{"id":4413,"date":"2025-02-14T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2025-02-14T08:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T13:51:42","slug":"a-take-you-down-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/a-take-you-down-song\/","title":{"rendered":"A Take-You-Down Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

If you\u2019re a fan of rap music, you probably thought last Sunday\u2019s halftime show was the best ever.

If you\u2019re not into rap, you probably wondered why so many people were so worked up about Kendrick Lamar\u2019s performance \u2013 and how anyone could figure out what he was actually trying to say.

There\u2019s quite a back story to all the excitement.

Two major figures have dominated the rap scene over the past decade. One of them is Drake, unquestionably one of the most popular artists on the planet, regardless of musical genre. For years he cultivated a working relationship with the other major figure in the world of rap, Lamar, who quickly emerged as his chief rival.

About a year ago, something apparently went sideways. Their friendship and collaboration came to a screeching halt.

The result was a series of \u201cdiss tracks\u201d \u2013 provocative raps in which the two hurled increasingly edgy insults at each other.

I should pause here and acknowledge that as a White guy born in the 1950s, I am one of the world\u2019s least qualified commentators on the nuances of rap music. Cultural critic Joe Coscarelli, however, points out that it\u2019s common knowledge that rappers live for this kind of give-and-take. Two artists square off and try to take each other down, declaring the evident superiority of their own street cred, style, wealth, and current female companions.

Drake and Lamar went back and forth for a few months. Then Kendrick seemed to step way over the line.

He wrote a catchy song called \u201cNot Like Us\u201d in which he calls out Drake by name. His adversary is a phony, a pretender, a total user of other people, and even a pedophile. He raps that when Drake composes, he does so in the key of \u201cA Minor.\u201d A minor<\/em>, get it? Drake has never actually been charged with underage sexual activity.

It\u2019s an unapologetically venomous song. Yet somehow it became a smash hit, winning the \u201cSong of the Year\u201d Grammy earlier this month and propelling Kendrick to the Super Bowl, where he became the first rapper to headline the world\u2019s biggest live stage.

He wouldn\u2019t actually sing \u201cNot Like Us\u201d during his halftime show, would he, exposing Drake to global humiliation?

He did exactly that.

Many in the crowd knew what was happening, as evidenced by the fact that they joyfully screamed \u201cA Minnnnoooor\u201d right along with Lamar. Rap music fans exulted in the fact that Drake, their biggest star, was being seriously kicked to the curb.

Why, Coscarelli asks, have so many people fallen in love with a song about hate?\u00a0

Part of the answer lies in the inherent nature of rap. Diss tracks are meant to disrespect one\u2019s rivals. Status is assigned to the artists who can do it with the greatest flair.

Then there\u2019s Schadenfreude, humanity\u2019s universal enjoyment of watching the high and mighty get their comeuppance. In the midst of all his fame and glory, it was time, many thought, for Drake to take some hits. And Kendrick Lamar, widely considered to be more authentic and likeable, was just the guy to do it.

Coscarelli affirms that \u201cNot Like Us\u201d is actually a great song. It has \u201csort of wormed its way into culture.\u201d It\u2019s one of those numbers that\u2019s fun to sing with other people \u2013 just as many fans were doing last Sunday \u2013 and that also tends to get stuck in your head.

But there\u2019s something else happening here. \u201cI don\u2019t think,\u201d he admits, \u201cyou can ignore the part of it that appeals to a sort of very American bloodlust. There\u2019s this sense of loving violence and winning and rooting for someone\u2019s demise. I think that says a lot about us as a culture, probably more than it says about Kendrick.\u201d

In other words, there\u2019s something inside a great many of us that simply loves to hate.

Which, you have to admit, is a hard message to swallow on Valentine\u2019s Day.

What can we do?

The apostle Paul writes, \u201cYou were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off\u00a0your old self,\u00a0which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;\u00a0to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on\u00a0the new self,\u00a0created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness\u201d (Ephesians 4:22-24).

The language of putting off and putting on speaks to how we \u201cget dressed\u201d every day.

Will we put on the clean garments of a new kind of life, or keep wearing the same old RAGS (resentment, anger, greed and superiority) that keep us trapped in relational misery?

Such a transformation doesn\u2019t \u201cjust happen.\u201d We must prayerfully, hopefully, and deliberately embrace this Spirit-prompted pathway every new day.

And when we\u2019re fresh out of inspiration to keep going, we can remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr:

\u201cDarkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.\u201d<\/em>

No rapper has ever delivered a more timely word.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here If you\u2019re a fan of rap music, you probably thought last Sunday\u2019s halftime show was the best ever. If you\u2019re not into rap, you probably wondered why so many people were so worked up about Kendrick Lamar\u2019s performance \u2013 and how anyone could figure out what he was actually trying to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[866,388],"class_list":["post-4413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hatred","tag-sanctification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4415,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/4415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}