Way back in December, 21 Savage teased a new track, “Immortal,” in the trailer for Mortal Kombat 11. Today, he finally released the track in its entirety, and it’s pretty much everything you’d expect from a 21 Savage about a Mortal Kombat game. He revives his Slaughter Gang persona in all its glory, deadpan glory, littering the rhymes with references to the equally violent fighting game series (“Draco get to kickin’ like Liu Kang” and “Brought a gun to a fist fight like Jax” are standouts).
Of course, not everyone appreciated 21’s contribution to the trailer when it dropped. Despite video games’ increasing intersection with hip-hop — for instance, League Of Legends has its own in-game rap group formed of real-life music stars now. Some Kombat fans complained about the inclusion of “Immortal,” proving that there are still some pockets of gamer-dom that haven’t quite joined the rap gaming revolution. Hearing “Immortal” in its entirety, though, it’s sort of a decent compliment to a game about ripping folks’ limbs off to use as weapons, especially with 21 threatening that his “choppa cut you up like Kitana” and calling himself a “dread-headed killer like Cyrax.”
Meanwhile, 21 is back on his grind making more murder music for the streets; he promised during the summer that Savage Mode 2 is on the way and more recently dropped a verse on the remix to Normani’s hit “Motivation.”
