regional rap

Jorge Ben -- “Comanche”

Kaytranada -- “Lite Spots”

Mos Def -- “Casa Bey” p. DJ Preservation

Young Thug -- “Chanel” f. Gunna, Lil Baby p. Psymun, Wheezy, SinGrinch

Party people Doom Here to let you know That I have no prior knowledge to any invasion Or... any invasion being planned or executed

Max Romeo & The Upsetters -- “Uptown Babies Don’t Cry” p. Lee “Scratch” Perry

03 Greezy E.

Let's call it little beef and big beef. Like, little beef is an aesthetic competition with an agreed upon set of rules. These can be won and lost within these rules and the rappers can (eventually) agree on who won and who lost. Big beef, real beef is an infinite game where the objective is to continue to play the game. To win at real beef, you need to keep scouting reports on your opponents, find dirt and weaknesses and exploit those. You need to step outside of the aesthetic rules of little beef. When those rules threaten the ability of players to continue playing they are discarded. Hence, rappers diss themselves in route to dissing each other, diss each other's families, involve threats of violence that are no longer hollow. In doing so, the art of the endeavor is left behind in an almost obvious way. “The Story of Adidon” ceases to have aesthetic value in the way “Infrared” has it. "Adidon" is the most devastating diss track recorded in years and I can't even enjoy listening to it.