Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a totally normal Let's Argue, where I go on our Patreon page and I take your hot takes, your unpopular opinions, your tough questions, and I respond to the best ones.

God, why do I need to explain it? Why do I need to tell you at this point? You shouldn't know. You're like a baby with object permanence issues. I don't even know who I am. I need to tell you and reintroduce myself every time. It's time to argue.

"Drake's a bad guy, and it was fun to see him lose a rap beef." - Jack

The thing that bewilders me most with this whole Drake beef thing and the way his fans defend him – let's just put it this way – regardless of any of the stuff that was said about Drake in the songs, in the beef tracks against him, put all of that to the side. What really blows my mind about the Drake discourse is that for years, just like unprompted for no reason whatsoever. Maybe we're talking about like little tips and beefs behind the scenes or people not liking each other, this or that.

I mean, a lot of that probably goes on in the entertainment industry at large, regardless of what genre you're talking about, medium you're talking about, whatever. There's probably a lot of people in all forms of entertainment who know each other, but maybe don't necessarily like each other.

The thing is, for years, Drake has been openly and covertly taking shot after shot after shot, after shot, after shot at his contemporaries, at total fucking randos, like Esperanza Spalding, taking the crappiest side, totally at random in the whole Megan/Tory Lanez thing. Honestly, nobody asked what you thought about any of these things or any of these people. You're just making yourself look like a fucking asshole.

You're just making enemy after enemy after enemy, totally for no reason whatsoever. Of course, it's going to catch up to you at some point. He constantly bitches and moans and whines and complains about, 'Oh, I got no friends in the industry. It's lonely at the top.' Like, that has nothing to do with you? That's not your doing in any way whatsoever? That's just completely by accident, just because people were mean?

I mean, look, I get it. Drake didn't really have the easiest entry in the music industry as far It was like people accepting him because he was just mercilessly ridiculed as being soft and being this and being that. Drake's the type of guy crying to his pillow. I understand that couldn't have felt good, but a lot of the people who you're just attacking for no fucking reason at this point have nothing to do with any of that. It just feels like you're lashing out just to do it. Again, just makes you look like a jerk.

Of course, like when we get to a point where Kendrick, an artist with a cultural impact that is comparable to yours comes through with a diss track and nobody's there to defend you. Nobody's there to be like, 'Hey, you know what? Kendrick was out of line. Kendrick's doing too much. Drake, say what you will about his behavior, but he along with everybody. He supports people. He does this, he does that.'

Nobody was there to say that because everybody knows Drake's a jerk, or at least that's how he consistently conducts himself. When you have no friends and you have no allies and you have no real supporters outside of your psychotic cult OVO goon fans on Twitter, nobody's going to back you up when you get roast in one fucking diss track after another.

"Scaring the Hoes to guys is what brat is to girls." - Paul

I don't know if I agree with that. I don't think there's anything about Brat that is scary to guys. I was actually seeing some tweets online recently where people were like, 'We need Brat for boys.' Some dudes replied here and there with a cover of Justice's Cross. I have to agree. I do feel like Justice's Cross is… It's that club anthem record in the way that Brat is, but for the boys. But for the boys.

"Every band/artist should start selling deodorant at their merch tables because JESUS CHRIST, the amount of people who reek at the venue is atrocious." - Oscar

That really truly depends on the artist. Honestly, doing that is just going to alienate people and probably just create a very bad viral meme that will just turn people off of that artist's sound. Because unfortunately, as whack as it is, I feel like a lot of people will avoid certain artists and won't listen to them based on how they perceive their audience to be. Is their audience cringe? Are they annoying? Are they this? Are they that? I feel like the music should take priority first. But unfortunately, things like, I don't know, one of your audience members peeing in the mosh pit does end up reflecting badly upon you as a band. Someone at the Death Grips show in Philly peed in the pit area with urine.

"I judge somebody by the music they put on when we get high 😭" - Dama

Yeah, I'm really not the one. Austen, why did you pick this? I don't really get high. Although I guess I suppose I could see myself in exactly this position. I feel like when it comes to playing music in a group of people, no matter what the context is, sober, high, DJ, party, whatever it is. The most important and key thing that you can do is be attuned to the vibe and the energy of the situation, as well as, to an extent, the music tastes of the people who are in the area with you.

What are they into? What are they there for? What would really complement the moment? It's not about picking the coolest thing. It's not about playing your favorite tracks. If all you care about when you are playing music in front of people is playing music that is your favorite music. That's the worst possible thing that you could do. That's just you being selfish and dumb and annoying. Unless you're talking everybody and that's the vibe everybody's into.

But the thing is, again, if you're going to do that, double-check that that's what everybody wants to do. Don't just unilaterally make that decision. I see what you're saying insofar as if somebody just is randomly putting on music while all you guys are high and it's not the mood, it's not the vibe, and it's just fucking the energy of everything up. Yeah, for sure, you could judge people by that.

"RUN or DMC having no mention in your top 55 rappers list is hip hop blasphemy, explain that if you can or how you. look at what RUN DMC did for hip hop and their contributions? I feel it's almost impossible to tell the story of hip hop without them." - Zach S

Okay, first off, apologies. No offense intended to the RUN DMC fans. I do have a lot respect and admiration and appreciation for RUN and DMC. I guess in my assessment, when it came to just like rappers and strictly assessing them based on rap ability, and the respective times and eras that they came from, because I tried to cover a little bit of everything and every one from each essential era of hip hop music. I just feel like there were artists who just had more lyrical ability and more personality and more staying power than a lot of what RUN DMC did.

As far as historical relevance goes, if we were only basing it on that or if that was a criteria that weighed a little bit heavier for me, I think it would have absolutely thrown in RUN DMC. Absolutely no questions asked. I feel like in terms of 80s rap and making hip hop music that was widely appealing, even to people outside of rap, and doing it in such a way to where they didn't necessarily need that white appeal in the way that Vanilla Ice did.

They were essential. They were key to, I think, softening a lot of crowds who may have been skeptical toward rap music otherwise. The way that they were melding elements of hip hop and rock so effectively and so creatively, I think it opened the genre up to a new young audience that may not have given a chance otherwise.

However, the point of my list wasn't necessarily to tell the story of rap music. It was more to assess and put up there who I think are the most artistically sound and interesting and daring and creative artist as far as like, rapping is concerned.

"People talk about how the VULTURES series is bad because of Kanye's antisemitism and the drop in quality of his production, but no one's talking about how pretty much every song is horny to the point of it being gross. Every track is just Ye and Ty being weird horny dudes and it's the furthest thing from sexy that I could think of. I know Kanye has a track record of being sex obsessed in his music, but I feel like he's taking it to new extremes here, at least on albums like MBDTF and Yeezus he had other stuff to talk about beyond treating women like objects." - Loretta

Honestly, there are so many awful things about the project that is just so far from being, I think, first-order as far as people's attention span. And yeah, of course, it's awkward. It's weird. It's horny to the point where it's outlandish. I can't even listen to it myself and be like, 'Oh, yeah, I agree. That's a really hot idea.' There's nothing really hot about, big beautiful butt naked bitches to just fall out of the sky. It's just like, what's even hot about that? It's just outlandish and dumb. It's like a fantasy that a 12-year-old has.

The thing is, you could be horny, but there's nothing really about Kanye's music, especially at this point, that comes across super sexy or sensual, even during that Yeezus era. With his sexuality on this record, it's like he's just throwing it out there, just be like, 'Yeah, I can tell the whole world I'm fucking horny and who's going to stop me?' You know what I mean? It feels like it's less about the sex and more about just in his own mind, the power move that being so openly horny, expresses for him. That's me doing a little bit of a psycho analysis, I guess.

"Genuine take: I have no idea why anyone would willingly listen to Primus. It's just meme music. It's basically low-effort trolling with good baselines. Like what's the point of music that has zero emotional core and/or impact? I'll never understand it. They have barely 1 million listeners on Spotify and I'm honestly surprised the even have THAT much. Honestly, what's the point?" - Machine Gun Philly

I don't know if I would go as far as to say Primus has no emotional core. What does that even mean? Because they're not angsty? There's not stuff about their music that's dark or weird? I mean, there are certainly tracks that I think pass that muster in the Primus catalog. The band just kind of rocks. They're absurd and tongue-in-cheek and a little conceptual with their lyrics in the way that Rush tends to be sometimes or The Residence, Red-era King Crimson is a huge influence on Primus. Pink Floyd as well is a huge influence on Primus.

I feel like when you see all of these influences coming together, Primus makes a lot more sense. While there are records in the band's catalog that I feel like are stinkers and they're not that great, there is something that is supremely weird and freaky and sinister about the band's music that I think makes them a unique group. I think also this is another case of any absurdity or any employment of comedy in a band's music, automatically to some listeners, making them think in their heads like, 'Oh, this isn't serious. This is just dumb. This is just stupid. This is so passe. It doesn't mean anything.'

Which, I mean, look at Frank Zappa's music. Are we really going to argue here that because so many Frank Zappa albums employ humor and satire and are a little nudge, nudge, wink, wink, they're just dumb and meaningless and there's no emotional core to anything that he does? No, that's absurd. Primus' music does provably express emotion. Maybe it's not the same emotion as a "Sweet Child of Mine", or some bullshit like that, but it is like showcasing emotion.

"Weird question, but do you think Tupac was gay?" - Oscar

Yeah. I mean, that is a weird question you did deliver upon that promise. What does it matter?

"How to disappear is completely a great song, but not a great Radiohead song because it's too pathetic. Most Radiohead songs got some optimism in it, and it feels weird for it to be in kid A imo." - Htkkk

What? A Radiohead song is too pathetic? I mean, maybe I'm not fully reading into all of the lyrics, but is this not the band that wrote "Creep"? Is this not every young male indie fan's favorite depression band? I don't know if there's such a thing as a Radiohead song that's TOO pathetic. Not to say most of the band's music scratches that itch. It most certainly doesn't. But I don't know,emotionally speaking, the band has been known to go into some pretty dark places where self-esteem isn't exactly the primary flavor.

"French Montana Releasing multiple versions of his Mac & Cheese 5 mixtape should be an example of what not to do when promoting a new project. Just focus on releasing the project as one version only." - MaXXXimof_

Hold on a second. Time, time, time, time, time. What the hell else was that other project, though, that he dropped out of nowhere that he put out multiple versions of? Oh, that was actually Mac & Cheese 5. I love that he did so many versions and different covers to the point where I literally thought he put out different fucking albums, which just goes to prove your point here.

Also, out of all the versions of this thing that you could drop, why not just stick with this cover? This is cute. This is adorable. You look like a little bobblehead guy with all the mac and cheese around you. That's cool. That's quirked up.

Meanwhile, what the fuck is this thing? What the fuck is this? It's like a shittier version of The Low End Theory cover. What is going on here?

"Pop rap is not a genre. It's either pop or rap." - Drake

No, I disagree. It's very provably a genre. I mean, it was pretty much the predominant genre of rap music in the 2000s, for the most part. Yeah, it's like elements of pop and rap fused together, and it's way less about lyricism and storytelling than the freaking hardcore hip hop and jazz rap was that came before it. Especially considering that you're talking about artists in the genre borrowing nods, taking nods from pop music, prevailing pop songs and artists at the time. Pop rap just makes sense.

"LET'S AGREE with Swans: public castration is a good idea." - bressig

Public castration is a good idea. You want someone to be castrated in the town square and everybody shows up to watch. You're sick. You're a sick fuck. You're a sick, disgusting, demented fuck. I actually don't agree. As fun as that project is, I don't agree.

Let's Argue, donezo, finito, in the can. I will see you guys in the next one.

Anthony Fantano. Music. Forever.