Don Q Strike Back Against Tory Lanez With “This Is Ya King?”
The battle continues.
When it comes to proving artistic superiority in hip-hop, few barometers are more apt than soliciting, and executing, rap battles. “Ether” and “Takeover”; “Hit ‘Em Up” and “Who Shot Ya?”: hip-hop beefs have spawned an equal amount of entertainment from the tracks themselves to the slanderous transpiring discourse. And while the animosity burns fervently, there’s always, usually, an underlying layer of mutual respect–even if it’s well-hidden in the defamatory lyrics.
While the legendary beefs between Jay Z and Nas, between Tupac and Biggie, are in the rearview mirror, their historic value has been finely weaved into hip-hop’s fabric, setting the precedent for lyrical adversaries. The lessons from some of the Mt. Rushmore faces of hip-hop have not fallen on deaf ears, and persist vividly today. The most recent perpetuating parties honoring these lessons are Tory Lanez and New York’s Don Q.
Tory hasn’t minced words when it comes to his lyrical merit. He’s solicited challenges to some of today’s greats–like Pusha T and J. Cole; he’s answered calls from respected lyricists–like the Eminem-endorsed Joyner Lucas, who Lanez arguably bested in a November lyrical sparring match; he’s outright claimed that he is the current best rapper alive. And Tory’s taken the vow of silence from these greats as implicit victory. But one of the ancillary benefits of beefs is leveraging them for increased exposure, for proving that one’s weight class can be arbitrary in a title fight.
Tory Lanez is objectively a more popular artist than Don Q: the former has over 11.6mm monthly Spotify listeners to the latter’s 621k. But just because Tory has charted more successfully and better fits the “superstar” mold, that doesn’t mean that he’s untouchable to artists statistically beneath him. If anything, it makes the target on his back that much brighter for hungry rappers clamoring for advancement–for those keen on proving themselves. Over the past few days, Don Q has answered this challenge.
After releasing his “I’m Not Joyner” diss, Tory struck back yesterday with “Don Queen”–to which Q responded to with his freshly-released rebuttal, “This Is Ya King?”
Check out the new Don Q diss below:
