--- title: Samuel L Jackson Fights James Corden in Rap Battle Video description: “No one knows who you are without Adele in a car," said Samuel L Jackson in his rap battle against James Corden on The Late Late Show canonical: https://time.com/4901235/james-corden-samuel-jackson-rap-battle/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-15T16:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:31.621Z og:title: Samuel L. Jackson Obliterates James Corden in Rap Battle og:description: “No one knows who you are without Adele in a car," rapped Jackson og:url: https://time.com/4901235/james-corden-samuel-jackson-rap-battle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20fad2e6bca5f96d/6988d9c9656a3f4c69bd1481/samueljames.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1372 og:image:height: 772 og:image:alt: samueljames og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Samuel L. Jackson Obliterates James Corden in Rap Battle twitter:description: “No one knows who you are without Adele in a car," rapped Jackson twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20fad2e6bca5f96d/6988d9c9656a3f4c69bd1481/samueljames.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Samuel L. Jackson Definitely Just Dropped the Mic in This Fiery Rap Battle with James Corden > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=3e4217e5-3367-40f1-8dae-d0452fdcd266&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 15, 2017 4:00 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 15, 2017 4:00 PM UTC James Corden and [Samuel L. Jackson](http://time.com/4696637/samuel-l-jackson-spoof/) stepped in to the rap battle arena to keep audiences entertained while we wait for the next Eminem album (or Eminem’s [movie about rap battles](http://www.nme.com/news/eminem-producing-comedy-movie-rap-battles-2120113)). On Monday night’s episode of _The Late Late Show_, the two stars rained down insults and cash in a memorable edition of Corden’s sketch, “Drop the Mic.” As Corden’s guest, Jackson played nice at first while [Corden](http://time.com/collection/2017-time-100/4736215/james-corden/) spit out a few bars, but when it came to game time, Jackson did not hold back: “I feel bad for you son, ’cause I’m the real star/ No one knows who you are without [Adele](http://time.com/4506470/james-corden-carpool-karaoke-all/) in a car/ It’s amazing you’re anonymous and over-exposed and you look like a Minion in too-tight clothes.” While it was Corden’s audience, they couldn’t help but howl in delight at the lines. [ Corden](http://time.com/4362417/james-corden-carpool-karaoke-most-nervous/) took the diss in stride, and hit back with his own: “Nice verse Sam but now you get torn apart/ Like I’m a velociraptor and this is _Jurassic Park/_ You’ve got fame from _Pulp Fiction_ and other big hits/ But 90 percent of your IMDB page is s–t.” It was a good effort, but as as Omar said in _The Wire_, when you come for the king, you best not miss, and Corden’s verses just stoked Jackson’s fire. He tweaked a line from _Snakes on a Plane_ and earned himself a true mic drop. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4901235/james-corden-samuel-jackson-rap-battle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4901235/james-corden-samuel-jackson-rap-battle/"},"headline":"Samuel L. 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