kendrick's...

Oh my God. I forgot about that fucking line. Yeah, it's the one where he's like, "Oh,

that mother I sober track where you talked about being abused as a child." And it's like,

first and foremost, I don't even know how to tell someone that it's wrong and that you're not going

to win any battles when you tell someone that, "Hey, you don't make fun of people being abused

as children." It just does it. You lose the audience at that point. Everyone...

Yep. Everyone. Yeah. Even Drake fans, when you look at this, you can't be like, "This is good"

in any way as she performed. You can't be like, "Hey," this line where he says, "That's that one

record where you say you got molested. Oh, fuck me. I just made the whole connection. This is

about to get so depressing. This is trauma from your own confessions." Which is just like...

First thing is he misunderstood what "Mother I say" actually is saying. He has basic reading

comprehension problems because on that track, Kendrick is not talking about him being abused.

He's talking about how his mother always used to ask him if he was being abused, and she wouldn't

believe him when he said no. And he has trauma from that. That's what he was talking about on

"Mother I say." And that's not even subtext or metaphor. That's straight up the text of that

song. So Drake is just... You're not even doing basic media literacy here. It's just straight up

making shit up, misunderstanding a track. Second of all, accusing someone of just using the trauma

as a weapon here, using the trauma as the reason they are making accusations against you,

it's just so vile on so many levels. At this point, it's just like... Even for a rap beef,

this is on a level that's just unconscionable, honestly. So this is the end of it. This track

is the end of this particular segment of the Drake-Kendrick thing. So where do we go from here?

I know this has died down a bit, but I feel like we're at an inflection point here, going forward.

How does Drake come back from this? What does Drake do? And what is Kendrick's move? I think

Kendrick has said his part. I don't think Kendrick's going to do anything. He's said all he

needs to say. So I'm just wondering what Drake is going to do after this point. I don't think

Kendrick's... Kendrick probably got stuff locked and loaded in case Drake dropped something.

But at this point, even if you're Drake, you got to understand, I think he recognizes that the public

opinion is not towards him. So he's not going to win anything in the court of public opinion.

It's really what a rap battle is. His beef is just a court of public opinion. And I'm unsure

of if any... I think he finally learned that shutting the fuck up is the right move.

Yep. Finally. Yeah. So we had another topic in this episode about the Microsoft fuck us,

but I don't know if there is enough time for us to talk about that.

We've got a full hour on this beef. So the short of it really is, we don't have to go too deep into

it. But I think maybe we could just quickly summarize it. Microsoft shut down Tango Gameworks,

their only Japanese studio. They made Hi-Fi Rush and Evil Within. They shut down a few other studios

in a mobile game studio and then immediately said, "We're not succeeding because we don't

have enough smaller games." Yeah. My response to this has just been like, "What the fuck is going

on at the executive level over at Microsoft? It makes absolutely no sense to anybody."

I think the point here, the overarching point is that it doesn't matter if your game is good

or it's successful. Hi-Fi Rush was massively successful. And even Microsoft themselves was

like Hi-Fi Rush was a success. It was a game that came out with no marketing and no

sort of pre-release hype to it. It just sort of dropped out of nowhere. And it just really was

quite successful. But here we are just killing the studio. We're killing the studio that made

Prey. Immersive Sim Studio. What is it? Arcane. Which Arcane studio got shut? Arcane Austin.

Yeah. Arcane Austin. Arcane Austin. Yep. These Arcane studios are made like Dishonored,

Dishonored 2, Prey, and most recently, of course, Redfall. And this sort of makes it so that it

doesn't actually matter if your game was a flop like Redfall was, or if it was a success like

Hi-Fi Rush. It doesn't matter. The success metric is not the logic that is being used to people.

I think one of the narratives that I want to touch on here is that people are saying that,

of course, the studio that made Redfall got shut down. And to that, I'm going to be like,

y'all, listen to yourselves. You think that a studio making one bad game that they didn't

really want to make and were basically forced to make in a genre that is not their specialty

deserves... First of all, if a studio makes one bad game, there's no deserving to get shut down.

That's just like, what does that even mean? You're just playing into the narrative here.

It's not a good thing that Arcane got shut down because they made Redfall. What does that even

really mean? So yeah, this is an L. I don't know what the fuck is Microsoft doing, what is Sony

doing? And Xbox president just giving some weird ass statements that don't say anything. Phil

Spencer is just like, I'm so sad, I'm a gamer. Whatever the fuck he's saying. All this is just,

there's no logic. Microsoft is saying that they want to focus on the core franchises,

which to which I'm saying, at this point, what are your core franchises?

Halo is floundering, right? So you've got like, what, Forza, you've got Gears of War,

you've got these franchises, but it also had these third party franchises that were doing super well,

like Hi-Fi Rush. There could have been a second game with the same style as Hi-Fi Rush. There

could have been more immersive sims, sort of those prestige games. So it's just bizarre.

There's not much else to say about it, it's just absolutely asinine behavior from Microsoft at this

point. Fuck Microsoft, I guess. Is there anything else that we need to say before we wrap this up?

Yeah. Satya Nadella is probably coming down to Phil Spencer's office and being like, "Yo,

Office is making money, Windows is making money. Why are we burning money on Xbox? We should be

burning money on AI instead." And you know what, to say I say, fair enough, fair enough. I mean,

if Xbox is going to keep shutting down studios, might as well move those GPUs to something better.

This is the... I'm kidding. But I'm unsure. I'm unsure on what the plan is there. People have

been calling for Phil Spencer to stand down. I think it's Microsoft corporate structure. That

is probably the bigger issue. They keep acquiring huge companies and then they are like, "Well,

what do we do if all this IP?" And they're like, "Oh, we have to optimize." And it's like, "Why

did you acquire them in the first place?" The whole games market is fucked right now.

There's a bunch of great aftermath pieces that we put in the show notes, which you can find at

voxels.fm. They should absolutely read. But yeah, I know let's wrap this up. This has been this

episode where we dealt about Rat Beef, which is really two grown men slinging poetry at each other.

And you know what? I think that's beautiful. But... Yeah, I've been looking forward to this

discussion about this beef. So as always, show notes to voxels.fm. You can find me on the Fediverse

at pakkakehatenforward.social and on our website, savicsafe.com. And you can send feedback to us.

What's the address again? Feedback at... Feedback@voxels.fm.

All right. That's the email address. Send us emails. What are your thoughts on the Drake

versus Kendrick beef? What's your favorite line? What's your favorite beat? And if you're a Drake

stand, don't email us, please. I don't want to get any Drake stands in my fucking inbox.

And if you're from Toronto, please produce better artists.

Let's leave Toronto out of this. Toronto has enough problems without Drake being here.

What would Doug Ford do?

Oh my God. All right. This is it. Let's wrap this up. This has been episode eight of Voxels.

I didn't even get to say where I'm going to find you. Yeah, sure. Fuck me.

Yeah, sure. Fuck me. I get it. Okay. You can find me online at loficarrots@mstn.plus,

my website, trustify.website, where I will be posting about how bad Asus is and how I need

to find a new gaming PC to buy. But yeah, until next time. Bye.

Goodbye.