Kendrick Lamar pops up for not one, not two, but three guest appearances on Playboi Carti’s mercifully unleashed new album, MUSIC.
In the hours leading up to the album’s release early Friday morning, fittingly in the wake of a glorious blood moon, the only confirmed Kendrick feature was on “GOOD CREDIT,” a song that arrives around the halfway point of the 30-track album, Carti’s first since 2020’s Whole Lotta Red. As the album started trickling out to streaming services, however, it became clear that Kendrick had also been enlisted for “MOJO JOJO” and “BACKD00R.”
On “GOOD CREDIT,” Kendrick tucks in a mention of ASAP Relli’s recently resolved case, in which the ASAP Mob alum accused ASAP Rocky of being the aggressor in a 2021 shooting incident in the Hollywood area. As previously reported, Rocky, who had been charged with assault with a semiautomatic firearm in the case, was ultimately found not guilty. Rocky’s victory was widely celebrated, including by Tyler, The Creator and Spike Lee.
Kendrick opens the second verse of “GOOD CREDIT” with a declaration on behalf of “the vamps and the boogies” before quickly making his way to a nod to Usher’s 1997 hit “My Way,” complete with a reference to the nostalgic fruit snack Gushers.
A piece from celebrity jeweler Elliot Eliantte then gets a shoutout, leading to the Relli mention, like so:
“Eliantte go big, white-gold link fall on the belly/The emerald cut for hers and his, that bitch on point like ASAP Relli”
Kendrick, of course, has made headlines for wearing Eliantte pieces in the past, most recently during his Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show performance in New Orleans in February.
From there, Kendrick compares himself to Lakers player Luka Dončić before turning his attention to “conspiracy theories” of an unknown origin (“You got the wrong person”) and “Chicago slang” (“Which one of you n***as will merch it?”). Kendrick also positions himself as the “evil twin” to both Cardo and Carti.
Closing out the verse, Kendrick offers some perspective on the responsibilities of greatness, rapping “The hate get realer, the love get fake, but when you this great, that’s how you should like it.”
Listen to all three Kendrick features, not to mention MUSIC in full, here. While some fans had expected an outright extension of Kendrick’s 2024-dominating Drake feud, early listens of his guest features on Carti’s new album suggest he opted to swerve in a different direction.
Still, one could pretty easily argue that the “conspiracy theories” talk on “GOOD CREDIT” is (potentially) Kendrick’s way of again acknowledging Drake’s “Not Like Us”-spurred legal action.
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/tracewilliamcowen/kendrick-lamar-playboi-carti-good-credit-lyrics
