This hard

This is kinda nuts.

This album legit has a chance to have 7 platinum songs.

Luther
TV off
Whacced out Murals
Dodger Blue
Squabble Up
Reincarnation
Hey Now

Has an album ever did that?

Astroworld and DAMN. have done it IIRC

That’s crazy!!

BLOOD. was gold 6 years ago hilarious

Yooooooo

Switch GKMC with damn and that’s my list. Ngl I had Mr morale above sxn 80 but after a revisit, I forgot how much I loved that tape

Imagine riding down the street and a nigga blasting BLOOD. Loud as s***. Instrumental has always been crazy though.

very contemporary sound, it's similar to the way people talk about graduation

This.

And this album is also the perfect argument for when I say replay value doesn't equal the best

He doesn't do anything for the west coast tho lol

Well, I guess we’ll find out within the next few weeks if the 2nd album/deluxe was legit or not.

It’s not really that complicated. TPAB’s relevance among critics was a bit of a slow catch-up and by the time institutionally it got critical acclaim, Kendrick was at peak popularity w the public. Critics felt like they missed the mark and were out of the know, and used DAMN as a vehicle to make up for missing the timing on giving critical applause to his last album.

start your day off with that man at the garden

It was like the second or third highest rated album of all-time on Metacritic on release though.

Anydecentmusic is another review aggregator that released around the time TPAB and to this day it’s still the highest rated album on their site.

Hell, I vividly remember a lot of prominent publications calling it a day one instant classic.

If you were around when TPAB came out you remember the acclaim trickled in over time and wasn’t immediate. It’s not to say it didn’t receive acclaim - it’s that initial reception was delayed (in part due to the botched rollout$

I feel like that was primarily among general listeners though.

I was there, I was posting on KTT at the time. I remember when King Kunta leaked and the mixed response among people on the site because it was such a swerve from GKMC.

I remember the album accidentally being uploaded early in a clean format.

The early leaked album cover with Schoolboy’s handwriting all over it.

General audience was mixed because they wanted/expected a GKMC2, but (publicized) critics came out the gate swinging in its favor.

Nah was well received by general listeners as well. This the problem with the internet, we can’t ever truly know.

My AP Lit teacher deadass asked me when I walked into class a few days after it dropped if I’ve heard of this dude named Kendrick Lamar. White lady. I can’t make this up, put it on my life lmao.

I said yea, he just dropped a classic really digging into the black experience

She deadass told me she listened to it all night and was considering changing her curriculum to incorporate the album into her literature a***ysis

After sitting with GNX I'm very comfortable putting it top 3

TPAB
GKMC
GNX
Morale
DAMN
S80
UU

Not the same but my English teacher in high school (old white lady) heard us debating Wayne vs Em vs Ye vs Hov in class and she took the time and went through all their discographies so she could join the discussion lmao. (she chose Hov cause she thought he was the least misogynistic)

Morale over DAMN is blasphemy respectfully

Morale means a lot to me personally and my mental health improvement. I think the deep cuts on DAMN are some of Kendrick's best music, but the songs that blew up just are overplayed to me and I never have the feeling to go back to them, but I get it for sure

Respect gang I’m glad the album helped your mental health

This crazy, I had no idea this was him

Do you have any archive of those leaks?