Lupe Fiasco has some rather strong opinions. You may recall, this is the man who appeared on The O’Reilly Factor in June of 2011 to argue his point that President Obama was, in Lupe’s words, “a terrorist.” Saturday, Lupe took to twitter with some provocative opinions about Kendrick Lamar.
“I’ll put it to you like this. K. Dot is not a top tier lyricist to me and my standards when it comes to punchlines and bars,” Lupe wrote, in a series of tweets that have since been deleted. “His overall lyrics are good, his stories phenomenal, but punchline entendre lyrically I don’t see it.”
As hot takes go, this wasn’t particularly controversial, considering Kendrick said the same thing about himself on “Poe Man’s Dreams (His Vice).”
“And don’t call me lyrical/’Cause really I’m just a nigga that’s evil and spiritual/I know some rappers using big words/To make their similes curve/My simplest shit be more pivotal...” Kendrick rapped.
Like any other Twitter user Lupe is entitled to his opinion, and the inherent value of metaphors, puns and similes in a given verse or song is completely subjective. But Lupe seemingly doubled down and some fans thought he was trolling Kendrick, who is viewed as one of hip-hop’s elite by pretty much any metric.
“I’ve never been destroyed,” Lupe responded to one fan who tweeted that “Look Out For Detox” destroys any Lupe tracks. “Also the only issue that the world thinks I have with K. Dot and I actually do is that I think his ‘Control’ verse was wack and super overhyped to be a verse claiming you are the best rapper. It was very weird. I was told it was just bait, but still.”
To be fair, Joey Badass (“Killuminati Pt. 2”) and Big Sean have made similar statements about “Control.” But Lupe seemingly shading Kendrick on the bases of punch lines and double entendres after claiming K. Dot copied his artwork is a curious hill to die on.
That could be one of many potential reasons the tweets have been deleted. As the pictures above show, screen shots were taken while the tweets were still live. Dave Free—President of TDE, Kendrick’s manager and the man behind the lens of videos like “Humble”—apparently caught wind of Lupe’s recent tweets.
@LupeFiasco go kick & push yourself into a tree with these wild allegations. 😂
“@LupeFiasco go kick & push yourself into a tree with these wild allegations,” Free said, referencing Lupe’s breakout single from 2006.
