The bloodthirsty social media hip-hop tabloid ecosystem and the nature of the attention economy have turned the trials and tribulations of rappers into reality TV, but it hit another level in the last few weeks as the genre erupted into a spree of stupid violence. In one case, Pooh Shiesty, stuck in a go-nowhere contract with Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records, allegedly came up with a plan that had to have been workshopped with Highest 2 Lowest’s Yung Felon: kidnap Gucci in Dallas and force him to sign over the rights at gunpoint. The incident put Pooh back in jail and left Gucci trying to preserve his tough-guy image with “Crash Dummy,” an embarrassingly corny recap of the event: “I thought it was a business meeting, but it was a set-up.” Then, in Florida, a brawl broke out between the crews of Lil Tjay and Offset, supposedly over a gambling debt, which ended with Offset hospitalized with a bullet wound and Tjay doing a surreal post-jail interview that felt like a Real Housewives confessional.
The fuzziest incident of them all was an alleged chain-jacking attempt in Houston involving NBA YoungBoy’s top goon Ben 10 and Rap-A-Lot Records heir J. Prince Jr. pressing Detroit punchline whiz Allstar JR. That, too, exploded into bloody violence when JR, allegedly in self-defense, shot Ben 10, who has been in the hospital in critical condition ever since. The story has turned JR into not just one of the hottest rappers on the internet this week, but a sort of overnight cult anti-hero. And in true Detroit rapper fashion, he’s been feeding the beast with headline-grabbing hijinks: A celebratory IG post, a trolling dance challenge replicating the motions of a body bleeding out on the ground, and, of course, a diss track titled “Mob Untied.”
Rappers have been using scrapes with violence and death as promotional material forever. Who doesn’t remember the days when 50 Cent getting shot nine times was the rallying cry for his mainstream takeover? But just because it’s always been a thing doesn’t mean we should be comfortable with it, and as society has become desensitized to violence—from genocide to rap beef—it feels harder to find the people asking, Should it be this way? instead of saying, It’s just the way it is, stop being a prude. I suppose that could be an intentional result of the almighty algorithms profiting off all of the death, because a lot of the heads I talk to in real life agree that this shit is fucked up and social media is making us think it should be normal. That’s not to say that “Mob Untied” isn’t a good diss track; it’s got a wicked Topside beat and JR has one of the slickest tongues in the Midwest, especially when he’s got a target in sight: “How is you a kingpin, yo’ daddy run the show?” I’m glad JR is still around to talk his shit. But that isn’t the point. It’s depressing that a breaking news post on TMZ or No Jumper is worth more than any song.
