Kendrick Lamar may have snatched the shine with his verse on Big Sean's "Control," but Big Sean knew that's what would happen. "I had my verse on there first," he told Vibe TV. "I sent it to Kendrick, Jay Elec, too. And then Kendrick sent that verse back ... so when I heard it I was kind of just like cracking up, I was like, 'Alright, that's what it need to get back to, it need to get back to hip hop, that culture.'"

The song was released as a promo for the pre-sale of his Hall of Fame album. After he realized it couldn't be placed on the album itself, he leaked it to Funkmaster Flex and then the Internet. The song's gotten Twitter responses from Diddy to Joey Bada$ and, so far, a lyrical response from Joell Ortiz and even a guitar lick from B.o.B.

“I knew what it was for the culture of hip hop," he said. "You see how excited people are, and I wanted to do that for music, make that play happen. It gave me the feeling of how hip hop was. How it used to be.”

The Detroit MC said, in fact, he has so much respect for the culture, that not only was not releasing the song not an option, but he definitely wasn't going to change it even after hearing K. Dot's murderous verse.

"Kendrick is my homie, just like he said, we all homies, but it's all sport ... When I heard his verse I wasn’t about to go back and change my verse, that’s cheating. I could [go back and] name drop ... I could cut his verse up, but that ain’t the way of an O.G. That ain’t how G’s move ... If three people hop on a song, someone's gonna have a standout verse always, whether it's 'All Me,' whether it's 'Clique,' whether it's 'Control'," he said.

The G.O.O.D. Music rapper's Hall of Fame releases Aug. 27. 

BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music. 

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. 

(Photo: Christie Goodwin/Redferns/Getty Images)