The best collaboration of the fall now has a video to call its own.

Days out from the release of his new album My Name Is My Name, Pusha T has partnered with NPR to premiere the official video for his Kendrick Lamar assisted cut, “Nosetalgia.” The track is the second song off the album to be given the video treatment, and we expect it won’t be the last.

It’s late night in Compton when “Nosetalgia” opens, and for a few brief moments it seems like anything could happen. Pusha, now more than a decade into the game, begins walking down the middle of the empty streets as if he were a king parading through his kingdom. He delivers bar after bar about life in the drug game, painting gorgeously depicted scenes of tough choices and hard times with an unwavering sense of confidence that’s as infectious as the beat backing the track, then turns a corner to find the true ruler of Compton walking up to meet him in the street.

“Do you want to see a dead body?” asks Kendrick as he steps into frame, his voice as guttural as ever. It’s nothing new to hear the California native manipulate his voice for effect, and it’s a tactic he uses multiple times in his verse, but that doesn’t lower the intensity with which this line hits you. You know immediately that Lamar has a story to share, and in the lines that follow you learn it’s one of the darkest he’s shared to date.

Both emcees use life in the drug game as a metaphor for their music on “Nosetalgia.” This is an admittedly typical route for Pusha, but there is an added sense of urgency on this track that makes the idea feel new once more. Could it be Pusha feels Lamar gaining on him in the battle to be the best emcee alive? I’m not sure, but whatever it is that has injected gasoline in the veins of these two artists is something I hope remains for a long time to come. No one can step to Pusha T or Kendrick Lamar in hip hop right now, and those needed proof of that fact need look no further than the video at the end of this post.

My Name Is My Name arrives in stores October 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9y4HjAkbes

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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