Mecca wrote:Kendrick understands that he's the leader of hip-hop right now. He realizes he has a voice and takes a roll as a messenger. Saying we are overthinking his music is an insult to Kendrick as well as hip-hop. This is what REAL rap is all about. Decoding bars, understanding story lines. This is why I fell in love with hip-hop. I'm not letting a Drake stan tell me otherwise. lol
Real talk right here man, thanks for that. A little story I'd like to share if you don't mind, because you touched on some feels tonight:
First time I heard Kendrick was by luck, in "Swimming Pools" (Drank) I was having issues in my personal life, lost my job, started drinking heavily, and one night while sitting in my living room, lights out, drinking a nasty 4Loko (was broke and took whatever I got my hands on) I heard this song...and paid attention to his words...I thought ****..it's like he's talking about me!!!! And that feeling came back...to actually listen to the lyrics, hit rewind and break down the bars, understand the message of the rapper and relate it to your own situation.....and isn't that the essence of rap? When I was a kid I was chastised for listening to Tupac....people made fun of me, said I was trying to be gangsta, thug, wannabe, what do I know about the struggle as an Indian kid? Well, you take those words and you put them in your own story, your own plight, your own life, and you relate, and I had not done that on a new song/artist in a long time until I heard KDot's Drank. I started asking around, and got a hold of some good names, and have started to pay attention to the message again, instead of just listening to hip-hop during party time.
To the people who say they can't listen to him because of his weak beats, Kendrick and other guys like J.Cole, make you pay attention, and even care for and relate to the words they are saying, not just the synthesized beat that the sound engineer created. They can rap their song a Capella, but the meat and potatoes is still there...can a trapp beat rapper say the same thing? To an outside the culture person like me, if I want to listen to rap...I need to hear a message, otherwise there are plenty of other songs in other genres that have catchy tunes and more sensible lyrics to enjoy.
Sure, his beats might not be on point for some....but then you're missing the point....might as well put on some Panda
I gotta say though, it was so much easier to get good hip-hop back in the day. You stopped by Jamaica Ave, popped into one of those CD/mixtape/barbershop/hat stores, a hip hop head would give you suggestions and for 5 bucks you had some new music. Now you gotta search and search and then listen until you find something good. I still remember the guys face who sold me 50's first "album" and what he said....."you gon' like dis **** homie...gon' make you rob somebody...don't let pops listen to it doe, ya heard?" Dude looked like Method Man lol. Those were the days.......... oops, here I go again