Why do American rappers see Drake as not Black enough?

Canadian rapper Drake at the Billboard Music Awards in May 2019. Drake’s recent beef with American rapper Kendrick Lamar highlights how Canadian rap is often seen as distant from American hip hop culture.& (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) by Alexandra Boutros, Wilfrid Laurier University The epic beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake has once again demonstrated the linguistic acrobatics of rap culture. The feud has seen both artists release multiple tracks where they lyrically diss each other. Beefs involve rappers disrespecting each other and can happen in diss tracks, but also through interviews, social media and other statements. When Lamar viciously but masterfully raps about Drake “tryna to strike a chord and it’s probably A minor,” he is playing with language; using double entendre and homonym (A minor being a musical chord and also a reference to an underage child) to combine the literal, on-the-face-of-it meaning of a word and its other potential meanings. Some might lament the spurious facts and salacious accusations flowing between Lamar and Drake. The artists may hold lasting grudges against each other and the violent language of beefs can spill over into real life. However, beefs are more about self-conscious plays with language and meaning than about...