Kendrick has a way more distinct and technical flow than cole
Cole good at what he does but he could never rip a track like that
And kendrick does punchlines, but that's not the main focus. He's been there and done that. His albums are cohesive and about telling stories and conveying emotions that connect with the listener
I think these discussions undervalue and fail to acknowledge that isn't easy to do
Kendrick is like pac in the way that he can immerse you in the topic of a song and shift your mood to feel the emotion relevant to the song.
Listening to shyt like u hits hard cause of all the shyt his expressing. It's authentic. A lesser rapper wouldn't be able to hit the same even if they delivered the exact same lines. Performance is as important in rap as writing. Part of being lyrical, quiet as kept. Being the best rapper is how you take advantage of your strengths, select literary devices, and perform it all vocally to lay down a great end product
The whole backlash against kendrick feels like the detractors are just picking one category to highlight but throwing away everything else. Just wack to me cause we could easily do the flip but that'd make your favorites look weak