Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Kendrick Lamar Takes Control in Hip-Hop



      This is a post that technically should have been made last night when Big Sean Leaked the song "Control" which features Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica. The song itself is 7 minutes long which is a lot longer than your average hip-hop song but its only fitting since this song is in no way meant to be like an average hip-hop song. The song is essentially a challenge to all the other rappers, that Kendrick Lamar mentions in his verse, that have gotten just a bit too comfortable with their standstill in hip-hop. Kendrick is trying to take rap back to the core and nothing is better than a good ball buster, battle verse to challenge the other rappers. 
      Even though it is Big Sean's song it really is Kendrick who grabs the attention and main focus of the song. Kendrick from the beginning of his verse takes on a more aggressive approach compared to the other rappers on the song and also compared to many of his own past songs. Kendrick's tone and flow are more aggressive to show he means business. To show the aggression and seriousness in his lyrics Kendrick makes references to being in "destruction mode" saying he's "important like the Pope" and of course when he says "Who the fuck y'all thought it was supposed to be?" in reference to the next greatest hip-hop legend, it shows Kendrick is ready to battle for the number 1 spot. Kendrick's verse only gets more serious when he mentions his name among the greatest like Nas and Andre 3000 as well as calling himself a "black Beatle" or a Marley. Kendrick then moves on to name drop about 10 other rappers, who include Drake, Mac Miller, Wale, and J Cole, and basically tells them to just stop rapping now because he is better than them. The reason for this fueled verse is because hip-hop is something Kendrick cares for and is unhappy with the state of it now so he is trying to invoke the change, plus nothing sells records more than some good friendly competition. It's funny because when you listen to Kendrick's verse it sounds a lot like something from Biggie or Tupac because of the raw emotion in the song that has been missing from rap since the death of the two. It almost seems like since both Biggie and Tupac got killed rappers became afraid of the same fate so they stuck to this generic cookie cutter style of rap about money, clothes, and hoes. 
      The producer of the songs was smart enough to strategically place Kendrick's verse in the middle of the song because you kind of get a build up of what is to come with Big Sean's milder version of "control," then get the climax and overload of raw emotion with Kendrick's verse, and then get to cool down again with Jay Electronica's verse that has many biblical references. Because, just in case after you listen to Kendrick murdering the song you feel the need to have to go to church after, all theoretically speaking of course. 



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