Shortly after emerging with the announcement that his next album would be his last with Top Dawg Entertainment, Kendrick Lamar set the stage for his comeback with a blistering verse on the Baby Keem-assisted “Family Ties.”
Confidently boasting to be “smoking on your top 5” before the verse begins, Kendrick let fly an absolutely insane verse lined with flexes and incredible flows — with even more on the way, as he teases. “I been ducking the pandemic, I been ducking the social gimmicks, I been ducking the overnight activists,” he raps, repeating the stanza for emphasis.
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“Who went platinum? I call that a visitor,” warns Kendrick, making it clear that his return will shape the game in his image. Suffice it to say, the verse was heard around the world, a warning for real emcees that a threatening competitor is about to launch a comeback. As it happens, Kendrick’s verse caught the attention of another well-respected lyricist in Lloyd Banks, who recently delivered a comeback of his own with The Course Of The Inevitable.
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“Kendrick is dangerous,” writes Banks, taking a moment to share his appreciation for a fellow master of the craft. It’s always nice to see emcees pay homage to one another, and it’s evident that Kendrick still possesses the tools to shake up the game as he once did with “Control.” Suffice it to say, the Banks co-sign is about as high an honor a lyricist can receive, and it didn’t take long for dreams of a potential collaboration between the two began to flood the comments.
Check out Lloyd Banks’ reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s return below.