Oh shit. Last night Big Sean dropped a track that didn’t make onto his forthcoming album. It’s called “Control” and it starts with a perfectly standard Big Sean verse about currency and bottoms. Then Kendrick comes in, on a sparse piano beat and things get heavy. He gets you ready for something untoward:
“So many bombs, ring the alarm like Vietnam in this shit/So many bombs, make Farrakhan think Saddam in this bitch”
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Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan controversially met with Saddam Hussein, in a moment that shook much of black America. And here comes another:
“Fuck y’all clubs, fuck y’all pictures, your Instagram can gobble these nuts/Gobble dick up ’til you hiccup, my big homie Kurupt/This the same flow that put the rap game on a crutch/I’ve seen niggas transform like villain Decepticons/Mollies’ll prolly turn these niggas to fuckin’ Lindsay Lohan, A bunch of rich ass white girls lookin’ for parties”
It’s been obvious for a while that Kendrick has been getting tired of the modern trappings of hip-hop. But this is the clearest statement for a while that watching once-talented MCs become castrated hype-men on Miley Cyrus lol-rave tracks is kind of pissing him off. But whatever, you can call anyone a white girl if you’re not actually going to name names and call people out. Oh wait…
“I’m usually homeboys with the same niggas I’m rhymin’ wit/But this is hip hop and them niggas should know what time it is/And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale/Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake/Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller/I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you niggas/Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas/They dont wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas”
He’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. There’s something about Kendrick, this supposedly conscious rapper, whose bravado normally only stretches to the ridiculous or abstract, freaking out like this. Like watching the nerdy kid at the back of the playground fucking lose his shit and start beating the living crap out of everyone that’s ever wronged them.
And the mad thing is he’s on a Big Sean track and Jay Electronica takes the next verse. Never mind biting the hand that feeds, that’s like dishing out rabies for shits and giggles.
Unsurprisingly, some rappers aren’t taking it that well:
I hear u loud and clear my nigga… @kendricklamar
— PUSHA T (@PUSHA_T) August 13, 2013
If I can’t do no more nouns or verbs ima start comin with the wildest adjective bars that anyone has ever heard.
— Mac. (@MacMiller) August 13, 2013
NAKEL SMITH GETS MORE SHOUT OUTS IN RAP SONGS THAN ANYONE
— Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) August 12, 2013
Kendrick places himself above half of the road-rap MCs of 2013 and pops himself right next to rap music’s biggest icons instead:
“But, who’s the best MC? Kendrick, Jigga and Nas/ Eminem, Andre 3000” and, perhaps music’s biggest icon, “blessings to Paul McCartney/You called me a black Beatle, I’m either that or a Marley”.
If Kanye West said something like this, which would, admittedly, be a little more hyperbolic, people would suck in for air for fear of being crushed by his ego. But, when Kendrick compares himself to the greats, and shuts down the weak, it comes across as a challenge. Maybe it’s because he’s been in the game for as long as everyone else that he’s called out, or because, in terms of critical acclaim over the last few years, he’s on par with an Eminem, or with a Nas.
At the end of his verse Kendrick says: “I’m tryna raise the bar high/ Who tryna jump and get it? You better off tryna skydive”. He has a point. And the way that everyone has blown up about his verse, as though it’s the craziest and best thing to happen to hip hop since Yeezus dropped, only proves it.
Follow Sam on Twitter: @SamWolfson
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