Does Kendrick have more classics than Nas?

[IllmaticDelta]

Diverse content is another thing Kendrick has over Nas definitely

you buggin now

 

[mag357]

Even I forget about nas' quotables since I usually think about his storytelling and rhyme schemes first.

I never sleep is the cousin of death





I saw a dead bird flying through a broken sky
Wish I could flap wings and fly away
To where black kings in Ghana stay

Ah man... i luv that line too. the imagery he created in that song was ill...
Picture my skeleton burning in eternal fire,
Broads play wit pentagrams in they vagina,
Like the Exorcist, then the gave birth to my seed...

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I thought it's because nikkaz hated trackmasters even when they delivered.

it's because they wanted to put Nas in some type of back packer box

Hip-Hop debates
Illmatic has also helped to shape the attitudes and perceptions of hip hop fans, who cherish it as a music template that defines the genre's conventions. As music critic Jeff Weiss writes, “Illmatic is the gold standard that boom-bap connoisseurs refer to in the same way that Baby Boomers talk about Highway 61 Revisited. The evidence they point to when they want to say: this is how good it can be.”[20] New York Times columnist Jon Caramanica also credits the album with inadvertently spawning hip hop's counterculture. "Illmatic" he writes, "mobilized a national network of dissidents craving something true to the streets but eager to distance themselves from what was beginning to be perceived as a scourge – gangster rap." According to Caramanica, Nas' debut was received by these fans as a "rebuke" towards trends that were beginning to shape mainstream rap: "the pop crossover, the exuberant production values, [and] the splintering of rap into blithe and concerned wings."[27]

For this reason, Caramanica considers Illmatic to be "unusually significant to the intellectual development of the [hip-hop] genre" yet he also remains critical of the divisiveness spawned by its "zealots."[27] In his essay, "'Night Time is More Trife Than Ever': The Many Misuses of Nas," he writes: "Illmatic is responsible for countless pointless 'rap versus hip-hop debates,' a shocking amount of hip-hop self-righteousness, the emergence of the backpack movement as something more than a regional curio, and the persistence of the idea that lyricism is the only standard great rap music should be held to."[27] Commenting on these polarized debates, Jeff Weiss suggests that Illmatic is "best heard by ignoring the dogma, culture wars, Nas clones, and would-be saviors that have accreted since April of 1994. Who cares whether it's the greatest rap album of all-time or not? It's an example of how great rap can be, but not necessarily the way it should be."[20]'

I don't understand why IWW isn't up there with the other GOAT albums either

it is......many people that are respected think IWW is better than Illmatic. IWW 4.5 mics in the source in 96.....the same as Jayz's, Reasonable Doubt.

 

[prophecypro]

Nas aint got more than 1 classic idk why Im seeing any album other than illmatic listed

Depends on the era you lived in. Stillmatic and God Son where pivotal albums and huge in the early 00s. Lot of grew up with It Was Written and that being as big as it was too

Plus he's had hip hop publications give him a classic rating for other albums (Stillmatic, Life is Good, Lost Tapes)

You gotta really be detatched or have a strict and smaller list of classic to say otherwise

 

[Lord_Chief_Rocka]

you nas stans are delusional.

I like Nas too, but he really is the hip-hop forum king



Also, if nikkaz saying GKMC isn't a classic, then we're basically saying there will never be another classic

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I really disagree with that.

But hey, maybe he has a couple songs talking about divorce or his daughters that I somehow missed.

But I give you credit for moving the narrative to something other than acclaim. Because maybe we can discuss how nas is more poetic, has better rhyme schemes, and paints a picture with words better than Kendrick

that dude actually thinks Kendrick has more diverse range/topics

 

[CrimsonTider]

that dude actually thinks Kendrick has more diverse range/topics

Kendrick doesnt have writers

 

[trollol]

kendrick career is what nas career should have been if he didnt try to sell out and go shiny suit mainstream and became a fake Colombian drug lord

its the truth, i know it hurts

 

[IllmaticDelta]

kendrick career is what nas career should have been if he didnt try to sell out and go shiny suit mainstream and became a fake Colombian drug lord

its the truth, i know it hurts

dog, nas been doing it for over 25 years and is revered by all great rappers





...kendrick has to catch up to nas, not the other way around

 

[Kenny West]

Nah.

One of Nas most celebrated attributes is his willingness to explore a variety of concepts and topics. Heck sometimes he gets criticized for being too "out there" and experimenting too much...to the point that he gets accused of having contradictory feelings, thoughts, and topics in his music. Just examining his religious thoughts in his music alone will produce a ton of viewpoints.

Just off the top of my head, songs that are different from each other in significant ways.

Daughters
Rewind
Fetus
Testify
Dance
Project Roach
Bye Baby
These Are Our Heroes
Fried Chicken
Drunk By Myself
Purple
Dr. Knockboot
Doo Rags
If Heaven Was A Mile Away
Accident Murderers
Undying Love
Sekou Story
One Love
I Can
Sly Fox
Black Girl Lost
Remember The Times
Who Killed It
Last Words
I Gave You Power
War
What Goes Around
UBR
Book of Rhymes
No Ideas Original (super relevant to the topic)
Bridging The Gap
Surviving The Times
Last Real nikka Alive
Makings of a Perfect bytch

I really could keep going.

Note, I'm not saying he always executes all of his ideas to perfection. But that's not the point. His catalogue is full of diverse material, much more than what Kendrick has provided so far - which isn't a not to Kendrick.

Nas has been around for damn near 25 years. And for 25 years he has been writing intimate feelings about his wife, children, career choices, mistakes, and accomplishments. Im not sure we've had a discography that is so transparent through so many years. The subject is himself but the specific topics and emotions touched upon have been extremely diverse.

It would be more convincing if you went over what those topics were. But that is a impressive list of content for a rapper defintely way above the majority.

Now take Kendrick who has only half a decade in the game

Complexion (About colorism)
Blacker The Berry (Racism Police Brutality)
u ( self loathing)
i (self love)
Momma ( His experience in africa, giving back and connecting)
Hood Politics (Him being measured by standards he sees as largely superficial and the rejection of it)
Institutionalized (Kendrick struggling with the company he keeps and the application of the hood mindset outside of it.)
These Walls (fukking his enemy's girl)
Mortal Man (Questions his the loyalty of his supporters)
How Much A Dollar cost (Story about a trial where he sees god in an homeless man he selfishly refuses)
Alright (About perseverance)
You Aint Gotta lie (about fake rappers/fake nikkas)
ADHD (About 80's babies)
Sing about me (obvious)
Swimming Pools (turnup culture)
No make up (natural beauty)
Tammys song (a story)
Keisha's song (different story)
Kush and corinthians (struggling over morality and faith wondering if he is a bad person, ends up being revisited on U from TPAB)
The Recipe (California
Real (Living in your skin, the satisfaction of staying true to yourself)
Maad City (Personal anectdote)
Duckworth (story about his dad and Label head)
Art Of Peer Pressure (Self explanatory)
Sherane (story about sherane)
Good kid (illustrates the adversity on two fronts black men face)
Collect calls (3rd person drug dealer story nas has done a bunch of times)

And I really could keep going

for a artist as young as kendrick the fact that this list is this long is impressive. TPAB alone is content wise one of the most diverse albums I ever heard track to track.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Nas did with 2nd Childhood what it took Kendrick damn near a whole album to do

 

[Bickin Back Being Bool]

Kendrick stans are comin for that spot

 

[Kenny West]

yes

/thread

 

[Kenny West]

Of course storytelling has always been a part of rap but rap is music at the end of the day. Melody. If anything, the feel of the song (emotion in delivery and soundscape of beats) are the ones that do the heavy storytelling. And its more of a vibe, not a specific plot.

Let me take a moment here to just say Kendrick is better than Nas at these. The strength of Kendrick's delivery is what hides any of his lyrical shortcomings

If I must have a coherent storyline and that's the most important thing I'll read a book or watch a movie. That's my point. You're shoehorning a quality that has little to do with music to prop up Kendrick.

If I wanna hear witty lines I'd watch a comedy
If I wanted to hear melodies I'd listen to a singer
If I wanted to hear rhymes I'd listen to a poem
If I wanted to hear soul samples I'd listen to the music they're sampled from
If I wanted to hear drug dealer stories I'd talk to an actual drug dealer

YOUR POINT SUCKS

Are stories, themes or a plot integral to a rap album? No. But hell, platinum rappers these days can barely even rhyme so what is intergral at this point? if Kendrick is going the extra mile to make his albums an experience then you can't downtalk that with "well I can get that from somewhere else" ass excuses. It obviously matters if touches like that are whats making his albums get so much more acclaim than your favorite rapper.

And I said before: this so-called storytelling in GKMC is scattered and not compelling. If you were to summarize the story of GKMC you couldn't even portray it in a way that's interesting and compelling.

I couldn't, Kendrick DID . That's how a story about Kendrick smoking dust before getting set up by a hoe is a platinum record

 

[ManBearPig]

It's 2017 and Stillmatic aint classic to me Has a few classic songs , hella duds tho

GKMC is kendricks illmatic
TPAB and was his IWW
Damn was his Stillmatic

Metacritic scores for k.dot : Damn 99

Tpab: 96
GKMC: 91
Sec. 80: 86

Nas:
Illmatic:90
Stillmatic: 69 Classic album amirte
It was written not even on there lol



Is that what I really said tho?

Stans once again runing hiphop with your getting yall p*ssy lips twisted up because Kendrick is bout to surpass Nas, if he hasn't already

Does Nas have an album rated higher than TPAB or Damn critically?

get this garbage outta here