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Uncle Luke, the man whose booty shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke chimes in on K Dot’s lyrical throwdown.
The music recording industry needs to thank Compton, California, rapper Kendrick Lamar for breathing life back into hip-hop. The rap game’s gotten soft. Too many artists are sleep-walking, content to make mix-tapes and albums featuring name brands like Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Drake, and Rick Ross. Mother fuckers are afraid to step on each other’s toes these days. With a few guest bars on Big Sean’s single “Control,” Kendrick is taking it back to when MC battles ruled the day.
The response he’s generated from other famous rappers reminds me of when Roxanne Shante was hitting back at UTFO in the Eighties and when yours truly shot back at diss tracks by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row Records in the Nineties. Kendrick manned up, challenging 11 current up-and-coming rappers, including Big Sean, the man giving him a guest spot, to come take his self-proclaimed thrones on the east and west coasts.
“I got love for you all but I’m tryna murder you niggas,” Kendrick spits. “Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you n—-s.” Then he declares himself Tupac’s progeny for good measure: “I’m Makaveli’s offspring, I’m the King of New York, king of the coast, one hand I juggle them both.”
Lamar’s verses were heard around the hip-hop tweeterverse. Joe Budden tweeted, “A Cali n—- just said he’s the King of NY & u n—-s so f—ing worried about your relationships, y’all make me sick. Where’s all NY!???!”
50 Cent tweeted a doctored image featuring Lamar in a wild west-style stand-off with a number of the artists he calls out in the track. “This is HipHop lol kendricklamar said you n—-s better head for the hills. LMAO,” 50 Cent added.
Even P. Diddy got in on the fun, posting a photo of himself and Jay-Z laughing with the following tweet: “Kendrick got y’all n—-s takin y’all time now! This is good! What y’all gonna do now? Haaaaa lol lets go!”
This is how hip-hop is supposed to be. It’s like football, a full contact sport. It’s great to see Kendrick smacking other MCs in the mouth.
Follow Luke on Twitter: @unclelukereal1.
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