It is true that sticks and stones do in fact break bones. However, it doesn’t take long for one to find out that words, while not necessarily physically damaging, are indeed hurtful.
Stick and stones may break my bones but words will slowly seep into my soul and keep me up at night repeating them over and over as the room spins.
Perhaps that’s more accurate. In just a couple of minutes you can most likely recall words that have been said to you or about you which have shaped you. Of course, these can be beneficial words or degrading ones. But for some reason we tend to cling to the latter — or maybe they cling to us. I can think of numerous entertainers who’ve talked about scrolling through thousands of positive comments online only to focus on the one negative comment from a random nobody on the internet.
While the internet is a prime example of the warfare of words, there is nothing like a good ol’ fashion rap beef. Hip-hop has a history of rappers having public spats — verbal sparring on wax. Tupac and The Notoroious B.I.G., Nas and Jay-Z, Ice Cube and N.W.A., Eminem and Benzino. And numerous others who’ve dissed each other back and forth in the public arena for all to watch — and sometimes it goes further than just songs.
When the door for a battle is opened, everything is on the table. Secrets are revealed and truth is put in the spotlight. For example, Eminem and Benzino have been spatting since 2002, with Eminem recently ridiculing Benzino for being in debt and having no neck (the disses sound better over a beat with inflections and personality, I promise.) Drake, who is currently back in the ring, was previously notoriously beaten in the rap battle with Pusha T in 2018 when it was revealed Drake had a child the world did not know about — something he has never been able to live down. The concept of grown men insulting each other may not be the most enticing thing to listen to, but the right beat can make immaturity sound quite thrilling.
Well the time has come for today’s greats to go at it. Drake and Kendrick Lamar, who’ve had history of beefing subliminally over the years, have finally come to the battlefield. And now in the era of streaming, social media and meme culture, it might be the biggest rap battle to date. The two battled it out over a total of eight songs toward each other, while Drake also addressed a handful of other artists coming after him. The songs themselves have millions of listens and generated content in all realms of the internet. Political commentators have ridden the wave discussing the beef and even mom influencers are doing jokes about explaining the history of the beef between the two rappers to their children. Not to mention Kendrick’s brutal track, Not Like Us, has over one hundred and fifty million listens on Spotify and went number one on Billboard’s Hot 100. But beneath the success and popularity of the tracks is a word all too familiar.
These disses are full of accusations, judgments, and possible outright deceptions about each other. Words can often be that way. They have the power to completely obliterate someone’s reputation or drastically change someone’s standing in the culture. And, if the word bears truth, can reveal someone’s true identity. However, when dealing with celebrities as large as these two, it is difficult to separate truth from fact, a good bar for an outright lie. But putting that aside, the verbal bombs have been dropped. Drake stands accused of pedophilia, colonizing the rap genre, and hiding another child. Kendrick on the other hand, supposedly physically abused his fiancé, is raising a child that is actually his business partner’s child with Kendrick’s now ex-fiancé, and is owned by the industry leaders.
But one doesn’t have to be a multimillionaire rapper to participate in such spats. We use our word on the day-to-day in very similar ways. We gossip about the bizarre neighbor down the road. Subtle passive aggression floats around the workplace with colleagues one may despise. Or worse, at our wits end we speak damaging words towards our children when they, well, act like children. The same goes for a spouse. And try all one might to mend, the word has been spoken, the diss track has been aired and it can’t be rewound. The human race has often used word to break people down, to lay the hammer into those we deem worthy of such assaults. The book of James aptly points out with the tongue we both bless and curse, in the power of the tongue is law and gospel.
A word of law was quite literally sticks and a stones for the Old Covenant people — and it wasn’t just broken bones as a result. But that wasn’t and isn’t the only word from God. God’s word does indeed reveal where we’ve fallen short and certain passages of Scripture might not feel far off from a six minute track of character breakdown. But the track keeps playing.
It’s worth noting there was a brief third contestant in this rap beef — and by brief I mean very brief. J. Cole, another famous rapper, was involved in the initial diss from Kendrick and he responded with a track, 7 Minute Drill, which has since been deleted from streaming services. Cole came after Kendrick’s height, catalogue of albums, and need for controversy to get attention/sales. But just a couple days after releasing the song, he came out on stage in regret for the use of his word.
“… the world want to see blood … in my spirit of trying to like get this music out, I ain’t going to lie to y’all, I moved in a way that was … I feel … spiritually feel bad on me.”
The culture did not receive J Cole’s retraction well at all. One podcaster knocked him for “laying his sword down” and thus committing career suicide. He laid his word down. This is not the expectation in hip hop culture. Cole went on to say his “chin is out” and he’s willing for Kendrick to hit him back. To which the same podcaster responded, “What is that? What is that energy?”
Now the world certainly does want to see blood, and the law itself craves blood. It actually demands blood. Payment. Retribution. And nothing sheds blood like the sword of a word. None are immune to it’s ways. Accusing, revealing, and pronouncing judgment. But there’s another word. The very Word of God which enfleshed itself into our world and laid itself down for us. Christ didn’t just stick his chin out, but his entire self. Both of God’s words, law and gospel, meet not with sticks or stones but whips, globs of spit, and an ancient torture device. A word which doesn’t end with accusation or leaving us naked and ashamed in the revelation of our failed humanity, but rather blesses us, welcomes us, and forgives us. Behold the word of the Lord, not on wax or hushed quietly behind your back but spread out on two planks of wood. The Lord has spoken and the good word rhymes with the hearts of those in need.
