Royce da 5’9 and Lupe Fiasco have been bickering online for days now. In the line that many Lupe’s followers praise as a clever comeback, KXNG Crooked recognised his line from the 2012 freestyle.
The line in question was Lupe’s response to a joke about a failure to disarm a gunman that Royce posted with a caption:
This @lupefiasco coming outta karate class on his way to a gunfight with one of them weak ass swords … cc: @mickey.factz
Chicago born rapper responded with a wordplay that is borderline offensive, considering how often militant clout-chasers try to play on Royce’s friendship with Eminem:
What can I say I’m just a martial artist. I thought you could relate seeing how you just a Marshall artist
Hip hop Twitter smelled the blood and tried to decipher what is going on between two fellow rappers who has been co-hosting a successful podcast recently. However, Royce’s fellow Slaughterhouse MC KXNG Crooked paid attention to the style more than to the substance as he recognised this wordplay as something that had been done before. By Crook personally.
He retweeted the interaction with a sarcastic:
I see my line has been remixed
I see my line has been remixed https://t.co/o4sBHbyI5C
— CROOK (@CrookedIntriago) June 29, 2021
The line in question is taken from Crook’s epic 7-minute long a capella freestyle he did during the Slaughterhouse show in Brooklyn in 2012:
We All Stars. You add Eminem, and the hits are the hardest
We turn DJ’s to MMA fighters when they mix Marshall artists
What is even funnier is that Royce was on stage and heard this line from his friend nine years ago. So even if Lupe’s line had packed a punch, it probably lost its edge being a second-hand joke.
Not to say that Lupe just quietly borrowed it. He might not even remember hearing it before. But it was said years ago and when a rapper does not really know other lyricists work, they are in danger of producing bars that people heard before from MCs who came harder and thought deeper.
Watch Crooked I – 7 Minute Brooklyn Freestyle below:
