Name: Anthony Fantano on Drake vs. Kendrick
Uploaded: 2025-06-20T22:01:09.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Anthony Fantano on Drake vs. Kendrick' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Anthony Fantano on Drake vs. Kendrick' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-20. Transcript available.

If you look at your channel, the top, I'd say probably 20 or 30 videos on the
needle
drop are all hip-hop.
A lot of them are, yeah.
You're probably the biggest hip-hop critic nowadays.
Like by virtue of just kind of reviewing it.
Numbers-wise, yeah.
Does it feel weird sometimes as a white guy to be talking about something that's
predominantly
black?
Sure.
How do you manage that in terms of your reviews?
I feel like one of the ways I try to manage it, which I think is kind of a best
practice
for me, is you want to pay attention, very careful attention, and take care to
make note
of and most importantly take seriously the substance of the subject matter.
Consider that people are describing experiences that I don't personally have a
super intimate
familiarity with.
But simultaneously, you don't want to treat rap music like it's a special case
because I feel
like that's kind of patronizing as well.
You're a music critic, right?
It's the type of music.
Well, I mean, the thing is like, you know, by that same token while I say that,
I also
don't have intimate personal experience of what it is to be a woman.
So I'll give you an example of what I'm trying to get at, in the NBA, right, punditry
has, in
the last 10 years, kind of become a lot about advanced statistics and metrics,
and I think
maybe perhaps is a result of a predominantly white pundit class talking about
something that's
predominantly black.
Sports is a bit more of a concrete subject matter than whether or not a song is
good.
But the question is, is that like, I don't know, I really saw a lot of your
tweets during
this Drake and Kendrick thing last year.
Sure.
And your analysis did tend to be like, you know, in the third round, they
switched up
the flow three times and, you know, like you were giving kind of more of the
stats.
A little bit.
Yeah.
Did you find it entertaining?
Yeah.
It just, what is they, in your opinion, I mean, as a person that's commented on
this?
Yeah.
Do you want me to start answering now?
Yeah.
Okay.
Sorry.
We'll cut that down.
No, no, no, no.
It's fine.
I think from my personal outsider perspective, having, you know, listened to
and reviewed
a great deal of Kendrick's music and looking at that song, like, I feel like
there is sort
of a weakness there or a bit of confusion there when you're talking about the
song that you're
observing when you're kind of like looking at it outside of the greater context
of like
the beef between him and Drake.
Which was...
I mean...
The funny thing is if you look at specifically in that vacuum, I feel like the
they is super
clear in terms of like...
What is it?
Is it a secret?
In terms of it literally like him and his entourage and...
He and his friends aren't like us?
And not only people who sort of engage in the sort of behavior that Kendrick
paints him
as, you know, engaging in on the song.
Uh-huh.
Um, but also in his own way, Kendrick is trying to paint Drake in a way as, and
again, this is
not like me saying whether or not this is true.
This is me saying like, this is what Kendrick...
But...
I'm saying this is what Kendrick is insinuating in the song.
He's trying to paint Drake as culturally being outside of the black experience
in a way.
Kamala Harris was told that she's not black.
And there was an outrage.
Sure.
Um, I've just...
It's confusing to me why there wasn't a similar response by...
I mean, people like yourself are like...
Why...
Why is that...
What happened with Drake was treated differently?
Like, whether or not I was outraged that that was the case?
It's kind of...
It's kind of messed up, right?
Well, I mean, I think that those were happening in two far different contexts.
Well, I mean, like, Drake's like black, right?
I mean, yeah, I can't deny that.
So, I mean, it's...
But it's...
I'll...
Okay.
Look, here's the thing.
Let's say this.
I'm not saying it's not faulty messaging.
Like, you know, objectively speaking, objectively speaking, like, Drake's dad
is black.
Drake is black.
You know?
Um, I think, uh, and again, I'm just insinuating here based on what I hear on
the song.
I feel like, for Kendrick, what he was trying to get across on the track,
because when you
literally talk about sort of, like, who he collabs with and where he goes to
sort of, like,
make these kind of cultural connections and sort of, like, align himself with
certain segments
of hip-hop music, I think he's sort of displaying that as more of a cultural
blackness.
I think it's a lot of guys our age that are white guys that were, like, really
getting
into it, and it felt a little weird.
I think we just had a nice time when Drake was here.
We've had a lot of nice times while Drake was playing.
I think increasingly...
And now we have to know what a tariff is and stuff, because Drake went away?
Please.
Wherever you are.
Australia.
Where is he now?
I think he's in America again.
Or in Canada.
Listen, it's...
I guess I just miss him.