Following an exchange of words on Instagram about who was the better rapper, Tory Lanez kicked off a rap battle with Joyner Lucas yesterday with the release of “Lucky You (Freestyle).” Less than 24 hours later, Joyner Lucas returned the favor by hopping on the beat to one of Tory’s big tracks. Joyner’s “Litty (Freestyle)” borrows its beat from Tory’s 2016 Meek Mill collaboration, “Litty,” featuring production by Sound M.O.B. While Tory largely avoided taking direct shots at Joyner, the Boston rapper gets more personal on his response track. Shortly after its release, Tory responded with “Litty Again.”
Joyner kicks things off by referring to Tory as an R&B artist, and references the classic hip-hop videogame PaRappa the Rapper:
What’s up with you R&B niggas tryna turn rappers and trappers
You should just stay in your lane, bro, you sound like PaRappa the Rapper
I’m looking down on you when you talk to me, you should grab you a ladder
You swung at me, only jabbed at my bladder
Watch you disappear like you abracadabra
Trippie Redd recently voiced support for Tory Lanez in the battle, and on “Litty (Freestyle),” Joyner drags the Ohio rapper into the fray:
You an' Trippie better have you some backup
Ren and Stimpy looking agi' and staggered
He also cracks jokes about Tory getting hair replacement surgery:
Let’s have a real conversation
Maybe that doctor put something inside of your head
When you got your new hairline replacement (Brrrat)
Joyner later brings up comparisons to Drake, whom Tory previously beefed with before burying the hatchet earlier this year:
I already got cake and I don’t need a butler
We already got Drake and we don’t need another
Finally, he takes one last shot at Tory and Trippie by bringing up a recent incident with 6ix9ine, which Genius contributor Rob_Mileti breaks down in an annotation:
Just a few hours after the release of Joyner’s track, Tory hopped on the same beat to offer a more pointed response with “Litty Again (Freestyle).”
On the response track, Tory takes shots at Joyner’s 2018 collaboration with Eminem, “Lucky You,” saying their recent beef has given Joyner more clout:
Eminem couldn’t get ya to million on the ‘gram
Chris Brown tried and he failed both times
I done took ya page to a milli in a day
If you ask me nigga I’m your motherfucking cosign
Soon after, Tory cracks jokes about Joyner’s father, saying he gave his unsuccessful rap career to his son:
Ya daddy was a musician that never made it
Cuz when u was born nigga it was you or him
Shattered knowing he would never make it as a artist and the odds of his life would be 2 to 1
But I give it to him cause he didn’t run
I guess he figured man when u look it in a nut shell
All i got is a failed music career and my revenge is giving that shit to my son
He also offers a direct response to Joyner’s bars about having a threesome with Trippie’s ex-girlfriend, referencing 6ix9ine pleading guilty to one count of Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance in 2015:
You fucked Aylex?
Man that shit crazy
Nigga said he out here running threesomes with a nigga that’s in court dealing with the kid cases
Tory finishes things off by portraying Joyner as a frustrated and aging rapper still struggling to make it:
You a perpetrating
Work for hire
Twerk for payment
Busta Rhymes impersonating
Worthless baby
Irks him daily
Hurts to say it
Burger flipping
Birthed in 80s
Tryna be a 90s baby
30 sum tryna chase it
Tryna make it
While the rhymes have gotten more personal since their battle began, it seems the back-and-forth is still just for the sport. Some fans have even speculated that the entire exercise could be promotion for an upcoming project together, although neither artist has announced anything just yet.
Listen to both songs above and read all the lyrics to Joyner Lucas' “Litty (Freestyle)” and Tory Lanez’s “Litty Again” on Genius now.
