Busta Rhymes is set to drop his new album, Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, this Friday, and today he unleashed his long-awaited Kendrick Lamar collaboration, “Look Over Your Shoulder.” The track samples a Jackson 5 classic and first leaked online several years ago. It’s the two rappers' second time working together, following Busta’s appearance on the “Rigormortis (Remix)” in 2011.
Genius contributor 04toinfinity breaks down the sample of Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”:
“Look Over Your Shoulder” appeared on the fake 2018 Kendrick Lamar project, bad kid, chill city, which rounded up a series of Kendrick leaks from different eras of his career in an unauthorized release. Hacker group MusicMafia first posted the song for sale on its website in 2017. Many fans believed it would not receive an official release due to the prominent sample and early leak. However, much like Kendrick’s old verse on Lil Wayne’s “Mona Lisa,” it appeared too good to pass up.
On his verse, Kendrick reminisces on the origins of his career and his place in the game:
I wrote my first bars in the car with Stacy
How bizarre, my battle scars at large would lace me
Big marbles, n-gga
I lead this new generation, boy
Don’t argue with us
Marvelous beat selectors, authors and novel spitters
Busta recently told Zane Lowe that he recorded the song while trapped in New York City’s Quad Studio during a blizzard. “I sent it to Kendrick. Kendrick bodied the verse, sent it back,” he said. And I got to big-up Kendrick, I got a big-up Top Dog, the whole TDE family. I got to thank all of the people that was involved with clearing this sh-t for me and giving me their blessing on being able to use this. And it just was unbelievable, and incredible, and just profound for me to be blessed with this gift."
Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God drops this Friday, Oct. 30, with features from Kendrick, Mary J. Blige, Rakim, Q-Tip, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Rick Ross, Mariah Carey, and more. It serves as the sequel to Busta’s 1998 album, E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front.
Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Busta Rhymes' “Look Over Your Shoulder” featuring Kendrick Lamar on Genius now.
