We heard about this super-collab last week; today, the world got its first glimpse of Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z on a track together. The Compton MC recently paid homage to Jay with a freestyle over “Hova Intro”, which hit computers and eardrums everywhere last week. It was hard to tell how recently that track was recorded though, as the flow sounds a bit dated. But, its purpose was served.
The groundwork had been laid, and now— “Kobe” was ready to go bar for bar with “His Airness”.
In preparation for the showdown, Kendrick laid two new verses on this, the second track from his critically acclaimed major debut, good kid, M.A.A.D. city. Verse two was particularly aggressive as K-Dot seemed like he went out of his way to spit with a purpose. It’s clear he was taking the role as Vino very seriously.
Shawn Corey, on the other hand, has nothing to prove, which came across on his verse (no disrespect, he was rippin too). He brought his customary laid back in the Maybach flow, along with his trademark bragger-raps. Incidentally, Jay’s “I Got More Money Than You” approach is present on just about every one of his features these days. There are exceptions, but Hov tends to stray from this blueprint (see what I did there?) only when he has a specific topic he wants to tackle, such as the Illuminati speculation on Ross’ “Freemason” a few years back.
Sidebar: Jay’s “Freemason” verse is arguably one of his best ever.
So was this Jordan vs. Kobe in the ’98 All-Star Game? Well, only time will tell. But if this is any indication of what the future holds, Top Dawg and Roc Nation — two of the most talented labels in the rap game today — should be collaborating on many more projects in the future (J. Cole, we’re looking at you).
And I guess there was no hard feelings over this song.
Who had the best verse?