Mistah F.A.B., Kendrick Lamar & KXNG Crooked Come Together for a Survivor’s Rallying Cry (Audio)

Oakland, California’s Mistah F.A.B. is prepping for the release of his sixth studio album and first since 2012’s Da Yellow Bus Rydah. Son of a Pimp Pt. 2 drops May 27 and is a follow up of sorts to 2005’s Son of a Pimp, which featured fellow Bay Area icons like E-40 and the now-late Mac Dre and the Jacka. A multi-platinum collaborator with a roster of artists including Snoop Dogg, Too $hort, Chris Brown and many others, Mistah F.A.B. is a certified Rap veteran who released an important new track today featuring representatives of different West Coast generations in Kendrick Lamar and KXNG Crooked (fka Crooked I).

Mistah F.A.B. Says Push Through & Don’t Cry About It (Video)

Also featuring Chicago, Illinois’ Kobe Honeycutt, “Survive” takes on a sobering approach to issues like racism, with artwork depicting the far-too-familiar image of a Black person confronted by a heavy-handed police force. Lamar is the first to deliver a verse, and it’s an exercise in a search for mental clarity in a world where too many fall victim to sabotage, whether self-created or otherwise. With references to a young life drawn in by a life of crime, Kendrick’s words are deep. “You ever been a victim of being a prisoner inside your own mind?/The bright lights of the street lights will make you go blind/Handicap your senses, you was just an apprentice of watching niggas jump fences,” he begins. F.A.B. shares a more personal tale, one in which he revisits times during his childhood when he went hungry and abandoned – making survival a necessary skill to learn. KNXG Crooked closes out the message with a story of drug addiction and suicidal thoughts, but despite the gravity of the song’s content, it is really a song about empowerment and inspiration in a life where only the strong survive.