Welcome to ktt2

He's been mainly 2nd biggest rapper and sometimes dips to 3rd for nearly two decades there's not many ways to go after that

If MMBS a major artsy album and GNX a major regional album is selling out then more ppl should sell out

That's literally where he was when this loosie came out

Ppl in this thread seem to have forgotten that having been ''cooler'' aint mean you were ''cool''

Actually agree

Kendrick wasn't as straightforward "cool" (in terms of aesthetic and image) till damn era

Which was always both a knock and big up on him

It's just new thing bad old thing good itt without any context or facts

Kendrick has tons of foundational anthems and hits. Not Like Us is probably one of the biggest rap anthem hits of this decade so far alone.

Thats because of the competition level and way the industry went moreso than Cole Drake and Kendrick although Cole Drake and Kendrick are great

I wish Jay Drake Kendrick Wayne Em 50 Cole Kanye each separately did a show in a stadium for a week to show what I’m talking about lol

But he still accomplished what you said and then some doing what he did

Which is basically just a more street Kanye who even does big cinematic albums and the mainstream album artsy album tradeoff

He has less music than them, only one he prob has more in terms of volume is Cole

But every project of his had hits and anthems, be featured on a decent amount of them too

Kendrick and Cole is losing this tho majorly in terms of a sheer volume number

It was the mystery

Think in terms of Kanye having CD LR Grad before 808s MBDTF Yeezus whereas (although S80 his real debut) it goes from GKMC to TPAB to DAMN to MMBS

If we pretend GKMC is his debut, as it kind of might as well be, he went straight into the artsy statement albums without the foundational more digestible albums like Ye’s first three

Not saying its bad just saying i wouldnt have minded more albums with typical beats and themes we’d expect from Kendrick/TDE/Black Hippy type s*** and then go super artsy, and those would be where more of his “anthems” are

Y’all hate art

Imo LR is the artsy album of the original 3

The whole orchestral sound, collab and time lengths and the more "forward thinking"

Although you can say it's in a more middle ground than clear cut, but I would also say GKMC can also be seen in a more middle ground light too n especially for it time was even seen as "higher level" then, it just had mainstream singles but all the in between is a head flip from the expectation or set up of the singles

But I think the foundation is from his mixtape era and especially s80, which Kanyes era didn't have the luxury of mixtapes outside of them basically being demos or local talk until part of 50 Cent and especially later on with lil wayne

Just a different era, where mixtapes is your introductions and you can't build a narrative with album or else you get left behind (which sadly did happen to some rappers of the 2010s era)

And also of course the break of damn/bp to MMBS left a lot of years and space that would have otherwise been filled normally with more work n examples, just sucks that hiatus happened - especially at his height where he literally just beaten everyone and is to this day the only album that stepped next to or over drake

ovo goons runnin meme pages pushing the agenda, iykyk

Love both versions, but I agree.

what made kendrick as big as he is was because he mixed the artsy s*** with the digestible s***. not sure how old you are or if you were around when gkmc dropped but literally half of that album was being played everywhere when it dropped. if anything his only flaw is not updating his certifications cus people forget that album is diamond eligible and it holds the record for longest running hip hop album in chart history (not counting eminem greatest hits)

I feel like I'm going insane, I know its been like 14+ years since I heard this but I never realised that Kendrick was on this song??

he was simply younger
and more rooted in the streets
obviously if you stay in touch with that side of your life and those people, you're always affiliated, but Kendrick probably felt a desire to smooth out those edges and keep those ties in his back pocket a bit to really reach that top of the mountain

First time I saw K.Dot he was just a lil weed carrier for Jay Rock pretending do sing Will.I.Am's part in this song