Kendrick Lamar Raps His Ass Off On Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” Throws Shots At Drake & J. Cole

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar Raps His Ass Off On Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” Throws Shots At Drake & J. Cole

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar is not into these “big three” conversations. For the past few years, rap top-dog conversations have revolved around three names: Kendrick, Drake, and J. Cole. Kendrick and Drake have been taking shots at one another for more than a decade, but Kendrick has never been known to have any problem with Cole until this morning. Now, however, Drake and Cole have a couple of collaborations, and they’re on tour together. Kendrick is not into it, and he’s letting it be known.

This morning, Future and Metro Boomin released We Don’t Trust You, the first of two planned collaborative albums that are apparently coming out this year. I’m on my first listen right now, and it’s really, really good. The record has a cinematic flow, and it sounds amazing in a car. In keeping with recent A-list rap-album tradition, the album has no featured credits, so when collaborators show up, they work as surprise cameos. (So, uh, spoiler alert.) The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, and Rick Ross all make appearances, and voice clips from the late Prodigy sometimes play between songs. But the big moment is Kendrick Lamar’s arrival. That would be the big moment even if Kendrick didn’t talk some serious shit.

Kendrick Lamar makes is appearance on “Like That,” track six of a 17-song album. It’s a very good song. “Like That” has a sinister churn, and it samples Eazy-E’s “Eazy Duz It” and Rodney O & Joe Cooley’s “Everlasting Bass.” Future has a sinister verse that’s mostly about having sex with your girlfriend, and then Kendrick pops in and runs wild. Kendrick Lamar guest verses are rare these days, and angry Kendrick guest-verses are even rarer, so this one matters. Kendrick really talks his shit, too. “If he walk around with that stick, it ain’t Andre 3K”? Come on.

Last year, Drake and J. Cole released “First Person Shooter,” their first-ever collaboration, and it debuted at #1. On that song, Cole specifically invokes Kendrick’s name: “Love when they argue the hardest MC/ Is it K. Dot, is it Aubrey, or me?/ We the big three like we started a league.” On “Like That,” Kendrick offers his rebuttal: “Get up with me/ Fuck sneak dissin’, first person shooter, I hope they came with three switches.” And then: “Motherfuck the big three, n***a, it’s just big me/ N***a bum! What? I’m really like that/ And your best work is a light pack/ N***a, Prince outlived Mike Jack/ N***a bum! ‘Fore all your dogs gettin’ buried/ That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary.” Whooo! Listen below.

While you’re at it, I would highly suggest streaming all of We Don’t Trust You below. Twenty years after Madvillainy, we get a very different iconic rapper/producer duo doing some very different mad villain shit.

We Don’t Trust You is out now on Wilburn Holding Co./Boominati Worldwide/Epic/Republic. Drake and Future are frequent collaborators, but there’s been talk of a Drake/Metro rivalry lately. This story isn’t over. It might never end.

more from New Music