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On September 11, 2024, Kendrick Lamar dropped Watch The Party Die wherein he name-dropped American rapper Lecrae, with the lyrics stating "What would Lecrae do?".
The Coming In Hot rapper responded to Kendrick Lamar via a freestyle on Instagram on September 15, 2024. The rapper's lyrics stated:
“I was wrestling, like, should I write a verse? / The culture got enough clout-chasing vultures out here trying to prove they worth / They need attention, they can’t imagine me not trying to make myself look bigger off of this Kendrick mention / I can’t imagine his position.”
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While Kendrick Lamar's track aims to portray his frustrations with the current scenario of the music industry, Lecrae's track focuses on advocating for unification in the music arena.
As per Sojourners, Lamar's lyrics refer to the Christian faith that the Good Lord rapper boasts, which is why Lamar referenced rapper Dee-1 in his track as well. Kendrick Lamar's lyrics draw a comparison between his motivation as opposed to Dee-1 and Lecrae's.
"For all intents and purposes, I’m a Christian rapper"- Lecrae makes headlines with YouTube video surrounding secular music
Lecrae made headlines with his YouTube video, titled "Should You Listen to Secular Music?", dated August 24, 2024. While the rapper is a prominent name as a Christian hip-hop artist, he acknowledged the role of secular music in shaping his career as an artist.
In the video, the Jireh raper mentioned:
“I am a Christian. I am a rapper. For all intents and purposes, I’m a Christian rapper. But I’d be lying if I told you that mainstream artists did not influence the person I am today.”
Further in the video, the rapper talked about growing up listening to mainstream hip-hop artists stating that their songs comprise vulgarity and terrible things that "people say you need to stay away from.”
In the video, Lecrae also addressed the idea of a Christian artist taking inspiration from secular music and stated that he doesn't endorse the crazy things or vulgarity that secular music mentions despite a "lot of those things did have negative effects.”
Additionally, the Where We Come From rapper mentioned in his YouTube video that secular music helped him connect to a wider audience and contributed to his development as an artist. He stated:
“As an artist, if I want to make music from the church to the world, I have to know what the world cares about. If you don’t know what they care about, how can you talk to them? You’re saying, ‘Hey, you need Jesus.’ For what? What do I need Jesus for? You don’t know my story.”
Toward the end of the video, Lecrae talked about the challenges faced by Christian musicians in the industry, highlighting that tracks that talk about positive values or faith aren't met with the same reach as other tracks.
Emphasizing the same, the rapper said that if he started making music about "Jesus Christ and turkey drives" he would have zero fans.
In addition to his freestyle response to Kendrick Lamar, the rapper also changed the original cover of Lamar's black Air Force 1s to white ones, indicating that his freestyle track was aimed at Lamar.
