Kendrick Lamar Declares It’s Time To “Watch The Party Die” On First Single Since “Not Like Us”

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In his Super Bowl LIX announcement, Kendrick Lamar declared there’s “no round twos.” However, with the new song he dropped on Wednesday (Sept. 11) — speculatively titled “Watch the Party Die” — it’s hard to believe that. It marked his first release since “Not Like Us,” which took shots at Drake and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, though this one’s only available on Instagram at the time of reporting.

“I think it’s time to watch the party die / This s**t done got too wicked to apologize / It’s different, get him whacked and disqualified,” Lamar said in the opening verse. He picked up elsewhere with, “Just walk that man down; that’ll do everyone a solid/ It’s love, but tough love sometimes gotta result in violence.”

The aforementioned lyrics seemingly referenced his highly publicized beef with Drake. Lamar’s feature on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That” prompted the Canadian star to respond with “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The 17-time Grammy Award winner returned fire with “euphoria,” and from there, the back-and-forth continued with tracks like “Family Matters,” “6:16 in LA,” “meet the grahams,” “Not Like Us,” and “THE HEART PART 6.”

Elsewhere on the new record, Lamar paid homage to the late Nipsey Hussle: “How many b**ches harder than a lot of you n**gas?/ Would trade all of y’all for Nip, I can’t be proud of you n**gas.”

In the third and final verse, the Compton emcee stepped into the shoes of Christian rappers Lecrae and Dee-1. “Sometimes I wonder what Lecrae would do / F**k these n**gas up or show ’em just what prayer do?/ I want to be empathetic, my heart like Dee-1,” he spat.

DJ Akademiks, who supposedly caught a shot in Lamar’s “radio personality pushin’ propaganda for salary” line, also responded. In the comments section of the song’s Instagram post, he wrote, “No, no, noooo.”