“Love You Better,” which is the latest single from rapper King Combs (featuring R&B artist Chris Brown), really shows how much his father has impacted hip-hop culture. His father being Sean “Diddy” Combs, founder of Bad Boy Records, brand ambassador for Ciroc, creator of Sean John, and being involved in many more business ventures.
King Combs’ rap flow is often compared to Mase and Fabolous—two rappers that helped influence hip-hop in the late ‘90’s and 2000’s and both rappers had many hit records during that period.
“Love You Better,” however, gears more to R&B and shows Combs’ versatility between both hip-hop and R&B which in many ways is interchangeable in today’s music. In the first verse, Combs exemplifies his cocky swagga that he got from his dad:
You could’ve had Christian and Christian Dior (yeah)
Now you just miss and I’m missin’ you more (oh, woah)
But you knew that I’m the cool cat with the roof back (yeah)
Know I need you by my side, can’t lose that (oh)
But you still wanna test the waters (yeah)
Like I never showed you jets and waters on the coast of Florida
But “Love You Better” isn’t the first track he’s had out. Combs has put out music since April of last year, including his freestyle over Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid in Full” with his crewmates CYN. CYN consists of King Combs, Kai Ca$h, Shaqnlivin, and KWales.
The freestyle got more attention once a visual was put out. In the 6-minute music video, Combs pays homage to East coast hip-hop with images of his dad and Bad Boy, a camcorder filter displayed in and out of the video, clips of the film “Paid in Full,” ‘90’s inspired outfits worn by King and his older brother, Justin, and much more in which can be seen in the video below.
It’s hard to pick a favorite verse in the song because every verse is not only different but each bring a different perspective with their individual rap flows. If King Combs and CYN can continue to rap like they did in this song, maybe hip-hop isn’t so lost as people may think.
You can check out King Combs’ other songs via SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kingcombs
