This month Kendrick Lamar celebrates good kid, m.A.A.d city's one year anniversary in style: on the cover of GQ's "Men of the Year" issue, which hails Lamar as "Rapper of the Year," a title previously held by Jay Z and Lamar's dueling partner as of late, Drake.
The mens' mag's accompanying interview takes place in August, when the hip-hop world was still feeling the full impact of Lamar's then just-released "Control" verse. After a run-in with Drake at the MTV Video Music Awards, Lamar suggested that things were "pretty cool" between the two rappers, but added: "I mean, I would be okay if we weren't."
The TDE rapper has since gotten his way, sort of. In the weeks that followed, Drake made clear that the verse had left him miffed, in an controversy-causing interview with Billboard, and then during an interview with Elliot Wilson. Kendrick responded in turn by calling Drake a "sensitive rapper" and a fake in his verse for TDE's BET Cypher.
For more on Lamar, before Drake was even a part of the picture, read Andrew Noz' Kendrick Lamar FADER cover story from last year.