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Mario Skraban / Contributor via Getty Images and Prince Williams / Contributor via Getty Images
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Nle Choppa performs at day 2 of Rolling Loud Europe 2024 at Magna Racino on July 7, 2024 in Vienna, Austria and Rapper NBA Youngboy performs during NBA YoungBoy: MASA TOUR at State Farm Arena on October 15, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia
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Key Takeaways:
- A disturbing dream inspired NLE Choppa’s diss track “KO,” which he says came to him with spiritual clarity.
- The third verse of “KO” calls out NBA YoungBoy for being a negative influence.
- Despite the diss, NLE says he holds no personal grudge and would still collaborate with YoungBoy.
Though the world might not have been on his side when it dropped, NLE Choppa — who now goes by NLE The Great — says his NBA YoungBoy diss “KO” came to him through a “vivid dream.”
In a Rolling Stone interview published Monday (Nov. 3), the Memphis rapper described the “gruesome” vision that inspired the song and how he initially thought it was a nightmare. “[It] was me holding a young boy’s head in my hand, and I was bringing the head to my father in the dream,” he explained.
“It was like flesh hanging off the skull, mosquitoes and gnats, and biting at his flesh as it was deteriorating,” NLE continued. “And it was very vivid. And it was so vivid I can remember the smell and the [whole] dream.”
After waking up, he admitted he “didn’t know what to interpret” from the dream, so he prayed, and from there, the “steps were ordered.”
NLE went on to talk about the third verse of “KO,” where he rapped, “You poison the youth, nothin’ positive you do / You the reason n**gas beating b**ches thinking that it’s cute.” Though he acknowledged he isn’t perfect himself, the rapper said that part of the track was about “bringing awareness” and holding YoungBoy “accountable.”
Elsewhere in the interview, NLE said that despite their history, he doesn’t hold anything personal against YoungBoy. “I would love to shake hands with that brother, I would love to make music with him personally, but how could I if he won’t?” he said. The Cottonwood artist added that he’s not worried about things escalating, since “they already had issues” and the Baton Rouge rapper has “bigger fish to fry.”
“KO” was the musician’s second release under the moniker NLE The Great, following July’s “Messiah (Devil’s Diss).” Both tracks drew inspiration from the late Tupac Shakur, with the more recent record sampling “Hit ‘Em Up.”