Joe Budden’s “Lost Control (Kendrick Response)”: The Best (And Last?) Of The “Control” Responses Posted by Lucas Garrison on 08/19/13 | Filed under Joe Budden

This time last week, we had no idea what was about to hit us. There we were, coasting through life not expecting Kendrick to drop a bomb on on the game, calling out every rapper and actually backing up his bold claims. A week later and what’s changed? Well, not much. There have been a few responses, but overall, that sea of relation we expected has been more like a puddle. Maybe it will take longer (and won’t be through direct shots), but at this point, although still early, I am starting to believe that we wont hear anyone who “matters” go at Kendrick. With that in mind, I think we should declare Joe Budden’s “Lost Control (Kendrick Response)” the best, and hopefully last, “Control” response and call it a day.

I know there was a little backtracking with its release - Joe tweeted at Kendrick, released his song, then took the song down and deleted the tweet (only to release the cut again of course) - but Joe’s response is definitely the best to date. His flow has the power to rival Kendrick, but it just doesn’t have the same pop to it.

I do however, like him addressing two of Kendrick's boldest assertions. First, Joe wasn’t offended by Kendrick’s initial claims (and the subsequent calling out). I think it’s dumb for any rapper to be offended that thee weren't mentioned. Kendrick can’t do a whole verse mentioning every rapper in the game and for them to care about being mentioned just seems silly to me; he picked some of the biggest names in the game to make his point, he wasn’t saying these are the only “worthy” emcees. I think the more controversial line, which Budden seems to take to heart is the king of New York bar. Joe proceeded to retaliate with, “you might as well had spit on Biggie’s grave” and drops references to Nas, Big L, Mobb Deep, and Wu Tang, among some more New York legends. Now I don’t know if Kendrick was claiming to be the all-time “king of New York” but I think Joe definitely has a point here. Kendrick is great, but no where near the level of Biggie or Big L (yet). Budden also takes shots at Meek Mill which is always OK in my book. A noble effort by Budden, and very impressive, but it just doesn’t have the same power as Kendrick.

Not to say Budden isn’t a good emcee or doesn’t matter, but we have still yet to hear a response from someone who is on the same level as Kendrick and I don’t think we will. I was expecting a flurry of responses but so far I think Budden’s is the only one that carries any real weight (Joell Ortiz’ is a relative second). If K.R.I.T, Cole, or Rocky respond I would be shocked; its starting to feel like we will never get the responses we want so lets end the conversation with Budden shall we?

See Also:  Honesty, Lyrics & Drama: The Joe Budden Method to Relevancy
See Also:  An Insanely In Depth Breakdown of Big Sean x Kendrick x Jay Elec’s “Control”