By Charlie Gainor, Staff Writer

If you were to ask me the most important song of the year, I would say without a doubt that it is “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar. 

It feels like it was released ages ago, yet the hip-hop community is still reeling from the tectonic shifts caused by Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s feud. As of writing this article, the West Coast club phenomenon still sits in the top five of the Billboard Top 100 and continues to shatter every hip-hop record it can.

The longevity of the track is a bit divisive. Some people are still playing it proudly while others just want to move on. If you were like me, completely immersed in the spectacle of two of the highest-profile rappers trying to slaughter the other, you might still be listening to these tracks and thinking about how you’re gonna tell your kids about this ugly modern spectacle of warfare.

This article is not about the beef itself. 

We’ve had four months since the last punch was thrown, and Lamar is moving away from Drake in his disses. I think it’s time to actually realize that in the midst of the crossfire, we have yet to take the time to think about who else got hit with shrapnel.

On Aug. 24, Chappell Roan wrote a powerful statement addressed to her superfans that told them to back off. She said that her performing on stage and being the project of “Chappell Roan” was her at work and any time that she was just herself was her being clocked out. She set boundaries and condemned predatory “superfan” behavior. In a world where stan culture can run rampant without even a nod of acknowledgment from the artist, this was a powerful reminder of Roan’s humanity.

It’s a sad fact that every now and then, the world needs a widespread reminder that women in music are, in fact, humans — especially in the hip-hop environment where women have historically been objectified and disrespected. While artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Little Simz are fueling a whole new era of confident women rappers that empower other women, it’s important to see how the venom spat in the ugliest music beef in nearly three decades also, perhaps, acts complicit in the objectification of women just for the sake of trying to bring others down.

Let’s consider the allegations thrown by both rappers. Drake accused Lamar of not being the father of his kids and assaulting his wife. Lamar declared Drake a nymphomaniac and a pedophile who keeps sex offenders on payroll, participates in a sex ring and is not coming forward as the father of several children.

These are devastating accusations that could land both rappers in jail. But, they’re also allegations with no proof to support them. 

It doesn’t matter who you support and if you believe any of that is true. There should be no allegations of the sort that are just thrown around to win a beef, especially crimes that continue to affect women and children today. 

At some point we have to ask ourselves: how acceptable is it to celebrate a song calling Drake a pedophile breaking hip-hop records? Is it really worth it to dance and chant to that song when there’s been no further action taken to bring a supposed pedophile to justice? If Kendrick really did assault his wife, why did we just allow the allegations to be dismissed without calling for justice? 

And what if none of it is real? Are we to simply be okay with that?

I’ll reiterate — the point of this article is not to make commentary on the beef. It’s to acknowledge a crime that both sides committed: the weaponization of violence against women and children to simply win the court of public opinion. If any of these allegations are true, this becomes a different conversation. But the allegations thrown in the beginning of May have the same amount of evidence then as they do now in September. In a world where Chappell Roan setting boundaries with her fans is seen as a novel and controversial move, it is unacceptable to use the crimes that women like her are afraid of for nothing but viral hits.

This isn’t a call for everyone everywhere to stop streaming “Not Like Us,” because that’s delusional. But, when Kendrick plays “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, remember the weight of what he’s saying without an ounce of proof.