Lupe Fiasco has made various comments about Kendrick Lamar over the years, and 2020 is proving to be no different.
On Sunday (September 20), the Chicago rapper couldn’t help but respond to a tweet asking whether Lupe or Kendrick was a better lyricist. Based on his previous views of K. Dot, it’s no surprise who he sided with on this debate.
“Lupe but…,” he said.
Lupe later deleted the tweet, but it wasn’t quick enough to stop Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson from seeing it and responding.
“Lol.,” Punch simply said in the replies.
In January 2018, Lupe caught some heat on Twitter for criticizing Kendrick’s lyrical ability.
“I’ll put it to you like this,” he said. “K. Dot is not a top tier lyricist to me and my standards when it comes to punchlines and bars. His overall lyrics are good, his stories phenomenal, but punchline entendre lyrically I don’t see it.”
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Less than two months later, he apologized for what he said and vowed not to speak on other rappers again.
“Maybe I should have just left it alone,” Lupe said. “Even though my impetus was the ‘Control’ verse. I mean you put yourself out there like that. So, you opened yourself up to critique… I apologize for even engaging and talking about n****s careers, I’ll never do that shit again.”
Despite his digs at K. Dot, Lupe took to Instagram in May to post an old photo with Kendrick alongside a smiling face emoji.
This isn’t the first time Lupe has clashed with a member of TDE’s management team either. Former president Dave Free responded to Lupe in 2018, after he claimed the cover of K. Dot’s Black Panther single “All the Stars” copied his DROGAS Wave album cover.
“@LupeFiasco go kick & push yourself into a tree with these wild allegations,” Dave said, referencing his 2006 hit “Kick, Push.”
Lupe then responded with a sarcastic tweet of his own.
“I see what you did there,” Lupe wrote. “However it’s rather impossible to skate into a tree because most trees are located in grass, where skateboards don’t actually work too well due to the wheels not really being optimal for traversing across such terrain. Now a car or say a well-placed gate.”
Lupe previously collaborated with a TDE artist in 2014, featuring on Ab-Soul‘s song “World Runners” from his These Days… album. A big fan of Lupe’s, Soulo even requested a review of his 2016 album Do What Thou Wilt., to which he delivered.
Lupe flames Kendrick, not even close. I love both artists btw, not hating Kendrick, but Lupe is on another planet. Kendrick makes alien voices, Lupe is an alien.
You niggas GOTTA be deaf. No way Lupe is a better rapper or lyricist than Kendrick Lamar. You niggas Dot haters just Lupe corny, failure ass. Lupe just mad because his “career” mounted to NOTHING while Dot is performing at and getting nominated for Album of the Year Grammys. Who is actually sitting back going- “I can’t wait until that new Lupe drop”. Please. I guess you have to be a rapper yourself to understand how Kendrick is at least one hundred times better of a rapper than boring Lupe Fiasco. Lupe hasn’t been hot since 2007. FOH. And you niggas probably the same niggas who would think Jim Jones or wack ass Cam’ron a better rapper than Jay Z.
Nah bruh you tripping. Lupe crushes Kendrick lyrically and conceptually. Kendrick just gets it right commercially. And of course Jay is better than both Cam and Jim Jones, that’s a no brainer just like Lupe and Kendrick is a no brainer.
If you say you gotta be a rapper to be able to tell that Kendrick is better than Lupe, then I don’t wanna hear your music. This isn’t even close. Lupe destroys this guy. Black thought would be a better contender for Lupe, not Kendrick.
Just by the way you responded, you shouldn’t even be in this conversation. Everyone is giving their opinion and you just ignorantly start insulting everybody cuz you butthurt that your artist is clearly losing this debate. Stop crying and bring forth an intelligent answer or just go sit down. Why would anyone believe you are qualified to answer this question when your response is so stupid and childish? You don’t belong in this conversation.
Lupe had grammys before k.dot made anything. I love Jay-Z. I stated my love for Kendrick, he just isnt on Lupe’s level. You are making assumptions based on the people you have spoken to in the past. Kendrick can’t make a ‘Mural’.. it’s just different. It was stated before, but black thought is a Lupe contender (probably beats him too but it’s close). I will make assumptions like you did: you’re probably the kind of person who thought MGK beat Eminem and that Em is trash, you’re probably the person who thinks Meek Mill is top notch lyricism, you’re probably the person who thinks J. Cole is revolutionary.
Lupe is insanely complex and I see where he says that Kendrick lacks in delivering punch lines but as far as an entire song? I think that’s where the Punch is delivered… pardon the pun. Kendrick’s songs as an entirety are more impactful. IMHO.
yup…dinosaurs is proof
Yup I listened to that. Only a guy like Lupe can take a concept like that and absolutely skate all ova it. I mean he bodied that track. Top lyricist its a shame his career didnt go further than it did.
kendrick is a hybrid of Lu, Andre 3k, and Eminem.
Lupe’s food and liquor and the cool albums were the blueprint for storytelling in rap, in the millenium!
while Lupe may be right as him being a better lyricist, Kendrick somehow makes better album experiences than Lupe. Sometimes a complete package makes up more than just the lyrical miracle spiritual empirical stuff. Glad both of them are around to make music tho
Lyrically this is no debate Lupe Fiasco is the much better lyricist
Lupe is a better lyricist than Kendrick. Doesn’t mean he’s a better overall arist, but lyricist, yes.
Lupe is a better lyricist. Kendrick is good but im not hearing the punches or double entendres. Not hearing the slick talk from Lamar. Lupe aint gotta rhyme fast to get his point across and his raps can be accessible yet complex at the same time….now you can argue that Kendrick is the better overall artist and i probably agree but better rhymer goes to Lupe Fiasco
Lupe said Kendrick was the better artist
Lupe is a way better lyricist than Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick is a good rapper, and I’m glad he’s got a message and has gained popularity through hard work and talent and not shock value. I like and respect him. But Lupe is just on a different level of lyricism and wordsmithing than Kendrick. Lupe is an MC’s MC.
I’m a big fan of both Lupe and K. Dot, but I’m sorry y’all, Lupe is right. Kendrick is a masterful songwriter and lyricist, but in that regard, he’s not seeing Lupe.
Where are the lies????
Cant wait until lupe fiasco drops skulls, this debate will be over
Drogas Waves has stories with witty metaphors double and triple entendres and Kendrick is purely story driven. I honestly can’t get through DAMN vs his other classics and Lupe only hiccup to me is #2 on The Cool…
I love kendrick, but lupe has been doing longer and the quality of work is impeccable. He has like three maybe five total stinkers of songs, every artist has some stinkers. Can’t really say that about any artist with the body of work like Lupe, not many like that at all, not even the greats like andre 3000 can say that.
Funny how there are so many Lupe “fans” in this thread but, Lupe has never dropped a platinum album nor has Lupe’s “career” ever mounted to anything. You fake fans are very supportive of Lupe in these comments but, y’all not buying up those Lupe projects tho. That legendary Kendrick Control verse is better than corny, washed up Lupe’s entire “career” and discography. Lupe is GARBAGE. Just because you rap about mathematics, calculus, and various theories does not make you a lyricist. Lupe has been garbage for over a decade now.
And another thing- spitting a bunch of punch lines, metaphors, double and triple entendres, and similes, and having some witty wordplay does not alone make you lyrical or a great lyricist. We all know that Lil Wayne has been a punch line heavy artist for most of his career but, saying Lil Wayne is a better rapper and artist than Kendrick or Eminem and Nas is just false. Kendrick’s technical prowess on the mic is unmatched unless we talking Eminem. Why does Lupe hate Dot so much for? It’s because deep down inside that nigga wishes he WAS Kendrick and could rap like that. Only nerds listen to Lupe Fiasco.
‘Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?’ Hov dropped the most appropriate bar for people like you. Lupe isnt just doubles and triples and punches. Lupe been woke before woke was a thing (just like eminem and these kids act like he just started doing that too). Lupe has the deep shit, he has the bars just for bars-sake, he has commercial shit. He has it all, it’s not his fault you didnt go check him out or failed to realize all of this when you did check him out.
Man cut this shit out. Old ass news when he already clarified Kendrick is better than him when it comes to other stuff. Check his Twitter. Oh but that might be too much investigating for these so called journalists.
Anything for ratings these days. My bad, didn’t realize I was on TMZ.
Man cut that shit out. He already clarified that Kendrick is better than him in other aspects AND that he loves K Dot. Check his Twitter. It’s all there. Oh but that might be too much investigation for you so called journalists. My bad, didn’t realize I was on TMZ. Also LOL go ahead and delete this comment again, I’ll gladly keep reposting.
Blah blah blah yappity yap, he’s a better lyricist, but who’s runnin rap? A rapper equals an artists, so chalk it up to that. There’s more to this game than writing ink on a pad. The carvings of a path, originality or a fad, to make them believe or be mad, disbelief in what’s fact: You can preach facts with technique that is rad, but if it puts them to sleep, then it seems that you’re wack.
Punchlines can hit hard like a cannon they hurt, admiration well deserved, but how does that compare to rare bodies of work?
LUPE
Lupe’s beats/style has more finesse. Kendrick drops harder though.