Diss tracks are a rapper’s bread and butter, but few address competitors by name and chew them out one by one with such murderous conceit. This verse, perhaps even more than GKMC, is what made Kendrick hip-hop’s most dangerous voice. Key lines: “ I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you niggas / Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas / They don’t wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas.” Jay Electronica and Kendrick Lamar, “Control,” Second Verse (2013) “Freedom” was the “Alright” of Lemonade and, while it would’ve served its purpose well enough without Kendrick (as you saw in its visual), he only further punctuates Beyoncé’s message of resistance with a breathless numbered list of anecdotal grievances.ġ7. Not everything Kendrick raps is about being a black man in America, but his blackness seeps through every word. This verse works as a cousin of “Twelve Days of Christmas,” if, say, the original were a countdown to the black apocalypse. Key lines: “Ten Hail Marys, I meditate for practice / Channel 9 news tell me I’m movin’ backwards / Eight blocks left, death is around the corner / Seven misleadin’ statements ’bout my persona / Six headlights wavin’ in my direction / Five-O askin’ me what’s in my possession.” Kendrick Lamar, “Freedom,” Lemonade, Third Verse (2016) He likens partisanship to gang affiliation and admonishes their hypocrisy, even putting a target on then-president Obama’s back. This was long before the election went nuclear, but even then Kendrick knew danger was lurking. Kendrick freestyled this verse first on the radio over a medley of Biggie instrumentals. We didn’t know it at the time, but we heard part of “Hood Politics” before we ever knew the song existed.

Key lines: “From Compton to Congress, set trippin’ all around / Ain’t nothin’ new, but a flu of new Demo-Crips and Re-Blood-licans / Red state versus a blue state, which one you governin’? / They give us guns and drugs, call us thugs / Make it they promise to fuck with you / No condom, they fuck with you, Obama say, ‘What it do?’” Kendrick Lamar, “Hood Politics,” To Pimp a Butterfly, Second Verse (2015) A line like “I can put a rapper on life support” would be a mild threat coming from lesser rappers, but knowing what we do about Kendrick’s own admissions of his violent past makes this read more like a chilling promise if ever tempted.ġ9. This isn’t even his greatest potshot (see everything below), but it’s still enough for Kendrick’s peers to dodge the bullets.

Over the course of his still-young career, Kendrick has continuously fired warning shots at his competitors. Key lines: “I can put a rapper on life support / Guarantee that’s something none of you want / Ten homies down and they all serving life / What is it like twenty-five hundred a month? / What if I empty my bank out and stunt? / What if I certified all of these ones? / Bitch I get buck, I’m as real as they come.”

Alright by kendrick lamar clean