I think it is legitimately time to start reconsidering who the greatest rapper alive is.
For much time, as long as i have been following rap closely and even before that I have considered Lil Wayne to be the greatest rapper alive. My friends and I have had this debate plenty of times. To me, Lil Wayne has done plenty to move the rap industry forward and would have likely already released his long-anticipated installment in the Carter series, Carter V, if it wasn’t for Birdman refusing to release it. With Carter V stalled for a prolonged time we have only seen two albums from Lil Wayne since his Carter IV release in August of 2011 along with a collaboration album with 2 Chainz(Collegrove) and severeal mixtapes scattered within like Sorry For The Wait 2 and No Ceilings 2. While it appears that Lil Wayne’s career may be winding down it is time to consider a changing of the guard for he title of “Greatest Rapper Alive”.
I believe as of April 14, 2017, the day that Kendrick Lamar released DAMN., K-Dot is worthy of consideration for that title now that Lil Wayne has sort of tailed off. To no fault of his own, as Birdman has been holding the Carter V and any other music Weezy is hoping to release in the near future. Don’t get me wrong, I think Lil Wayne is one of the greatest of all-time and if he isn’t the greatest rapper alive right now, he would be easily top 3.
Kendrick fans have been waiting years for K-Dot to come through with something like this. Ever since good kid, m.A.A.d. city fans have waited for Kendrick to drop some cold bars with a west coast flavor. Since that album, Kendrick released two albums that have strayed a bit from his typical rap album. To Pimp a Butterfly was more of a soul/R&B with more of a hip-hop vibe, something that Kendrick hardly touched prior to To Pimp A Butterfly. To Pimp a Butterfly was also more conscious rap about ongoing political issues, a detour from the typical gang/ street raps that we saw on good kid, m.A.A.d. city. After that we were treated to untitled unmastered. That album
was as the title suggests, released without audio mastering and no real overarching
theme but was basically an extension of music that he never finished from around the same time as To Pimp a Butterfly and consists of the same genre bending hip-hop.
Fans of Kendrick knew it was go-time for K-Dot when he released “HUMBLE.” the lead single to DAMN. Prior to that he released “The Heart pt. 4”, in that song he was quoted saying, “Y’all got ’til April the 7th to get y’all shit together.” Many, including myself, were lead to believe that this was the release date for his album but turned out to be wrong as it was released a week later. The album is complete with fourteen songs with minimal features as only Zacari, Rihanna, and U2 appear on DAMN.
This music video that Kendrick released alongside the single “HUMBLE.” is extremely captivating and I highly recommend watching if you haven’t seen it yet. Kendrick’s music videos only continue to get better and more powerful as he progresses.
My Top 5 Songs
Take this with a grain of salt as I have only given the album a listen twice now and it has been under twelve hours since release.
1. “FEAR.”
2.”DNA.”
3. “DUCKWORTH.”
4. “XXX.” featuring U2
5. “LOYALTY.” featuring Rihanna
My Overall Rating : 5/5