It's been more than a year since Kendrick Lamar's "Control" verse was released and apparently he's still ruffling a few feathers. However, legendary West Coast rapper Kurupt has his back. During a recent interview, Kurupt explained a line from K. Dot's "Control" verse, saying the "King of New York" reference wasn't a diss.
Unbeknown to many, Kendrick's "I'm the king of New York, king of the Coast, one hand, I juggle them both" line was actually borrowed from a 2010 collaboration with Kurupt titled "Get Bizy." Kurupt recently sat down with Vlad TV and broke down the meaning behind his original line.
"I'm important like the pope," he explained. "'I'm the king of New York. I'm live from South Central. I'm a Muslim on pork.' That means I'm the f--king worst--and that's all it meant. I'm the f--king worst."
After offering an explanation behind his line, the elder Cali rapper went off over how quick New Yorkers are to get offended by any line that mentions their city, noting that King of New York is actually "a f--king movie."
"King of New York is a f--king movie," he said. "It's a f--king movie. Biggie called himself Frank-f--king-White! Who is Frank White?"
He went on to assure that West Coast rappers are content with their location and aren't looking to rep anything else.
"We don't want your city," he said. "Your country. Your town. We from Los Angeles. We from Compton, n---a. Watts. Inglewood, n---a. We. Are. The West. Coast.
"Why the f--k would we wanna be where you at, n---a?" Kurupt continues. "We don't like your f--king streets. We like ours, cuz, ours. We don't have a problem with you guys, my n---a. We don't have a problem with y'all, cuz...We can say your name without you feeling like we're going against you, my nigga. There is no competition. We're family, OK? New York, Los Angeles, Detroit. We're all family. Wisconsin. Anything in America's our family. My big brother's Pete Rock, OK? Raekwon, OK? It's not always a problem."
Ironically, New York rapstress Nicki Minaj noted K. Dot has embraced a style similar to her own during her CRWN interview with Elliott Wilson.
"Sometimes, when I hear the animated things that Kendrick Lamar does...I respect and like him, but when I paid attention to certain things he does, I think to myself: 'I did that,'" she said, according to a partial transcript.
Check out a clip from Kurupt's interview below, and let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
