Cole Swain was scrolling through his phone one morning before school last week when he got a notification from YouTube. At 8:24 a.m. in Los Angeles, college students Swain and Kendrick Lamar raised great expectations with a diss track aimed at Drake in a battle between two rappers called 'Euphoria', which had just been released.
As Mr. Swain's group chats and social media feeds exploded, he logged on to Genius, a website that allows users to copy and annotate lyrics to help explain their meaning. Mr. Lamar, the site's volunteer editor and a fan of Lamar. Swain was ready to hit the track.
But Genius seemed unprepared for the favor of Mr. Swain and his visitors. After nearly two weeks of silence following Drake's diss note, Lamar's response on April 30 brought a huge amount of traffic to Genius and temporarily crashed it as fans struggled to dig into what the artist had to say. Yes.
“This is ridiculous,” recalled Swain, a 19-year-old student studying biotechnology at the University of California, Los Angeles. “I’m trying my best to write lyrics that everyone wants to read.”
The feud between Lamar and Drake ramped up at breakneck speed over the weekend, with both musicians trading songs packed with powerful punches. As the hype for the release exploded on Genius, a small collaborative corner of the internet created for music lovers, Mr. Users like Swain have worked furiously to dismantle the song.
While many lyrics websites only contain transcripts of songs, Genius is a Wikipedia-like site that allows users to sort through complex lyrics, connect the dots to previous songs, and provide historical context.
Your status on the site, which is determined in part by the quality and quantity of your activity, grants you various rights, such as the ability to approve or reject comments from other users. Mr. Editors like Swain are not paid. Platform is a hobby.
Big releases always cause a bit of a stir, but the volley between Lamar and Drake rarely garnered attention. Editors, moderators, administrators, and others were competing to deliver accurate lyrics, complete with smart, elaborate notes, to thousands of followers in real time. Genius' top 10 most-viewed songs of the week were dominated by diss tracks from Lamar and Drake on Wednesday. According to Genius, “Euphoria” has garnered more than 7 million views on the site since its April 30 release.
“This is like the NBA Finals,” said Jalin Coleman, 21, who edits under the username @spillretro and uses “they” pronouns. “There is an additional burden,” they added.
I have school and a job. MX. Coleman, a senior studying creative writing and communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, often does annotations and homework at the same time.
“I can’t focus on my homework if I know this is happening.” Mx. Coleman said. “I end up putting it off because I want to be a part of this huge thing.” (They said they were never late for assignments and never missed class.)
Ian, who goes by the Genius username @ibmac26 and asked that only his first name be used to protect his privacy, helped record “Like That,” a song released by Atlanta rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin last March. Lamar's feud with Drake began in earnest. He also worked on lyrics for Lamar's “Meet the Grahams,” which was released Friday night an hour after Drake's “Family Matters.”
“It feels like another punch could be thrown by either side at any time, and trying to anticipate what they’re going to say next isn’t even worth it,” Ian said.
Jonathan Goens is a Lamar fan who has been waiting for a diss track from Drake. “Especially after what Drake asked for in ‘Taylor Made Freestyle,’” Goens, 32, said he used an AI voice filter to imitate rappers Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg to attack Lamar. He said, referring to Drake's song.
Mr. Goens uses Genius to study the lyrics of surprise releases, especially if the artist didn't include them in the song, and reflects his analysis through commentary from other users. He went to the website to help him choose “Euphoria.”
“I wondered if things I thought had a deeper meaning could have another meaning, if what he was saying was something I couldn’t see at all,” said Goens, a forklift driver. Mr Goens said he was shocked to see Genius collapsed. He kept refreshing the site, but had no luck, so instead he ran “Euphoria” a few more times until the website was running again.
“The fact that it was taken down showed me how much it meant to so many people to see an artist like Kendrick Lamar respond,” he said.
Ian revealed that Lamar was on his studio album 'Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers' and in April followed the arrival of Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department'. But rarely does a single song hit the site, he added. Representatives for Genius or its parent company, MediaLab, could not be reached for comment.
Both Lamar and Drake continued to release multiple songs after “Euphoria,” but the volley has plateaued since Drake released “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday evening.
Mr. Swain plans to take some time off from his job as an editor. He said his roommate has been teasing him recently about how much time he spends on Genius.
Unless, of course, Lamar wins and drops another track, Mr. Swain added: That would definitely get him off the sideline.