What a world we live in. Despite having one of the most lyrically powerful, musically expansive releases of the year, turns out K.Dot needed the Taylor Swift hookup with ‘Bad Blood’ to score his first number one hit. The pop machine is alive and well, people. After three studio albums, two Grammys, and a wall full of BET awards, today will forever be the day the world said “yes Kendrick, you earned it”.

Big Ken must have known it was coming, too. Radio goes mad over Taylor tunes and that babe’n video cast? It was a sure thing. The musical Katy Perry diss has jumped from Billboard’s No. 53 to the No.1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Pluth’s ‘See You Again’ (finally). Kendrick had previously scored a #1 rap chart with his ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’ track, but this is on a whole other level.

There’s something we can all really learn from this, guys – choose your friends wisely ‘coz that shit pays. Kendrick used his recent publicity boost to bring home a killer performance of ‘These Walls’ on Ellen this morning. Peep the footage of that as well as the already iconic ‘Bad Blood’ clip above.

More on Kendrick Lamar

Listen: Ty Dollar $ign – ‘L.A’ (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Listen: Dr. Dre – ‘2Nite’ (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Listen: Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga – ‘Party Nauseous’