“What is competition? I’m tryna raise the bar high! Who tryna jump and get it?”
Many legendary MCs have that signature moment in time when they ascend from being one of the best of their time to one of the best of all time. For Kendrick Lamar, that moment came on Aug. 14, 2013, when he unleashed 62 bars of potent hip-hop venom that harkened back to the days of vicious verbal, academic one-upmanship.
It’s come to be known simply as “the ‘Control’ verse.”
Lamar used his time to separate himself from his peers. He called some of them out for being more concerned with social media status than perfecting their craft, declared himself King of New York and the West Coast, and name-dropped several rappers who he challenged to “raise the bar high” in music.
Many rappers, named or not, reacted in some way, shape, or form to Lamar’s verse. Some, like Pusha T and 50 Cent, took it as a good thing or a constructive challenge. Others, like Drake, didn’t take it so well, attempting to relegate it simply a viral moment.
But it was more than just a viral moment. It was a signal of what was to come from Lamar.
In August 2013, Big Sean prepped to drop his sophomore album, “Hall of Fame.” He had a song called “Control,” produced by No I.D., featuring Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica. With about two weeks before the album’s Aug. 27 release, he and No I.D. hadn’t been able to get sample clearance for the song. Sean had to remove the song from the final tracklist, but the song was too good to leave on the cutting room floor. He made a fateful decision to post the song on social media for free, as well as hand it off to Hot 97’s DJ Funkmaster Flex.
Falling less than a year removed from the release of his album “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” and a few months before the LP garnered five Grammy nominations,…
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