They Not like Us

Introduction: From Rap Battles to Cultural Battlegrounds In 2024, rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake took music, popular culture, and even politics by storm with an escalating series of diss tracks (Coscarelli), the latest chapter in a long-simmering rivalry dating back to 2014. Feuds have long defined rap, with diss tracks forming a distinct sub-style (Baker). The most infamous precedent comes from the 1990s, when American rappers from the East Coast and West Coast clashed (lyrically, symbolically, even physically) over artistic authenticity, territorial claims, and personal vendettas. The Kendrick–Drake feud, however, was not just another iteration of this tradition. Whereas earlier rap conflicts revolved around lyrical combat and street credibility, this feud unfolded into a sprawling cultural event, transcending music. Fans debating the feud online transformed it into a pop culture vortex, touching on everything from the Trump–Harris race (Dyson) to cancel culture and racial identity (as Drake is Canadian, born to a white mother and an African American father—Williams). This feud became a proxy for cultural affiliations, political positions, and aesthetic sensibilities, making where one stood in the feud symbolic of one’s stance on larger issues, all while avoiding a more prominent polarised mapping in matters of ‘woke’/’based’ or red-state/blue-state seen in other instances of popular culture and corporate branding. This dynamic points to a broader shift in meaning-making within digital culture, extending beyond rap battles. Increasingly, cultural meaning is not just explicitly stated through symbols but implied through interconnected references and assemblages. Consider the ‘brat green’ phenomenon: when British singer Charli XCX used a vivid green on an album cover, the colour gained an unexpected second life, incorporated into activist protests, Kamala Harris’s campaign aesthetics, and broader expressions of youthful irreverence (Holtermann). Similarly, emerging ‘Internet aesthetics’ (such as ‘cottagecore,’ or ‘dark academia’) combine disparate artistic styles, musical genres, and lifestyle elements into overarching labels that convey meaning through tacit association (Giolo and Berghman). We refer to this process as cultural aggregation: a mode of meaning-making that operates by layering (particularly pop) cultural references into loosely coherent symbolic webs, rather than through singular symbols and semantic clustering. Cultural aggregation is increasingly visible in Internet culture, ranging from mood boards to aestheticised trends like ‘Pastel QAnon’, which blends wellness and mommy influencer visuals with conspiracy theories (Argentino 87). Meaning-making through cultural aggregation remains under-theorised beyond specific case studies. Cultural aggregation speaks to changes that can be observed in fan studies as well as in digital media practices more generally. User-generated content, blurred production and consumption, are taken for granted in fandoms and digital fora (Jenkins, “Fandom”) Yet, the continued saturation of content (including commentary) creation, combined with the prevalence of hashtags (Williams), memes (Zienkiewicz), and platform architecture/affordances on sites like Reddit, generate conditions where content is both locally meaningful but also central to default scrolling practices on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These conditions erode articulation, with meaning less often stated directly and, more frequently, tacitly assembled through loosely connected assemblages of references. Consider meme templates that combine highly recognisable rhetoric with obscure pop-culture references and localised content that may be indecipherable beyond small audiences. As connections are drawn between visual, memetic, and other elements aggregated from rap feuds, political struggles, and conspiracy theories (to name a few), interpretations are ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, yet remain meaningful. Taking the Kendrick-Drake feud as a high-profile case study, this article bridges concepts from media studies (Philips and Millner; Jenkins, Convergence Culture) like hashtag, remix cultures, and Internet ambiguity; and fan studies (Driessen, Jones, and Litherland; Jenkins, Textual Poachers) including fan readings and textual poaching, to explore how cultural aggregation operates and shapes conversations within digital media spaces. Using content analysis, we highlight how Reddit users engaged with the feud across three categories of communities: specialised rap fora (e.g., r/HipHopHeads), artist-specific fandoms (e.g., r/KendrickLamar), and broader pop culture discussion spaces (e.g., r/PopCultureChat). Through this, we explore how cultural aggregation functions as a framework for understanding recurring patterns of engagement with music, fandom, and digital discourse. Diverse audiences engage with densely encoded and contextually bound cultural references. In doing so, they mobilise differing types of content knowledge to assert multiple understandings of the feud. These findings bear resemblance to existing literature on Web 2.0 practices such as hashtag culture (Sheldon, Herzfeldt, and Rauschnabel) or remix culture (Markham), but also suggest that cultural aggregation operates as an evolving meaning-making mechanism distinct from these earlier forms. Rather than simply repurposing symbols, cultural aggregation incorporates them into networks of association, shaping cultural, social, and political discourse in online spaces. In doing so, it speaks to the need for “theoretical tools that both respond to and constitute communication in new ways, with new ways of conceiving its object of analysis” (Slack 143). However, this research also underscores the need for further investigation into cultural aggregation’s mechanisms, boundaries, and broader applications across digital and offline contexts, particularly concerning the spreadability of digital content. Understanding how meaning is increasingly shaped through assemblages that invoke affect and tacit understandings, rather than discrete symbols, presents an important avenue for future research in media studies, communication, and cultural theory. Analytical Considerations Seeking to uncover more generalised dimensions of aggregation and how fans make sense of both this rap feud through broader cultural phenomena, as well as cultural phenomena through the feud, we conducted an in-depth qualitative analysis of conversation threads related to the feud occurring across Reddit communities. While there are online fandoms beyond Reddit, this platform cultivates organically emergent discourse within pseudonymous, interest-based communities, enabling researchers to observe meaning-making practices in situ (Bury). We adopted an exploratory approach to meaning-making in fan communities (e.g., r/KendrickLamar), general hip-hop communities (e.g., r/HipHopHeads), and more generally across Reddit. We employed the platform’s keyword search both in predetermined subreddits and more generally, in order to identify aggregation practices and meaning-making. Search terms were limited to the following: artist names (“Kendrick”, “Drake”), general culture keywords (“beef”, “diss”), and interpretive signals (“discussion”, “explained”, “controversy”), employed within selected subreddits and in general Reddit search queries. We collected threads between April 2024 and April 2025, selecting those that (a) discussed or interpreted the feud’s meaning, or (b) mobilised the feud and its elements in broader conversations, and (c) showed signs of traction or resonance (e.g., through layered comment interaction, upvotes, or cross-referencing). Future work could extend this sampling logic to underrepresented or more ambivalent communities, or apply comparative strategies to threads with minimal engagement. This multi-layered search logic can be seen as a system of concentric circles. First, more devoted rap fans naturally engage with musical artefacts through predominantly lyrical and aesthetic modalities, fan communities tend to include larger crowds interested in the artists’ music but also in their popular culture personae, given that both Kendrick and Drake are immensely popular figures even outside the rap world. Finally, general communities are concerned with popular culture as a whole, of which rap music is only a part. By following this layered sample logic, we aimed to account for the breadth of this rap feud’s cultural ramifications, which (unlike previous rap battles) expanded beyond the rap community and fans. Following sampling, the resulting corpus contained 22 threads from 10 subreddits: r/KendrickLamar r/Drizzy r/hiphopheads r/Hiphopcirclejerk r/Fauxmoi r/PeterExplainsTheJoke r/OutOfTheLoop r/PopCultureChat r/professorskye r/AlternateHistory Corpus selection and interpretive coding were carried out through a combination of individual close reading and collaborative analysis. The authors met regularly to exchange notes, refine patterns, and ensure coherence in thematic observations, with contributions from a research assistant. To identify moments of aggregation, we focussed on interpretations and appropriations of the feud that gained traction, as indicated by visible uptake such as upvotes, recurring phrasing, or nested comment threads. Our analysis emphasised moments in which meaning was collectively constructed or performatively shared, even in the absence of explicit agreements. Following, we illustrate key patterns of cultural aggregation observed across the sample and how they differentiate from earlier modes of digital fan discourse. Findings: Aggregation Practices and Discourses The Kendrick vs. Drake feud transcended rap music culture (with its own logics of appreciation) to become part of broader conversations across social and cultural life. In this sense, we observed three main ways in which Reddit users aggregated different topics within their discussion of the feud or dissecting it for materials to make sense of parallel phenomena. We begin to describe these aggregation practices below. Detailed Breakdowns and Signification One of the most common aggregation practices identified was the interpretive breakdowns of diss tracks, music videos, and live performances. This was most prominent amongst rap and artist-specific subreddits (particularly r/KendrickLamar and r/HipHopHeads), and especially the case for Kendrick’s Not like Us video. Users speculated, for instance, on the symbolism of owls (arguably connected to Drake’s OVO brand), baseball bats (a nod to West Coast territoriality), and Compton landmarks. In a rather long post breaking down the music video of Kendrick’s Not like Us diss track on r/KendrickLamar, users postulate, for instance, how a shipping container from Barbados features in the video by drawing connections to the country’s alleged reputation for human trafficking and child sexual abuse with a claim that Drake recently visited the country on holiday. Fans also note the alignment between the shipping container shot in the video and lyrics referring to “that predator moves in flocks”. Within the same thread, many users also discuss how a dancer walking a tight rope might indicate issues about race, given the structural challenges and precarity that impact African-Americans in particular. Other users see the same shot and share that they associate this shot with the cover of one of Drake’s albums. These breakdowns embody aggregation in its densest form: meaning is constructed through hyper-referential layering, where no element stands alone. Fans seem to assume that everything signifies, and that significance arises from the web of associations between signs. A baseball bat becomes not just a prop, but a proxy for regional identity; a background dancer’s gesture becomes a thread linking rap history, gang symbolism, and Internet meme culture. Such practices may resemble the well-documented phenomenon of fanspiracies, the puzzle-solving, clue-hunting engagement of fans looking for “clues”, overinterpreting what something supposedly ‘truly means’ (Driessen, Jones, and Litherland). These breakdowns diverge in both structure and intent. Rather than seeking to resolve ambiguity or uncover hidden messages, users engage in expansive associative layering, linking visuals, lyrics, geographies, and symbols to broader cultural fields such as Black identity, regional pride, and meme ecologies. Meaning is not discovered but constructed through webs of cultural resonance. This is an important distinction that signals users seeking not coherence or closure, but density. Diverging or contradictory interpretations of media texts do not necessarily generate conflict or warrant resolution, in contrast to conventional fan practice (Driessen, Jones, and Litherland; Marwick and Partin). Political Mappings: Aggregation as Ideological Projection A second prominent aggregation practice emerged through political projections of the feud. Users connected Kendrick and Drake to broader political and ideological figures, frequently comparing Drake to Donald Trump (in terms of perceived egotism, misogyny, or overexposure) and Kendrick to various oppositional or activist archetypes. This was observed particularly in subreddits further away from music-specific communities, like r/PopCultureChat, attesting to the transversal and pervasive nature of this feud. For instance, in a thread questioning what Kendrick Lamar song would be appropriate on election day, users propose NOT LIKE US, referring to Kendrick’s diss track, substituting Drake for Krodie Kalama as the target of exclusion. Yet, a few hours after Trump’s presidential victory, another thread emerges calling the new president “not like us”, with users using quotes from the same diss track to attack Trump. Responses in the thread reappropriate Kendrick’s lyrical attack on Drake: “Certified loverboy, certified pedophile”, by swapping “loverboy” with “president”. The discussion becomes much more layered, as users compare child sexual abuse allegations against Drake and Trump, noting that the former may have received disproportionate scrutiny relative to the latter in 2024. In another thread, this time on the subreddit r/ItCouldHappenHere (dedicated to discussing the TV show It Could Happen Here, thus far removed from the world of rap music), users extend Kendrick’s lyrics’ societal relevance by claiming that accusations against Drake can also apply to public figures such as Trump, Elon Musk, and Andrew Tate. These mappings were neither consistent nor doctrinal. In some threads, Kendrick was framed as a progressive firebrand; in others, his aggression was seen as replicating patriarchal posturing. Similarly, Drake’s racial and national identity became a terrain of symbolic instability: in some readings, his biracial status and Canadian background allowed users to complicate U.S.-centric racial binaries; in others, they served to disqualify him from authentic participation in Black American cultural discourse. This aggregation acts as a meaning-making strategy mobilising political and social categories not to produce stable ideological positions, but to expand the interpretive range, transforming the feud into an open text for projecting and contesting cultural anxieties. Despite a considerable preoccupation with knowledge accumulation and interpretation among fans, this practice does not serve to establish orthodoxy, but to enable applicability to ever-changing cultural and political landscapes. Future research might explore how similar aggregation practices operate across other culturally salient events, or concerning different political or aesthetic phenomena, helping further specify the boundaries and workings of this meaning-making practice. Status Talk: Loserdom and Hierarchies Another recurrent aggregation practice involved using the feud to rehearse and reassert broader hierarchies, both among the artists and within fan communities. This was particularly prominent in threads that debated “who won”. Such conversations are expected in the context of a feud (a phenomenon that works itself towards a winner/loser dynamic). Yet these conversations frequently segued into larger discussions about, for instance, masculinity, credibility, and coolness. Thus, even in exchanges about which rapper had won the feud (for which one would expect one ‘correct’ answer), we can find ever-expanding interpretations of what was won. For instance, in a post retelling Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance of Not like Us, users explain how this performance and the crowd’s apparent enthusiasm indicate Kendrick’s victory in this feud, asserting a revolutionary re-assertion of Hip Hop for Black artists in the face of cultural colonisation. We also observed several visual memes and images showing, for example, Drake in a hospital bed. Drake was frequently positioned as a “loser” not just in the feud, but in cultural terms. Some of the “overly emotional” or “socially awkward” allegations made towards Drake are not new to this feud. For instance, the community like r/DrakeTheType, filled with quasi-parody posts about the rapper, dates back to 2014. In the context of the feud, such discourses morphed into Drake being a “sore loser” or a “Karen”, a derogatory and intersectional term meaning a white middle-class woman perceived as entitled or excessively demanding. For example, when speculating on the moment in the Super Bowl performance that Kendrick addresses Drake, users conjure both text and meme-based imagery of Drake on the phone with his lawyers, over petty grievances that betray a hegemonic entitlement that is commonly invoked online (Brady, Christiansen, and Hiltz). These comments aggregate themes of loserdom and exclusion through Internet culture vernacular. Meanwhile, Kendrick’s perceived win was often framed as a kind of cultural reassertion of “real rap”, of Black artistry, of West Coast pride. In fan communities, these dynamics were also mapped onto gendered hierarchies: users debated who was more “alpha”, who had more “discipline”, who “stood on business”. These expressions, echoing manosphere vernacular, were sometimes parodied or inverted. Discussion and Final Remarks Our findings demonstrate how, within and through the Kendrick–Drake feud, users layered associations across domains, from music and pop culture to politics, Internet culture, and social critique to produce dense and often ambiguous (sometimes contradictory) meanings. Rather than resolving ambiguity (Philips and Milner; Jenkins, Ford, and Green), Reddit users embraced interpretive excess, crafting highly referential, yet tacitly interpreted, webs of signification. In doing so, they engaged a form of meaning-making that diverges from the logics of remix, which foregrounds transformation and reuse of discrete artefacts, and generates new artefacts (Markham) or hashtags, which consolidate meaning through semantic clustering (Sheldon, Herzfeldt, and Rauschnabel). These practices, we argue, exemplify a longer shift in mediated meaning-making, one better apprehended through the lens of cultural aggregation: a mode grounded in symbolic layering, where meaning arises from resonance rather than through explicit articulation. This process unfolded across different subreddit environments, from lyrical analysis to political allegory, to collective memory. Even when interpretations clashed (e.g., the unstable status of Drake’s racial identity and its precarious association with Kamala Harris or Donald Trump), they did not compete for resolution. Still, some readings gained traction over others, reflecting a dynamic of discursive power: visibility, repetition, and cultural capital shape what “sticks” (Foucault 152). The emergence of cultural aggregation stems from an epochal epistemic shift: in saturated digital environments that encourage curation (e.g., boards or bookmarking), communicative simplicity (e.g., short video format), and a growing preference for affective communication (e.g., vibes, moods, impressions), explicit articulation has (and continues to) gradually erode, making way for softer networks based on resonance. This exploratory contribution aims to establish cultural aggregation as a distinct enactment of digital culture worth further interest and theorising. Aggregation seems to organise and express (in tacit yet meaningful ways) affect, knowledge, and critique, making it a promising lens with which scholars from a wide range of disciplines might draw on to dissect Internet culture. This study is limited by its focus on a single cultural event, platform, and dataset size. We invite exploring the applicability of cultural aggregation in other platforms and cultural contexts, helping develop this concept further. Future research could account for the edges of cultural aggregation practice, including downvoted or less prominent comments (Graham and Rodriguez), or even less interpretively invested communities: non-fan subreddits like r/OutOfTheLoop and r/PeterExplainsTheJoke offer valuable vantage points on individuals seeking help in parsing a symbolic density they cannot immediately decode. As Internet culture shifts toward increasingly ambiguous, layered, and often simplistic modes of expression, cultural aggregation invites scholars to move beyond the pursuit of epistemic clarity, embracing meaning as it emerges through accumulation and resonance. References Argentino, Marc-André. “Pastel QAnon.” QAnon: From Conspiracy Theory to New Religious Movement, London: Routledge, 2025. 87–122. Baker, Soren. 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