Just over nine years ago, in the âAlrightâ music video, Kendrick Lamar and his Black Hippy compatriots bounced in a broken-down lowrider while Kendrick spit a freestyle over a groovy Sounwave beat that lasted just 30 seconds. The snippet stands as the most-replayed section of a video with over 180 million YouTube views, and does not otherwise exist in public form: not on To Pimp a Butterfly, nor stowed away on the glorified mixtape of B-sides, untitled unmastered. Lost in the pantheon of viral teasers, itâs forever a âwhat could have beenâ moment.
There was fear the phenomenon would repeat when Kendrick dropped the âNot Like Usâ video in the midst of his summer of vitriol against Drake. It opened with another snippet, a black-and-white shot of Kendrick rapping in a hallway, dropping Kamasi Washington references while sounding eerily reminiscent of the late Drakeo the Ruler. âsquabble up,â the second track on his new surprise album GNX, represents the full version of this past summerâs prelude. Itâs a satisfying entry point to a record where Kendrick drapes himself in elements of his California rap heritage, oscillating fluidly between G-funk, hyphy, and even mariachi. Gone are the furrowed bars and deeply meditative production from the diss tracks; instead he bounds over a funky bassline that mutates Debbie Debâs âWhen I Hear Musicâ into an â90s club hit powered by a mountain of Tony Montana. It feels as though heâs channeling the ghosts of West Coast rap royalty to spit with still more freedom and carelessnessâhe even references 2Pacâs infamous loogie hawk at the paparazzi.
Kendrickâs lyrical hatred on this track is far-reaching, which makes it all the more fun. âTell me why the fuck you niggas rap, if itâs fictional/Tell me why the fuck you niggas fed, if you criminal,â he growls, after doling out threats of violence like heâs dealing cards. No longer obligated to the attack-response pattern of beef, Kendrick sounds as if heâd strolled out to the town square and declared that heâs taking all challengers. His myriad voices, octave changes, and shrieks sometimes seem as though heâs on the precipice of losing control. But so long as you arenât the one caught in his crosshairs, youâre grateful that âsquabble upâ is free to dominate car speakers in Compton rather than rotting in a vault.
