The Great Debater(s)

In high school, I was on the debate team. Probably one of the decisions that I've ever made. I learned about worldly topics, made friends with people I probably wouldn't have, and once I started judging tournaments, I learned what winning an argument looks like from an objective point of view. Lethal lessons for a young woman designed to go toe to toe with anyone. From my astrology all the way down to my upbringing and where I'm from (Chicago) getting my point across has always been in the cards.

My mother was a lawyer, and growing up she had her own practice. For me, bring your child to work day looked like me sitting in a corner in an office full of women who had their shit together. There were three offices, which meant three lawyers, and there was a secretary, all of whom were Black. At the time, the thing that interested me the most was the office itself. I loved going downtown and looking out the window, probably daydreaming. If I wasn't doing that then I was on the computer playing games or doing homework. At this time, I was really young, no older than 11 or 12, maybe even younger. On the weekends, my mother also helped run a legal clinic at our church where she and other lawyers would give out free legal services to people in the community. This I know for a fact I was younger for because Who Is Jill Scott had come out during this time and I used to get in trouble for belting out The Way in the middle of the sanctuary, allegedly (lol).

I wanted to share that just to give y'all an understanding of how deep my understanding (and lowkey love - I used to play to win and would get down!!!!!!) of arguing goes. But before we go any further, I just feel the need to clarify. I'm very self-aware of the way I come off to people and over the years I've learned (still learning) to see and use it as a strength rather than a weakness. But, when the topic of upbringing comes up, I always want to make sure that I'm being depicted accurately so that my vantage point makes sense. And it's not necessarily for today's topic but just like moving forward it's good for us to have an understanding. So, my mother was a lawyer, but I was by no means rich. I grew up in a single parent household on the southside of Chicago which was not without its challenges. From like birth to like 6/7 years old I lived on 56th & King Dr. over by the green line. If you're Black you know what that means, it was active as hell over there, and I'm not playing. I was seeing real life stuff at a really early age. I mean there were people with addictions on the street, violence, and that area of the city was not really cared for at all. Like there would be trash and syringes on the street, people strung out, and like one time I'll never forget this, but we came home one day, and it was police everywhere because people in the next building over people were playing a card game that turned deadly. Whenever we would park the car a few buildings down from ours, my mom would damn near run me in the house. Getting a parking spot in front of the building was a blessing. But this was my home, I spoke to people, people knew me by name and spoke to me, and they were all nice. We were in community with one another, and at that time community knew no educational background, socio-economic status, and it did not have a sobriety test. My mother and I shared a beautiful apartment with my cousin (obviously for the low). We had like 4 rooms not including a decent living room, family room, and sunroom that would be perfect for a little garden and yoga area.  Today that same apartment goes for like thousands and that area has been taken over by UChicago students living their best lives (you know how the game go). But anyway, after that we moved, we moved to the hundreds. If you're from Chicago you're probably looking like now b*tch... how is that better? And I hear you, I do, but we lived in like a little pocket, it wasn't gated or anything but it was an area of mostly elders so that was fairly better but was also not without challenges. But my mom said she really wanted me to grow up in the house and wanted me to be around safer public transport when it was time for me to take the train to school. Outside of my living situation, I have been no stranger to the impact of inner-city blues. I grew up in a family that has deep addiction wounds and so there was always a lot of chaos and fighting (and I mean real blows too lmfaoo like police getting called and people getting stabbed type sh*t... I can laugh now but growing up, that sh*t was not funny). My mother is the youngest of 8, and the only one with a degree so the financial responsibility and regular day to day responsibility of taking care of my grandparents fell on her. We were constantly one step away from poverty, and in high school that step was removed at some point; my mom had been laid off and we were on food stamps. We were lucky enough to have support, and I was lucky enough to be able to test to get into Whitney Young (a very stable high school), and so my life wasn't as drastically altered and derailed as it could have been, but my mother was very stressed out during this time. But anyway, I think I said this before, but I went to public school my whole life. I always tested into schools, and that was simply because my parents could not afford a decent education. There's a joke on Everybody Hate's Chris about this when Drew gets a bad grade and I think Julius says, "we can barely afford kids let alone stupid kids," and that's a real lol moment, but also just real as hell. 

I said all of this because I wanted to make sure that as a reader you could continue to read, and from an accurate lens. I personally can understand how hard it is to engage with those who may have more or be perceived to have more. Part of that is the judgement that comes with being poor, and the other part of that is the audacity that can come with being rich. I think that being in the middle of that can be hard because you can't fully identify with either side, but I think we have the biggest task of all in number one making a conscious decision not to turn our backs on poor people in the pursuit of becoming rich, and also making sure to do as much lifting as we climb (as much as we can without burdening ourselves). Socio-economic status was and most likely will always be very nuanced. All we can do is have the courage to acknowledge that and be real with ourselves. I may not have been rich, but I wasn't necessarily poor, and I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I was either. I was enrolled in extracurriculars like dance and soccer, and over the course of my younger years tried karate, baseball, and basketball. I spent most of my time at my grandparents' house which was in Chatham, a "middle-class" Black neighborhood. It was peaceful for the most part, but the park would get pretty active. I used to have to sneak to park because they wouldn't want me there. My grandma would sit in the window too, so I would like to have to go to my friend's house and then go to park from their side of the block where she couldn't see me and then when I came home, I would have to go the same way but I was always rushing because I would wanna stay until the last minute but had to be back before the streetlights came on (Black as hell). That was truly the only time I ever had to interact with kids in my neighborhood because I didn't go to school with them. I mention my education in all of this because it's extremely important in the conversation of my socio-economic status. My educational background gave and continues to give me an extreme privilege over the people I grew up with which is why I will always be an advocate of education equity. It's a form of currency for those of us without real currency, and on a basic human level, we all deserve access to a decent education.

Now back to the real topic, the great debater(s)... I think one of the largest forms of debate that often gets overlooked as such is rap. When you really think about it, rap beef is truly just n*ggas arguing over a beat, and lately there's been a lot of fighting going on. As someone who grew up in very chaotic environments, I often lived in my headphones. I grew up on the radio and 106 & Park, and once I got an iPod I would spend hours on Limewire, Frostwire, Itunes, etc. downloading music. I basically studied music, but mostly hip-hop, and I mean that. When I was like 4 my preschool teacher pulled my mom to the side and was like she knows every song on the radio, and it was true because I did.

These days (as a more mellow and just less rambunctious woman), I tend to gravitate more towards R&B and house, but I still keep my ear to the streets. So, let's get into it. It's no secret that right now somebody is getting jumped. Now, do I condone jumping? No, but sometimes the tension is just high and if you see an opportunity, you take it. I myself have been guilty of getting a lick or two in while my friend was beating another girl up. But I have also given a girl with a bloody nose at 8am because she had me f*cked up (she put her hands on me first to be clear), and I did that by myself. But then again, there's that one time me and my friend (same friend btw, we've been friends for 20 years) had agreed to jump this one girl and damn near waited for her on opposite sides of the train station but she had called her dad on us and got us in trouble. I never saw her again after that, which was very disappointing because despite what my mom had said, I was dead set on bopping her a*s regardless. I know what you're thinking, you was wild as hell (and was) but honestly, she deserved to get her a*s beat for what she did. We both had separate bones to pick with her, but they kind of intersected and we knew that we could only get her one good time together because she was scary and if one person popped her she wouldn't come back to the train station. So we had to do it together because we both deserved licks. Fair and reasonable if you ask me (LMFAO). I say all that to say jumping may not always be right, but it is what it is. 

The way I see it, right now everyone is us strategizing to jump this girl, and they basically only got one shot to do it, so they're all taking it. However, they're all standing on the same side of the train station... Rookie mistake. You've got to get on different sides to effectively win because she could just run down the side no one is on and get on the train, and if she makes it to the train before you, you can't hit her. There are too many people there, and they in fact will call the police on you. Now how does what's going on now translate to standing on different sides of the train? Walk with me y'all because it's about to get really technical and real debate nerd. Ok, so when you're trying to effectively structure an argument you have three pillars: pathos, ethos, and logos. Pathos is the emotional appeal, ethos is your credibility, and logos is your logic. In rap I would say all three are important, your fanbase needs an emotional attachment to you for the music to resonate, your talent should lend you the credibility, and logos (unarguably the most important in beef) is how you strategize to attack your opponent and take them down. You could play on their insecurities, and you could also leak some information about them. These are all effective strategies, but how effective is any of it if your opponent won't fall? It's not, and it won't be here because the approach is too one-dimensional. In my personal opinion, the only way to beat a person is to not only examine their weaknesses but also their strengths. Take what they do the best, put your own spin on it, and use it against them. 

So, what does that look like here? Well, we're not talking about a regular person. We're talking about someone who has managed to dominate a field for about 10/15 years nonstop (no pun intended). I mean seriously there was a point in time where you couldn't turn on the radio or tv without hearing this man. If it wasn't his song then he was the feature. Hell of a work ethic. Regardless of the mechanisms and tactics used to achieve his success, the fact of the matter remains, he won't go anywhere...unless you make him. I won't discuss his weaknesses, but his strength is simple. He's a hitmaker. So how do we make a hit? Well, let's break down the (general) formula - fire beat + decent chorus & catchy hook w/a solid bridge (maybe) + some good bars w/ a dash of controversy = an internet sensation = a hit. For me, the best example of this with this person in the context of battle would be Back to Back (even though maturing says Charged Up was better), and outside of battle would probably be Headlines.  

In this beef, the only song to completely master the formula has been Like That (which of course went #1). But outside of Like That, the other challengers have struggled. Take Rick Ross for example. Champagne Moments was a VERY SOLID EFFORT. I mean to be honest I loved it. It's messy, there are punchline bars, and he's floating on the beat. There are so many damn quotables, especially in that first verse, a few of my favorite lines include, "Run up on you and snatch your chain watch you b*tches bleed," "Either you n*ggas getting money or ready to die. B-I-G, or give a f*ck if you Chi-Ali. You got it and you keep it tucked if you be by me. Do the job, better known as the Charles Schwab. Double R's spread through the yard, and I swear to God" but my absolute favorite was the on chorus and maybe you can call this the hook, "N*ggas leaking they records when we speaking directly, IF WE KEEPING IT GANGSTA WHEN YOU SEE ME YOU CHECK ME" Like helloo??!?!?!?!??! Wake that tea up! I've always been a "beat my a*s" girlie. Like we can go back and forth, but at some point, do you plan to beat me up? Because if not then maybe you should keep it on the playground because it's like yeah, we can fight about it, but it's also like we can really fight about it. Going back and forth gets tired at some point and if you really had a problem, you would just beat my a*s. 

Back to rap, I think what keeps Rick Ross down here is the beat selection. It's a typical Ross beat for sure, but this beat might not do numbers forreal. Like people will obviously listen for the moment but I'm not sure that it'll get the replay in the club or anything like that. If this song charts then I know it's truly because of me (LMFAOO). Like person he's dissing completely aside, this man truly made a provocative and confrontational b*tch anthem. I'll be playing this at the gym, when I'm getting ready to go out, before I argue, and twice on Sunday. And I dare a b*tch to run up!!!!!! I'm not even beefing with anyone but like best believe this will be on repeat should the situation ever arise. Shoutout to Rick Ross for effectively getting me to laugh, because that last line is nuts. If we keepin it gangsta when you see me you check me is iconic as hell, sorry. Like he's truly goated off that line alone. As for the rest of the record like from the little clip on, I'm not gonna lie, I did laugh a llitle, but like ehh I don't really care about it. I don't think he touched his face, at best maybe a brow lift on like his left eye, but even then, it may not even be that. He could've just started doing his eyebrows differently. I've done that before it like changes your face almost. I don't really care about the social media stuff either. I think it's lame. Y'all are both 35+ so to me it's like beat that n*ga a*s or get in the booth and embarrass him if you really bout it, and that's for both sides.

As for the leaked record, I thought it was decent for what it was (a retort to getting jumped). We've heard better and worse from him. The short jokes were funny. The prince line was good, and the metro line made me laugh too. I do think that leaking it was a choice. I'm only giving ownership to him for the leak because his podcast warriors knew the lyrics before the song leaked to the public which is like ok... If you're gonna leak, at least be mysterious about it and have your minions sign an NDA or at the very least tell them to hush. But in my opinion, it's like why leak at all? Why not just own it? Streets is saying it's so he can basically look like he did nothing and like Kendrick is obsessed with him so he can ultimately use that in a bar. Again, a choice. I think regardless, Kendrick should respond, and I think he should mention the leak because how good is his strategy if it ultimately makes him look scary? Personally, I put my name on everything so you know I did it because at the end of the day, the day gotta end, and you're not gonna beat my a*s.

This reminds me of another anecdote. When I was a senior in high school I got into it with a couple of girls and the coach of the dance team (they honestly started with me), and I made a diss track that did very well. At first, I gave the option for us to all dead the situation or fight. Nobody signed up to fight so I assumed it was over, but it continued. It was annoying as hell too because I was very much out the way, but people were posting about me on their finsta pages and all types of stuff. It was all nuts because in person everyone was on mute, and like I said, nobody wanted to fight. So, I was like you know what, I'll shut everybody up. Basically, wrote some lythat day at school I wrote some lyrics, went home and found an instrumental, and then recorded. It was funny as hell too because as I was recording my mom was pulling up in the driveway and so I had to get it done before she came in the house. I got it done in one take. When I posted it to SoundCloud (it's long deleted now) I used the school logo as the picture and my alias was Lil ****. Once it was uploaded to SoundCloud I posted the link on my twitter and the rest was history. Honestly at the time I thought it was just going to be joke between me and like  5 people but when I got to school the next day everybody was singing it, it was crazy. People were recording themselves singing it on snapchat, coming up to me in the hall telling me I was their favorite rapper, just nut job behavior lol. I will never forget this ever because the coach texted me the link to my Twitter and she was like "What is this?" and I replied, " What you mean? You ain't listen to it?" Real villain behavior. Obviously, she had nothing to say to that because it's already bad enough you're 45 beefing with a 17-year-old but to get your a*s handed to you multiple times on a silver platter was just too much. Most of the girls on the team basically sided with me, and loved the song, and so she ended up canceling the senior going away party which I thought was crazy because I wasn't going anyway. But I think the best part of it all was that I had effectively outed them as messy b*itches and talked sh*t about them without saying a single name and people were still singing it (truly on some if you know you know type sh*t). For context, my high school had a graduating class of about 500 people and basically each grade was like that and we also had 7th & 8th grade so that was a lot of people. All the girls basically revealed themselves by looking mad as hell, which is what I predicted, and also why I never said names. But let me tell you this, they all shut their a*ses up, and everyone hyped me up to point where I basically performed it at prom. So, despite it being mean as hell, I won the situation, and I was happy about that. Still to this day people will mention it to me which always makes me laugh because at 25, I have already lived so many lives. I was a different person back then. Unlike Michelle Obama (who also went to Whitney Young) my motto was "When they go low, we hit the floor." A petty b*tch through and through, and so, it was what it was. 

As for my predictions on who's gonna win this beef, I'm not really sure. Like That was decent. I thought Future slid and Kendrick made a splash. If no more hits are made though, then he's gonna win by default just because he's gonna be able to say the usual I have more money and hits than you etc. But I don't know maybe we'll see something good from Kendrick before we get to that point or maybe somebody will switch it up. I'm here for Rick Ross to give it another go. My winner here, and I know I'm in the minority, is J. Cole. Like regardless of what everyone thinks, in my opinion he stood on business, sorry. I thought 7 Minute Drill was good. The only thing I think that tripped him up was talking about Kendrick's discography (I indeed caught a stray when TPAB was mentioned lmfao). I think if he would have swapped those lines for some more short jokes (because telling a short man to jump up and see is nasty work lmfao) then that would have been it, and everybody would've been singing it. The beat was good, it was catchy, he had punchlines, and he had bars too. Perfect combo. I'm sad he pulled it off of streaming because I was listening to it, but real music listeners know where you can still get it (lol). As for what he did at Dreamville, I'm good with that too. In fact, we probably all should be taking a cue from his playbook, myself included because I definitely would have doubled down after putting myself out there. But honestly, when you read the actual lyrics of Like That he kind of caught a stray but barely. Like the shots were targeted and not at him. This makes it make sense to me as to why he said he didn't really feel a way when the song first came out. I guess that's a lesson in following your intuition. Cole's honesty was refreshing and mature. I think he comes across as genuine and sincere, and I think it's because he is. Those truly are his peers and if he isn't friends with them (which I think he is), he at the very least genuinely respects what they do. I don't think he's scary, just humble, and I also just think he does not give a f*ck which is also very refreshing. On top of that Might Delete Later was good. I thought the vlogs leading up to the release were cute and the tape itself was solid. Outside of 7 Minute Drill, my favorites were Crocodile Tearz, Stealth Mode, and Trae The Truth In Ibizia (which was my absolute favorite). Lastly, I have it on good authority that the festival itself was good. I'm not surprised, I went last year, and I had a really good time. North Carolina is so beautiful! It has a bunch of trees and the air is so clean there. It was crazy (you can tell this my first time being down South lmfao). So again, he won in my book. I'm excited to hear what the Fall Off will sound like after all that has happened. Truth be told, I know he said he doesn't really like to diss people but like I truly hope he takes a shot at the podcast warriors because the discourse around him was truly just like nasty and unnecessary. The conversation for me really opened my eyes to just how immature n*ggas really are and how toxic the space can be which is why I basically made that switch to R&B. 

But like I said, I still keep my ear to the streets, and for the girlies too. Wanna Be was good! That, FTCU, Press Play, Richtivities, Bo$$ Chick, and of course Pretty Summer Playlist (favorites: Risky, Baby Mama Coochie, Pretty & Rich, and Talkin' Bout), are gonna be on repeat for me this summer! I also heard Saweetie was coming out more #PrettyB*tchMusic this summer, so I'm excited for that, and then Meg is coming out with something too, so I'll be ready for that as well!

P.S. Sorry this was so long, we had a lot of ground to cover, and you know I love a good tangent! Thank you for sticking with me though, I appreciate it! I think moving forward I'll be here every Monday night. I started a new job as a Program Manager/Data Analyst which is why I've been absent, but now that I'm starting to adjust, I'm hoping to get things back on track. 

Also, let me just say, in reference to fighting, I might be from Chicago but I don't do guns, like at all. I don't like guns, never have never will. My thing is, you gone really have to come up off that and pop me in my mouth or some sh*t, and I'm not gone hit you first because I refuse to be the aggressor in the situation. If a problem is presented, 8 times out of 10, it's because you presented it. Them other two times you probably did something fake and I peeped and said something. But also, let me just clarify, I have not nor will I ever go around just fighting people. I have always been really selective about what situations warranted that type of response from me, and also just like at my core I am a lover. But I also recognize what lives inside of me (which I don't love) and I genuinely and generally try not to be on that with people. Especially now since I'm basically a love and light girlie (lol), I really do not be having interest in getting out of character for anybody whether that be fighting or arguing, but especially fighting. It's not cute or classy, so I try to leave that at home.