S. Samuel
While the buzz behind Kendrick Lamar's ear-shattering "Control" has finally started to die down, music mogul Rick Rubin has offered a different take on the controversial summer anthem.
Instead of analyzing Lamar’s name-drops, Rubin simply applauded the rapper for holding his own and also noted Jay Electronica‘s presence on the record.
You must have heard “Control.” How do you feel about what Kendrick did on that? I can’t remember now. Honestly. It was a Big Sean song featuring Kendrick and Jay Electronica. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kendrick sort of upstaged Sean and Jay Elec and threw down the gauntlet towards a bunch of other rappers, bringing a spirit of competition back into the music. Yeah, I didn’t hear it that way. I just thought he was incredible. And I actually quite like Jay Electronica’s verse as well. I loved it. Really? No one talks about that verse. No, I loved it. Well it has been a while since we heard from him. I like his whole mystical trip. I like the stuff he talks about. (Complex)
Unlike Rubin, New York rapper Fabolous recently offered up some dicey words about Lamar’s now-infamous “King of New York” line.
“I said Brooklyn, we in this motherf*cker tonight,” Fab said during a concert. “I’ma give it to ’em one more time. I said I’m a motherf*cking king in my city. I’m the motherf*cking wing in my city. I’m from the pj’s, so it’s only right I’m the flyest n*gga in my city. So that thing about Kendrick saying he’s the king? Don’t ask me how I took it, n*gga. The real n*ggas know all the real kings came from Brooklyn, n*gga. Brooklyn, we love y’all motherf*ckers to death, man. New York City, make some noise!” (The Trophy Life)
Recently, K. Dot admitted he was far removed from how he felt when “Control” initially came out.
“I think I said everything I need to say on Peter Rosenberg, Hot 97. If people don’t get it from there, then I don’t feel [I need] to explain myself any more. I think they’ll run it down to the ground rather than me. You know, I just wrote a verse. I think everybody’s just taking it to the ground and don’t want to let it go. I spoke my piece on Hot 97. If people wanna take it further than there, that’s their entertainment. I’m on a whole ‘nother plateau of thinking now. That was just for that moment of writing a verse. That’s how I feel about it.” (XXL Magazine)
A few weeks ago, Bad Boy Records CEO Diddy said there are plenty of notable entertainers like Jay Z, Kanye West, himself and Lamar worthy of being recognized as kings.
“When I was coming up, I always stated I was a king because I knew who I was. That’s like knowledge of self. So with [Kendrick] being a king, he’s a king, Jay’s a king, Ye’s a king but there are some cats that are not kings. You got to be a prince sometimes before you can be a king,” Diddy explained in an interview. “Kendrick is deserving of his crown because he took hip-hop and put it on his back so crazy and has given birth to a whole type of real hip-hop generation that we needed to come back and it came from a cat that was, ironically, from the West Coast. He went back to the essence of what hip-hop is about.” (“Big Boy’s Neighborhood”)
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