Hip-Hop Thread Genre • Page 771

arguably almost every time.

 

if kanye is the rap radiohead, lupe is travis, at best.

 

Is there an artist as popular as Kendrick who put out an album as dense (and good and important and influential) as TPAB? No one is saying that he was the first, he wasn't, but I think he pushed a lot of elements that were not super prevalent in hip hop to a level that my students were listening to and interested in.


EDIT:
Aside from ye, that is

 

Ugh tbh as a casual fan of Kendrick, this conversation is painful. TPAB is not the apex of creativity in hip-hop and clearly we need to bring back the decade classics thread for y’all to get that.

 

I just think it’s everywhere, NoI or no

 

Does Frank Ocean count? Only other artist I can think of on that level with that kind of experimentation, but I also think Frank is much more inventive musically by comparison.

 

Brian Austin Green

 

The Roots > Kendrick

 

hahaha why are you talking to me like some dork that doesn't know the genre. I've shit on Kendrick and criticized his overzealous fandom since he first started to blow up. I can still give credit to TPAB for the level of innovation it had on popular hip hop. That response seems like a deflection. What other album since the mid 00s had that much attention from mainstream media, casual hip hop listeners and hardcore fans while still maintaining the level of innovation and depth and cohesion that TPAB does? I genuinely can't really think of one. Maybe Frank Ocean but that's a debate for another time.

 

Absolutely, but I think most of the general population know them as Fallon's backing band instead of their actual music.

 

They’re not huge, but also not underground I’d say

 

By no means, Questlove is a legitimate celebrity. They also haven't released anything that matched the attention that casual fans, teenagers, the media etc. gave to Kendrick...ever?

 

Who on earth thinks The Roots are underground?

Anyone who is interested in the genre knows who they are, but they don't have the crossover hits, or even attempts at crossing over, that Kendrick has. And that's probably intentional! But I don't think it's some big mystery why one isn't as big as the other. Anyone who knows shit about hip hop knows that Black Thought is probably a top 10 MC at absolute worst.

 

I mean what competition does Kendrick have in terms of mainstream mainstream hip hop? Drake, Ye, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Migos (at the time)... Big Sean?

 

thats a fair and separate point than your original post, which made me think you were talking about more than just since the mid 2000’s, and calling TPAB the most creative of em all. OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/TLB is one that comes to mind. Other albums that “bring together old and new heads” that come to mind are unfortunately not nearly as popular in mainstream hip-hop

edit: but they do exist

 

The top hip hop albums on Billboard the year it came out:
Drake
Nicki
J. Cole
Meek
Big Sean
Drake & Future
Rae Sremmurd

You can see why people think it was innovative, it sounds nothing like any of those tapes, doesn't follow any of the trends that other major artists tend to gravitate towards

 

yeah i don’t see anyone in here since this discussion started saying kendrick is their fave or that he’s the best. just that he’s better than lupe fiasco, a take i didn’t know would be such a scorcher in 2020 lol.

 

quit calling everything a tape, nick! these are albums!!

 

^^^^Motherfucker, this should say TPAB haha

 

I say tapes about everything!

 

I don't think my point has changed at all? I'm saying that TPAB was novel in terms of the time and place in which it was created. It was a mainstream hip hop album that teens, casual listeners and hip hop heads all rallied around, and on top of that it was cohesive and good. I was too young when Aquemini came out to remember if it had the same heat to it (it was popular based off of the numbers), but I'm 100% positive that Goodie Mob didn't reach anywhere near the level of prominence that Kendrick did. Plus, they were both 20+ years ago.

No one is saying it's the first or only album to do the shit that it did. I'm saying that the level of attention it got with the general public, plus how good it was, makes it earn the reputation that it has. I don't think there's an album outside of MBDTF to hit that mark for the genre in the last decade or so.

 

Btw I think that in a 2010s mainstream context, what you are saying is true and I’m not annoyed at people that only know that context saying the stuff the say about Kendrick and whatever album they happen to champion. I do find it a little odd when people that definitely do know better (or should in the case of writers) - i.e. definitely do know The Roots and all the classics - get all hyperbolic about him and whatever album they like. Not just about Kendrick btw. Drake is another, much more egregious example.

 

I'll put it this way: TPAB would rank in my top 10 albums of the last decade, but not place on my top 25 hip hop albums ever.

 

Mostly Cole and Drake, maybe Travis, maybe Cardi

 

I’d say he’s a better artist than Lupe. He’s also a better rapper “technically” I’d say, though Lupe is good. I also don’t like Lupe’s discography aside from his first album. But everything else being equal, focusing purely on how they sound while rapping, I’d rather listen to Lupe rap.