Unless you’ve completely ignored social media, you’ve probably been seeing lots of tweets/posts about Kendrick Lamar’s verse on Big Sean’s track, “Control.” Not only is his entire verse absolute straight fire, but he lights a flame under a few people a few lines in particular.
He straight up calls out many fellow rappers in the song and doesn’t hold back:
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 Millz, 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
What is competition? I’m tryna raise the bar high
You can say that Kendrick is raising the bar, that’s for sure. Jay Electronica also offers a hell of a verse, as does Big Sean, of course. This actually will not make the cut of Big Sean’s upcoming album Hall of Fame because of sample clearance problems. Which is a damn shame, but this song is getting lauded as is, so we can’t feel too bad.
Big fan of Kendrick, and how can you not love him after he steps up with a verse as good as this. It’s taken the hip-hop world by storm, igniting responses and tweets from a whole bunch of major rappers already. This has already infused a new bit of life into hip-hop. As a very modest hip-hop fan (as you’re aware), this even excites me. Imagine what huge fans of the genre are thinking right now..
Take a listen to “Control” below.
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