Bishop Lamont - Friends

• Artist: Bishop Lamont
• Track: Friends
• Producer: Hi-Tek
• Album: Unreleased

If you spent this past weekend with your ear to the grapevine, you likely heard rumblings that up-and-comer Bishop Lamont had been dropped from Dre's Aftermath Records—rumblings that I'm proud to say were never mentioned at DJBooth.net, since they were completely false. Now that that matter's been cleared up, here's a new, unreleased cut on which the Carson, California emcee addresses all the so-called Friends who showed their true colors when it became clear he was headed to the top. It's a topic just about everyone can relate to (after all, backstabbing isn't exclusive to the music industry) and Hi-Tek's mournful instrumental, based around a sample from '70s rock group Trapeze's Will Our Love End, adds an extra-poignant punch to Lamont's wounded lyricism. As mentioned above, this cut isn't set for inclusion on any forthcoming project, but watch for the rapper's debut studio album, The Reformation, to drop later this year.