Drake Might've Lost it All to Hubris

You don't have to.

May 16, 2024

Drake v. Kendrick — and the lesson we all can learn 💥 🥊
What makes Vermont’s privacy bill so strong — and so controversial 🍁 🔐
Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok 🤳🏼🤑
Why we need a federal privacy law 🇺🇸 🔐 ⚖️
What apps do with your health data ⚕️👨🏻‍💻
AI 'experts' who are all hype and no substance, a convo with Harvard CS Prof. James Mickens 🧐 🤡

My Take:

Don’t bring a sharp pencil to a gun fight. You didn’t have to be a fancypants from Albuquerque to know this – but over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been wondering if Toronto missed the memo.

Here’s Drake: This dude has more top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 than the Beatles and Michael Jackson had combined. He’s sitting atop his throne as one of the world’s foremost creators of culture and, for no apparent reason, decides to throw a grenade. He aims it at Kendrick Lamar, an artist who might not have Drake’s top 10 singles record but who has significantly more critical acclaim.

A rap battle ensues. For the uninitiated, diss tracks have produced some of the greatest rap in the history of the genre – and this battle is no different. Kendrick Lamar’s diss track, Not Like Us, broke the record for most single-day rap song streams on Spotify and is already being called “the song of the summer.”

But rap battles have also ended careers – and even lives. (See: Tupac v. Biggie, 1996.)

I hate to agree with the Twitter – er, X – masses on pretty much anything but it’s fairly unassailable that Kendrick won. He produced some of his best tracks, has gained new audiences, and his latest album is about to overtake the planet. Drake, on the other hand, lost mightily. His tracks were sub, and he’s in hot water with Tupac’s estate for using Tupac’s AI-generated voice. Worse still, it looks like Drake could be going the way of Diddy with his reputation permanently tarnished by the credible accusations laid out in an excoriating rhyme by Lamar.

So here’s my question: why did Drake start this shit in the first place? What did he imagine he had to gain here? And why didn’t he do a better job of considering everything he could lose?

Was Drake oblivious to the potential consequences OR did he just have so much hubris that he didn’t realize he was bringing a sharp pencil to a gunfight?

In rap as in most things, ego is the enemy of progress. Drake had to potentially lose everything to learn that lesson. Friendly reminder: *you* don’t.

Stories to Follow:

Vermont Legislature passes one of the strongest data privacy measures in the country by Lisa Rathke VIA AP

🍁 🔐 The big news here is the “private right of action” which means that private citizens can take companies to civil court for violating their privacy rights. California’s law also has a private right of action but it is limited to occasions where a data breach occurred. Privacy advocates believe a private right of action is the best way to get companies to abide by privacy legislation, as state AG’s don’t have the staff or the resources to fully enforce the laws. Private right of action also has a fair share of detractors — Big Tech and their lobbyists, for obvious reasons but also small businesses and non-profits who could be taken out by a suit. Vermont legislators met in the middle and said the private right of action can only be exercised against data brokers and companies that have the data of more than 100k Vermonters. In the words of my ETP colleague, JJ, “a compromise? how refreshing.” Of course, just as I was about to hit send on this, the Vermont Governor announced that he might veto. A story to watch, nonetheless. 🍁 🔐

The Billionaire Frank McCourt Mounts a Bid to Buy TikTok By Lauren Hirsch and Sapna Maheshwari VIA NYTimes

🤳🏼🚫 If TikTok has to sell, who could buy it? That’s a question that has been percolating ever since President Trump started talking about a ban during his presidency. The answer isn’t simple. Most of the companies that could afford to pony up the ~$100B required would likely be blocked by anti-trust concerns: namely, Meta and Alphabet. The other glaring problem? While ByteDance might sell TikTok, the proprietary algorithm which has fueled TikTok’s success and addictive nature probably wouldn’t be sold along with it. Essentially, a buyer would have to buy TikTok without the tech that makes TikTok, TikTok. Billionaire Frank McCourt said today that he is interested in putting together a bid. What makes his interest so compelling is that McCourt is a long time critic of Big Tech — TikTok included. “He has been on a crusade to remake the internet and wrest control of user data from tech giants like Facebook and TikTok, establishing an initiative called Project Liberty in 2021 to focus on those efforts.” Writes the NYTimes. In other words, he sees this as an opportunity to create a more ethical internet — and for that reason, he wouldn’t want the algorithm. 🤳🏼🚫

What I’m Reading:

Data Privacy in the Age of AI Means Moving Beyond Buzzwords by Dr. Maritza Johnson VIA Information Week

“Just because Meta proudly claims it has 40,000 people working on their safety and security teams does not change the fact that, according to Consumer Reports, the average Facebook consumer has their data shared by over 2,000 different companies.” 🖐️⬇️🎤

Congress is working on a federal privacy law. Here’s why we need one by Jonathan Joseph VIA The Hill

“The average American’s online activities are tracked and sold 747 times per day; in total, our data is tracked 178 trillion times per year. This isn’t the background noise of the internet — it is the internet, and we’re surveilled and monitored every time we log on.” 🖐️⬇️🎤

What apps do with your health data when you're not looking by Jonathan Joseph VIA The Drum

Just another reminder that HIPAA is not keeping pace with technology — and after the end of Roe, health data can be weaponized worse than ever. ⚕️👨🏻‍💻

Meme of the Week:

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