The Kendrick Lamar song that pays homage to a James Bond actor
Kendrick Lamar may be from the West Coast, but he’s willing to reference anything for the perfect lyric, even if it’s extremely British. The Compton rapper caused a stir in 2013 with his verse on Big Sean’s ‘Control’, where he dubbed himself the “King of New York” and called out some of the biggest rappers in the industry. However, one of the most underrated lyrics on the song was his mention of James Bond.
On the track, K. Dot famously said he was trying to “murder” J Cole, Big KRIT, Wale, Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Big Sean, Jay Electronica, Tyler, The Creator and Mac Miller from a lyrical standpoint. As you’d expect, many artists didn’t take the jabs lightly and shared responses to him accordingly.
Halfway through his verse, Kendrick compared himself to Sean Connery, the original actor who played James Bond. Connery played the British Secret Service agent in seven films between 1962 and 1983, starring in Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and Never Say Never Again.
In line with the verse’s overall lyrical theme, Kendrick puts himself in a league of his own while mentioning Connery and cleverly uses the character’s surname. He raps, “Bitch, I’ve been jumped before you put a gun on me/ Bitch, I put one on yours, I’m Sean Connery/ James Bonding with none of you n*ggas climbin’ one-hundred mill’ in front of me/ And I’m gon’ get it even if you’re in the way/ And if you’re in it, better run for Pete’s sake.”
Kendrick’s homage came when Connery was still alive. The Scottish actor passed away in 2020 at the age of 90. To this day, the verse remains one of his most impressive moments on wax, despite being released 12 years ago.
Chaos unravelled following his verse, but Kendrick claimed he didn’t intend for it to receive so much attention. “Honestly, I didn’t know it would be so much speculation—I just wanted to rap,” he told Power 106. “If anybody knows me doing music, I wanna just rap … Maybe I should just dumb down my lyrics just a little bit.”
He added, “The irony of [the ‘King of New York’ line] is that the people that actually understood it and got it was the actual kings of New York. We’ve been down with them this past week, and them understanding that it’s not about actually being the King of whatever coast, it’s about leaving the mark as great as Biggie, as great as Pac.”
‘Control’ isn’t the only Kendrick song to reference James Bond. On ‘Complexion (A Zulu Love)’, which appeared on 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly album, Rapsody mentioned the beloved film character. She raps in her verse, “I’m talkin’ days we got school watchin’ movie screens/ And spike your self-esteem/ The new James Bond gon’ be Black as me/ Black as brown, hazelnut, cinnamon, black tea/ And it’s all beautiful to me.” Maybe Denis Villeneuve will inspire K. Dot some more.