The Greatness of Kendrick Lamar

When we talk about this generation of rappers, a lot of criticism is bashed in each of them. Old school and pioneer rappers’ main reason is that they no longer embody how impactful their lyrics were, how relevant to the society their lyrics can shape it and even turn some people’s lives.

But there’s this young kid, who started off as Kdot, and currently known as Kendrick Lamar, who carried on the “Golden Age” feels in his songs, not only how we writes his verses, but how the instrumentals create a story that blends with the verse being written.

No wonder why he has this potential of being a great rapper, grew up from in Compton, California, where rappers like Dr. Dre, Eazy E, and MC Ren also grew up.

Kendrick Lamar praised rappers like Tupac, Dr. Dre, DMX, Andre 3000, and Lil Wayne. Lamar released 5 mix tapes, 3 studio albums, and 1 compilation album.

In his first mix tape, Y.H.N.I.C, the young Kendrick Lamar was tagged as Kdot. And as Kdot, Y.H.N.I.C vibe was not that impactful as to what Kendrick Lamar spit his rhymes. Here, we can hear a young Lamar spit fresh instrumentals from Lil Wayne’s Go Dj, and Snoop Dogg’s Drop it like it’s hot. Not a bad debut album, but a kid worth to watch of what he will bring to the table next.

After Y.H.N.I.C, he released Training day, his second mix tape. Classic, killer classic beats such as such as Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got”, Notorious B.I.G’s “Who Shot Ya”, Slum Village’s “Players” as a tribute to late producer J-Dilla, and Andre 3000’s “Prototype”.  We can see a 19 year old kid killing this mix tape off the top. Although some bash Kendrick for starting to imitate Lil Wayne style of flow, but this album builds up a story of how he conquered the streets with his music.

In 2007, Kdot released his third mix tape, No Sleep till NYC. Here, we can see how Kdot evolved from his aggressive fluid flow to a chill, catchy, and impactful flow. Teaming up with another promising Emcee, Jay Rock, both of these emcees killed this mix tape.

After No Sleep till NYC, Kdot released another mix tape called C4. Here, several emcees contributed to the mix tape namely: Lil Wayne, Ab Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q. In this mix tape, we see a Kdot with a mellow aggressive flow, in praise to his idol, Lil Wayne.

After 4 mix tapes of his very young career, he released another mix tape, called Overly Dedicated. Here, a smooth transition from mellow aggressive, to his chill catchy, and fluid flow transformed.

He started to create his own identity of how he raps. In this mix tape, he did not use beats from Tha Carter III, instead, he used unique, smooth, and very abstract beats to which he rapped into his own style. Try to listen to his songs Michael Jordan, Growing Apart, Alien Girl, Barbed Wire, and Opposites Attract.

After bunches of mix tapes, Kendrick Lamar finally dropped his first studio album, Secction .80. Here, we can hear a matured Lamar, more serious themes in his songs than his mix tapes. Here Lamar stresses what he sees as poison to the society and raps about it. In his song, A.D.H.D, he said, “You know why we crack babies cuz we born in the 80s.” born from the era of crack and Ronald Reagan. For a young guy dropping this hot album, he’s got a bug future into the industry. Notable songs from the album: Rigamortis, Hiipower, Kush and Corinthians, Hol p, and Fuck your Ethnicity.

After section .80, Lamar released the famous good kid, m.A.A.d city album. I have 3 words for this album, great, brilliant, and unique. This album, tells a unique story from the very first track to the last. I have tips listening to this album. Close your eyes, and feel the songs bit by bit. When I did it in my office, I really visualize how Lamar arranged his verse structures, how catchy and unique the beats were, and how his music can make someone feel like watching a mini movie of him, just classic and dope album from him. No favorites in this album because every song were munchies. Just a concern for some with different preferences in the world of rap music, some may take his heavy materials as draggy, but to tell you, listen to it and the bars and schemes just seem to chunk in every line and in every 3 lines of the songs. A truly certified classic.

Years passed, Lamar did not fail to surprise us of what he can bring to the table as the fans and hiphop heads waited of what he can do next. Can he still level up of hi craft from good kid m.A.A.d city? Or will he fall assuming he drained all of his lyrical prowess into that album and to his past mix tapes? Well. Haters were wrong. Last 2015, Mr. Lamar released another studio album, entitled, “to Pimp a butterfly.” Complex, amazing, theatrical, compact, social relevant, and well arranged. These are the words that can best describe his album. His experimentation of his music was very surprising, enabling his tracks to be very theatrical. He was very poetic in his album. Talking about how the blacks were oppressed, how the blacks were discriminated in a spoken word flow. This album was off the charts and won Best Rap album of the year in Grammy’s. Numerous influence were very present in this album, Andre 3000, The Roots, Kamaal the Abstract and many other more. Bass wizard thunder cat gave the album a kick, making it very pleasing to the ears when you hear the songs. But what was amazing about this album is that, the verses, how it was spit, and the timing of the instrumentals, has a significant meaning and somewhat has an interconnection between them. In short, take out the lyrics, take out the music, you can create a vivid story even when these 2 elements got separated. To Pimp Aa Butterlfy is indeed a great album.

After 2 stunning albums from Kendrick, here, he delivers all the people with his very new experimentation, and the album was entitled, “untitled unmastered.” A lot of people were so surprised of his transformation, but to tell you guys I thought the 2 previous albums knocked the hell out of us more than this one. In my opinion, I think this album was a stepping stone whether he can deliver his flexibility in the highest range as possible. This album was a mix of retro jazz and hiphop, giving us a very different Lamar vibe. But what was amazing about this album was that he added versatility on how to manipulate his voice even better.

Big respect to Kendrick Lamar, a rapper who truly respected and embodied the classics, and never broke the trend of making the people aware of what rap music is all about, and that is to express yourself, express what is inside you, and express everything without missing the lyrical content of what you want to bring the masses. A very amazing insight of what I noticed in Lamar’s rap game is that, he is a new generation rapper, but the feels of hearing how he spits and how his beats and instrumentals accompany him is a mix of the new generation but still leaves an imprint of how the 80’s and the 90’s did their rap games.

A true lyrical genius, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth.