Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

xp Yeah the audience for huffy, real-rap gymnastics is pretty much the same as the audience for happy late-'80s/early-'90s throwbacks, so this probably isn't too much of a risk. But it feels like a huge shift anyway, and the upbeat outlook (even if just on this one track) will help distinguish the album from GKMC's sober moralism

There was a kind of corny 3 Feet High-ish Kendrick track on the last Eminem album that seemed like a lark at the time but now seems like it laid the groundwork for this

From what I gather almost everyone is enthusiastic and it would take a real clunker to end the public's honeymoon with Kendrick.

you like travis scott

And you live for Gucci Mane, shall we continue?

Kendrick is just plain mediocre. Give me Eddie Kendricks, or Kendrick Jeru Davis.

you forgot Anna

i will take gucci & kendrick over travis scott, yes

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/6/files/2010/09/kyle.jpg

http://nbchardballtalk.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/350x146.jpg

makes me think of something from those early kanye mix-cds, or his 'touch the sky' even. the last third is very fly-lo/thundercat.

Yeah first part definitely made me think of early Kanye too. It's the obvious soul sample x once-patented Insane Conga Rolls

Touch the Sky is a good comparison, upbeat, famous soul sample. There's some Stankonia thrown in there as well.

Snap judgement it's better "Touch the Sky" but not as good as Stankonia

also this was brought to my attention and is nuts awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Oz8UmUXbg

terrible whiny/kiddy voice on that new single, maybe it's supposed to show versatility but I really can't listen to it, too annoying... enjoy the beat though

feel the same way abt his verse on "m.A.A.d city" though it's a different whine

If he knew how to write a hook/have even mildly insightful something to say other than pussy/money/his dick/ maybe his rapping skills could be put to some use. Usually his production is solid enough. The Art of Peer Pressure was pretty good, more focused. But he doesn't have enough verbal dexterity or technique to pull off his cliched lyrics.

sock

mhmm...

lmao this song. i would probably like it without the corny lyrics on the hook, which push it from charming throwback into "happy" territory

or more pertinently as molly lambert pointed out, "shake it off" territory

"But he doesn't have enough verbal dexterity or technique to pull off his cliched lyrics."

id say technique and dexterity are two things he has in abundance (just listen to the song hes done with flying lotus). my main issue is that even when hes putting on that weird voice and writing something cheesily upbeat (which i dont mind, as i have a soft spot for that kind of thing), there is still something weirdly dry about his tone/vibe on this, dry how talib/common etc can be when theyre at their least engaging/most earnest, almost like hes doing it/saying it because he thinks he HAS to rather than because he wants to. i might need to hear it more though. but its a fun throwaway kind of track, hopefully something you get on an itunes deluxe download rather than the centrepiece of the album.

actually i think its just that sometimes when kendrick is in his technique-heavy mode, he does become a bit boring. so on the song with fly lo, i do go 'wow' at how good a rapper he is (cos he is seriously impressive), but i dont find it all that involving, but thats probably another debate best saved for threads about rappity rappers vs the chief keefs or wakas of this world.

I don't know why you'd waste the time honestly engaging with someone who criticized Kendrick on the grounds of not having anything insightful to say "other than pussy/money/his dick/".

id say technique and dexterity are two things he has in abundance (just listen to the song hes done with flying lotus). my main issue is that even when hes putting on that weird voice and writing something cheesily upbeat (which i dont mind, as i have a soft spot for that kind of thing), there is still something weirdly dry about his tone/vibe on this, dry how talib/common etc can be when theyre at their least engaging/most earnest, almost like hes doing it/saying it because he thinks he HAS to rather than because he wants to. i might need to hear it more though. but its a fun throwaway kind of track, hopefully something you get on an itunes deluxe download rather than the centrepiece of the album.

I put Kendrick as a passenger on the same hype train as Earl and Frank Ocean along all 3 of their underwhelming lps. 'nothing new nothin new yall aint saying nothing knew'

Scaface life lyrics can work if you're, say Biggie, with the character, force of personality, verbal technique, voice etc. Ken simply doesn't.

But maybe, listening to hh for so long I hold rappers up to a standard higher. I don't think Ken said anything of worth, or with the delivery of rappers from the past, from Outkast lines, to Snoop hooks, to Biggie delivery, Wu tang's creativity to Pac's presence and lyrics, Ken is just a poor relation.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WwDaoULXp2Y/TrBi8ZG9OkI/AAAAAAAAAog/92fGO7QQmic/s1600/Mike%2BNapoleon.jpg

New heads and hype click needy sites constantly cite dudes like Earl, ASAP, Kendrick, Danny Brown as "great". It's just funny. Will any of these dudes have the influence on people, other rappers, and music like Slick Rick, Ghost, 3000, Nas, Big, Pac, Jay, Scarface, Snoop, KRS, Rakim, Kane, Kool G Rap etc etc etc? Obviously not, and I have no idea why they get all this acclaim before they've even done anything?

"Earl is set to replace Illmatic" was a thing that was said often.

"Earl is set to replace Illmatic" was a thing that was said often.

Where?

Cocaine laced in marijuana
And they wonder why I rarely smoke now
Imagine if your first blunt had you foaming at the mouth
I was straight tweaking the next weekend, we broke even
I made allegiance that made a promise to see you bleeding
You know the reasons but still won't ever know my life
Kendrick A.K.A. Compton's human sacrifice

I mean this stuff is just like....

I think in this line he must mean PCP, not coke, either way Wu used to shower in the stuff before breakfast. Then later on Ghost would have half of NY's rappers swinging from his arms in the Tunnel. And they wouldn't rap about it either.

New heads and hype click needy sites constantly cite dudes like Earl, ASAP, Kendrick, Danny Brown as "great".

Where?[2]

See this is my standard:

Call an ambulance, Jamie been shot, word to Kimmy
Don't go Son, nigga you my motherfuckin heart
Stay still Son, don't move, just think about Keeba
She'll be three in January, your young God needs ya
The ambulance is taking too long
Everybody get the fuck back, excuse me bitch, gimme your jack
One, seven one eight, nine one one, low battery, damn
Blood comin out his mouth, he bleedin badly
Nahhh Jamie, don't start that shit
Keep your head up, if you escape hell we gettin fucked up
When we was eight, we went to Bat Day to see the Yanks
In Sixty-Nine, his father and mines, they robbed banks
He pointed to the charm on his neck
With his last bit of energy left, told me rock it with respect
I opened it, seen the God holdin his kids
Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig
Plus he dropped one, oh shit, here come his Old Earth
With no shoes on, screamin holdin her breasts with a gown on
She fell and then lightly touched his jaw, kissed him
Rubbed his hair, turned around the ambulance was there
Plus the blue coats, Officer Lough, took it as a joke
Weeks ago he strip-searched the God and gave him back his coke
Bitches yellin, Beenie Man swung on Helen
In the back of a cop car, Dirty Tasha are tellin
But suddenly a chill came through it was weird
Felt like my man, was cast out my heaven now we share
Laid on the stretcher, blood on his Wally's like ketchup
Deep like the full assassination with a sketch of it
It can't be, from Yohoo to Lee's
Second grade humped the teachers, about to leave
Finally this closed chapter, comes to an end
He was announced, pronounced dead, y'all, at twelve ten

Drick is a long, looooooong way from being able to produce lyrics like this. Before ewe even get into his style. Ghost was I think the same age as Kendrick is now when he wrote that.

Drick is loooooooong.

I really like that Tanuki spelled out he might have been listening to 'hh' for too long, because he sounds exactly like those old rock-fans complaining that nobody plays guitar like Jimmy Page anymore, or whatever.

I think in this line he must mean PCP, not coke, either way Wu used to shower in the stuff before breakfast. Then later on Ghost would have half of NY's rappers swinging from his arms in the Tunnel. And they wouldn't rap about it either.

"Kendrick is not even hardcore about his drug use. He is a big old lightweight. what a noob"

#listeningtohollyhunterforsolong

Not really because I've always liked new hip hop, I like the ones who do something different, creative. I just don't like Kendrick, or I should he's ok, I just don't like the hype, the hyperbole over an average dude, same like Frank Ocean. Kendrick and Frank are 2 dudes pitchfork gave 9.5 and chose as doing so to pin their business on them. These are 2 young debut artists who we're going to hype and back as a guarentee of interest on our site in the future. It's all business I'm just talking about surprised when people buy into it.

#listeningtohowardhughesforsolong

#listeningtotravisscöttforsolong

#listeningtoraccoontanukiforsolong

I love Gibbs, Young Thug, Kanye, Future, Keef even Drake. These dudes sound different and deserve praise. I don't need to compare a Keef to a Ghostface verse or an 3000 verse because he's doing something totally different. But I can put up the arrival of 'Bang' and 'I don't like' to something similar in effect that Protect Ya Neck had on the industry and genre when we talk about rawness and the context of its arrival and kind of shock value. I can talk about Wayne mixtapes influence and A Milli verse as a lynchpin of influence style on 100s of rappers verses after it, etc etc. Kendrick hasn't *done* anything.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3901/15146220570_295b3c847b.jpg

Can't believe I only rated Kendrick because I was subconsciously buying into Pitchfork's brand-building. Thanks Raccoon!

anytime man.

Finally, a hh expert in our midst.

"Drick really had no effect on hh" is a thing that will be said often.

better thread title than the current for sure

Think we have a new name for next year's rolling hh thread

i would ask you to define 'effect', but if youre saying that GKMC might just be too anamalous a modern hip hop album to really have much demonstrable impact on the genre as a whole, then yeah, ok... but comparing kendrick to keef or wu-tang even seems a bit mismatched - hes just not that kind of rapper.

*anomalous

Scaface life lyrics can work if you're, say Biggie, with the character, force of personality, verbal technique, voice etc. Ken simply doesn't.

Skaface, a ska tribute to Geto Boys

if "effect" = "influence" we're gonna be here for a very long time

oh we're stuck here for life, might as well debate whether someone is right to feel kendrick lamar fails to live up to the legacy of the wu or wtfever

i am down with "Rolling No Effect on hh 2015"