Ryan Coogan: Drake and Kendrick Lamar rap beef has produced some of their best work in years

Foreign dispatch

Rather than firing off barbs, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, above, on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2022, are writing little poems to each other. Photo: Yui Mok/PA

Ryan Coogan
© UK Independent

There’s a lot of conflict in the world right now. It feels like you can’t open a newspaper (or, if we’re being honest, social media) without reading about some terrible geopolitical incident bringing us one step closer to the brink. Our public figures are no better, lowering the public discourse with every hastily typed post and provocative soundbite that escapes their controversy-hungry brains.

We used to be so much better at this. Even in times of struggle, we used to carry ourselves with a sense of decorum. We didn’t just scream at each other – we thought about what we were going to say, and we said it well.