Drake vs. Joe Budden: What is a ‘Real Artist’?

Following on from Budden’s viral critique of Drake’s album, the JBP, discussing the state of the music industry, made observations similar to the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who, in 1992, outlined the unspoken rules of the art industry.

According to Bourdieu, the art industry is divided by two opposing principles; the principle of autonomy (or ‘art for art’s sake’) and the principle of heteronomy (i.e. commercial success). This opposition repeats itself in the dispute between Drake and Joe Budden. Drake, representing heteronomy, accuses Joe of justifying his failure by claiming to stay true to his art; while Joe, representing autonomy, accuses Drake of ‘selling out’, of not being a ‘real’ artist.

As Bourdieu explains (and as the JBP demonstrates), the domain on which these principles engage each other is definitional. The two sides argue over what constitutes an artist, and what is ‘real’ art:

The strictest and most restricted definition of the [artist], which we accept these days as going without saying, is the product of a long series of exclusions and excommunications trying to deny existence as artists worthy of the name to all sorts of producers who could live as artists in the name of a larger and looser definition of the profession.

One of the central stakes in artistic rivalries…