Lyricism is the backbone of hip hop. Although there are a ton of rappers who aren’t saying a gotdamn thing, there are those who are exceptionally gifted at putting words together over a beat. And with so many songs dropping during any given month, we feel that those rhymes that combine lyrical dexterity and cleverness with verbal gymnastics should be celebrated. Enter: Verse Of The Month.
With another four weeks in the bag, we’re back with another collection of artists who are up for Verse of the Month honors. Starting with Dreamville’s J.I.D, who kicked off his DiCaprio 2 campaign in serious fashion with a quick shot of “151 Rum.” From there, both Wale and J. Cole showed out on their Free Lunch collaboration (Cole initially had the edge, but after several listens, Wale shouldn’t be slept on—at all.), Lil Wayne “Let It Fly” with a dizzying performance on Tha Carter V before painting pictures with words alongside Kendrick Lamar, and YBN Cordae flexed some story telling of his own. And, although Kamikaze was technically released in August, we also include Eminem for his blizzard of bars on “Lucky You.”
Talk about a loaded month! As you can see, September was full of bars and the task of picking out 5-7 verses was a real struggle—especially when you have rappers like Roc Marci, Joyner Lucas, Torae, Logic, and Joell Ortiz doing what they do best. This is what we ended up with, though, and we need your help picking a winner. Take a listen to each verse above and let us know who you think should take the dub. We’ll factor the fan-vote in with our personal choices and highlight a winner at the end of the week.
