How profitable is a rap beef?

On March 22, Kendrick Lamar set the internet alight. In a surprise verse on the song "Like That," he dissed Drake and J. Cole: "Yeah get up with me, f--k sneak dissing/ 'First Person Shooter,' I hope they came with three switches," he rapped. 

The fiery lyrics revealed his grievances with Drake and J. Cole's 2023 song "First Person Shooter," on which J. Cole labelled himself, Lamar and Drake as the "big three" rappers of their generation. "Motherf--k the big three, n---a, it's just big me," Lamar continued, taking the crown for himself.

Fans picked sides, yet the beef afforded a commercial boost to all three rap titans: they each trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, following the track's release. And in Canada, the radio airplay for each artist increased after only one week of the song being out: Drake's rose by 7.5 per cent, Lamar's by 9.1 per cent and J. Cole's by 400 per cent (due to low rotation in prior weeks), according to data from Soundcharts.

Their beef has also driven streams. Lamar, whose monthly listen count on Spotify had been declining — dropping by nearly 600,000 in the four weeks before the song's release — is now rising: he currently has more than 60 million monthly listeners. On April 1, "Like That" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and held the top spot through the following week. "First Person Shooter" had more than 260 million Spotify streams the day "Like That" dropped, and as of April 10, has more than 280 million. "Push Ups," a diss track reportedly by Drake surfaced on April 13 before officially dropping on April 19, and as of May 13, sits at more than 75 million streams. J. Cole, whose Spotify monthly listen count was also decreasing — it dropped by more than 250,000 between Feb. 22 and March 22 — released "7 Minute Drill," an official track firing back at Lamar, on April 5. J. Cole has increased his monthly Spotify listen count by more than a million in the days since (though, he recently surrendered to Lamar with an apology and pulled the song from streaming platforms). 

Lamar and Drake have since released several more diss tracks about each other, including "Not Like Us," "Taylor Made Freestyle" and more. As of May 13, Lamar's scathing track "Not Like Us" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and his song "Euphoria" claimed the third spot. Drake's blistering song "Family Matters" landed at No. 7, earning him his 78th song in the top 10.

The commercial benefits of beef

"The beauty of [these beefs and diss records] is that [they're] super organic most times," said Jasmine Young, director of the Warner Music and Blavatnik Center for Music Business. "[This then] causes the additional conversations and additional PR requests that definitely propel an artist and their popularity … and their downloads."

"But the goal is always the artists being able to share their creativity overall," she continued.

Christopher Wares, assistant chair of music business at Berklee College of Music, explains that artists have historically experienced sales bumps when fans are enthralled by a beef, citing Nas and Jay Z's rivalry. When those rappers released albums about their feud in 2001 — Nas's Stillmatic and Jay Z's The Blueprint — they earned "some of the biggest numbers of their career during that time," said Wares. Stillmatic debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, and The Blueprint debuted at No. 1.

In January 2024, rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj also experienced a numbers boost after they released diss tracks: Megan had more than 24 million monthly Spotify listeners on Jan. 26 when she released "Hiss," which appeared to diss Drake, Minaj's husband and more. On it, she rapped, "These hoes don't be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan's Law," taking aim at sex offenders. A spike in listens immediately followed: her radio airplay in Canada grew by 41.2 per cent the subsequent week and, by Feb. 16, she had more than 30 million monthly Spotify listeners. Her daily views on YouTube jumped by more than two million, and "Hiss" later became her first solo No. 1 on the Billboard charts. 

Minaj, whose husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered sex offender, took offence to Megan's lyrics about the law, and Minaj responded with "Big Foot" on Jan. 29. Although Minaj did not see the same spike in numbers as Megan on Spotify, her Canadian airplay shot up by 26.2 per cent the week after "Big Foot" dropped. Her daily views on YouTube rose by more than two million and, by Jan. 31, she reached more than seven million daily YouTube views, the most on her channel yet this year.

'It's sparking conversation and debate'

"I think hip-hop is one of the most competitive [genres] in music, period, so you need to know where you rank with other artists," said Juno-winning rapper Tobi, about beef as promotion. "And we can't lie [and say] we don't care about that, 'cause every rapper cares about that. You wanna know where you stack up."

The Block23:00TOBi post Juno interview

"They say 'all press is good press'," said Sara Franczyk, the founder of Toronto music marketing agency ZYK. She added that feuds will always exist to support artist marketing because "as long as their name is out there, whether it's good or bad, it's probably going to help those chart numbers [and] help the streaming numbers."

Fans often revisit songs to find clues. "People are going to delve into history, so they'll look at record sales and they'll go back and look at lyrics [from] certain songs and then that makes marketing, or the trends, that [much] more effective," said Young.

Wares listened to "Like That" multiple times to fully understand "the double and triple entendres of Kendrick's verses." 

"There's a lot I had to study," he said.

"Consider the acumen of the hip-hop moguls and you see some of the standout capitalistic creative and entrepreneurial talents of our era," wrote Nels Abbey, author of Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap's Moguls, in the Guardian in April 2024. "They have their beefs, their scandals and controversies, but when J. Cole disses Kendrick and when J. Cole apologizes, they make headlines and they make a lot more money. It's all over the media, it's all good business."

I understand iron sharpens iron, that just is what it is. You make me better, I make you better; I love that part of hip-hop.- Tobi

"It's … sparking conversation and debate," Franczyk said. "[Feuds] can definitely be free PR, free reach, free discovery, free engagement for sure, I think it just comes back down to what is the intention behind it, is it [a] good intention, are you trying to raise awareness [about] something? Or is it really just bullying?"

Several critics called out Minaj for her lyrics about gun violence on "Big Foot," and for siccing her fanbase on her rival.

"I think the part where it gets corny to me is when you start bringing real-life people into it and trying to be all violent for no reason to random people," Tobi said. 

Beef as part of hip-hop culture

Wares explains that because of violence associated with events such as the East and West Coast rap rivalry, "people may not be fully aware of the history and the spirit of 'Hey, I'm trying to be the best MC, and I'm trying to outdo you, and we're going to have a rap battle.'"

"I understand iron sharpens iron, that just is what it is," Tobi said. "You make me better, I make you better; I love that part of hip-hop."

"It should always remain friendly fire," Young said. "For a lot of people, it's about the creativity and the [musician's] response and the back and forth and excitement."

"So it's not only excitement for the artists … but it's also about the camaraderie in [the Black] community. It's something else to talk about, it's something else to get excited about," Young added.

"There's this beautiful spirit of rap battles, but I think some of that is lost," Wares said. "And I can't help but wonder if Kendrick is trying to bring that back."