On the heels of KXNG Crooked reflecting on the time he "bar'd" his way onto the first-ever XXL Freshman Class roster, Lil Keed came through with his own take on the long-running freestyle tradition. True, the game has changed rather drastically, no longer remotely resembling the 2007 musical landscape. Yet the freestyle has endured, even though a fair number of the latest Freshmen would likely prefer to sit it out entirely. And though Lil Keed did the cardinal sin of recycling album bars, still, you have to give points for effort.
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Fans of Keed will likely recognize his lyrics immediately, as they stem from Trapped On Cleveland 3's "Grandparents." Unfortunately, the flow simply doesn't land the same without the instrumental behind it, not to mention the notable absence of vocal processing. "And I'm stuffin' all these bands in my pants, man," he raps, doing his best to make the acapella version work. "Yeah, this money growin' old like grandparents, outside white, but the inside cranberry / I'll make a way, no Harriet Tubman."
Unfortunately, many have already taken to writing this one off entirely, with some even drawing comparisons to Lil Mosey's notorious effort. Of course, it stands to reason that certain rappers are not interested in this particular format, being far more comfortable working in the studio. As it happens, Lil Keed, who has been praised as one of the game's exciting young voices, belongs to that particular camp. Yet perhaps we should not jump to conclusions until we see how he fares in the cypher, which actually implements an instrumental into the mix -- do you think he'll fare better with that format?