All You Need is 1 Mic & 7 minutes.

Oh snap!!! Kendrick Lamar aka K.Dot aka Good Kid aka King of New York aka the dude who just lit up the Hip-Hop world did some ish! He just dropped the hottest verse to date in 2013 on Big Sean’s seven minute joint ‘Control’ also featuring Hip-Hop hermit Jay Electronica. My hommie Carly (@carlymond) hit me on Facebook asking if I was gonna blog about. Initially I wasn’t as well I was just too amped about the noise in the Hip-Hop universe. She is going to drop her own blog post on this. I am sure the brother Shogun Soul (@ShogunSoul) is on it too. So there blog posts aplenty on this issue.

If you haven’t heard this latest fire guzzling uproar in Hip-Hop, let me fill you in. It’s simple, Kendrick Lamar dropped about 2 minutes of octane fuelled bars basically telling his peers in today’s Hip-Hop game that he is the King of New York, Machiavelli’s (aka Tupac Shakur) offspring and frankly he respects his friends in the game but he wants to beat them in the game. Here is the verse:

“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 Mills, 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”

Now as you know Hip-Hop can be an aggressive art form but for a long time it’s been overrun by rhymes about money, strippers, money and weird RnB-Pop-Hop oh yes and money. Cash Money Records (no pun intended) and the major labels are to blame for this. It has morphed into some soulless, passionless, goblin cross between The Kardashians and Donald Trump. Its tries to look good but it’s awful, just remove the fake hair and all the contrived drama and you will see Gollum from The Lord of The Rings but he is much better looking compared to some of the Hip-Hop that’s been made in the last 15 years.

So Mr. Lamar decides to make a few changes and as you know from his mixtapes and albums he is the right rapper for the job. Hip-Hop needed this, it needed a verse reminiscent of Nas’ Ether, akin to Eminem‘s Renegade verse were he puts Jay-Z to shame. Or Mos Def‘s transcendent verse on Thieves in The Night of the Black Star album. It needed one rapper to tell it like is, if you come, you betta come correct!

K.Dot is just reminding us of Hip-Hop’s roots were MCees would compete in battles on the streets or on albums or on verses. Remember Cappadonna’s Winter Warz verse? Or Biggie Smalls‘ verse on Victory? Or all the verses on Wu Tang’s Triumph? Rappers are lyrical gladiators inspired and pushed by other rappers. The Good Kid is just showing us that, he is reminding us of that. A lot of people are mad or angry in the game, WHY? This is Hip-Hop!

Hip-Hop is aggression, Hip-Hop is passion, Hip-Hop is lyrical content, Hip-Hop is flow, Hip-Hop is character, Hip-Hip is soul, Hip-Hop is the ghettos and hoods, Hip-Hop is life! This is Hip-Hop!

The new King of New York has a lot of good rappers to compete with, his hit list is full of exceptional MCees. But there are some MCees missing like Joey Bada$$ and Joell Ortiz, with the latter retaliating with his own jam ‘Outta Control‘, which is hot faya too. Shout out to my hommie Kura who put me on this tune. I hope the other MCees holla back and drop their Ether, go for the Victory and have a chance to Triumph in what will be a hot Winter Warz.

All You Need is 1 Mic and 7 Minutes!

-Simba Says (@Simbarashe75)