Carlos Coleman, aka “Los” or “King Los,” has been active since 1999. He’s put out more than ten mixtapes and albums in that time. And I’ll bet that a good portion of our readers have never even heard of him. I’m here to change that.
I first heard about King Los in an interview with one of my favorite rappers of all time, R.A. the Rugged Man. He said that Kendrick Lamar “is not a top five lyricist.” Now Kendrick is another favorite artist of mine, so I had to hear who R.A. the Rugged Man thought was better. On his “artists who could slice Kendrick up” list, he names King Los. In the process, he changed my standards for rap completely.
I like to think of King Los as the Biggie Smalls of the 21st Century. So much of Biggie’s library was characterized by stories contrasting the life he knew before fame and the lifestyle he’d attained: stories of crime and violence contrasted with stories of decadence and luxury. King Los’s music has a similar focus, but his lyrical style is completely different. I’d argue that he’s an even better battle rapper. Los’s verses are so dense that they have their own gravitational pull. He makes insightful observations and fun references with wordplay and complex internal rhyme schemes; he shifts his tempo mid-song, frequently spitting tongue-twisters at breakneck speed. These are just a few of the reasons why I’m uncomfortable referring to an average King Los track as a song. Los doesn’t write music: he builds lyrical architecture. Los uses language to build a small model of his world, then he walks you through it.
It can be hard to make a top 5 list when you love the whole catalogue, but I’ve given it a shot. If you take nothing else away from this piece, check out some of the songs below. If your favorite isn’t on here, leave a comment about how wrong my choices were!
1. ‘Becoming King’ – Becoming King, 2013
This seems like a good place to start. Los flexes his lyrical muscles so hard that he proves he deserves to be called King. The whole song is fire, but my favorite parts are in the first verse:
I’m sick and disgusting because I
Think of this shit and I spit it quick as it comin’
I’m breakin’ niggas in half and I’m makin’ wishes
I’m buggin’
I tell them niggas get ready
they ‘bout witness the ugliest shit
and:
Say I
Play secretary, get the paper
Lil’ nigga ballin’ like A.I., may I
Break a ho down, don’t play her, player
From the motherfuckin’ Himalayas
Okay I
Kill every rapper I see it’s a wrap
When I catch ‘em I’m wrapping my hands ‘round they neck
And they chockin’, I’m rappin’, it’s classic
They rappin’ like candy that’s wrapped in that plastic I’m rappin’
Jurassic bars, classic cars
Badass bitches and nasty broads
2. ‘Creator’ – Zero Gravity 2, 2014
A beautiful hymn with a hint of sacrilege, ‘Creator’ shows us that Los is as much a storyteller as a battle rapper. Los explains how grateful he is to have risen above the life that he could have led. He explains that he wishes he could go back in time with what he knows now to avoid the mistakes of his past, but that even if he could he’d still probably fuck up along the way. He tells a hypothetical story about trying to get revenge on some guys who beat him and his cousin. While justifying his revenge, he says:
See when you truly affected confusion is never gone
Every day we losin’ the youth bein’ used as the devil’s pawn
As he thought, “I’ma kill him, fuck baskin’ in all this sorrow
If these niggas murdered me they’d be back in the club tomorrow”
3. ‘Don’t Get In My Way’ – Zero Gravity 2, 2014
There’s a lot to love about this song, but I’ll try to be brief. As the intro explains, it’s inspired by the story of Garnett Smith, a drug dealer who was imprisoned while Los was working on this mixtape. There is one reason above all others why this song deserves a spot on this list: the “get it?” Every now and then, King Los follows a reference up with a few lines explaining the joke. When you read a description, it doesn’t sound so special. But I promise it is:
Benz on the arm, you can call that an elbow
Get it? I said Benz on the arm
Meaning what you push depends on the strength of your arm
And at the same time, your elbow bends on your arm
But I’m really in a Bent, with the arm
And I’ve got it bullet proof, so really I’ve got the whole bent armed
Same color as baking soda with the old bent arm.
4. ‘Play Too Rough’ – Zero Gravity 2, 2014
“Jaws hears music when I’m comin’.” I guess Los has always been competitive, aggressive, and maybe a little cocky, but ‘Play Too Rough’ is proof that he’s got the chops to back it all up. This and ‘Bar Mitzvah’ are some of the best battle rap I’ve heard. I can’t think of a single artist who I’d be confident could take Los in a rap battle. It’s hard to pick a favorite part here, but I’ve always loved the end of the song:
My crib go crazy
Ain’t the 80’s
Ladies niggas kissin’ babies
They can shake me like they shake the hate in Haiti
But can’t break me
Hate me, love me, make me ugly
If you want a bitch, I’m from the fuckin’ corner
The Wire, the fire inspired
That’s why I play too rough,
Play too rough,
I done seen Demons attack, and Angels rush,
Ruptured spleen, I ain’t the sickest?
My nigga the fuck you mean?
King.
5. ‘War’ – God, Money, War (2015)
I wish I could’ve majored in this album in college. I feel like that would have been a more financially responsible major than philosophy. Get it? Like when Los makes a reference and then asks if you get it?
I’ll move on.
You really need to watch the music video to experience this song. Watch it before listening to it or reading the lyrics. The song is about how the world puts people in positions where “right” and “wrong” don’t matter. Los describes the song at the end of the first verse:
Hope is fun, when I grab my gun
Come take your life or mine
Suicide, yeah it’s suicide, life is suicide
Fuck your “right” or “wrong”
the shit that I been on is “do” or “die”
if I do I die, if I don’t I die that’s suicide
got the devil with a gun against my brain
like “choose a side”
‘cause it’s a war goin’ on
Back in April, Los said on Instagram that he’s got a new album and mixtape in the works, but I haven’t seen any reliable updates since then. All I know so far is that the mixtape is supposed to be called High Frequency. The bad news is it doesn’t look like Los has released any singles or announced anything new since then; the good news is he’s got so many free mixtapes out that you can listen to him for 10+ hours without hearing the same song twice.
If anyone knows something about High Frequency or any new Los music, DEFINITELY leave a comment. Agree with this post? Disagree? Let us know below.
*Elvis stole black music. Los is King.
Words by Sam Benatovich. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
