Kendrick Lamar-good kid, m.A.A.d city-2012 (CLASSIC)

[Busby]

5 mics in the Source?....hold ya breath...

 

[DrunkerThanAMotherfucker]

I agree with most of your post,(except the nas not living up to illmatic part) but none of that makes Kendrick an "amazing"' LYRISCIST. you can say he's a good story teller or he has the ability to make good relatable music, but the word lyriscist should not be used to describe him.

What do you mean lyricist?

A lyricist is any songwriter that specializes in lyrics. You come across as having a very traditional, almost close-minded idea of a typical lyricist. Like, it is necessary to be able to incorporate complex, intricate lyrics into your song-writing.

There are far greatest literary devices- which in songwriting, deal with.... hey, lyrics!!- that display more elevated levels of artistry. Kendrick is very complex with his rhyme scheme and uses multi-syllabic rhymes almost every line, in case you were wondering. Devices like allegories, imagery, themes, point-of-view take more talent and eye for detail than to throw metaphors together in the hope of conveying a cohesive theme.

The album is incredibly cohesive. Kendrick wrote a short-film.



His pre-GKMC has the complex metaphors, etc that you are looking for.

Kendrick is a song-writer on GKMC; that's the highest compliment I can give to a hip-hop artist.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

What do you mean lyricist?

A lyricist is any songwriter that specializes in lyrics. You come across as having a very traditional, almost close-minded idea of a typical lyricist. Like, it is necessary to be able to incorporate complex, intricate lyrics into your song-writing.

There are far greatest literary devices- which in songwriting, deal with.... hey, lyrics!!- that display more elevated levels of artistry. Kendrick is very complex with his rhyme scheme and uses multi-syllabic rhymes almost every line, in case you were wondering. Devices like allegories, imagery, themes, point-of-view take more talent and eye for detail than to throw metaphors together in the hope of conveying a cohesive theme.

The album is incredibly cohesive. Kendrick wrote a short-film.



His pre-GKMC has the complex metaphors, etc that you are looking for.

Kendrick is a song-writer on GKMC; that's the highest compliment I can give to a hip-hop artist.

There have been plenty of albums that have a full story or theme throughout. In my opinion skits don't add to anything. Anybody can ad a skit to the beginning/end of their songs to create a story. Again none of what you keep posting is describing a lyricist. I can say that 50cent fits all of your criteria for Kendrick, is he a lyricist?

To me it seems like you Kendrick fans want to alter what is/has been considered lyrical in order to make him fit that description, when truth is, it's just not there.

 

[thaKEAF]

fukk who you know
where you from my nikka

 

[HendriX]

There have been plenty of albums that have a full story or theme throughout. In my opinion skits don't add to anything. Anybody can ad a skit to the beginning/end of their songs to create a story. Again none of what you keep posting is describing a lyricist. I can say that 50cent fits all of your criteria for Kendrick, is he a lyricist?

To me it seems like you Kendrick fans want to alter what is/has been considered lyrical in order to make him fit that description, when truth is, it's just not there.

So hold up..in your opinion Kendrick is not a lyricist? what the fukk are you listening to?

 

[Black Magisterialness]

Lyricism isn't just about using as many literary devices possible.
It's about usingthe literary devices available to you to ultimately say something.

Do you know why dudes like Nas and Lup admire pac ?
Because as a lyricist he excelled in writing lyrics that were not only technically competent but ALSO said something poignant, in a way that wasn't corny.

People conveniently overlook that sh1t when they talk about Hip Hop, they forget that writing is also about wording your verses in a way that's not only DOPE (lot's of multi's, switching flows etc.) BUT ALSO a skillful use of imagery.

It's funny you mention with Food & Liquor because there are a lot of songs on both that album and "The Cool" where Lupe doesn't spend the song stressing particular techniques but on actually writing something dope.

He Say She Say ?
Kick, Push ?
Sunshine ?
Hurt Me Soul ?
Coolest ?
Cool ?
American Terrorist ?
Emperor's Soundtrack ?
Streets on Fire ?

Listen to those tracks, notice they're not overdoses on a particular technique. This is what separate songs with the "Bragging" format from the songs with the "Storytelling" format.

Writing actual songs with a concept from beginning to end, sticking to that concept and ignoring the allure of messageboard props for using an unnecessary metaphor, punchline, or a string of rhyming words to instead focus on the particular point of that verse is what makes great songs in Hip Hop.

Dudes like Canibus and Chino XL are at their dopest when they discard that "Lemme show mofuggas how to rhyme" stuff and write songs like Ghetto Vampire or Poet Laureate II, that to me is exquisite lyricism. It's using the tools at hand to paint beautiful imagery.

"I live inside the belly of the rough, compton city made me an angel on Angel Dust" - Kendrick Lamar

Lines like those, the delivery of it, and how the song is structured around it is what separates the Kendrick Lamars and Lupes from their peers.
And when I mention "tools" I mean EVERYTHING, song becomes art when you use skits, sound effects, descriptive lyrics, logically progressive storylines, an overall metaphor or point to be made, that is skillful lyricism.

People who say Kendrick is an "average lyricist" are the ones I'd say are missing the point, not the ones who "get it".

good post sir, but still delivery and lyricism are STILL two different things. Take someone who is WELL known as a lyrical powerhouse but a ho-hum delivery...like Common for instance,

We stay high, thats why old folks down us
Lost, nobody found us, the force that surrounds us
Ain't with us, they get us on the ground and hit us
We paint pictures of the chains under their names and scriptures
Removed from earth, only to return through birth
Knew this girl selling her body, wish she knew what it was worth.
Between God and trash, looking in every car that pass
With a walk that suggests head, to milk nikkaz she was breastfed
She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread
In the area where it's more weaves and less dreads
Kinda scary, amongst thieves and base-heads
Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt
She was cold turk, growing up she got to know hurt
very well in a world where self hate is overt


that's a laced with imagery, metaphors, double entendre and the flow of it was quite simple but i stand that next to anything Kendrick wrote.


A good MC can combine the two my point was that cats was out here talking like Kendrick was the 2nd coming, God MC of lyricism and he isn't, he is still FAR above average.

And the Lupe argument is slightly off base seeing as how the ENTIRE songs of the Cool, the Coolest and Sunshine are metaphors

 

[thaKEAF]

The small things on this album make it

The mentioning of previous characters/events in later songs similar to how it was on Section 80. Then the gunshot and fading out at the end of the first two "Sing About Me" verses.

 

[DrunkerThanAMotherfucker]

There have been plenty of albums that have a full story or theme throughout. In my opinion skits don't add to anything. Anybody can ad a skit to the beginning/end of their songs to create a story. Again none of what you keep posting is describing a lyricist. I can say that 50cent fits all of your criteria for Kendrick, is he a lyricist?

To me it seems like you Kendrick fans want to alter what is/has been considered lyrical in order to make him fit that description, when truth is, it's just not there.

I don't alter the definition of a lyricist. That definition I gave has been constant since I got into hip-hop.

A lyricist is not exclusive to anybody who throws words together.


So if we follow your definition, guys like Tupac, Chuck D, Q-Tip, Jay-Z, Biggie, aren't lyrical because they aren't complex enough.

Truth is, lyricism takes more than multi-syllabic rhymes, complex entendres/metaphors. Those are guys who have a deep appreciation for literature- the way words move people in their simplest form.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."- Leonardo Da Vinci



Coming from this angle as a creative writing major in college, I can assure you that the most profound songwriters of all-time, orators, and artists where the ones who had the most impact on people with simplicity.



Rhetoric, allegory, theme, archetype, symbolism. Easily conveyed and missed when you are expecting something more detailed and complex than what's presented.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

I don't alter the definition of a lyricist. That definition I gave has been constant since I got into hip-hop.

A lyricist is not exclusive to anybody who throws words together.


So if we follow your definition, guys like Tupac, Chuck D, Q-Tip, Jay-Z, Biggie, aren't lyrical because they aren't complex enough.

Truth is, lyricism takes more than multi-syllabic rhymes, complex entendres/metaphors. Those are guys who have a deep appreciation for literature- the way words move people in their simplest form.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."- Leonardo Da Vinci



Coming from this angle as a creative writing major in college, I can assure you that the most profound songwriters of all-time, orators, and artists where the ones who had the most impact on people with simplicity.



Rhetoric, allegory, theme, archetype, symbolism. Easily conveyed and missed when you are expecting something more detailed and complex than what's presented.

^^^^read what was posted 2 posts above you. That is my point

 

[B-Wonders]

Album gets better and better with every listen....this is a great piece of work. 'bytch, Don't Kill My Vibe' is ....even 'Backseat Freestyle' is sounding alright (by far, my least favorite track after the first listen).

'Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst' and 'Real' back to back and near the end of the album is

 

[Hammer]

bought the album today

 

[ROFL_GUY]

Kendrick gon debut @ #2

T.Swift pushin 2 MILLION 1st week

hope it doesnt take away his shine rite now

 

[DrunkerThanAMotherfucker]

^^^^read what was posted 2 posts above you. That is my point

I mean, I agree with what the guy said, but I don't retract what I said about Kendrick.


He hasn't reached his full potential yet, and I am already amazed at the way he constructs songs.

 

[AkaDemiK]

Now this is not a tape recorder saying that he did it
But ever since that day, I was lookin at him different

#MEAN

 

[Insensitive]

good post sir, but still delivery and lyricism are STILL two different things. Take someone who is WELL known as a lyrical powerhouse but a ho-hum delivery...like Common for instance,

We stay high, thats why old folks down us
Lost, nobody found us, the force that surrounds us
Ain't with us, they get us on the ground and hit us
We paint pictures of the chains under their names and scriptures
Removed from earth, only to return through birth
Knew this girl selling her body, wish she knew what it was worth.
Between God and trash, looking in every car that pass
With a walk that suggests head, to milk nikkaz she was breastfed
She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread
In the area where it's more weaves and less dreads
Kinda scary, amongst thieves and base-heads
Said it was her toes, but I could tell her soul hurt
She was cold turk, growing up she got to know hurt
very well in a world where self hate is overt


that's a laced with imagery, metaphors, double entendre and the flow of it was quite simple but i stand that next to anything Kendrick wrote.


A good MC can combine the two my point was that cats was out here talking like Kendrick was the 2nd coming, God MC of lyricism and he isn't, he is still FAR above average.

And the Lupe argument is slightly off base seeing as how the ENTIRE songs of the Cool, the Coolest and Sunshine are metaphors

The entire album "Good Kid M.A.A.D. City" is a metaphor.
Hell the intro track starts off before the album even ends indicating a "cycle".
It's fvcking genius, it's THERE but it's not IN YOUR FACE like a lot of people would expect it to be, that's skill.

Common is one of the greats, he's head and shoulders above a lot of rappers so I don't see why he shouldn't be standing toe to toe with someone who is also highly skilled as a lyricist.

I know that lyricism and delivery are two different things, I never said they were the same thing. Delivery is what makes okay or just cool lines, sound more amazing, writing is the ammunition for the voice.


The thing you overlooked in my post was that lyricism isn't just writing a dope stand alone verse, it's about the song operating as a unit, if all it took was writing a dope sixteen there would be far more dudes on the same level of Nas and Jay-Z, Rakim and Kool G Rap, Mos Def and Talib and any other highly lauded lyricist/song writer.


I can post two tracks I'm certain I'll never see from Common simply because of how different they are and what they ultimately say :


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Qxtzk-bK8"]Kendrick Lamar - Cartoon & Cereal - YouTube[/ame]


People don't talk about "I used to love H.E.R." because it's so lyrical there was no other track that year that could stand toe to toe to it.
People don't talk about "Brenda's got a baby" because it's so above and beyond other rappers lyrically that no one else could write it.
People love these songs because the lyrics served a point, they hit home, they did what they're supposed to do.

I'm a rapper myself so I definitely respect the art and the skill it takes to write the sh1t a dude like Kendrick can.