Kendrick Lamar Drops 'Time to Watch the Party Die'

By Bethy Squires, a Vulture news blogger who covers comedy

Maybe the “Kendrick just dropped another diss track” 9/11 memes got to him? Kendrick Lamar offered some counterprogramming to the VMAs, sharing new music on his Instagram Wednesday night. “Time to Watch the Party Die” isn’t about shitting on Drake so much as a general condemnation of our materialistic culture, quid pro quo croneyism, and, yeah, a little bit shitting on Drake. It’s up to you whether “Just walked that man down, that’ll do everyone a solid / It’s love but tough love, sometimes you gotta result in violence” is a diss or just an accurate recap of the past year.

The song comes days after Lamar was announced as the headliner of the Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans next year. The announcement was met with some backlash from Lil Wayne fans who felt the hometown hero should have gotten the spot.

“Time to Watch the Party Die” takes aim at influencers and a hollowness Lamar sees in the culture. “If you parade in gluttony without giving truth to the youth, the graveyard is company,” he says. “The radio personality pushing propaganda for salary / Let me know when they turn up as a casualty.” But he doesn’t spare himself. In the song, Lamar does a self-callout for being too bellicose in his raps. “I want to be empathetic, my heart like Dee-1,” he says, alluding to the Christian rapper. Can Kendrick perform at the Super Bowl in a God-honoring way?