At first Kendrick Lamar appeared humbled to be on The Tonight Show. He called Black Thought of house band the Roots a "legend." And when asked about his 11 Grammy nominations for sophomore album To Pimp a Butterfly, he said that all he wanted was to not surpass Michael Jackson's Thriller record of 13. "I can't fathom being as great as Michael without putting out the work," he said.

But Kendrick refused to act modest when he debuted a new song. To be fair, he did so with more precision than any rapper performing live right now.

"Untitled 2" features three suites, where the Compton rapper asserts that he answers only to God—yet another example of his radical Christianity. Meanwhile, as for his hip hop competition, Kendrick (or Cornrow Kenny, as he nicknames himself here) refuses to believe that he has any, as he taunts fellow artists to raise the stakes. "You ain't gotta tell me that I'm the one," he repeats. Watch below.