It’s frustrating when a politician refuses to apologize for a mistake.
It’s even more frustrating when a politician apologizes after doing nothing wrong. Imagine getting a call from PM Mark Carney. Him: “I’m sorry.” You: “For what?” Him: “I couldn’t decide between the eggs Benedict or scrambled. I went with the benny. But in retrospect, I should have skipped breakfast just in case you are offended by Hollandaise. I apologize.”
You’d be more bewildered than after the ending of “Mulholland Drive.”
By the way, I hope you are up to date on your tetanus shots because the first column after a vacation is always rusty. So I get home from two glorious weeks in London to find Jagmeet Singh is now self-marinating in a rap beef?
His sin: He attended a Kendrick Lamar concert.
I could stop writing right there and hit send. That’s basically it. Mr. Singh did not cause a ruckus. He did not yank a fire alarm inside Rogers Centre or storm the stage and grab the mic to extol the virtues of progressive taxation. He just went to a concert in the democratic country of his birth.
What he ended up doing was trigger the ire of 6ix autocrat, King Drake.
Unless you’ve been trapped under a fallen armoire for the past year, you know Drake and Kendrick do not like one another. In the world of hip-hop, they are the Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, the Will Smith and Chris Rock, the Edison and Tesla, the rhyming Hatfields and McCoys.
I don’t allot much mental bandwidth to rap feuds. They are more tedious than a delayed flight or baggage carousel. Back in the day, you could at least grasp the visceral bad blood after Ice Cube left N.W.A. or when Chuck D called out Hollywood for racist tropes. Those feuds crackled with menace and moral purpose. These new feuds are a kabuki theatre of marketing stunts, for-profit diss tracks and say-anything in IG stories to drive up likes and follower counts.
It’s another reason to love classical music. A cellist never makes wild allegations about how the oboe player is a pedophile. Flutists don’t give an A-minor about street cred.
Singh going to a concert should not be news. It became news after Drake, petulant crybaby that he now is, shared private DMs in which he called the former NDP leader a “goof.” Apparently, Canadian politicians should have a blacklist indexing everyone Drake hates.
They must show fealty by choosing sides.
Drake hates patent leather? Put on those loafers and shut your mouth.
Singh should have responded to this Drake shade by not responding. Instead, he panicked and wrote, “I shouldn’t have gone at all.” Huh? This guy is backtracking after attending a concert? It’s not like the headliner was a neo-Nazi tribute band.
Singh praised Drake for lifting up Canada. He concluded by prostrating himself further and choosing sides: “For me it’ll always be Drake over Kendrick.”
I’m surprised his beard didn’t fall off in shame. Sir, why are you bending over backwards for an over-sensitive blowhard who just called you a goof? Except for inside King Drake’s head, this rap feud is a wrap. Kendrick won. It’s over.
It’s not like you, Jagmeet Singh, co-wrote “Not Like Us.” You did not publicly celebrate after Kendrick took home enough hardware at the 2024 Grammys to build a Cybertruck. You did not cheer for Kendrick at the Super Bowl.
I don’t get the skittish calculus. Unless Singh is vying to become Drake’s butler, he should not apologize for going to see Kendrick Lamar in concert.
Watching him squirm this week made me grateful he is not our PM. If you get intimidated by the guy who sang “Hotline Bling,” how could you possibly lead Canada in these turbulent times? If Singh was PM, we’d now be facing 150 per cent tariffs from America. There’d be a new law forcing all Canadians to buy a Trump Mobile gold smartphone. And while transitioning into the 51st state, the maple leaf on our flag would be replaced by an image of Barron eating poutine.
Then that would be turned into a Cancon meme coin.
These are tribal times, in both culture and politics. Everyone is expected to take a side. But if anything, Drake should apologize for keeping his stupid feud in the news. No one in a free society should have to explain why they went to a concert or ordered eggs Benedict.
If Jagmeet Singh ever hopes to lead again, he needs to be made of sterner stuff.
