FUSE TV - Why Fabolous Hasn't Responded to Kendrick's "Control" Verse

When Cali boy Kendrick Lamar went after famous rapper after famous rapper and dubbed himself "King of New York" on his verse on Big Sean's "Control," dozens of peeps in the hip hop game were quick to fight back.

But Brooklyn rapper Fabolous, despite initially tweeting “Any studios open yet?” has since remained silent. He recently opened up as to why he bit his tongue while so many others were wagging.

When asked by The Source about his lack of response to the verse and when the world might get one, he explained:

“When I first heard [the song] I was going to address it on the surface of what it was, somebody from out of New York claiming they the 'King of New York.'

“But I took my time and I spoke with some OG’s, I researched it a little bit and got some more history behind it.”

Doing some research—and having some time to cool off—was probably a good move. While the reactions have run the gambit from angry to poking fun, perhaps the most intriguing was Nas', who simply appeared impressed:

“Wow. My reaction is wow. I love hip-hop right now." 

So, we get the making lemons into lemonade bit on this one.

But it wasn't all levelheadedness. Fabolous was also simply not amused with the initial outpouring of responses—and all of the publicity surrounding them.

"Also, how everybody jumped into it for an intention [sic] play would change the situation as well," he said.

"So a lot of guys stepped in and said their peace [sic], but you also saw a lot of guys who were mentioned on the song, or who you would expect to have responses to the song, really didn’t take that approach."

OK, so Fabolous is taking the high road? Not quite:

"[I] am gonna tell you one thing that an OG told me, he said 'if you do respond, make it work for you, make it come on your time, and not just like you trying to feed the twitter fans with a freestyle.'"

"So I got that in the back of mind, so you might hear something eventually…"