Musing over the list of potential contenders for the Verse of the Year, Crook not only named tracks that impressed him but provided powerful insights from the perspective of a true master.
He tried to play it off on his Twitter, saying that his answer would be boring:
I have boring answers to this question because I really believe the contenders are from my family and friends.. I don’t think rappers are nice as Twitter does. I hear flaws. https://t.co/qgLzQgyBLm
— Crook (@CrookedIntriago) December 13, 2020
However, his answer was anything but boring. It was insightful, educational, full of heart and knowledge. In his extended interview with HotNewHipHop, KXNG gave a detailed outline of the possible contenders, starting, as promised, from his friends:
Something from Royce, something from Em. You know, they call us the holy trinity of lyricism, me, Royce, and Em. They put the church emoji when they talk about it. So definitely something from Royce, something from Em. I think Benny got it in this year. I think Black Thought got it in this year. That verse Black Thought did, well, any verse Black Thought did. The verse Black Thought did on Russ’ project, that’s a stellar verse. Benny too. So you got a lot of dudes out there who drop some killer verses. Eminem is always in the talks. I don’t care, they love to hate him. And a lot of people have been trying to push my homie out of the culture. They been making sly remarks – people with platforms. And this ain’t just me speaking from a homeboy level, this me speaking as a fan and a technician myself. You can’t push Marshall out the game. He’s one of the greatest pens to ever exist in Hip-Hop, and it ain’t gon change no time soon. They always get me when I talk about Em. But Eminem is one for sure. Royce got nominated for a Grammy, so you know his pen was going crazy.
Then Crook noted that female MC should not be excluded from this conversation, as they provided very strong verses this year, and gave shout out to Sa Roc, 3d Na’tee, Lady London and Snow Da Product.
However, in the video for this interview KXNG gave himself a well deserved praise and chose his collaboration with Eminem on “Music To Be Murdered By” as his best verse of 2020:
My fans told me that this year I did like 30 something indie features, 35-36, probably more. But there are a lot of stand-out verses out there for me. Em, “I Will” on “Music To Be Murdered By”. I feel like that’s the bar of the year. I feel like Abraham Lincoln bar – “Ayy, bruh, I go ham for dead presidents”, “John Wilkes, that’s who I’m in the booth like” – I mean, the whole scheme… I feel like nobody really tied all of that together as well. There’s been some lines about that but I feel like that’s the best that has been tied together. Let me tell you, some of my punchlines and metaphors and similes – sometimes somebody builds on it and they make it better, and I’m like “Yo, why didn’t I think about that?!” But on this particular one – I think that’s the bar of the year.
Watch the video below:
Full interview:
