Editor’s note: Hello to all the new members of the Fingers Fam who signed up last week during my whirlwind of Anchor Brewing Co. coverage. I’ll have more on that situation later this week for paying Friends of Fingers, so if you haven’t yet, now is a great time to upgrade your subscription!—Dave.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that things aren’t going great in America at the moment? A sweltering heat-death blankets the land, corrupt ideologues dominate the government, reptilian bosses openly fantasize about forcing workers into destitution for the crime of requesting better wages and fairer treatment. Even compared to the dismal past decade, 2023 feels like a particularly volatile year in the United States, a time of flux when tectonic cultural and political shifts threaten even the most durable aspects of American society. Examples abound, but none—none, I tell you, not one!—symbolizes the hardening of the national mood quite as well as the rising acrimony between aging hip-hop legends and their one-time booze business partners.
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of chaotic public lawsuits between rappers and their former friends in the liquor industry.