In the spring of 2025, Idaho-based rapper Hakeem Prime (Oakland roots, Atlanta upbringing, Boise home) did something most underground artists only dream about: he stepped directly into the lingering smoke of the Kendrick Lamar–Drake war and launched a four-track “lyrical audit” on the Pulitzer winner. Tracks like “CTRL+C | Boise Distortion,” “Meet The Duckworths | Boise Reflection,” “6:11 In BOI | Boise Resolve,” and “Dysphoria” (later compiled as the Boise Distortion Pack and tied into the Boise Mutation mixtape) accused Kendrick of borrowing Bay Area/hyphy energy without proper credit, questioned industry packaging of trauma, and flipped some of Lamar’s own structures back at him. The series earned coverage from AllHipHop, The Source, and underground reaction channels, plus viral shares from accounts like Raphouse TV.
That sudden spotlight came with consequences. Local and independent voices who had been quiet (or supportive of Kendrick) suddenly had opinions. Two of the most consistent ones were 407siah (real name Jasiah) and Ksg Viafaith.
407siah dropped multiple tracks tagging Hakeem, including one titled “Hakeem’s Time” that reportedly cleared six figures in views. He kept the pressure on, assuming the Idaho artist would stay silent or stick to his more melodic R&B-leaning catalog. Ksg Viafaith, the Harlem-rooted, Indianapolis-based “Code Red Old Head,” took a more reaction-video and commentary route. He posted critiques calling the Kendrick series clout-chasing or delusional, suggested Hakeem stick to R&B/pop, and even released his own record “Ctrl Shift Delete (Hakeem Prime Diss).” Viafaith also reacted to 407siah’s material and framed the whole episode as Hakeem overreaching.
Many in the scene expected Hakeem to let it ride. Instead, he answered on the project that felt like a late-night victory lap: The Tonight Show (curated with DJ Fresh(Ness), framed as a cinematic, Bay Area-tinged “broadcast” with Hakeem as the featured guest of his own narrative). On June 11, 2025, track 9 dropped: “L Mans.”
The Response: Personal, Surgical, and Loud
“L Mans” is not a vague subliminal. It is a direct, name-checking, personal strike aimed primarily at 407siah. Key moments include:
- The sharp identity flex: “What’s a Jasiah to a Messiah? These niggas is liars.”
- Repeated name-drops of Pilar (a.k.a. Piluqui / Miss Ortiz), 407siah’s baby mother, used as psychological and social warfare in the hooks and bridges: “And every day is gone be a fun day / For Piluqui And her friends / Cause they gone laugh at you again…”
- The taunting refrain that became a local rallying cry: “That’s a L Mans, nigga — L MANS.”
- Spiritual and cultural flexes (“Yo soy Hunab Ku / You just dog food… Yo soy Ometeotl…”) that elevate the track beyond pure street dissing.
- Cover art that reportedly featured images connected to the personal shots, underscoring that Hakeem knew exactly where the pressure points were.
The Genius annotation and surrounding commentary describe the record as silencing the opposition. After “L Mans,” 407siah went quiet. The track sits in a project that also includes other scene-addressing cuts (such as “Locally Toxic” and the later “Nobody Ya”), but “L Mans” is the clearest clap-back to the heat generated by the Kendrick series.
Why It Landed
Hakeem’s move followed a classic underground pattern: take the national-adjacent attention, absorb the local backlash, then answer with receipts and personality. The Kendrick disses positioned him as a cultural critic defending Bay Area authenticity and independent voices. The response to 407siah and the broader Viafaith-adjacent noise showed he was willing to get personal and local when the jabs came home. The Tonight Show itself leans into that dual identity—polished, late-night-show framing mixed with hyphy energy, regional pride, and unfiltered bars.
In the end, the sequence is straightforward: Hakeem Prime threw four at Kendrick Lamar → 407siah and Ksg Viafaith (among others) fired back or piled on → Hakeem answered with “L Mans” on The Tonight Show and largely closed the chapter. The track remains a textbook example of an independent artist refusing to let local heat go unanswered once the bigger conversation put a target on his back.
Stream “L Mans” and the rest of The Tonight Show to hear the full sequence. In underground rap, the real score is often settled not on the biggest stages, but in the mixtapes that answer the noise. Hakeem Prime made sure the last word on this particular round belonged to him.
The Tonight Show
― The Tonight Show
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