The King of New York has spoken!
Earlier today, the good folks at Hot97 aired Peter Rosenberg’s interview with the one-and-only Kendrick Lamar. The topic of the interview was, of course, K.Dot’s epic verse on Big Sean’s “Control.”
On the verse, Kendrick called himself the king of New York, while calling out, in a somewhat friendly manner, some of his peers: like Drake, J. Cole, Wale and more.
We’ve listened to the interview and it’s quite good. Here are the 10 most interesting things K.Dot said:
1. It took a couple of days for Kendrick to realize the impact his verse had. “I was in the UK for a second, you can’t really feel the energy like you can in The States.”
2. Kendrick says he wasn’t trying to make a big statement or anything, that it was just “a feature verse. I just really wanted to get on there and just rap.”
3. Kendrick said he didn’t hear from anybody after the verse dropped, and he’s not worried about any kind of animosity.
4. Speaking on the “King of New York” line, Kendrick said:
“Man, it made me feel like I got to probably dumb down my lyrics nowadays for the people to take it way out of context the way they did. The irony behind all of this—the main heads that really understood the context of the line was the actual Kings of New York, the cats that I sat down with this past week. Those guys understand that it’s not about the coast, it’s not about what side you’re on, it’s about being as great as Biggie, as Tupac, the two cats I referenced from jump.”
5. The Compton-bred rapper saw Jay Z and talked about the verse. However, K.Dot would not comment on what was said:
“That’s classified between me and him, but it was all love. It was all respect. The same way with Diddy. The same way with a few other cats.”
6. Kendrick said that the point of the verse was to show off how “hungry” he was:
“I think the ones that took it out of context are the people who want to grab an opportunity of the hype of the record, rather than actually tuning in and listening and knowing how hungry I am. A lot of people think it’s about talent. That’s where they get it wrong, I’m saying I’m the most hungry in this.”
7. He wants no kind of beef:
“All the ignorance behind it, you can kill that noise. It will never be like that again where two coasts rival. Not on my behalf. Not while I’m doing this. And I think the OGs of the game would want that anyway. They want that competitive nature back, but no bloodshed, you feel me? I’m way too wise and way too polished to not get caught up in the hype of the media. But what I’m scared of is cats not that [polished] and they are getting caught up in what their Twitter responses are saying. What they homies around them are saying, people gassing them up and they try to take it to the next level. Nah, that’s not G. That’s not gangsta.”
8. K.Dot also heard a lot of the “Control” freestyles and he thought that, “Los killed it out of everybody.”
9. What did he think of Papoose’s version, which was a diss?
“I thought it was comical if anything. It had me laughing. Not only that, but I respect the game, I understand when opportunity presents itself you got to make a way for yourself. It was the perfect opportunity to go out there and make a response and he got that buzz for himself. At the end of the day I want to see everyone eating, ain’t no ill will. I want to see everyone eating.”
10. Kendrick Lamar liked what Maino said in his interview with DJ Kay Slay.
Listen to the entire interview above.
