We had more big reveals than a Tolkien thriller just in the first half of 2024.

One explosive revelation after another wracked the consciences of many Americans. Much of it has been entertaining fodder for memes, podcasts and urban-flavored gossip rags.

Although we can’t help laughing at the audacious and dramatic nature of these happenings, some of them could shape our society for decades to come.

A question that lingered at the top of the year was: “Can a convicted felon be president of the United States?” We got our answer, resoundingly. We also witnessed the toppling of a Hip-Hop, business, fashion, and communications empire through the perceived unmasking of icon Sean “Diddy” Combs.  Everything hit us like a gravelly snowball from there on.

Exciting

Is The Kendrick Lamar Vs. Drake The Greatest Battle of All-Time? Perhaps.

Some believe it was one of the greatest rap battles of all time, a clash of titans that has been more than a decade in the making. Drake and Kendrick Lamar first collaborated on Drake’s “Take Care.” Kendrick has been using lyrics as precision munitions on Big Sean’s “Control” and in the BET Awards Cypher.

A back-and-forth “cold war” of sorts spanned years but nothing significant really happened. That all changed when Drake and J. Cole appeared on “First Person Shooter” together.  Cole’s bars weren’t a diss, but many believed they were the catalyst for Kendrick Lamar’s awakening.

Kendrick retaliated by going in on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.” The next day, Drake seemingly responds to K. Dot with “It’s All a Blur.”

In April, Drake dropped “Push Ups” and followed up with “Taylor Made Freestyle.” Kendrick returned fire with “euphoria,” which many are still referring to as an all-time greatest diss record, and “6:16 in LA.”

Drake fired back with “Family Matters” less than a day later, to which Kendrick responded with “Meet the Grahams.” The rapid-fire frequency of these diss records led many to believe these salvos were already created by each rapper in anticipation of a battle, like nuclear warheads in a mutually assured destruction doctrine.

“Not Like Us,” released on May 4, was Kendrick’s fourth Drake diss in the battle that was now a rap war. Drake released “The Heart Pt. 6” on May 5, but many believed it was too little too late. “Not Like Us” topped the Billboard Hot 100 on May 13, solidifying Kendrick’s victory over Drake in this wildly unexpected but entertaining and cathartic rap t##-for-tat. Nobody saw it coming, but everybody was glad it did.

Horrific

Diddy’s Chickens Come Home to Roost

Diddy’s year began on a tumultuous note. Some may recall, back when the “Me Too” movement was in full swing, many who were around during the heyday of Bad Boy would wax poetically on social media about the comeuppance that Hip-Hop moguldom was due for.

On February 26, producer Rodney Jones Jr. (also known as Lil Rod) accused Diddy of sexual assault and drugging.  He alleged Diddy forced him to work in a bathroom while he showered and walked around naked. He also alleged Diddy grabbed his genitals without consent, attempted to groom him, forced him to have sex with another man, and to solicit sex workers and perform sexual acts. In his lawsuit, Jones alleges he wasn’t paid for his work on Diddy’s latest album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”

In March, Diddy’s home in Miami was raided and federal authorities had his sons in cuffs. Many assumed if federal authorities had anything on him, they would’ve arrested him at the time. But pressure applied in one area can ultimately reveal deficiencies in another.

Just as that story began to fade from public consciousness, a 2016 video showed Diddy beating ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel as she tried to flee. Kicks, punches and vile energy may be the death blow to his reign of terror.

Though the statute of limitation means that he might not face any charges for his indiscretion, the court of public opinion has no such limitations.

Horrific

Pray For Peace in Gaza

Though AllHipHop focuses on Hip-Hop music and culture, it would be a journalistic misstep to write a piece encapsulating the year thus far without mentioning the deaths of the tens of thousands of innocent people in the ongoing Gaza-Hamas War, and the Palestinian citizens who had nothing to do with the October 7 strike on Southern Israel.

More than 1,180 Israeli citizens were killed during the Hamas attack. The resulting Israeli military action has resulted in the deaths of at least 37, 164 Palestinians as of June. On June 11, Hamas agreed to a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution. It would not last.

Horrific

The Trump Follies

On January 26, a New York jury ruled that Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll a Queen’s ransom of $83.3 million for defamation. The following month, Trump was ordered to pay a fine of $454 million and barred from owning and running a business in New York for three years.

On May 30, Trump was on the wrong side of the legal system yet again after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business reports and concealing damaging information, stemming form the alleged payoff of $130,000 to former adult film star and escort Stormy Daniels. The legal decision makes him the first former United States president to be convicted of a crime.

In the second half of 2024, the old African American adage “hell with gasoline draws” would be a proper epithet to describe the situation; federal court ruling, an assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the first Black or Asian woman to be granted the Democratic nominee for President, Sean “Diddy” Combs is arrested, Kendrick Lamar’s coupe-de-grace is triple-fold, Jay-Z is hit with some ill charges, and a new American folk hero emerged. We will give you the rundown on all that and much more in Part 2 of this summary of the big stories of 2024, each had us collectively saying “Oh, SNAP!”