Childish Gambino has weighed in on Kendrick Lamar and Drake‘s beef, using it to make a wider point about society in 2024.
The rapper and actor hopped on TikTok Live on Wednesday (June 26) to talk about the high-profile feud and how he believes it reflects a concerning trend permeating modern culture.
“The problem is, we’re not having enough fun. So this rollout that’s coming, it’s mostly about fun, I’m trying to have fun,” he said, referencing his upcoming album Bando Stone in the New World.
“I feel like there’s just people not having enough fun […] When I was a kid, there were big things that would unite us, and I just feel bad for y’all. This generation just does not get — y’all get, like, bad stuff. Everything that everybody can get in on is usually fucked up.”
“Even this year, the most fun we’ve had was from a fight. A song from a fight, from a rap beef,” he continued, referencing Kendrick’s chart-topping diss song “Not Like Us.” “Which I enjoyed every minute of. It was very fun. But still, kinda negative in a certain light, I guess.”
Watch the clip below.
Childish Gambino isn’t the first Hip Hop figure to critique the heated feud between the two rap titans.
Questlove took issue with gossipy accusations that became a staple of the diss tracks exchanged between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
“Nobody won the war,” he wrote on Instagram last month. “This wasn’t about s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.
“Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
Challenging both K. Dot and Drizzy to step their game up, morally speaking, The Roots drummer added in the caption of his post: “Here We Are Now…Entertain us?”
Charlamagne Tha God also admitted he did not entirely enjoy the battle due to some of the accusations thrown around such as pedophilia and domestic abuse.
“I don’t like seeing these brothers Me Too-ing each other over a rap feud. To me, that’s corny,” he said on The Breakfast Club. “If you’re going to call somebody a pedophile, if you’re going to call someone a woman beater, you got to have some real proof.
“You’re going to accuse my friend and my girl of having a 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢, and me thinking that that child is mine — those are some heavy accusations.”
The radio host added: “It’s not like they’re trying to hold each other accountable; they’re just throwing these types of accusations around to attempt to ruin the image of the other, and that’s whack to me. Other than that, it’s been great.”