Kendrick Chose Violence: Again

Over the past couple of years rap beef has occurred, but it’s mostly been a regional thing where artists from the same city beef over who’s the big dog in that city. There hasn’t really been a big rap beef since the Drake and Pusha T beef. Some might argue that the Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion beef is a major one. To be honest. Both didn’t really give the people what they wanted. The diss tracks seemed to be more like jabs that stung but didn’t really inflict any actual damage. So, I would say that the game has been relatively peaceful. That’s until Kendrick Lamar chose to shake up the game and drop a verse that broke the internet, again.
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I say again because this isn’t the first time that Kendrick Lamar has broken the internet with just one verse. Many remember the bombshells he dropped on the game in Big Sean’s song, “Control”. In the song he literally called out rappers that he had made songs with and are said to be friends with. It’s not personal. It’s just hip-hop. He even called out Big Sean on his song. And Big Sean’s verse was first, so it was like he just caught this stray bullet that he wasn’t ready for. Now looking at this new verse, ironically it dropped on the same day Big Sean’s new single "Precision" dropped, which is the first single he's dropped in two years, unfortunately it was overshadowed by the release of Kendrick's verse. Literally nobody was talking about Big Sean’s song. It was “Control” all over again: 

Now we get to the new verse that shook up the world. I’m talking about “Like That” from Future & Metro Boomin’s new album “WE DON’T TRUST YOU”. But why did Future let this happen? Future and Drake have been long-time collaborators who dropped a joint project together called “What A Time To Be Alive”. Interesting enough, Future didn’t appear on Drake’s most recent album, “For All The Dogs”.  On the other hand, Drake did appear on Future’s last album “I Never Liked You”, which may mean something since Drake’s album was the latter album to drop. When it comes to the new album, “WE DON’T TRUST YOU”, something to also note is that Metro Boomin’, who provided most of the production for the album, doesn’t rock with Drake, so this might’ve made it easier for Kendrick to drop the bombshell on this track.

Am I my brother’s keeper? This might be the real question that Future may be asking himself as there has been another theory popping up around the internet as to why Future would let Kendrick diss his friend and long-time collaborator, Drake. The theory floating around the internet is that both Drake and Future are involved with the same woman, but Drake has been pillow talking to the woman badly about Future. This may be alluded to in his verse when he spits. “Stickin' to the code, all these hoes for the streets, I put it in her nose, it's gon' make her pussy leak, Pussy niggas told, ain't gon' wake up out they sleep”. 

Now let’s talk about what you’re really here for. Kendrick. He firs attacks Drake with the line, “Say, it's a lot of goofies with a check”. We all know that Drake is endorsed by Nike, and the check is the trademark logo. So, Drake is Goofy the dog and he's getting checks from Nike. OK Kendrick. Nice bar. Another bar is, ‘Niggas clickin' up, but cannot be legit, no 40 Water, tell 'em”. OK it’s getting hotter. This is another jab where Kendrick is talking about Drake and J. Cole clicking up, while also giving probs to E-40 and B-Legit, who formed the group called "The Click". and that the fact that their clicking up ain’t forreal or ain’t gonna help them be better than him. Also note that the beat used for this song E-40 also used on his song "Look At Me" that featured Juvenile, BG, Lil Wayne, and Birdman. Then Kendrick starts to point his aim more direct with the bar, “Fuck sneak dissin', first person shooter, I hope they came with three switches”. People know that "First Person Shooter" is the name of Drake and J. Cole’s track that was a great song and did numbers. Anyone that knows Kendrick Lamar knows that he is clearly a writer and master of his craft. He loves hip-hop but also like in the line he raps, he’s not afraid to go against hip-hop, “I crash out, like, "Fuck rap," diss Melle Mel if I had to”. Story time, Melle Mel from The Furious 5 (which is a classic hip-hop group) dissed Eminem for being on a Top 5 list but stating that it’s mostly to do with him being white. This made Eminem go against the hip-hop pioneer and drop a diss track calling out Melle Mel for possible steroid drug use. Kendrick Lamar is willing to do the same and go against hip-hop to prove he’s the best. That being both the pop rap that Drake is, or the hip-hop purist that J. Cole is.

Finally let’s break down the most direct bars. Remember Andre 3K was the set-up bar in the “Control” verse, well here it shows itself again. When he says Motherfuck the big three, this is a jab back to Drake and J. Cole’s song “First Person Shooter” where J. Cole says, “Love when they argue the hardest MC, Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?, We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali”. I think other rappers would've seen this line as a complement, but that's not Kendrick, who takes this more as a backhanded complement, especially since J. Cole ends the bar saying that he is "The Greatest" aka Muhammad Ali. But again, Kendrick Lamar doesn’t want to be buddy buddy, he says it’s him at the top and him only. "Your best work is a light pack". Kendrick is snapping. Then he says, “Prince outlived Mike Jack”. He is saying that he’s Prince and his career gonna last longer than Drake’s. Again, on First Person Shooter, Drake rapped, “What the fuck, bro? I’m one away from Michael, Nigga, beat it, nigga, beat it, what?”. I would argue thought that J. Cole is more like Prince because he can produce music as well as rap. But back to Kendrick with a direct hit to Drake again, “‘fore all your dogs gettin' buried”. Drake’s album is called “For All My Dogs”. Coincidence. I think not. Especially with this line “K with all these nines, he gon' see Pet Sematary”. Ouuuu!! That’s a crazy triple entre. First K stands for Kendrick who is saying that he is a 10 and with the nines, and that Drake and J. Cole are just nines. Second K with the nines, meaning K-9, which means dog. Then with the nines infers that they have 9mm guns and not the stick he says he has earlier in the verse. Also, in that same line he goes into Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary to say that that’s where their careers are going to be if they keep fucking with him. And just to put the final nail in the coffin he calls them bums. You can see that there were multiple casualties in this verse. Kendrick went direct which many say First Person Shooter was filled with more subliminals than direct hit. Kendrick going direct.

So, there you have it. The verse that shook up hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar is now known as one of those artists that doesn’t say a lot, but when he does, the world stops and listens. This verse is so hip-hop. We didn’t even talk about his tone, his delivery, the iconic sample that was also sampled by Lil Wayne. I wanted to focus on the words. Kendrick made a point in this verse. He kept it hip-hop. He kept it direct. But every action has an equal or in hip-hop’s mind a more powerful and deeper cutting reaction. Hopefully, that means J. Cole will respond. Drake too. Just know they both are now officially on the clock.