While Kendrick Lamar’s feature on Terrace Martin’s “Triangleship” kicked the week off on Monday (8/12), it was his verse on Tuesday’s leak of Big Sean’s “Control” that has left the industry talking. Not surprisingly, Lamar’s verse quickly spawned a slew of responses from everyone from Joell Ortiz to Lupe Fiasco. In the process, a new Eminem song to be featured on his upcoming album and the Call Of Duty: Ghosts soundtrack got a little lost in the mix but hung onto a spot in the top ten.
Kendrick Calls Out His Peers On Big Sean’s “Control”
With Big Sean’s Hall Of Fame due out later this month, a non-album track featuring Kendrick Lamar and the consistently elusive Jay Electronica leaked this past Tuesday. The song, called “Control,” is a densely lyrical affair that begins with Sean rhyming: “Boy I’m ‘bout my business on business, I drink liquor on liquor / I had women on women, yeah that’s bunk bed bitches / I’ve done lived more than an eighty year old man still kickin’.” With Sean and Jay Electronica’s verses acting as bookends, Kendrick’s aggressive boast holds down the middle portion with lines like “I heard the barbershops spittin’ great debates all the time / Bout who’s the best emcee, Kendrick, Jigga and Nas / Eminem, Andre 3000, the rest of y’all / New niggas just new niggas, don’t get involved.” The more infamously barbed lines towards his peers continue shortly after, “This is Hip Hop and them niggas should know what time it is / And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., 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.”
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Rappers Respond To Kendrick Lamar’s Blast
Besides the above quoted lines, one of the most scrutinized portions of Lamar’s “Control” verse has been “I’m Makaveli’s offspring, I’m the King of New York.” Less than a day after “Control’s” leak, Brooklyn emcee and Slaughterhouse member, Joell Ortiz, fired back with his own verse on “Outta Control,” rapping “Little homie, you ain’t the King of New York / You the next thing on my fork.” He continued, “When we met you, you said, ‘It’s an honor man, the Yaowa can spit’ / Maybe that’s why you left me out of that shit / Maybe that’s why the Slaughterhouse ain’t get dissed / Or maybe I’m not on your radar / You feel you ain’t gotta acknowledge my clique.”
Lupe Fiasco is another emcee that quickly took to the recording booth to take aim at the Compton rapper’s claims. Before his lyrical response however, Fiasco took to Twitter to release a series of Tweets addressing the situation. The track Fiasco released, titled “SLR 2,” finds him directly addressing and refuting Kendrick’s own assertions: “Look at the little baby / Nigga, you ain’t Nas. Nigga you ain’t Jay Z / You will respect me / you will reject me / but I’ve done so much, no matter how far you go, you will reflect me / SLR. Nigga please / These niggas ’bout to go to work so these bitches gon’ have to leave.”
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Besides Joell Ortiz and Lupe Fiasco, a host of other rappers including Cassidy, B.o.B., Fred The Godson and plenty more quickly chimed in, both musically and via social media. Some of the responses can be streamed below.
Joell Ortiz – Outta Control (Response to Kendrick Lamar)
Lupe Fiasco – SLR 2 (Kendrick Lamar Diss)
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Cassidy – Control Freestyle (Kendrick Lamar Diss)
B.o.B. – How 2 Rap (Kendrick Lamar Response)
Eminem Returns With “Survival”
In the midst of the competitive back and forth started by Big Sean’s “Control,” another Detroit rapper’s new material got slightly lost in the mix. Now more than three years removed from his last album in 2010’s Recovery, Eminem has finally released new material tentatively slated for an appearance on his upcoming but unannounced album. The song, “Survival,” which features New Royales vocalist Liz Rodrigues, is also set to appear on the upcoming installation of Call Of Duty. The track, which is the first we’ve heard from Em since his featured track on Tony Touch’s latest release, finds the rapper waxing on his lyrical superiority with lines like, “It ain’t over ‘til I say it’s over—enough when I say enough / Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up / I’m afraid of what’ll happen to them wolves / When the thought of being thrown in an alligator pit, I salivate at it / Weight is up, hands up like it’s 12 noon, nah homie / Hold them bitches straighter up, wave’em ‘til you dislocate a rotator cuff.”
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The Top 10 Most Popular Hip Hop Singles The Week Of 8/12/13
1. Big Sean f. Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica – “Control (HOF)”
2. Joell Ortiz – “Outta Control (Kendrick Lamar Response)”
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3. Lupe Fiasco – “SLR 2 (Kendrick Lamar Response)”
4. Cassidy – “Control Freestyle (Kendrick Lamar Response)”
5. Kendrick Lamar – “Monster Freestyle”
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6. B.o.B. – “How 2 Rap (Kendrick Lamar Response)”
7. Eminem f. Liz Rodrigues – “Survival”
8. Fred The Godson – “Say My Name (Kendrick Lamar Response)”
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9. Drake f. Sensato, Meek Mill & Tyga – “Versace (All-Star Remix)”
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Related: Drake, Kendrick Lamar & The New Era Of Competitive Hip Hop
