And the First Rapper to Jump on J. Cole's 'Everybody Dies' Beat Is...
Leave it to a J. Cole resurgence, complete with two heat-packed freestyles, to spark up just enough controversy to pull even the most clandestine rappers back into the studio.
And with such lyrically shot-loaded verses from said freestyles, it’s only right that the one hip-hop luminary known for a few jabs here and there throws in his installation over a Cole World track.
In only a way a Chi-town rap spitter would, Lupe Fiasco spun Cole’s “Everybody Dies” track into his own rendering with an unmixed freestyle: “N.E.R.D.” While both of Cole’s freestyles (including “False Prophets”) did a considerable amount of headline damage, Lupe piggybacked off of the Born Sinner rapper’s snubs for his track.
“Too many best rappers, not enough best rhymes though,” Lupe raps. “Guess I’m delusional, used to doing it all the time so maybe I’m just jaded, out of touch and unrelated. Unable to connect greatness based on the person who makes it.”
Raising the controversial bar further sans name-drops, the 34-year-old even threw shade at rappers who have allowed themselves to become deceived by record label sharks, otherwise known as “record label dummies.” And controversial it was, after a few Twitter users identified a particular line they found offensive.
“Artists getting robbed before they publish, by dirty Jewish execs that think his alms from the covenant,” Fiasco rapped. “I’ll retire when I’m tired, that’s a Firestone death. Easy to say when nobody’s there, like a microphone check.”
Accusing him of anti-Semitic rhetoric for the line, Lupe swiftly unapologetically backed the line and said that there were some “upright moral Jewish execs” in showbiz.
Check out the song and the offended tweeter's conversation with Lupe below.