Lloyd Banks has returned to the game with The Course Of The Inevitable, a bar-heavy project delivered with unwavering conviction. We’ve already showcased one of the project’s many highlights with the CartuneBeatz produced “Sidewalks,” and now we’re doubling down with another standout laced by the same capable hand. “Empathy,” which features a late-game addition of Freddie Gibbs, comes alive thanks to Cartune’s ominous and subtle production, a hazy boom-bap backdrop designed to be picked apart by clever emcees.
On that note, Banks sets it off with a whirlwind flow scheme, his dexterity commanding rapt attention. “The audacity it takes to rank me with the style I invented,” he raps. “Wear my credentials like it’s jewelry, they gave my flowers cemented / to hell with honorable mentions, artists are comical, temptin’ / horrible albums, new ventin’, three pounds of vomit, who sent ’em?”
Tasked with the unenviable job of following Banks, Gibbs is more than capable of keeping stride. Matching the PLK’s intensity while his menacing bars are enhanced by the dark instrumental, Gibbs is absolutely relentless in his brutal imagery. “Kitchen full of powder, I turn my bitch to a powderhead,” he spits. “Ni*gas takin’ deals, that’s the only way you get out the feds / Castrated, dick in his fuckin’ mouth when they found him dead.”
Check out “Empathy” now, and be sure to stream The Course Of The Inevitable right here.
QUOTABLE LYRICS
The audacity it takes to rank me with the style I invented
Wear my credentials like it’s jewelry, they gave my flowers cemented
To hell with honorable mentions, artists are comical, temptin’
Horrible albums, new ventin’, three pounds of vomit, who sent ’em?