Originally published on YouTube on January 4, 2025
After a lengthy hiatus, Joey Bada$$ is back with “The Ruler’s Back,” a freestyle with a soulful beat provided by Conductor Williams. A rapper with so much promise when he released his 1999 mixtape in 2012, Joey Bada$$ has a lot more to do beyond declaring himself the savior of hip hop’s blighted birthplace and baiting a resurgent West Coast with its favorite son, Kendrick Lamar, as the genre’s current monarch.
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