The newest Kendrick Lamar album, DAMN., was released just a week ago. While it isn’t my favorite Kendrick Lamar album, it is likely the best hip-hop album since To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, Kendrick’s last official full-length album, though there is a case to be made for Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition, released last summer. DAMN. is by far Kendrick Lamar’s most contemporary project, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. Anyways, I’m not here to review DAMN., at least not until I’ve had a while to sit with it.
A popular discussion on the various music forums across the internet is who or what is the “greatest.” You’ll hear discussions about the greatest albums of all time, the greatest metal bands, the greatest singer-songwriters, etc. One extremely common one is “who is the greatest rapper of all time?” The most common names mentioned are Biggie, 2Pac, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. Occasionally you’ll see an LL Cool J or an MC Ren, but that seems to be a fringe group.
My problem with these discussions are how quickly modern artists are exempt from the discussion. Gen-X hip-hop fans are quick to dismiss Drake and Tech N9ne, which I feel is warranted, but they lump in Kendrick Lamar with the “it’s new so it must be bad” crowd, which I feel is unfair. We can go on all day about rose-colored glasses, but I’d like to present my arguments in favor of Kendrick Lamar being the greatest rapper of all time.
1.) Kendrick Lamar represents a return to critical favor for hip-hop. I’m not saying that he started this trend, but hip-hop has moved towards more conceptual and artistic pursuits since the early and mid-00’s, arguably the worst period in the genre’s history. When you look at the music of Jay-Z and Eminem, it tends to be less experimental and conceptual than many of the albums released today. Not that being simple means that your music is bad, but it lowers the replay value of your projects, and it’s far more forgettable.
Kendrick Lamar has been using ingenious concepts and ideas in his music since good kid, m.A.A.d. city, but it isn’t too conceptual that it’s impossible to understand what’s going on or appreciate the music, in fact, the concepts are clear and it only enhances your appreciation of the music. He has gone far enough into left field to intrigue you, but not too far where he’s impossible to understand. His storytelling capacity reaches Bowie levels of complexity, but Dylan levels of simplicity, and he finds the perfect balance. In my opinion, Eminem and Jay-Z occupy the sphere of hip-hop that is easy to listen to, and shows moments of brilliance or wit, but never dwells in brilliance.
2.) Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur were exceptional lyricists with exceptional flow, but never ventured far from the familiar samples of the time. While that may be the fault of Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records as opposed to B.I.G. and Pac, it doesn’t offer much variety in terms of the sound. Biggie was a great technical rapper, perhaps the best ever, but his writing skills left much to be desired, as you can only take so much talk of sex, weed smoking, partying, and spending money before it gets old. 2Pac was the better writer, with songs ranging from racial and political issues to songs about his mother, but his flow was always the same with the words “feel me” or “show me love” interspersed all over this albums. Kendrick Lamar falls closer to 2Pac when it comes to his flow and writing style, but is a better writer and technical rapper in my opinion. He’s not as good a rapper as Biggie, but I think he comes close and then outdoes him when it comes to writing.
3.) Many critics of Kendrick Lamar claim that he doesn’t hold up when it comes to hits and beats. Many modern rappers in G.O.A.T. consideration have the advantage here, namely Kanye West and Drake. Yes, Kanye West has perhaps the best production in hip-hop, likely because he is a genius producer. If you don’t think Kanye is a genius, just listen to “Champion” from Graduation, “POWER” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and any song from Yeezus, because these beats are absolute art. I would also say that Drake has some pretty solid beats, but they’re far too simple for my taste.
There’s no way that I can make the argument that Kendrick has better production value on his albums than Kanye West, but to me, I prefer the entire piece of work that Kendrick Lamar crafts. Kanye West used to rap about a wide array of topics in his first three outings and 808s and Heartbreak, but shifted to rapping about himself and his accomplishments with a small amount of topics being not-so-prominently featured on his subsequent works. Kendrick’s flow and writing skills blow Kanye and Drake out of the water, but I guess that’s the fault of the guys who write Drake’s rhymes. People still think that Drake has better beats than Kendrick, but I’ll argue that Drake’s beats are merely more appealing to the pop crowd and not necessarily objectively better… you won’t see George Clinton or Thundercat producing a Drake album.
4.) Kendrick Lamar has been extremely culturally relevant, especially when you consider that he’s only been in the mainstream consciousness since roughly 2012 when good kid, m.A.A.d city was released. His single, “Alright”, served as the unofficial theme song for Black Lives Matter, he was given the key to the city of Compton, and is an ambassador for the city. Kendrick Lamar’s influence is undeniable, even David Bowie took a few notes from To Pimp A Butterfly and created his swan song, Blackstar.
Never before has a hip-hop artist come so close to Dylan levels of cultural relevancy. Agree or disagree with what he’s saying in his music, it’s powerful. While Kanye was busy talking about bleached assholes, Kendrick has been talking about some of the most important questions our society is asking at this juncture. Eminem has been making the same album since 2002, Drake has other people writing his music, and older rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas, and Common have lost their relevance. Since 2012, Kendrick has only gotten more attention and I don’t see that going away anytime soon.
5.) Like I said above, many rappers release the same album over and over. Jay-Z hasn’t released an important album since The Black Album, Eminem can’t get away from writing songs about the same three or four topics since The Eminem Show, Drake has never released an album that has captured the intellect of his audience, the quality of Kanye’s music has declined somewhat since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and there are a score of artists that can’t balance contemporary and critical appeal without becoming insanely asinine (Nicki Minaj) or too experimental or industrial to reach a consistent audience (clipping.). Kendrick Lamar is able to release vastly different projects without losing his audience or his wit and charm. Section.80 is far from good kid, m.A.A.d city, and that album is different from To Pimp A Butterfly, and To Pimp A Butterfly is far different than DAMN. They all have some traits in common, but listen to Section.80 and DAMN. and tell me that it doesn’t show a significant evolution in his artistry.
I won’t make any more points trying to prove that K-Dot is the greatest of all time. I can see someone saying Andre 3000, Q-Tip, Ghostface Killah, Rakim, Lauryn Hill, Scarface, Big Daddy Kane, Redman, Nas, Lil Wayne, or any of the artists that I mentioned above, but I feel that Kendrick Lamar might very well be the greatest of all time and I wanted to present my argument. For seven years, Kendrick Lamar has captivated his fans, myself included, with his lyricism and artistic integrity and I don’t think any artist has been able to do that before or since. Feel free to debate me any time, but Kendrick Lamar is the greatest rapper of all time.
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