Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar Just Dropped New Tracks, and They’re Fire
It’s been a crazy 24 hours for hip hop heads.
Last night, on The Tonight Show, Kendrick Lamar dropped by to perform “Untitled 2,” a previously-unheard joint that could very well hold the record for biggest creative disparity between the title of a song and its actual content.
Over the course of five exhilarating funk-driven minutes, K-Dot vehemently reaffirms his status as the best pure rapper alive, winding his way through flows on his path to success, the gender gap and race in America before exploding into a furious refrain of “YOU AIN’T GOTTA TELL ME THAT I’M THE ONE!”  No, Kendrick, we certainly don’t. Not when you’re making music this vital, cogent and alive.
That was followed up this afternoon by the very welcome return of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Fridays — his now-legendary weekly drop of new music — with the release of “Real Friends,” a moody head-knocker accompanied by a snippet of “No More Parties in LA”, featuring none other than Mr. Kendrick Lamar.
Following his rather paltry, sour Nike attack “Facts,” “Real Friends” is both a welcome return to form and a tantalizing look at what’s to come — based on its immersive, murky soul-sampling beat and Ye’s breezy-yet-incisive verses, it feels like Swish might just be the true My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy follow-up we’ve all been hoping for.
In any case, if these two songs are any indication, 2016 is going to be a hell of a year for hip hop. Your move, 6 God.
