There's been a lot of talk about Kendrick's BET Cypher verse, and who it was directed at. While it seemed pretty clear that K.Dot was going at Drake (who has recently been denouncing the influence of the rapper's "Control" verse), the possibility that Kendrick was targeting Papoose has been brought up. Some of the lines in his verse seem to mirror disses found in Pap's response, though it still seems more likely that the shots are for Drake (maybe he should go back to naming names).
One man is definitely convinced that Kendrick is responding to Papoose-- that being the NY rapper himself. Pap sat down with XXL to talk about the freestyle, how lamar will never match him lyrically, and whether he'll send another verse his way.
Read some excerpts from the interview below.
So you saw the Kendrick clip that came out from the BET Cypher?
Yeah, yeah, I was hearing about it a lot, and then when I actually clicked on that, I couldn’t believe that that was what everybody was making a big deal out of.
What was your reaction?
Oh, it was comical, man. I laughed.
A lot of people said he was going at you.
I agree with the people, I looked at the majority and they were saying he was going at me. So I agree with the listeners, I agree with the fans. They say majority rules, so I agree with the majority.
You’ve gone back at Kendrick in the past with a verse. Are you planning on that this time?
Yeah yeah, he can’t fuck with me. He’ll never be able to shine my shoes, lyrically. So I’m just gonna be able to continue to prove that, to show and prove, like I did on “Control.” This is hip-hop, I love hip-hop, but I just want to continue to show and prove that he can’t fuck with me lyrically. You can look forward to that in my next release, straight up. I live in the studio, that’s my second home. So yeah, I’m definitely going to respond.
Are you going to wait to hear the full verse?
I don’t gotta wait, he’s very predictable. I already know what he’s capable of and what he’s gonna say; he’s very predictable. I don’t gotta wait. I can go right now and crush that little 15-second shit he did. That ain’t even about nothing. The guy’s predictable; he’s a very predictable artist. I already know what he’s gonna say before he even says it.
It kinda seemed like Kendrick had gone through your “Control” response line by line in his verse.
Oh, definitely. Cosmic Kev out in Philly, when he played it, he said the record reminded him of “Ether.” I think that just ate his soul alive; as much as he wanted to take the high road and try to say that he was too much of a big shot to respond, I think it ate him alive and he couldn’t resist.
You think you struck a nerve with him?
Oh, more than a nerve, I struck the entire nervous system. He couldn’t sleep at night, when he opened his freezer he’d see my face, when he closed his eyes…[Laughs] I’m just bullshitting. But I think that struck a nerve, definitely. It shook the ground up, let’s keep it real—when I dropped my response, it shook the ground up. You got guys who say, “this response or that one,” but come on, man, my “Control” response has over a million views already. I look around at some of the other guys, they got 300,000 or something like that, you know what I mean? There’s no comparison. Come on.