[quote=@Inkarnate] Yes. His third album [[i]To Pimp a Butterfly[/i]] is not only one of the most important hip hop records of the last twenty years, it is also so mindfully produced and composed. I'm almost tempted to revoke your hip hop card here; anybody worth their salt within the genre would tear apart this idea. What're you going to say next? Danny Brown is wack? Please. Listen to the man's words and rhymes, really [i]listen[/i], don't just hear it. I don’t even worship at the altar of Kendrick Lamar but I can recognize he is a technically proficient MC, a prolific storyteller, and great rapper overall. [hider=1][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh6QxtRpSH8[/youtube][/hider] [hider=2][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK0hxKGtqOw[/youtube][/hider] [hider=3][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLG10604Cig[/youtube][/hider] [hider=4][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W06HM7JMN4k[/youtube][/hider] [hider=5][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwR_1EP18eo[/youtube][/hider] [hider=6][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRYQMLDW4[/youtube][/hider] [/quote] Now hold on. I Stan Kendrick just as hard as I Stan literally any other fucking rapper. K.dot is my fucking man. He's my motherfucking homie, okay. I live, breathe, eat and drink K.dot. That track DNA? Fire. But I'm not gonna pretend TPAB was anything more than an essay over a beat. Because that's what it was. It was social commentary composed on rhyme and beat and flow, but it wasn't fiya. It wasn't none of the hot shit we're used to from Kendrick, and you know what, that's okay, because it's a piece of art in the same way that Donald Glover's Kauai album was a piece of art but it was nowhere close to being a banger. It's the same as Kanye diversifying himself because of artistry. It's the same as Tyler the Creator making fashion because of artistry. They do shit in their own way and so does Kendrick. TPAB is important because it has social commentary mixed with a good ass set of beats and relatable subjects (for his target audience) and frankly it's worth it's weight in gold 200x over for that. But I'm not really sure I'd classify it as 'a classic' just because of that. It's a classic in what it brought to the table and how it reworked the entire scene. But to say TPAB itself is a musical masterpiece or 'it is also so mindfully produced and composed' is something I don't necessarily agree with (music is subjective and what sounds like good production and composition to you sounds less like that to me, compared to the previous/later albums which I [i]know[/i] we both like). Perhaps most importantly, what I personally think made him into an all time legend was this verse; [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XqNq_oeSMM&ytbChannel=DeMTeee[/youtube] You [i]remember[/i] this god damn verse when it dropped? The moment all the rappers he sent shots to responded saying they loved it and felt enervated to respond to him? How even motherfucking Eminem acknowledged it? And he did it [i]with a devilish flow and some bomb ass rhymes.[/i] You trynna tell me this wasn't the moment he became a legend? I think it [i]most definitely[/i] is the most important moment for him. Also, [@Fabricant451] [@SleepingSilence], I am kind of eternally saddened by the fact that neither you, nor Inkarnate mentioned MF Doom. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiOYkS877Xk&ytbChannel=morefishscale[/youtube] Rap is such a wide genre. While metal is certainly a wide genre, it all begins sounding kinda samey after some time ([i]I can say that, I used to be a metalhead[/i]). The same goes for pop. Especially for pop. But rap? Rap is endless. Timeless even. You can see that because even now we're hitting new flows, new beats, new speeds of rap, new genres to talk about, rap is internationalizing, we have rappers out in the UK that sound entirely different from rappers in the US that sound entirely different from rappers in China, Japan, Vietnam, I have Dutch rappers in my country that do things entirely different and make it [i]work[/i] and that's so good to listen to because I can explore rap endlessly and find new things [i]all the time.[/i] So when you ask 'why do people like rap? It's only about guns drugs and women' then you are doing yourself a disservice by 1) generalizing it like that. I listen to rap about guns drugs and women. I listen to $uicideboy$ or Pouya, or Migos and Future, Young Thug or Chief Keef. I love that shit. But I get it's not for everyone, you know. But 2) you're also just blocking out an entire genre that is soooooo much wider than that. Not even to talk about the cross-genre steps we've made with rap. It's amazing and I hope we can continue getting more and more of that shit.