What Went Wrong With… Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly, & The Rise Of Middle Class Hip-Hop?

[Chip Skylark]

I will say this about the Kendrick comparison to many of the 80s/90s greats....I don't think his rapping would hold up at all. I think his skill is overrated. But his music is excellent, he knows how to make albums and that's what endears him to hip-hop heads above and beyond many artists of this generation.

That's all I care about as well tbh...the music, especially in this era. I've given up waiting to hear the next GZA, Redman, Ras Kass or whoever. So if it's musically sound - as Kendrick's is - I'm all ears.

I think TPAB and Section 80 are fantastic albums.

I agree with everything said

 

[Drip Bayless]

lol these conspiracy theories about white people trying to destroy everything black is just corny. half of these conjectures really have no basis besides wanting to form a victimization narrative for black people. its true that most of hip hop is aware of the fact that its the middle class that makes you the bulk of your money. most black people are middle class. do not be fooled by all the stupid rappers they keep grabbing from the hood. thats not even mentioning that Kendrick himself is quite popular with the hoods of America anyways. that whole thing was just dumb.

@BmoreGorilla another one

 

[Killalex]

Nikkas can't handle that Kendrick and Cole dropping great albums with their own lanes while their idols either mumbling or dropping a weed plate as their sophomore album and running to fashion.

 

[Cynic]

It’s pretty obvious that these days the majority of Hip-Hop is geared towards the middle class. Case in point; Kendrick Lamar. Search for Lamar’s latest album online and you’ll get results from pompous mags and papers like GQ, The Guardian, Time, NME, and of course everybody’s favourite interlopers; Rolling Stone. Flashback to the early nineties and publications such as these used to frown upon Hip-Hop albums across the board, but thanks to the commercialisation of the genre, it now fits nice and neatly into their mainstream Capitalist agenda.

Author is a socialist reprobate off the rip.

Media today is consumed differently and fighting for clicks... why compare publications today to the 90s
when they had free reign to push whatever the f*ck they wanted ? They are forced to change their attitude
because rock fell the f*ck off and Hip hop embraces technology ... They can't NOT cover Kendrick. He's in that
Top 3 and moving units in an era where records don't sell...

Are they supposed to purposely ignore an album with 11 Grammy nominations ?


Commercialization of the genre ? When compared to the 90s grandiose million dollar budgets
and production teams ?

Fukk outta here

Kendrick doesn't have to exist in the Golden Era, he exists now and reflects the consumers of 2016

You think Wu would survive dropping an album today with this Shaolin act shyt ?

How is KRS part of the golden Era ? He's an 80s rapper


This fagg0t even has the nerve to bring Killah Priest into it... you expect metaphysical raps from Kendrick ?

Why not get at Nas for biting Killah Priest while we are at it ?

Or criticize Killah Priest for NOT touching on socio-political issues as much as PE/NWA ?

These deluded old heads who sh!t on capitalism/commercialism and then reference the most extravagant time in
Hip Hop when No Limit was going plat are the f*cking worst

Move on ... the 90s ain't coming back and the music for the hood is trap not boom bap

 

[SirBiatch]

Try again

 

[Cynic]

Try again

Still not over Clams deading Rocky I see

 

[BO BARON]

All this article is basically trying to say is kendrick makes lovable pro black music

He's basically paris mixed with arrested development

Which means he's basically a genius

If you can basically make a album shytting on cacs & calling out white privilege & not instill fear & get black balled while selling many records & obtaining countless of grammy awards & become beloved by white america your a genius fukk all that

All that other extra shyt the article was talking about surviving in the 90s & mentioning certain rapper is just condescending bullshyt that most middle class hipsters usually write about in these type articles youll aint fooling nobody

 

[NoChillJones]

Waits until Drakes garbage album drops to see this bytch try to convince everybody it's "good music"

 

[jadillac]

You can't name one rapper who has had the push that Kendrick has had

wtf ....you can't name Eminem, 50 Cent, Game, for starters? In fact, during that whole early 00's it was a constant search to find who they could annoint as the "next big thing" rapper.

Hell, Drake? He's been pushed to the moon.In fact, DRAKE been pushed so much they made other ppl write his rhymes so he WOULD NOT FAIL. Call me a liar....I dare you....

Kendrick delivered with TPAB.

People like you were saying this album had no catchy radio/hit material when it dropped. 6 months after that, everyones jamming to singles like Alright, King Kunta and 2-3 other album cuts on the album.

 

[CrimsonTider]

wtf ....you can't name Eminem, 50 Cent, Game, for starters? In fact, during that whole early 00's it was a constant search to find who they could annoint as the "next big thing" rapper.

Hell, Drake? He's been pushed to the moon.In fact, DRAKE been pushed so much they made other ppl write his rhymes so he WOULD NOT FAIL. Call me a liar....I dare you....

Kendrick delivered with TPAB.

People like you were saying this album had no catchy radio/hit material when it dropped. 6 months after that, everyones jamming to singles like Alright, King Kunta and 2-3 other album cuts on the album.

Nah

Ima make a thread one day

 

[rantanamo]

same poster with another Kendrick thread. Duckworffff, is that you?

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

send this trash ass article to the bushes. TPAB was a great album ( not GKMC nice), this poster needs to STFU.

 

[Wild self]

People who shyt on Kendrick for being "suburban", are the same ones that blast Drake and his out-of-touch raps on top of ghostwriting.

The hypocrisy is insane and blatnant. Let's face it, the mumbling, autotune trap music is a severe misinterpretation of the young black person in today's hood. With all the police brutality issues and pro black revival in the mindsets of millions of black folk, and you saying that some undercover c00n that gasses up everything European is MORE IN TOUCH WITH BLACK PEOPLE than the rapper that actually talks about it?

Kendrick can do what his mindset tells him. Same as Cole and his issues he talking about. These trap stars that sell out for the latest strip club hit and catering to thots, are the real backstabbers of black music.

 

[Somebody]

this article stupid trash. the mainstream/underground binary is tiring. personally, i've abandoned cole n kendrick cause they refuse to have any fun. or more specifically they refuse to take fun seriously. u can hear in drake's features that out of the three of these mainstream conscious rappers, drake actually wants ppl to have fun. if i want to feel pro-black, i throw on speeding bullet to heaven, not tpab. both are self indulgent messes, but u can tell by how fagtano reacted, he wanted the blacks to stay in their box. then the c00ns at dead end followed suit praying for cac acceptance and respectability. and i didn't listen to speeding bullet ironically. when it came out, i was in that place. they don't want black ppl doing rock because rock is now an established form of musicianship since it was ripped from black hands.

ive also abandoned the need to hate anything popular. become popular in any field and u get a pat on the back. do it in hip-hop and you've sold out blackness cause u don't want to be poor. foh.

back to the whole fun thing, the hood bangs future and drake, because we don't need rappers to tell us how hard we have it all the time for 80 minutes. we know. like future said "im just tryna motivate the hood all over"

when i fully abandoned cole is when somewhere on fhd he said i want to "go back". obviously he never felt the psycho-social effects of poverty having a cac mom. when we hear the term institutional racism, the institution we love to overlook (besides biopower) is marriage and family. that means the pressures from the other institutions cause black ppl to go home in a hostile mood and take it out on each other. the father is absent or can't provide. the mother feels inadequate for not having a man or provider. the kids suffer. for cole to wish he was back in that situation is when i saw him for the confused industry plant he is.


not saying drake knows the struggle. he doesnt pretend to. "lucky i didn't have to grow there, i would only go there cus it's nggaz that i kno there"

u might call it escapism, but when you're poor u literally have to imagine a way out. i don't want to imagine success the way those two conscious rappers, cole and kenny imagine success. like it's worse than poverty. even kid cudi to an extant can keep miss me with his suicide raps.

ive always liked conscious music. today for me hov, drake, nas, and future make me feel like i don't have to be poor all the time. i like dancing to a good time. i don't want to hear about ab soul and kenny's convos with the devil. ras kass did it much intellectually. and i bet he even wishes he laid off the self indulgent philosophical raps.


u can be deep and philosophical without sacrificing fun. i may not have liked the article, but this sirbiatch guy is thought provoking.

 

[John Hull]

Just on a cursory glance this article was written by an impostor. So it's no wonder the op agrees with it.