The Best Rap Verse of the Month

The first thing I did was call my grandmother when I heard this song. "Get God on the phone," made me do it. My abuela is the closest thing to God in my universe. She doesn't trip when I don't hit her up for a while, and is always happy to see me no matter how much of a piece of shit I am. Lamar's surprise tape—essentially extended play of To Pimp a Butterfly—is like a church testimonial. He's saying everything he wanted to say on untitled unmastered. that he didn't get to say on TPAB plus some. Cornrow Kenny mixed social commentary with taking shots at the game this go-round including a Jay Electronica sub, and hit us in the head with more beautiful music to have eargasms to once again.

I was initially going to go with Joey Bada$$' response to Troy Ave, but I felt like Kendrick had too many flows and stunted too much on the last verse of "untitled 02 | 06.23.2014." We first heard a variation of the verse during his performance on Jimmy Fallon back in January, but this version is a lot cleaner and more substantial. He's bigging up himself as he bigs up his brothers because that's what leaders do. He's the quarterback of one of rap's most powerful teams and he put pressure on anyone standing in their way.

Some folks feel like he was mocking Drizzy on this track with the various voice pitch switches and all that. I personally feel like that's a bit of a stretch, though, as does Sounwave. Kendrick has been switching flows from the start and has always had multiple layers to his delivery. So settle down conspiracy theorists, we're all thirsty for that battle. Press play on "untitled 02" and read along.