Yesterday we spotlighted Kendrick Lamar‘s blazing verse on the Big Sean “Control” single from his unreleased Hall of Fame album as a way to plot the 2013 NBA Rookie mix-tape. A former championship coach and a Knicks player both responded directly to K.Dot in different ways yesterday, too.
Phil Jackson must have found out that he was name-dropped in the verse, along with almost every contemporary rapper of Lamar’s. Here’s the reference to Phil:
“…I’m Machiavelli’s offspring, I’m the king of New York / King of the Coast, one hand, I juggle them both / The juggernaut’s all in your jugular, you take me for jokes / Live in the basement, church pews and funeral faces / Cartier bracelets for my women friends I’m in Vegas / Who the f**k y’all thought it’s supposed to be? / If Phil Jackson came back, still no coachin’ me…”
Phil, ever the sage guru, responded on Twitter.
@kendricklamar it’s okay to be cocky and sure, but we all need somebody to lean on. Let’s just call it mentoring.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) August 13, 2013
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What an incredibly Phil Jackson thing to tweet: part Siddartha aphorism, and part tsk-tsking grandfather. Just fantastic. We all need more Phil Jackson in our life.
Knicks swingman Iman Shumpert also responded to K.Dot’s track. Perhaps after being asked to provide a single for First Lady Michelle Obama‘s hip hop album, Shump felt like he’d reached a level in music where a rejoinder was necessary.
He released a single, at 21 Shump Street, called “Dear Kendrick I”
As our Senior Editor has already pointed out to us, there’s never been a worse song hyped as much as “Control” was yesterday. The rest of the Big Sean track is awful, but it does show you how amazing Lamar’s guest spot really was.
UPDATE: Kobe has responded to Lamar as well:
He threw down the gauntlet. #challengesgiven #challengestaken #everythingscompetition.
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) August 14, 2013
And a few of our favorite NBA players to follow on Instagram, created some memes after the Lamar guest spot:
[h/t The Point Forward]
Why couldn’t Kendrick Lamar have dropped that verse on a better song?
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