K Dot is back. After over a year of musical silence and two years since a studio LP from the Los Angeles rapper, Lamar broke the silence with a mysterious sequence of events on his Instagram account on March 22nd. After wiping all of his photos on Instagram, Lamar uploaded a simplistic photo: a roman numeral four (IV) with a solid black background. The post has since been deleted. Just a day later, Kendrick dropped the “The Heart Part 4” on iTunes and Apple Music. Needless to say, the twitterverse blew up in excitement for new music from Lamar.
Kendrick called out drake, big sean, donald trump, fake rappers, fake girls and RUSSIA on one track pic.twitter.com/u65k4R1oo2
— Anything but Image. (@GroovyEddie97) March 24, 2017
With a flow reminiscent of his 2013 feature on Big Sean’s “Control,” Lamar calls out a wide array of targets, from Drake to Donald Trump to Russia. Kendrick begins to diss a person who is rumored to be either Big Sean or Drake with the line “My fans can’t wait for me to son ya punk-ass/And crush ya whole lil’ shit,” referencing his crashing of one of their release parties. After calling out Drake for claims he has made in the past few years, K Dot addresses issues far beyond the rap game. He raps, “Donald Trump is a chump/Know how we feel, punk? Tell ’em that God comin’/And Russia need a replay button, y’all up to somethin’/Electorial votes look like memorial votes/But America’s truth ain’t ignorin’ the votes.” With four different beats by Axl Folie, The Alchemist, Syk Sense, and DJ Dahi, Lamar shifts in and out of aggression while maintaining a steady flow.
This track is thought to be a precursor for Lamar’s fourth studio LP. His “The Heart” series has historically been a platform for Lamar to promote new music while also addressing his thoughts on a variety of issues. “The Heart pt. 1” was released just before his critically acclaimed “Overly Dedicated” mixtape; part two was the intro to the album; part three was released just days before his second album “Good Kid Mad City”; now Lamar gives strong evidence for an upcoming album.
He ends his track by stating, “You know what time it is, ante up, this is in forever/Y’all got ’til April the 7th to get y’all shit together.” Since the single was released, an allegedly leaked track list for the album has circulated the internet. The rumored track list does not have many big features, but there are tracks featuring Anderson .Paak, Kanye West, and André Benjamin. The track list, however, does include well known producers including Sounwave, Kanye West, Flying Lotus, the Alchemist, and Swizz Beatz. We’ll have to wait and see how accurate the list was, so stay tuned for new music out April 7th.
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