NLE Choppa, who has now officially rebranded as NLE The Great, released “KO” on October 30, 2025, and it’s one of those tracks where you know exactly who he’s talking about from the first bar.
This isn’t subliminal. This isn’t coded. He’s coming for NBA YoungBoy’s throat, and he’s doing it while invoking the name of God.
The track opens with “Yahweh, Yahweh” before launching into three verses of accusations so pointed they might as well have included a wanted poster.
Produced by Charley Cooks, NLE The Great, and Aaron Mattes, the beat has this slow, militaristic pound to it.
Critically, it flips the same sample (Dennis Edwards’s “Don’t Look Any Further”) that 2Pac used for his legendary diss track “Hit ‘Em Up,” creating a deliberate, almost funeral march rhythm that lets every word land heavy.
“You Poison the Youth”
The third verse is where NLE The Great really lets it rip. He spits: “You poison the youth, nothin’ positive you do / You the reason niggas beating bitches thinking that it’s cute.”
That’s not a metaphor. That’s a direct accusation that YoungBoy’s music encourages violence against women and corrupts his young audience.
“You send niggas to do what you wouldn’t even do / Role model, you will never fit the shoe.”
The implication? YoungBoy hides behind his crew while building a persona he doesn’t actually live.
Then there’s this gut-punch: “Everybody that you rep on, I know who really did it.” That’s an accusation that YoungBoy is taking credit for things his people did. In hip-hop terms, that’s about as disrespectful as it gets.
The religious framing continues throughout. “Can you feel it? The reaper want a visit / Judgement Day around the corner, the Creator livid.”
Whether you buy into the spiritual angle or think it’s performative, it adds weight. He’s not just saying YoungBoy is bad for hip-hop but that he’s morally bankrupt.
The Video: Thriller Meets Trap Beef
Shot mostly in black and white, the music video features a full dance troupe doing synchronised choreography that’s clearly inspired by Michael Jackson.
The “Thriller” comparisons have been flying around Twitter since it dropped, and they’re not wrong.
The visual homages extend to boxing, with NLE channeling the spirits of legends like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson to frame the conflict as a championship bout.
He cast a YoungBoy doppelgänger. Dreads, similar build, the works. This lookalike gets “knocked out” repeatedly throughout the video, hence the title “KO.”
At one point, the double is surrounded by dancers while NLE The Great performs around him. It’s petty, provocative, and guarantees YoungBoy can’t ignore this.
The production budget is clearly high. This wasn’t shot in someone’s neighborhood on an iPhone. The lighting, the choreography, the editing all suggest it was planned carefully rather than being a rushed-out response.
NLE The Great’s Wellness Brand vs. “I Eat Bullets”
Under his new moniker, NLE The Great has spent the last couple of years posting about herbs, meditation, and alkaline diets.
His Instagram is half spiritual enlightenment, half thirst traps. So when he shows up on “KO” rapping “I eat bullets and shit Berettas, rival with my Chiappa Winchester,” it creates this bizarre tonal whiplash.
Lines like “I’m gonna cock and let you taste the iron / Blow your head off your neck like a dandelion” aren’t exactly turning-the-other-cheek material.
Maybe that’s the point, showing he can still tap into that aggressive energy when needed. Or maybe it’s just confusing.
Reddit threads are full of jokes about him recording this between juice cleanses.
What Happens Next?
YoungBoy’s next move is going to define how this plays out. His fanbase is already in defense mode, flooding comment sections and demanding he obliterates them on wax.
But YoungBoy doesn’t always respond to bait the way people expect. Sometimes he’ll drop a track addressing it indirectly. Sometimes he ignores it entirely and just keeps releasing music at his usual inhuman pace.
If he does respond, it needs to hit hard. The video alone has set a standard. You can’t come back with a low-budget phone camera freestyle and expect it to land.
The accusations are specific enough that vague bars about “haters” won’t cut it either.
NLE The Great came prepared. This wasn’t thrown together overnight. The beat slaps, the video looks expensive, and the accusations cut deep enough to demand a response.
Now everyone’s watching YoungBoy’s next move, and in hip-hop, silence can be deafening.
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