Ken Carson has aimed a diss song at Nine Vicious on "9 bitches", a track with ApolloRed1 that appears on Cartunez, the deluxe edition of Xperiment released on August 27.
The song names its target outright. Carson had kept his rivalries implicit until now, and the shift to naming Nine Vicious in the lyrics, along with references to people close to him, reads as a signal that he is ready for a response if one comes.
The background is a run of insults aimed at his label. Nine Vicious had previously dissed Opium, the label Carson records for, and its co-founder OPM Babi, which is what the new track answers.
Writing for The FADER on August 28, Vivian Medithi placed the record in a longer line of rap beef and argued that what decides these exchanges is rarely the technical quality of the bars. What matters, in that reading, is whether the song is catchy enough to stick, and Carson's instinct for percussive hooks is his advantage here.
Medithi also noted that Nine Vicious has spent recent months provoking reactions across the scene, falling out with a string of other artists and, most recently, courting attention at shows. Whether he answers the track directly is the open question.
The song sits on Cartunez, the 13-track deluxe Carson released after months of teasing it, and joins the release calendar among the week's hip-hop releases.
The facts
- 9 bitches features ApolloRed1 and names Nine Vicious directly
- It appears on Cartunez, released August 27
- Nine Vicious had earlier dissed the Opium label and co-founder OPM Babi
- The FADER's Vivian Medithi wrote about the track on August 28
- Cartunez is the deluxe edition of Xperiment
How this checks out
Developing
Reported by 2 independent outlets
A few outlets have it so far, short of the bar we set for confirmed.
Cited sources 2
Every outlet that reported this, linked to what it published. Equal credits, in alphabetical order.