Nostradamus could not have predicted a week this monumental in rap. Kendrick Lamar kindly asked his contemporaries to either get on his level or get leveled on Big Sean's “Control”. It sparked reactionary freestyles, disses, and discussion. The presence of “Control” sent a crab barrel of butt hurt rappers into melodrama, trying to rap their way onto Kendrick's radar. Everybody wants to be King of New York now, but we prefer the three villains in the corner plotting in the underbelly.
With a bassline that creeps like a behemoth such-n-such going bump in the night, “Between Villains” is the collaborative track by supervillains Captain Murphy, Viktor Vaughn, and Earl Sweatshirt. The production is pure up to no good theme music of ominous keys and tense guitar lines that immitate the chill down a spine. Viktor Vaughn, MF Doom's anti-anti-hero alter ego, returns from seclusion to claim there's “too many fake killers and too many jive sires”. Earl is self-loathing and self-righteous, stuck in the personal struggle of dealing with dickriders. Captain Murphy closes the track by morphing between sounding maniacally warped and in deeply fluid meditation of intricate bars.
“Between Villains” was made in a pre-“Control” rap life, but we cannot help hearing it as it pertains to our post-“Control” lives – the anti-thesis to greatness and the wry celebration of taking the low road.
Download “Between Villains” on Adult Swim on Monday.
