Is Kendrick Lamar Already One Of The Greatest Rappers Of All Time?
Since 2009, the Compton MC has built his legend one verse, song, and album at a time
This week, we’re taking a closer look at the path Kendrick Lamar’s traveled leading up to his new album release, from scrappy rookie to his current position as rap’s would-be king. Be sure to check out the introductory piece for more insight on this week’s offerings.
Kendrick Lamar is undoubtedly one of the best rappers of his generation. Since the 2009 release of The Kendrick Lamar EP (KLEP), the Compton emcee has built his legend one verse, song, and album at a time.
His newest LP is set for release on Friday so now’s the perfect time to look at his career thus far and ask a simple question: is Kendrick already one of the greatest rappers of all-time (G.O.A.T)?
Kendrick’s Catalog Is Already Pretty Incredible
The question seems blasphemous. Some will cry it’s too soon to ask because Lamar’s career isn’t over yet. Even though he’s been signed since 2005, he really didn’t come into conscious until the 2011 release of Section.80 (S.80). He’s still got time to fuck up.
That’s a reasonable moment for caution. A common denominator of rappers on the G.O.A.T. list is how they’ve made music over the course of their careers. Arguments become more solidified when rappers get a chance to shake back.
Imagine Nas starting off with Illmatic and It Was Written then dying after Nastradamus. What if Jay-Z gave the world Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime: Volume 1 (a fire album, btw), but retired before The Blueprint? Does A Tribe Called Quest still garner everlasting love if they dropped The Low End Theory and disbanded before they created Midnight Marauders?
These examples can go on forever but rappers — Notorious B.I.G. being one of the lone exceptions — need long careers and chances to fuck up before they join these hallowed grounds. Rap fans have seen plenty of emcees with potential crash down to Earth in a fiery blaze like the Hindenburg. K. Dot, however, already has a tremendous body of work.
S.80 found the West Coast emcee playing the role of upstart rapper, breathing new life for an entire generation of artists. His debut, Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City (GKMC), was one of the best released rap albums of 2012. To Pimp a Butterfly (TPAB) won the sort of critical acclaim people were sure rappers who “strictly rapped” weren’t capable of winning.
On the eve of the release for his new album expectations have never been higher. He seems poised to meet, and possibly exceed, those expectations after lighting the internet on fire with “The Heart Pt. 4” and “Humble.” Even if he doesn’t, it still doesn’t take away from what he’s done thus far.
Kendrick Is Really, Really Good at Rapping
The current landscape of mainstream rap is filled with rappers who aren’t good at rapping. We live in an age where people question if the “traditional” album is being replaced by “playlists.” But if albums are dead, Kendrick missed the memo.
Albums are important to the Compton rapper and it’s clear by the work he puts into them. GKMC feels like an audio crossover between Boyz N Da Hood and Menace 2 Society. TPAB is an expert lesson in cohesion and how to hook a listener from the opening track to the LP’s closing moments.
Even his earlier efforts still exhibit a form of thematic direction. S.80 — whether you believe this to be his true debut is irrelevant — was released in 2011 and has a level of polish his contemporaries still haven’t matched. Overly Dedicated (OD) feels every bit like someone who’s “overly dedicated” to being the best at his craft and his self-titled EP features some of his most personal work to date.
The 29-year-old rapper exhibits greatness when crafting albums, but his albums are composed of lyrics and he’s really good at writing those, too. When he’s not blowing minds and reaching for the stars on personal projects he loves to embarrass your favorite rappers during guest features. His list of bodies is longer than the lunchtime wait at Chic-Fil-A.
Kendrick washed Jay Z up and put him out to pasture on “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix).” He committed multiple murders when he brutalized MMG’s “Power Circle.” His crowning feature on Drake’s sophomore album Take Care, an interlude after “Marvin’s Room” titled “Buried Alive,” was one of the best verses on the album.
In addition to his abilities to craft narratives and lyrically execute rappers, his storytelling abilities would make Slick Rick take off his eye patch as a sign of respect. It’s nearly impossible to name all of the songs where his narrative skills are best exemplified but, if there was contest for which song to pick, “These Walls” would be his best contribution.
There’s something ethereal about the way TPAB track was written that sounded like a love song and ended as a revenge tale. It required most people multiple listens and plenty of discussion before they realized it was a sequel to another excellent storytelling example in “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.”
In examining Kendrick as a technician, there’s a couple of places he might not be as strong as others. As mentioned earlier, he’s not a punchline rapper and it can really be difficult to capture his brilliance within a rhyming couplet. Additionally, much to Big Sean’s ire, sometimes he raps too fast and the content may not always be top notch when slowed down.
Otherwise, it’s difficult to see where he outright lacks as an emcee. It’s much easier to talk about all the ways he’s better than everyone else.
Kendrick Has Already Left His Mark
The last thing to consider within his place on the G.O.A.T. list is by judging the Compton rapper’s impact. Accolades and rewards are subject to all kinds of politics and there’s a question of whether Grammys and Billboard nominations should matter.
There are plenty of arguments to be made against using either as a standard of excellence, however, it’s hard to ignore it in Kendrick’s case for one simple reason: he’s racking up these wins while being lyric-driven in an industry where lyrics often take a backseat.
After the release of TPAB, the TDE front man was nominated for 11 Grammys. For context, Eminem was the previous record holder for rap nominations and Mr. Lamar’s nomination numbers that year are second only to Michael Jackson, who had 12 in 1984. Kendrick won five awards that night including the coveted “Rap Album of the Year.”
TPAB has permeated American culture in a way that would’ve been unthinkable ten to 15 years ago. A cursory Google search of the album name showed 361,000 articles and the headlines alone will tell the story.
College professors are teaching courses on Kendrick Lamar. TPAB was added to Harvard’s Library archives. There’s a teacher who stopped teaching a lesson on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye so he could instruct his students on the finer points of TPAB.
Drake, Rick Ross, Freddie Gibbs and a number of other high profile releases were out toward the end of last month and the beginning of this month. Everyone has fallen beneath Lamar’s shadow. It truly felt as if everyone was talking about Rather You Than Me and More Life until Kendrick took over the spotlight with “The Heart Pt. 4” and “Humble.”
To quote Kanye West, “No one man should have all that power.”
Should the album release, April 7th is going to be a big day for Kendrick Lamar. It’s his first official follow-up to the biggest album in his career. If he’s able to drop another arguable classic, the conversation is going to shift from whether he can make the G.O.A.T. list to how high he’d be on it.
With that said, if he quit rap today he’s got a pretty strong case to be included as one of the best rappers of all-time.
You can find Garfield ranting away on Twitter at @Smooth_Orator or hear his thoughts on his podcast, @NWAPCast.
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