There are very few actual moments in rap (recently) that felt truly historic to me, but the night Kendrick’s “Control” verse dropped was one of them. When it came to generating the mythology of Kendrick, that verse was almost on par with the day good Kid, m.a.a.d. city dropped. It even came close to the level of excitement that accompanied the release of Yeezus. There was a sense, listening to that verse, that Kendrick’s king-making moment was complete. And in the aftermath, Big Sean had lost something forever — he’d been out-rapped on his own track, and beaten. Bad.
As recently as 2015, notable music sites like Rolling Stone wrote articles, however hyperbolic they may be, with titles like “9 Ways Kendrick Lamar’s Verse Changed The World.”
Yet, Sean doesn’t seem to remember it that way. Call it denial, call it willful forgetfulness of painful memories, call it an outright lie. Whatever you want. But his assertion on the Breakfast Club’s Power 105.1 FM this morning was downright false. When one of the hosts asserted that Kendrick had the better, Sean’s response was swift:
“No he didn’t. Stop it. Stop it. How long ago was that? What year is this? And I still don’t feel like I got washed anyway.”
It was in 2013. That was four years ago. We’re still talking about it. Sorry Sean, but it’s classier to take the L instead of denying it.
