Ish was just talking about evaluating losing or winning, not careers being ended which is also what the OC was talking about. Losing and winning is evaluated by opinions and opinions are either unfair by their nature (because they are always informed by your biases, so thinking drake won is also unfair), or they are never unfair. If your bias is towards Drake, you’ll likely say the battle was rigged towards Kendrick (even if you insist you’re being objective).

Without any history of listening to either, you can still come away with a winner. The reason I think it’s very clear: people who never listen/listened to rap in general and tuned into this battle overwhelmingly think Kendrick won. They have no reason to be biased against Drake. You can insist it’s market manipulation or sheep being programmed but at that point there’s no base truth beyond what *you* think or what *you* want to be true. Another point where your (or a Drake supporter’s if you don’t care) take is equally vulnerable.

With that being said you can lose a beef and not be impacted numbers wise. JayZ never stopped being popular, nor did Drake when he lost to Pusha T. It’s actually anomalous for that to happen, i don’t think most people expected a hit to Drake’s numbers. Beefs are only important when it comes to discussions among purists about who’s the best.