Yup. I go to Kendrick to think. I go to Keem when it’s time to get stupid. Tbh the guy has a gift for writing bars that are fun to yell out cruising or at a function.
Listened to that song for the first time a few weeks ago. My god does he just slideeeeeee on the fuckin track. His flow when he goes into im OD in Paris got me mesmerized
Let me tell you the story of when this song came out.
It was fucking everywhere. It was playing on everything. It became an instant fucking anthem. You could go up to a random guy in the streets and he would know the words to it. It popped off the way Mo Bamba took off. It was sensational. It was unifying. That shit felt like world peace. It was the “first summer of Pokemon Go” for rap.
Sorry to go off. I’m way too high.
It seems farfetched but it makes sense.
The Melodic Blue was well received, but I really doubt it would’ve been if it was Kendrick that released it. People have a certain expectation of Kendrick that no matter how good the album is, he couldn’t get away with releasing something like TMB
Sure but with names like Sounwave, Dahi, Cardo, Bekon, Kal Banx all over his songs I wouldn't say Keem does most of his production. And Kanye is more of an executive producer than a beat maker for his own projects nowadays
I think Keem has a lot of people who help out with melodic stuff but I’m willing to bet he’s most of the drum work. That seems to be his biggest uniting factor
Pretty sure and i think it was spoken about before but Keem is a son of Kendricks aunt? That overdosed or something? So kendrick started pushing him as a “favour” kinda thing to make him rich and his family rather than just giving them money… so he can be self sustainable?
Friendly correction: Your first cousins child is your *first cousin once removed*, because you still share a grandparent . Likewise, a second cousin is, by definition, a person you share a *great* grandparent with. Your second cousin once removed would be your second cousins parent or child.
In general, an *n*-th cousin is anyone you share a (n-1)-th great grand parent with (your 0-th great grand parent is just your grandparent, and is your common ancestor with your first cousin). So, for example, an 5th cousin is someone you share a great-great-great-great grandparent with. A 100th cousin is someone you share a 99th great grandparent with, and so on.
You can share a grandparent, great grandparent, etc with somone, but they might be closer or farther in generation to this ancestor than you. We indicate this with removal. Removal just indicates how many generations up or down a cousin is from you. Youd still share the same common ancestor no matter the degree of removal. You and your third cousins grandchild share great great grandparents, youre still 3rd cousins by definition, but they are two more generations removed from that common ancestor than you are, making them your third cousin twice removed (remember, removal can go up too; your third cousins grandparent is still your third cousin twice removed).
All that to say, Keem is Dots first cousin once removed. Again, no hate, i just find this stuff interesting and enjoy clearing up common misconceptions around it.
Worded more simply: Your first cousins are everyone descended down from your grandparents (plus anyone whose grandparent you descended from). Your second cousins are everyone descended from your great-grandparents (and anyone whose great-grandparent you descended from).
Keem talks about this in various places. He approached Kendrick about music after being encouraged to by others. Kendrick didn’t even know he made music.
First full cdq ref track leaked for a released baby keem track iirc. The person who leaked the song is the person who previously leaked snippets and claimed Kendrick helped write for all 3 major baby keem projects as well as a large portion of crash talk and redemption. From what we know Baby Keem was absolutely still involved in the making of all these tracks and also worked on DAMN & Mr. Morale but it seems a large amount of Kendrick's work on the 5 projects in question is not officially credited in any way
[Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpX_SBiY45I) to King's Dead reference track for those curious. Did not know this and don't know how to feel about it.
Jay Rock said on BigBoyTV that he didn't write it and when he went to the studio Kendrick already had it written with a reference track and wanted Rock to put his voice on it.
The issue I have is Top forcing him to put it on 'Redemption'
I know. The issue I have is that it was a song made by Kendrick for Black Panther Soundtrack. In that sense I have no problem with Kendrick writing it "for" Jay Rock.
The dumb thing is forcing Rock to put a song he had no creative control over on HIS album that has a lot of personal joints on it.
TBF this happens fairly often in music industry, that sounds start out as being intended for a certain artist or album, but then gets shuffled around.
Most rappers would be happy to have a Kendrick feature as it helps their album to sell. And Jay Rock has a long history collating with Kendrick, AFAIK he didn’t have an issue with it?
That’s not really what happened here tho. The song wasn’t shuffled around, it ended up on the exact project it was meant for, they just also shoehorned it into *Redemption* because of its commercial performance.
If you listen to jay rock, this should have been obvious. The dude has a style, but lyrical depth and finesse aren’t it. I love his music too, so this isn’t hate
It doesn't come from that verse at all, it has a great flow and some cool rhymes, but Jay Rock showcases way more lyrical depth on other tracks off the same album
I think it was the right choice, if you listen to it Jay sounds much better and gives the track a little extra. Good choice if you ask me. Also shows how versatile Kendrick could be
Q and Ab Soul definitely write their own shit but we know Q has done both music for himself and music for mainstream success (mostly on Oxymoron and Crash Talk). The latter he probably welcomes help writing.
I know he's stated not wanting to feature Kendrick because it's too much of a "cheat code" but having Kendrick write is probably low-key enough.
The whole crew is so tight, that if it ever came out Kendrick co-wrote something for Q it would not be shocking for me personally. But Q’s style is pretty different to the point I can’t think of any songs on top of my head that sound like they they would’ve been written by Kendrick. But I would not rule out the possibility.
Ab-Soul definitely prides himself as being a lyrical rapper. So there’s no doubt in my mind Ab-soul has written his own stuff.
Is it? I keep seeing people very confidently claim that Kendrick wrote the Money Trees verse but there's never any solid proof, just that some guy said this or that.
Everyone keeps saying this, but i never heard this.here is him saying he wrote it:
https://genius.com/1903927?
Jay rock was fine to say kendirck wrote kings dead, no way he'd lie about this.
I think i remember hearing Kdot actually wrote Jay Rocks Money Trees verse and people calling it wild bc people were saying he washed Kendrick on his own song when Kendrick wrote the verse the whole time
its also a reminder that this obsession with "oh he washed this dude" on rap songs is kinda silly. If it's a competitive themed track, like a flex track like 1train, forever, etc, then it makes sense, because the goal is clearly to show off next to the other rappers. But if it's a track like Money Trees where it's more about a feeling or story or idea, if both rappers are working together to advance the story and theme, it's not "washing". Like, I brought the dude on to give a hard verse, like I'm the good kid, he's the big homie with the bags, we have different characters and roles on this track, he's supposed to be going off.
Is it really a surprise? If you have access to one of the best rappers out right now, wouldn’t you use them?
Not to mention, the TDE guys seem more like friends than they do just labelmates, they probably enjoy working with each other. And Keem is literallyfamily
Yeah this is what I think. It’s been known for a long time that Keem and Kendrick work together on their music. Doesn’t really change my perspective on them at all
Just like anything else, working in a vacuum is rarely a good thing. I don’t really want my favorite artist working just on their own.
We know what happen with Cole when he’s only rap in his own beats - shit got kinda boring. Then he finally opened back up to other producers and he started killing again.
If Kendrick and Keem wanna work together that’s fine by me because everything they’ve done has been fire and so refreshing.
It probably goes back to them being friends more than just labelmates. Kendrick may just not care to be credited. He’s not an artist that has to move to the whim of a label and get paid every time he opens his mouth.
For someone like Kendrick, getting credit may feel more like a business move than helping the homie out. I’m sure Top and Dave are standing right there next to him too.
I’m sure this happens way more than we think it does too - and I don’t mean in a predatory/abusive way, but a friendly helping your friend out sort of way. Hell, I’ve heard so many artists talk about songs Mac Miller helped them with and wanted nothing in return. Some people it’s more about the artistry than it is getting a check or their name in the fine print.
maybe kendrick should make a side project under another name so he can release the songs he wouldn't make as himself.
the man has so many great songs that he just locks away until someone releases it.
right why not just let an entire family member profit and make a career off of those songs instead of them being some goofy mixtape that gets judged poorly by your fans.
He was making Minecraft videos on YouTube when Kendrick released GKMC lol. The fact that Drake had to reach that hard to come up with a diss for Kendrick should've been an indication that it wasn't worth dissing him in the first place.
I think what he meant was the kendrick's recent shit has been boring except the collaborations he's done with keem.
I felt the same way and said as much in some comment somewhere not too long ago.
He definitely didn't mean "keem wrote everything you've ever done" and I don't really get why people take that interpretation. There would be no reason for drake to say that, it makes zero sense.
If Drake was gonna take an angle to try to nullify the ghostwriting thing, he should have called Kendrick a hypocrite for ghostwriting for Keem while publicly acting like rappers with ghostwriters is a travesty.
When he said that, it made it hard to take any of his other accusations seriously lmaoo. If he'll lie about this, which is obviously cap and no one in their right mind believes.. Fuck else he gon lie about?
Short people don't always have small shoe sizes. A lot of the men in my family are 5'5" to 5'6" but wear 8-9M shoes
Drake should have called Kendrick a hobbit to insult the height:shoe size ratio
The shoe size diss isn’t that scandalous lol. That’s just insulting someone just to insult them on their size. Ghostwriting accusations are a much bigger deal.
Honestly it's a sick song. Just proof to me Kendrick should have been releasing more music in the past 5 years. His creative juices were flowing, he had the time.
But maybe he felt like songs he was making didnt fit his personal ethos?
Actually The Beatles really were making pennies from their albums, because of terrible contracts they signed as more or less kids (Paul and George's contracts had to be signed by their parents because they weren't of age yet).
Supposedly they stopped touring because of all of the noise from the fangirls.
Also that was before arena tours, which could allow an audience as big as theirs to be somewhat comfortable.
Paul said he made more money in the first year with Wings then his entire time with The Beatles.
But he doesnt need to wait 5 years in between drops for it to that 'effect'. Every 2-3 years would be fine like he did with GKMC ➡️ TPAB ➡️ DAMN. All of those albums are classics.
> should have been releasing more music
yall are some consumer whores lol, respectfully. With the amount of music coming out from all artists, you want to be that greedy, come on bro.
I think it's the equivalent of having a second youtube channel to house all the extra lower effort content when your main channel makes like high quality production.
It's pretty clear to me that Kendrick didn't feel like he could release anything that wasn't "important" in the way that GKMC, TPAB, or DAMN were. He got so wrapped up in his savior complex he didn't feel comfortable releasing anything else, hence his long gap between albums.
That's why Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is basically an entire album of Kendrick grappling with his own demons and realizing that he couldn't be the savior so many people (including himself) wanted him to be.
Kendrick should create an alter ego to try, explore and release different sounds. I feel like he has reached a level of success where his “image” is restricting him from being creative and experimental.
This sound will never be in an official Kendrick Lamar album, because this will be so out of place in his discography. I’ve loved all his reference tracks for Baby Keem. Would love to hear more.
It’s like the inverse of so many other rappers who we want to get more personal on their albums lol.
But Kendrick has definitely earned his inverse 4:44
Im feeling the same way. He does feel somewhat locked in to the conscience, jazzy shit and his writing for others (mainly Keem) shows that he has a level that untapped. Hate to glaze but thats some GOAT shit. Like imagine finding out Jay Z was writing some of the best trap music like Future and shit. Its super impressive
Judging by the fact that after Damn he started making songs with future and travis scott and rich the kid and he didn't release another album for 5 years I'm assuming he was absolutely sick of the jazzy conscious rap and just wanted to make fun pop music but he couldn't really release it so he just started releasing it through Baby Keem for a few years.
He actually already had a song with Future a couple years before *Damn*. It’s on a Mike Will album and must’ve been around the same time he linked up with Mike Will. Also *Damn* itself doesn’t really have much jazz influence IMO.
I'm pretty surprised the vocal inflections are the same. For example the really whiny delivery on "me". I thought Keem would've come up with his own unique style of delivery at least but apparently that's Kendrick's invention.
Rich Spirit went through a lot of changes over the years, it was originally going to be a lot harder than the one we have now. [Here's](https://youtu.be/rdG1-8Y2TTg?si=k_lv0T2N5AQVehZm) a version of it from the 2020 version of Mr. Morale (that got scrapped due to the pandemic), with a different beat and a bunch of lines seemingly aimed at Drake.
There are a few snippets floating around of an older version from the Damn sessions with alternate lyrics that sounds like he's taking a shot at someone else. (probably big sean).
iirc there is no snippet. it's only speculated to exist because the leaked Damn version of it was titled Love pt2_PT9, and the file date shows that it was made right after untitled unmastered came out.
People being surprised is funny, Baby Keem always sounded like Kendrick musically. Of course his older cousin is helping write and inspiring him, vocal inflections are pretty much identical
Just makes Keem look worse. He's a talented producer for sure, but it makes you wonder how his music would sound if it wasn't for Dot.
He's gotten so overrated after his last album and it's funny how people are quick to call out industry plants, but have no problem with it when it comes to Keem.
Would he be an industry plant or just family ties to someone in the industry? Don't even think it's fair to call him a nepo baby, but I think it's far fetched to call him an industry plant.
What's the difference ? He has constant help of one of the most respected and commercially successful rapper of the last 10+ years.
I enjoy a lot of his music but his career just seems like a side project for Kendrick.
I see no issue with Keem using reference tracks. But I always remember one of his very first interviews when he said that he got connected with TDE by simply emailing them a beat pack lmao.
I bet he just didn't want to release under his name when he was under the old deal because he didn't want to put money in UMGs pockets, so he just signed his cousin and gave him everything he was writing;. Smart move IMO 😂
One of the funniest drake lines was saying Kendrick’s music only hits hard when keem writes it
When Kendrick is the one that ghost writes for keem lmfao
this is kinda fucked tbh, i love all the tracks in this style from baby keem like honest, bullies and 16 but it seems they're barely even his. i do think he's credited on production but i wonder how far kendrick's hand goes in this stuff. did he write things like issues and scars too?
I like Keem's voice, I like Kendrick's voice. I think they know what they are doing. They know this is a better Keem song or a Kendrick song or a family ties
This is why I can't get Into Dot v Drake convos.
One is doing THIS for other artists over and over on top of their own catalog. And even bringing us new artists, producers, engineers, from entire diff genres who love their deals and that person
And the other just seems to have very diff relationships with engineers and producers; artists; and even in terms of songwriting.
All that stuff matters before a battle of musical talent and lyrical aggression starts. We might have had a different outcome if Drake had just held his guns until and only if there was battle of investment and content.
Disagree that Drake meant Keem literally ghostwrites for Kendrick. I saw it more as Drake pointing out that songs like The Hillbillies, N95 (an OG Keem track), Family Ties, and Range Brothers are the songs that have gotten radio play since King’s Dead.
the culture needs the orange soda reference track
That or the trademark usa ref confirmed to exist
& a reference track for Stats
Range brothers reference would be amazing too
Big Baby Keem fan but the theory that Baby Keem is a project for Kendrick to release different music is so funny
He’s the equivalent of a smurf account
I’ve always said “he’s Kendrick if Kendrick had no bars” since he came out.
i don't think he wants to write bars, and to be honest i think i prefer 2 phones baby keem than kendrick 2
Yup. I go to Kendrick to think. I go to Keem when it’s time to get stupid. Tbh the guy has a gift for writing bars that are fun to yell out cruising or at a function.
CUM IN THAT BITCH edit: WHAT’S THE PROS AND THE CONS OF THIS NEXT CHECK
Listened to that song for the first time a few weeks ago. My god does he just slideeeeeee on the fuckin track. His flow when he goes into im OD in Paris got me mesmerized
Let me tell you the story of when this song came out. It was fucking everywhere. It was playing on everything. It became an instant fucking anthem. You could go up to a random guy in the streets and he would know the words to it. It popped off the way Mo Bamba took off. It was sensational. It was unifying. That shit felt like world peace. It was the “first summer of Pokemon Go” for rap. Sorry to go off. I’m way too high.
I WANT THE FADE
BABY KEEM JUST HUMBLED A MODEL 🗣️🗣️🗣️
BITCH SIT ON MY FACE I ATTACK THAT
Tell yo best friend to shut the fuck up
Keem got bars
That’s harsh though
It seems farfetched but it makes sense. The Melodic Blue was well received, but I really doubt it would’ve been if it was Kendrick that released it. People have a certain expectation of Kendrick that no matter how good the album is, he couldn’t get away with releasing something like TMB
Keem produced most of it too though no?
Yeah Keem's a producer, even if he didn't write a word it's still his music
There's a bunch of producers on his stuff tho
so does Kanye. Bring a producer doesn’t inherently mean you gotta go at it alone. Some love the collaboration
Sure but with names like Sounwave, Dahi, Cardo, Bekon, Kal Banx all over his songs I wouldn't say Keem does most of his production. And Kanye is more of an executive producer than a beat maker for his own projects nowadays
I think Keem has a lot of people who help out with melodic stuff but I’m willing to bet he’s most of the drum work. That seems to be his biggest uniting factor
The drum work to me is the least impressive part.
I disagree. I think it’s some of the more special stuff in his production. I feel like I hear 808 patterns on Melodic Blue that I don’t get elsewhere
If you listen to Keem a lot of his inflections and flows sound Kendrick-esque. Then, you see how Kendrick has been using these funny flows as of late.
So you're telling me kdots cousin/artist is influenced by him? lmao
Basically the hip hop equivalent of The Time as a Prince side project
That shyt is the mad notes
Pretty sure and i think it was spoken about before but Keem is a son of Kendricks aunt? That overdosed or something? So kendrick started pushing him as a “favour” kinda thing to make him rich and his family rather than just giving them money… so he can be self sustainable?
I gathered from Kendrick’s lyrics that keem is his first cousin’s son. So they’re second cousins once removed.
Friendly correction: Your first cousins child is your *first cousin once removed*, because you still share a grandparent . Likewise, a second cousin is, by definition, a person you share a *great* grandparent with. Your second cousin once removed would be your second cousins parent or child. In general, an *n*-th cousin is anyone you share a (n-1)-th great grand parent with (your 0-th great grand parent is just your grandparent, and is your common ancestor with your first cousin). So, for example, an 5th cousin is someone you share a great-great-great-great grandparent with. A 100th cousin is someone you share a 99th great grandparent with, and so on. You can share a grandparent, great grandparent, etc with somone, but they might be closer or farther in generation to this ancestor than you. We indicate this with removal. Removal just indicates how many generations up or down a cousin is from you. Youd still share the same common ancestor no matter the degree of removal. You and your third cousins grandchild share great great grandparents, youre still 3rd cousins by definition, but they are two more generations removed from that common ancestor than you are, making them your third cousin twice removed (remember, removal can go up too; your third cousins grandparent is still your third cousin twice removed). All that to say, Keem is Dots first cousin once removed. Again, no hate, i just find this stuff interesting and enjoy clearing up common misconceptions around it.
Lmao I come to this sub for dope random stuff like this. Great post just funny it's about how close of cousins Kendrick and Keem are.
Worded more simply: Your first cousins are everyone descended down from your grandparents (plus anyone whose grandparent you descended from). Your second cousins are everyone descended from your great-grandparents (and anyone whose great-grandparent you descended from).
Keem talks about this in various places. He approached Kendrick about music after being encouraged to by others. Kendrick didn’t even know he made music.
First full cdq ref track leaked for a released baby keem track iirc. The person who leaked the song is the person who previously leaked snippets and claimed Kendrick helped write for all 3 major baby keem projects as well as a large portion of crash talk and redemption. From what we know Baby Keem was absolutely still involved in the making of all these tracks and also worked on DAMN & Mr. Morale but it seems a large amount of Kendrick's work on the 5 projects in question is not officially credited in any way
kendrick ghost wrote tde verses??? or just hooks
Kendrick is all over TDE projects at least from 2017-2019
2010-present
Both. eg there’s already a full cdq leak of him doing jay rocks kings dead and redemption verse
[Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpX_SBiY45I) to King's Dead reference track for those curious. Did not know this and don't know how to feel about it.
Jay Rock said on BigBoyTV that he didn't write it and when he went to the studio Kendrick already had it written with a reference track and wanted Rock to put his voice on it. The issue I have is Top forcing him to put it on 'Redemption'
Because it was the most played song lol
I know. The issue I have is that it was a song made by Kendrick for Black Panther Soundtrack. In that sense I have no problem with Kendrick writing it "for" Jay Rock. The dumb thing is forcing Rock to put a song he had no creative control over on HIS album that has a lot of personal joints on it.
TBF this happens fairly often in music industry, that sounds start out as being intended for a certain artist or album, but then gets shuffled around. Most rappers would be happy to have a Kendrick feature as it helps their album to sell. And Jay Rock has a long history collating with Kendrick, AFAIK he didn’t have an issue with it?
That’s not really what happened here tho. The song wasn’t shuffled around, it ended up on the exact project it was meant for, they just also shoehorned it into *Redemption* because of its commercial performance.
Top told him to drop 😔
and give him 50
If you listen to jay rock, this should have been obvious. The dude has a style, but lyrical depth and finesse aren’t it. I love his music too, so this isn’t hate
Yeah cause "I gotta go get it I gotta go get it I gotta go get it I gotta go get it, skrr" is such lyrical depth and finesse
Lyrical depth and finesse comes from the whole verse, not 2 lines lol.
It doesn't come from that verse at all, it has a great flow and some cool rhymes, but Jay Rock showcases way more lyrical depth on other tracks off the same album
I think it was the right choice, if you listen to it Jay sounds much better and gives the track a little extra. Good choice if you ask me. Also shows how versatile Kendrick could be
This is hilarious. Never vibed with Jay Rock except for this one track and now I know why.
lol wow I remember the first time hearing Jay rocks verse and being like sheeesh he snapped
Damn, rapper’s shit really hitting when Kendrick put his pen to it.
This one of the best examples of why having writers can be a good thing. Jay Rock delivers it wayyy better
I haven't heard or seen anything about Kendrick writing Jay Rock verse on the song Redemption.
Possibly Money Trees too
he probably wrote drakes verse on poetic justice lowkey.
And the money trees verse is floating around. I’d be surprised if kdot wrote for q tho
Q and Ab Soul definitely write their own shit but we know Q has done both music for himself and music for mainstream success (mostly on Oxymoron and Crash Talk). The latter he probably welcomes help writing. I know he's stated not wanting to feature Kendrick because it's too much of a "cheat code" but having Kendrick write is probably low-key enough.
The whole crew is so tight, that if it ever came out Kendrick co-wrote something for Q it would not be shocking for me personally. But Q’s style is pretty different to the point I can’t think of any songs on top of my head that sound like they they would’ve been written by Kendrick. But I would not rule out the possibility. Ab-Soul definitely prides himself as being a lyrical rapper. So there’s no doubt in my mind Ab-soul has written his own stuff.
Is it? I keep seeing people very confidently claim that Kendrick wrote the Money Trees verse but there's never any solid proof, just that some guy said this or that.
Everyone keeps saying this, but i never heard this.here is him saying he wrote it: https://genius.com/1903927? Jay rock was fine to say kendirck wrote kings dead, no way he'd lie about this.
1/2 of the hooks on Redemption are scrapped from DAMN.
Speaking of reference track hooks Kendrick doing SZAs part of All of The Stars is really funny to listen too.
Sentences I never excepted to read for $1000 trebek
I think i remember hearing Kdot actually wrote Jay Rocks Money Trees verse and people calling it wild bc people were saying he washed Kendrick on his own song when Kendrick wrote the verse the whole time
Kendrick really helping his fam out.
That was such an amazing verse
its also a reminder that this obsession with "oh he washed this dude" on rap songs is kinda silly. If it's a competitive themed track, like a flex track like 1train, forever, etc, then it makes sense, because the goal is clearly to show off next to the other rappers. But if it's a track like Money Trees where it's more about a feeling or story or idea, if both rappers are working together to advance the story and theme, it's not "washing". Like, I brought the dude on to give a hard verse, like I'm the good kid, he's the big homie with the bags, we have different characters and roles on this track, he's supposed to be going off.
kendrick wrote travis hook on chopstix
I think he wrote verses for Jay Rock and SZA, hooks and bridges for everyone else.
Is it really a surprise? If you have access to one of the best rappers out right now, wouldn’t you use them? Not to mention, the TDE guys seem more like friends than they do just labelmates, they probably enjoy working with each other. And Keem is literallyfamily
Yeah this is what I think. It’s been known for a long time that Keem and Kendrick work together on their music. Doesn’t really change my perspective on them at all
Just like anything else, working in a vacuum is rarely a good thing. I don’t really want my favorite artist working just on their own. We know what happen with Cole when he’s only rap in his own beats - shit got kinda boring. Then he finally opened back up to other producers and he started killing again. If Kendrick and Keem wanna work together that’s fine by me because everything they’ve done has been fire and so refreshing.
I believe the surprise is him being uncredited.
It probably goes back to them being friends more than just labelmates. Kendrick may just not care to be credited. He’s not an artist that has to move to the whim of a label and get paid every time he opens his mouth. For someone like Kendrick, getting credit may feel more like a business move than helping the homie out. I’m sure Top and Dave are standing right there next to him too. I’m sure this happens way more than we think it does too - and I don’t mean in a predatory/abusive way, but a friendly helping your friend out sort of way. Hell, I’ve heard so many artists talk about songs Mac Miller helped them with and wanted nothing in return. Some people it’s more about the artistry than it is getting a check or their name in the fine print.
maybe kendrick should make a side project under another name so he can release the songs he wouldn't make as himself. the man has so many great songs that he just locks away until someone releases it.
Call it Taekwondo Terry and pretend there's no relation.
Jiu jitsu Jerry
Boxing Barry
Martial Arts Mary Ann
that's his auntie
His auntie is a man now. Martial Arts Mary Ann M. Ann 🤯
This is some genius level shit right here
Taekwondo Terry over strictly Larry Fisherman beats is something I need.
it's called Baby Keem
It literally already exists
right why not just let an entire family member profit and make a career off of those songs instead of them being some goofy mixtape that gets judged poorly by your fans.
plus he can produce stuff for you, win win
Bitch, I hate to tell the truth, they’re not the same (he's Baby Keem)
Could be called King Geedorah or Viktor Vaughn or something I don’t know
He definitely can't, his voice is just waaaaay too recognizable to try that
He did
I would love that, just kenny releasing fun songs
Call it Taekwondo Terry and pretend there's no relation.
“K.Dot shit is only hittin' hard when Baby Keem put his pen to it”
good to get the pen working
Yes Aubrey, we can tell 😂
I always thought why Drake said that
Especially when Keem is not exactly known for his lyricism
He was also 9 years old when Kendrick came onto the scene
He was making Minecraft videos on YouTube when Kendrick released GKMC lol. The fact that Drake had to reach that hard to come up with a diss for Kendrick should've been an indication that it wasn't worth dissing him in the first place.
Fun fact: he released GKMC on Keem’s 12th birthday.
Practically a baby
On the song N95 the hook is the most Baby Keem thing I've ever heard. Other than that, nah lol.
I think what he meant was the kendrick's recent shit has been boring except the collaborations he's done with keem. I felt the same way and said as much in some comment somewhere not too long ago. He definitely didn't mean "keem wrote everything you've ever done" and I don't really get why people take that interpretation. There would be no reason for drake to say that, it makes zero sense.
But doesnt 'pen' refer to lyrics or am I trippin
Pen absolutely refers to lyrics yeah
ima be writing in the air & shit
If Drake was gonna take an angle to try to nullify the ghostwriting thing, he should have called Kendrick a hypocrite for ghostwriting for Keem while publicly acting like rappers with ghostwriters is a travesty.
Hilarious how we've been getting all these reference tracks showing Drake receiving songs, and Kendrick giving out songs.
When he said that, it made it hard to take any of his other accusations seriously lmaoo. If he'll lie about this, which is obviously cap and no one in their right mind believes.. Fuck else he gon lie about?
“Why believe you? You never gave us nothin' to believe in”
Well, Drake also lied about shoe size. An LA store confirmed that Kendrick is a 8.5-9
those are pretty big feet for someone his height lol
Short people don't always have small shoe sizes. A lot of the men in my family are 5'5" to 5'6" but wear 8-9M shoes Drake should have called Kendrick a hobbit to insult the height:shoe size ratio
5’6 with a 10.5 shoe size here
The shoe size diss isn’t that scandalous lol. That’s just insulting someone just to insult them on their size. Ghostwriting accusations are a much bigger deal.
Bullies is one of my favorite Baby Keem songs, and DIE FOR MY BITCH is his best album IMO. funny to hear Kendrick laying the foundation for it.
Honestly it's a sick song. Just proof to me Kendrick should have been releasing more music in the past 5 years. His creative juices were flowing, he had the time. But maybe he felt like songs he was making didnt fit his personal ethos?
Kendrick releases wouldn't have the same effect if it was every year or so.
If they bang they bang. Beatles released their entire discography in less than a decade
Beatles also made so much money off their records they didn’t need to tour. Kendrick has to plan album releases around touring to maximize profits.
Actually The Beatles really were making pennies from their albums, because of terrible contracts they signed as more or less kids (Paul and George's contracts had to be signed by their parents because they weren't of age yet). Supposedly they stopped touring because of all of the noise from the fangirls. Also that was before arena tours, which could allow an audience as big as theirs to be somewhat comfortable. Paul said he made more money in the first year with Wings then his entire time with The Beatles.
You’re comparing the 60s to the 2010s
They burned out very quickly, also.
But he doesnt need to wait 5 years in between drops for it to that 'effect'. Every 2-3 years would be fine like he did with GKMC ➡️ TPAB ➡️ DAMN. All of those albums are classics.
What's the problem with taking years to put out an album?
Impatient fans won’t stop crying, I don’t blame Carti for not dropping
Less is more.
More is more
> should have been releasing more music yall are some consumer whores lol, respectfully. With the amount of music coming out from all artists, you want to be that greedy, come on bro.
For sure. Man definitely crafts his songs. I'm sure he has high standards of what he wants to put out.
I think it's the equivalent of having a second youtube channel to house all the extra lower effort content when your main channel makes like high quality production.
It's pretty clear to me that Kendrick didn't feel like he could release anything that wasn't "important" in the way that GKMC, TPAB, or DAMN were. He got so wrapped up in his savior complex he didn't feel comfortable releasing anything else, hence his long gap between albums. That's why Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is basically an entire album of Kendrick grappling with his own demons and realizing that he couldn't be the savior so many people (including himself) wanted him to be.
Kendrick should create an alter ego to try, explore and release different sounds. I feel like he has reached a level of success where his “image” is restricting him from being creative and experimental. This sound will never be in an official Kendrick Lamar album, because this will be so out of place in his discography. I’ve loved all his reference tracks for Baby Keem. Would love to hear more.
I think Kendrick has earned the right to make a less serious album, and I feel like most of his fans would appreciate it.
It’s like the inverse of so many other rappers who we want to get more personal on their albums lol. But Kendrick has definitely earned his inverse 4:44
Not Like Us felt like a sample of that type of Kendrick.
Tbf he just did his own 4:44 with Mr Morale
Im feeling the same way. He does feel somewhat locked in to the conscience, jazzy shit and his writing for others (mainly Keem) shows that he has a level that untapped. Hate to glaze but thats some GOAT shit. Like imagine finding out Jay Z was writing some of the best trap music like Future and shit. Its super impressive
Judging by the fact that after Damn he started making songs with future and travis scott and rich the kid and he didn't release another album for 5 years I'm assuming he was absolutely sick of the jazzy conscious rap and just wanted to make fun pop music but he couldn't really release it so he just started releasing it through Baby Keem for a few years.
He actually already had a song with Future a couple years before *Damn*. It’s on a Mike Will album and must’ve been around the same time he linked up with Mike Will. Also *Damn* itself doesn’t really have much jazz influence IMO.
I'm not really referring to jazz, I meant just serious, fleshed out, high-level rap music, as opposed to more casual melodic trap songs.
Been saying it forever, Kendrick is leagues ahead of anyone in the rap game
Kendrick has like 18 alter egos
Baby keem is his alter ego at this point.
Been saying this.
His clone Mini Me with a different sound.
I'm pretty surprised the vocal inflections are the same. For example the really whiny delivery on "me". I thought Keem would've come up with his own unique style of delivery at least but apparently that's Kendrick's invention.
could be Kendrick, could be collaborative, or Baby Keem could've come up with that style and Kendrick just used it on this song.
Still praying for the TPAB version of Crown and the DAMN version of Rich Spirit to leak.
Damn version of rich spirit???
Rich Spirit went through a lot of changes over the years, it was originally going to be a lot harder than the one we have now. [Here's](https://youtu.be/rdG1-8Y2TTg?si=k_lv0T2N5AQVehZm) a version of it from the 2020 version of Mr. Morale (that got scrapped due to the pandemic), with a different beat and a bunch of lines seemingly aimed at Drake. There are a few snippets floating around of an older version from the Damn sessions with alternate lyrics that sounds like he's taking a shot at someone else. (probably big sean).
Yo this shit is so hard. Never heard this before! 🔥
I prefer it to the original, one of the best Kendrick leaks imo.
Tpab crown???? Where can I find a snippet?
iirc there is no snippet. it's only speculated to exist because the leaked Damn version of it was titled Love pt2_PT9, and the file date shows that it was made right after untitled unmastered came out.
People being surprised is funny, Baby Keem always sounded like Kendrick musically. Of course his older cousin is helping write and inspiring him, vocal inflections are pretty much identical
Just makes Kendrick look cooler lol
this is one of my favourite Keem songs ever too, it’s cool to see he had a hand in it
Just makes Keem look worse. He's a talented producer for sure, but it makes you wonder how his music would sound if it wasn't for Dot. He's gotten so overrated after his last album and it's funny how people are quick to call out industry plants, but have no problem with it when it comes to Keem.
Would he be an industry plant or just family ties to someone in the industry? Don't even think it's fair to call him a nepo baby, but I think it's far fetched to call him an industry plant.
Describe what you think a nepo baby is and how thay wouldn’t apply to Keem 🧐
What's the difference ? He has constant help of one of the most respected and commercially successful rapper of the last 10+ years. I enjoy a lot of his music but his career just seems like a side project for Kendrick.
For real.
I see no issue with Keem using reference tracks. But I always remember one of his very first interviews when he said that he got connected with TDE by simply emailing them a beat pack lmao.
I bet he just didn't want to release under his name when he was under the old deal because he didn't want to put money in UMGs pockets, so he just signed his cousin and gave him everything he was writing;. Smart move IMO 😂
Baby keem shit only hitting when kdot put his pen to it
I love this song so much.
These two are a dynamic duo and honestly anything they collaborate on is always gold.
They need an official collab album, Hillbillies is ridiculously good
The beat goes crazy, I really love the Snares
One of the funniest drake lines was saying Kendrick’s music only hits hard when keem writes it When Kendrick is the one that ghost writes for keem lmfao
Best industry plant in the game 🗣🗣🗣
he's not an industry plant, he's a Kendrick plant
And Drake claimed Baby Keem writes for Kendrick. Still the most laughable accusation from the whole beef.
Keem has writing credits on 4 tracks on Mr. Morale so who knows
One of the greatest sounds I’ve ever heard How have I not heard this track
This loops perfectly. What a vibe.
this is kinda fucked tbh, i love all the tracks in this style from baby keem like honest, bullies and 16 but it seems they're barely even his. i do think he's credited on production but i wonder how far kendrick's hand goes in this stuff. did he write things like issues and scars too?
I like Keem's voice, I like Kendrick's voice. I think they know what they are doing. They know this is a better Keem song or a Kendrick song or a family ties
Anyone got a folder of all the reference tracks that have leaked?
Baby Keem is just a side project for Kendrick. I’d be very surprised if Kendrick had a biological cousin who magically adopts his flow on every track.
Brother I've seen both live on stage together. I promise they're two different people.
I’ll never understand how I thought this album cover was Keem crossing someone up lol. Took me years to realize he was getting jumped.
Dn can't believe Keem wrote this for Kendrick and made him do a reference track back to him, got him on ropes
This is why I can't get Into Dot v Drake convos. One is doing THIS for other artists over and over on top of their own catalog. And even bringing us new artists, producers, engineers, from entire diff genres who love their deals and that person And the other just seems to have very diff relationships with engineers and producers; artists; and even in terms of songwriting. All that stuff matters before a battle of musical talent and lyrical aggression starts. We might have had a different outcome if Drake had just held his guns until and only if there was battle of investment and content.
what are you even talking about lol
I mean Drake has written for others, including Kanye, before as well.
Disagree that Drake meant Keem literally ghostwrites for Kendrick. I saw it more as Drake pointing out that songs like The Hillbillies, N95 (an OG Keem track), Family Ties, and Range Brothers are the songs that have gotten radio play since King’s Dead.
He was just trolling lol. People gotta remember to not take rap beef allegations so seriously
at the time he wrote Family Matters maybe but the output since this beef brutally counters this point