Kendrick Lamar doesn't want to be considered the greatest ever anymore

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

You literally have him being inspired by events and making one album about them as him being a reactionary artist. Please go back to the little kids table

Thats literally what being a reactionary is. DAMN was his attempt to still wring more TPAB-level content out but make it more mainstream.

Yall cant ever just assess the artist without getting into this weird shyt about respecting fans or album sales or something.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Thats literally what being a reactionary is. DAMN was his attempt to still wring more TPAB-level content out but make it more mainstream.

Yall cant ever just assess the artist without getting into this weird shyt about respecting fans or album sales or something.

Damn was the same content as TPAB?

 

[Piff Perkins]

Kendrick has maybe 2 songs off the recent album I've heard either in radio mix-shows or actual clubs/lounges.

I maintain that with the right management, Wale is bigger than Meek and near J Cole status. He's certainly more talented.

Look, I'm measuring talent. You' pocket watching. I already have said multiple times that I don't respect fan opinions or record sales or ticket sales. These people don't have good taste or the correct value of quality. Cole has improved, but the size of his fanbase and the quality of his work has let me know that I can dismiss most of their critical affection towards Cole as an artist.

And yet Kendrick's album will be plat soon and he's on a sold out arena world tour. What's your point.

I'm not pocket watching. Your sales and tours are a measure of how much people fukk with you. If no one fukks with Cole or Kendrick outside of the internet, they wouldn't be able to regularly sell out arenas. Often without hit records. Off Season didn't have some smash record and neither does Mr Morale, yet the fans bought the tickets. This is something that regularly happens in other genres outside rap but is a new thing for rap. Radiohead by any traditional sense of the phrase is a "one hit wonder" band, and yet they do arenas and stadiums while being one of the most important bands in the world. Your fanbase is what matters, and the blog era was the ultimate example of that principle coming to rap.

Even before the blog era you can point to artists like Nas. He didn't have a hit or relevant song from 2003 to now, yet still sold some records in the mid 00s and had successful tours because of his fanbase and catalog. In a sense Cole and Kendrick basically built off that and improved it, by having hits or relevant songs off each album. Every album has to have at least a couple songs that become staples of your live show...and that's how you build your base and your touring potential.

Wale was on one of the hottest labels in rap and couldn't sustain his career. That's on him/

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Damn was the same content as TPAB?

I didn't say that, and you're playing dumb now. Got it.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

And yet Kendrick's album will be plat soon and he's on a sold out arena world tour. What's your point.

I'm not pocket watching. Your sales and tours are a measure of how much people fukk with you. If no one fukks with Cole or Kendrick outside of the internet, they wouldn't be able to regularly sell out arenas. Often without hit records. Off Season didn't have some smash record and neither does Mr Morale, yet the fans bought the tickets. This is something that regularly happens in other genres outside rap but is a new thing for rap. Radiohead by any traditional sense of the phrase is a "one hit wonder" band, and yet they do arenas and stadiums while being one of the most important bands in the world. Your fanbase is what matters, and the blog era was the ultimate example of that principle coming to rap.

Even before the blog era you can point to artists like Nas. He didn't have a hit or relevant song from 2003 to now, yet still sold some records in the mid 00s and had successful tours because of his fanbase and catalog. In a sense Cole and Kendrick basically built off that and improved it, by having hits or relevant songs off each album. Every album has to have at least a couple songs that become staples of your live show...and that's how you build your base and your touring potential.

Wale was on one of the hottest labels in rap and couldn't sustain his career. That's on him/

Here you go with the platinum talk. You seem incapable of making any other point because maybe you haven't been able to articulate anything beyond sales as a metric of quality.

You need to stand on your own and make your own argument.

I don't respect the fans of those artists because I don't think the quality of their content matches.

Wale is a better rapper than both of them. You keep quoting these stats as if its relevant. And Wale's hit songs are leagues better than both of them combined.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I didn't say that, and you're playing dumb now. Got it.

Your whole premise of him being reactionary and west coast common was dumb, not sure what you want in response to that.

As I said, keep crowing derivative drake babble as classic cuz you sound real uneducated in this thread

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Your whole premise of him being reactionary and west coast common was dumb, not sure what you want in response to that.

As I said, keep crowing derivative drake babble as classic cuz you sound real uneducated in this thread

You're hung up on the reality of him being a reactionary artist instead of addressing the fact that he's overrated.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

You're hung up on the reality of him being a reactionary artist instead of addressing the fact that he's overrated.

He’s neither of those and you’ve made no credible argument as such

 

[Sean7]

I never got the Kendrick hype anyway.

NEVER got it.......

 

[Piff Perkins]

There was nothing reactionary about TPAB. The man literally went to South Africa and was inspired to make the album. Came home to the violence of gang shyt killing his homies and figured he needed to speak on it. Those are not only his words but everyone who worked on the album said that was the inspiration. It wasn't "BLM shyt is hot so lets do that."

He made a great album at a perfect time. And every album before and after that has gone in a different direction/sound. His inspiration artistically is far more in line with a David Bowie or Janet Jackson than just rap shyt. He's trying to advance the ball creatively. Sometimes it works (TPAB), sometimes it doesn't (Mr Morale). But I will salute any artist who is being creative and trying things, vs being reactionary and rapping over the same beats as everyone, jumping on the same wave as everyone, etc.

I'm not responding to the Indian poster on this anymore btw, and would encourage others to do the same. It's the same bullshyt arguments over and over every year. Even in his down year Kendrick outside your boy's first week and went on an arena tour.

 

[Squirrel from Meteor Man]

This is like Gilbert Arenas announcing he doesn’t want to be mentioned as the greatest point guard of all time

 

[Renegade47]

like what? point me to a verse you think cole is flexing on a level kendrick cant

kendrick has never displayed a verse like this

and i despise j cole and kendrick in my personal top 10.

you prolly gone bring up nosestalgia but it does not hit like this cole verse.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

kendrick has never displayed a verse like this

and i despise j cole and kendrick in my personal top 10.

you prolly gone bring up nosestalgia but it does not hit like this cole verse.

This shyt is an amazing flex to you? Bar complexity = simple, delivery = every battle rap ever, presence = average

Cartoon and Cereal is a harder K Dot verse and that’s without me thinking.

 

[Renegade47]

This shyt is an amazing flex to you? Bar complexity = simple, delivery = every battle rap ever, presence = average

Cartoon and Cereal is a harder K Dot verse and that’s without me thinking.

c&c is too dense. only line you can just quote is the lightning bolt line. thats why everybody was saying gunplay washed him on it. cole verse i posted you can say in a cypher and have people attention throughout it. you cant really do that with kendrick verses. and thats what holds him back from connecting with majority of rap fans like cole and drake has.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

c&c is too dense. only line you can just quote is the lightning bolt line. thats why everybody was saying gunplay washed him on it. cole verse i posted you can say in a cypher and have people attention throughout it. you cant really do that with kendrick verses. and thats what holds him back from connecting with majority of rap fans like cole and drake has.

Then we on two different planes, I already stated in this thread punchlines ain’t my measuring stick for a good verse. I’d rather have a complete story, a la nas, vs a bunch of random lines, lil Wayne. But if that style is more appealing to you, I get it, but that’s not making cole better or Kendrick worse IMO, that’s just what you like