Earlier this week, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith teased new music from TDE’s very own Jay Rock, and now it’s finally here. Following the release of Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “All The Stars,” the second single from the Black Panther soundtrack features Jay Rock uniting with fellow TDE member Kendrick Lamar, as well as James Blake and Future, for “King’s Dead.”
The two-part song is produced by Teddy Walton and Mike WiLL Made-It and marks Jay Rock’s first single as a lead artist since his 2015 project 90059. Though Kendrick and Future have worked together in the past on songs like “Buy The World” and the “Mask Off” remix, Jay Rock has never collaborated with anyone on the song aside from Kendrick. Teddy Walton also produced Kendrick’s ”LOVE.” and a number of hit songs from 2017.
On Jay Rock’s verse, he references his label boss Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith:
Boss like Top Dawg, bossed my life up, crossin' over
Stutter steppin', got a Hall of Fame in all my posters
Future makes a reference to the 1985 song “La Di Da Di” as well as Juicy J’s hit song “Slob On My Knob.” on the song’s bridge:
La di da di da, slob on me knob
Pass me some syrup, fuck me in the car
La di da di da, mothafuck the law
Chitty chitty bang, murder everything
Over the second half of the song, Kendrick brings it back to Black Panther by name-dropping Killmonger, the main villain in the film played by Michael B. Jordan:
Not the title y'all want me under
All hail King Killmonger
Earlier this month, Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg announced that they would executive produce the full soundtrack for the upcoming Black Panther movie. Recently, Kendrick previewed a Vince Staples collaboration from the movie’s soundtrack during the NCAA final. Meanwhile, Jay Rock has been teasing his anticipated forthcoming album since late last year. The full soundtrack releases on February 9th, while the film hits theaters on February 16th.
Listen to the song above and read all of the lyrics to Jay Rock’s “King’s Dead” featuring Kendrick Lamar, Future, and James Blake on Genius now.
