February was kind of weak month for rap. Drake won some Grammy’s for rap songs that weren’t even rap, Chris Brown and Soulja Boy called off their fight, and Jidenna’s debut finally dropped just to be pretty damn boring (“Long Live the Cheif” is still amazing though). Future released two records, Big Sean released another lackluster bandwagon of an album, and Remy Ma dissed Nicki Minaj in one of the most horribly violent and sexual tracks I’ve ever heard.
Contenders and runner-up’s for February included:
-
Raekwon – “This Is What It Comes Too“
-
A$AP Ferg on “Finances (MOB Remix)” by A$AP Ant
-
Vince Staples – “BagBak“
-
Oddisee – “NNGE“
-
Stormzy – “Big For Your Boots“
But at the end of the month, all I wanted, and all I needed, was some god damn consistency. I got it with a very To Pimp a Butterfly sounding collaboration of Thundercat and Kendrick Lamar on “Walk on By,” a track off Thundercat’s new record Drunk. It’s not the most amazing verse by Kendrick Lamar by far, but it was the calming, fantastic penmanship that I needed.
Peep the verse below via Genius and listen via Apple Music.
//tools.applemusic.com/embed/v1/song/1197066576?country=us
From my eyewitness binoculars
To Argentina and Africa
We mastered the pressure
Hazardous, harassing us
You laugh at us
More accurate at bagging dimes, now we bagging rhymes
Bodybags, price tags on your fo’head
Nine times out of ten, young niggas are nine or ten
When the line becomes thin: be a killer or fireman
Fill up the lavish pen if I needed to right my wrongs
I can’t deny sin, condolences through these palms
I remember when your cousin was coming home
My bitch, why we plotted to kill him cause we ain’t know him
Unfamiliar faces make niggas nervous
Convicted court cases might hit the surface
Restricted territories might come through lurkin’
We ain’t want none of that urgent call
Well, I’ma act Turk and fall on my identity, Percocets
For all the headaches, I’m ’bout to bring confetti
Tumble out this barrel soon as it ring, you ready?
That was the word ‘for we moved on ’em
Treat him like Joe the Plumber
I wonder if someone come and can see this tool on him
Immature and retarded is what you call me
Yo’ cousin wa’n’t comin’ home from the pen but from the army
If I can right my wrongs and pen this verse I read
Even though a bullet hit him in the leg, still walk on by