On March 26, 2024, Atlanta rapper Future released a collaborative album with American producer Metro Boomin, titled We Don’t Trust You. While critics weren’t especially kind to the project overall, one of its tracks, “Like That”, contained a well-received surprise verse from Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar.
On “Like That”, Kendrick airs grievances regarding a statement made by North Carolina rapper J. Cole on his late 2023 song with Canadian rapper Drake, “First Person Shooter”, where Cole refers to himself, Drake, and Kendrick as the “Big 3” of hip hop.
It’s a commonly held sentiment in the hip-hop world that Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake, are, in fact, the Big 3, meaning they’re the biggest and best in the rap world. But over the last decade, debates have persisted about who of the three should rank where. Is Kendrick Lamar at the top, or does Drake bump him down to #2? And so on. Cole’s “First Person Shooter” verse was an attempt at an armistice, him arguing that the three should be considered equals, brothers in arms rather than enemies in bars, a term referring to a rapper’s lyrics.
Kendrick Lamar did not, well, like that.
Inside a euphoric hip-hop spectacle
Kendrick’s response to “First Person Shooter” by way of “Like That” was a war cry, with Kendrick asserting his hip-hop dominance over J. Cole and, particularly, Drake. Unbeknownst to himself and rap fans at the time, this 58-second snippet of a throwaway non-single would herald the release of several songs from himself and Drake that together make up what now is regarded as not just a historic rap feud, but a landmark moment in pop culture history.
For weeks, social media was ablaze, with passionate hip-hop fans and casual enjoyers alike hanging on and debating every word of both rappers’ surprise rap gauntlets as they attempted to dismantle each others’ credibilities and personas through precision wordsmithing.
When thought leadership is tailor-made to be dismissed
One response to the beef that stuck with me was a LinkedIn post that outlined four key takeaways B2B sales folks could learn from the hip-hop feud. While I can’t claim to know their intentions with the post, to me it came off as self-aware and tongue-in-cheek: it was written in the common poem-like LinkedIn post structure where every sentence gets its own line; RFP (Request For Proposal) is redefined as “Rap Feud Party”; they ask their followers not to link the post on the LinkedInLunatics subreddit dedicated to strange, somewhat unhinged LinkedIn posts; the list goes on. I know goodhearted fun when I see it.
Still, my knee-jerk reaction to seeing the post before reading was, “Come on now.” I couldn’t help but initially read it as earnest; I’ve seen countless thought leadership posts that are meant to be taken seriously yet come off ridiculous because they attempt to contextualize aspects of life—social, cultural, physical and mental health, etc.—that have nothing to do with business through a business lens. In doing so, these posts often unintentionally make their authors and associated brands appear out of touch with the world beyond their business window.
My take? The accusations Drake and, in particular, Kendrick Lamar made of each other throughout this feud are dark, serious enough that I won’t even allude to them here. The only takeaway from it that merits being discussed in a content marketing blog or LinkedIn post should be a self-reflexive one: that in today’s competitive content marketing landscape, expert thought leadership means knowing what’s worth commenting on versus what’s low-hanging fruit to disregard or that would be better analyzed in a different context, like a cultural thinkpiece.
Push up your content quality with thoughtful content curation
A sign of a truly great brand is the ability to produce content that’s as impactful as it is unique, rich with ideas that aren’t just relevant and industry-aligned but that people won’t find anywhere else. Take this blog post, for example. How many other blogs out there, past or future, can you think of that explain the merits of strong business content curation practices through the lens of the world’s response to a recent hip-hop feud?
And I get it: having and executing on great content ideas is easier said than done. The former requires as much industry-specific knowledge as, well, luck—if everyone could have great ideas on a whim, they would. Meanwhile, the latter may demand a dedicated team like MarketSmiths that offers a wealth of copywriting services to meet your every content need.
Luckily, knowing whether an existing idea is good or not—in other words, being curatorial, hence “content curation”—is easier than coming up with a new idea out of the blue—and it’s something we already do more often than we might realize. Think about it: our abilities to succeed at work demand strong intuitions that help us make the right call when it comes to when to speak up—and when to sit back and listen. It stands to reason that raw intuition is just as important as learned insights for making the right content decisions.
Plus, leaning on your intuition for content curation isn’t just a skill worth cultivating: it’s imperative. Because if your brand consistently releases content centered around okay-at-best ideas everyone else makes content about, you could make it hard for your company to stand out—to audiences and in SEO rankings alike. Worse, a generic, by-the-numbers content approach could lead consumers to write your brand off altogether; why should they pay attention to what you’re doing when other brands they already know do the same thing, whether or not you do that better?
The right content curation strategy matters
This isn’t to say there’s no value in commenting on recent events. If you have something unique and valuable to say about something timely, go for it. And there’s always room for following trends; they’re trends for a reason, after all.
Rather, by stopping to take a stronger, more selective content curation stance before you write that next article or social post, you can position your personal and organizational brands as true industry leaders with unparalleled insights into your sector. Trust us: it’s really like that.
Get in touch today to learn how MarketSmiths can craft copywriting content that can help your brand compete on the world stage and beyond!
