Joell Ortiz Takes Kendrick Lamar ‘King of NY’ Bait, Dishes Obligatory Reply

Well, it’s been the 24 hours of Kendrick Lamar, and even though in some folks’ opinion, his verbal assault on his peers and title-claiming was meant to be metaphorical and symbolic, Joell Ortiz took the bait and responded in his typically rambunctious manner to Lamar’s outlandish claim that he was “the King of New York.”

Despite how you feel about it, i.e., whether or not a New York hip hop head should be offended or not, Joell Ortiz certainly brings an A-game to his “Outta Control” rebuttal, which, most would agree, was the hope when Lamar lit the rap world on fire with his fiery verse on “Control” alongside Big Sean and Jay Electronica (whose own contributions to the song were rendered irrelevant by the passionate delivery heard ’round the ‘net).

Without editorializing too much, let’s just say that the response, while highly effective, will hopefully not usher in a slew of Everyone vs. Kendrick Lamar.

First, most will pale in comparison to the original, sincere, incendiary verse.

Second, most will pale in comparison to Ortiz’ response.

But third, and most important, was that with “Control,” Kendrick Lamar delivered a passionate, creative, aggressive attack that many took to be an attack on mediocrity, coupled with a confidant stance against his contemporaries. The claim that he was the King of New York, in my opinion was simply boastful hyperbole… In fact, the absurdity of its premise the reason why I thought it was such a hot line. As an UNDISPUTED New York hip hop advocate, I wasn’t offended. I thought it was slick. I enjoy Ortiz’ response, especially from someone I’ve bigged up for a long time. He’s a great ambassador.

But what I’d rather see, would be that the overall hip hop landscape continues to evolve to where the general public starts looking for this kind of creative, lyrical, exciting hip hop in general, on the regular, knowing we have a multitude of New York artists who have already been fitting that description rocking our hometown for years.

Folks seem to have had their ears perked up by this episode, so I welcome their enlightenment.

That being said, Joell Ortiz is pretty “Outta Control.”