Kendrick Lamar fans thought he would have a feature on No Rest For The Wicked, the new album by AZ Chike. This didn't turn out to be the case, which led to rumors that K.Dot may have pulled an originally planned feature. While this hasn't been confirmed in any way, folks like Adam22 and DJ Akademiks believe all this speculation actually hurt the project's rollout.
The No Jumper host reacted on Twitter to a report claiming No Rest For The Wicked is on pace to sell 9K album-equivalent units in its first week. "Kendrick Lamar belongs in prison for what he did to this young man’s rollout," he wrote.
As for DJ Akademiks, CY Chels and NBA Hoops caught livestream highlights on Twitter of him claiming the pgLang creative pulled his feature verse. However, contrary to what some fans may assume, Akademiks seems to like the alleged approach from Kendrick.
"Kendrick's a cold n***a. I told you I like how he treat them n***as over there," Ak said. "He makes sure the West Coast is his coast. There's only space for one king... I respect it."
"I think Kendrick's a boss for that," he remarked. "Does he tweet the album out? F**k no... Does he shout it out? F**k no... All he does, he gives you a video to put it out on your socials... The way Kendrick treated this n***a is like he paid for a meet-and-greet."
AZ Chike & Kendrick Lamar
What Adam22 and DJ Akademiks seem to be referring to here is Kendrick Lamar's advice for AZ Chike during the album's making. Chike shared a clip of the moment on social media, in which Kendrick said, "Just keep building the motherf***er. Knock them out, just go. Don't even overthink it. Just go. Have fun with it..."
While this assessment contradicts DJ Akademiks' previous criticisms of Kendrick Lamar to a degree, the debate rages on over how both artists and media outlets have handled this whole situation.
In any case, fans are loving No Rest For The Wicked, which is the most important part of the equation. Hopefully the best is yet to come.
