Kendrick Lamar Debuts Untitled 2 on Jimmy Fallon

on 01/09/2016 at 12:00 pm

There’s a reason many hip hop heads refer to Kendrick Lamar as King Kendrick. The Compton product has spent the better part of the past half decade displaying why he’s the best rapper of his generation. And 10 months after dropping his Grammy-nominated opus, To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick served us a tasty reminder on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this week.

Rather than performing one of the many soulful cuts from his last project, Kendrick opted for Untitled 2, a never-before heard cut that still captures the energy and aesthetic of To Pimp A Butterfly. Untitled 2 features the jazz and funk sound he used on his album and features a few callbacks to a few songs from funk superstar George Clinton–who contributed to Wesley’s Theory–and Kendrick’s own I.

Kendrick rhymes are as tight as ever in this new cut as he capably rides the beat. And as the song hits his crescendo, King Kendrick steadily picks up his pace, energy and shifts gears to the aggressive flow we love from joints like Control. And similarly to Control, Kendrick is well aware of his place in this current era of hip hop as he spits: “Level two, level two / No I’m not done / You don’t have to tell me that I am the one / I could put a rapper on life support / Guarantee that’s something none of you want.”

This is where we have to say Kendrick is mistaken. That’s precisely what we want.