Take. But after the June teen concert and Kendrick winning his first ever hip hop beef, not just any beef, mind you, but like a heavyweight round, this wasn’t like an MMM or MGK situation where one is clearly bigger and more monumental than the other in hip hop. His first real rap battle in 15 years was a KO. After all this, now, Kendrick is bigger than he’s probably ever been at this moment. And if he does just one more thing this summer, I believe it will solidify him as the greatest rapper to ever do it. And I’m talking ever, like above J. NAS, big POC, 3 stacks, rock him, M&M, you name it. I think this will put him above all them dudes. And here’s what I think he’s gotta do. Kendrick’s gotta come out with an album this summer that has these three qualifiers. No.1, we need a good kid Mad City Part 2. And I’m not talking like a literal successor, like an actual part 2, more of like a spiritual successor, or maybe like a spiritual successor. Basically, what we need is to see Kendrick in his radio friendly bag again. His form on GKMC and dam was the perfect blend of lyrical substance and digestible melodies, hooks, production. Don’t get me wrong, I think t. PAB is Kendrick’s greatest album, maybe one of the greatest albums in all of hip pop. And also I actually think miss him around the Big Steppers with time will go down as one of the most important hip hop albums of the decade, lyrically and conceptual. However, a lot of people had a big barrier of entry to Kendrick’s music on that last record cuz it was so heavy to digest and so introspective and intricate and involved in almost emotionally taxing to listen through. TPAB was not as intense, but definitely up that same vein on that side of Kendrick’s catalog to really capitalize on this top of the mountain moment, I think Kendrick needs to give us an album with less barrier of entry for the average listener. In fact, what we really need is just an entire album up the vein of these disc tracks he’s been dropping. Think about it, Euphoria, 6:16 in LA, not like us, top tier lyricism. All of them has lyrics you can dissect for till forever. But the beats are so catchy, the hooks are so catchy, so unique, so fun to replay. That’s what we need. Not like us. It’s probably Kendrick Lamar’s most catchy and radio friendly song he’s ever put out in 15 years. And he accomplished all that without sacrificing lyrical value. And that’s what we need, an entire higher album of not like us.
Which brings me to my next point. No. 2, he actually needs to give us an album, like, not like us in these diss tracks, but without any mention of Drake, some subliminals here and there, sure, that’s fine. But I hope we don’t get any new major jabs at Drake on his next album. We need a solid body of work that will stand the test of time, and we just can’t have too much clutter because even though this is an amazing moment in hip hop history, this is just a moment. And because of that, I’m sure he knows this, he’s not gonna dilute the album with references to this beef. And if he does, he’ll do it in a very tasteful and subliminal way like he has on previous albums. But if Drake does reignite the feud this summer with another dish track, which rumor is he’s cooking something up right now. If Kendrick drops another Dis Andre, I hope they’re in the forms of singles that are completely unattached to any official release. And last and probably most import, Gordon. I think that he needs to give us an undeniable classic, in my opinion, over the course of five projects he’s released, Kendrick has given us five classic albums. I don’t think he’s missed yet. Right now he’s up there with outcast and Kanye West is having the most consistent discography in all of hip hop history. But Mr Morale so far is not a unanimous class classic. At most, I could call it a cult classic. I already know some of y’all are in the comments right now telling me how Mr Morale was me. This next album needs to be unanimous. Everybody’s got to know this is that , bro. And we don’t need to come to the conclusion that it’s a classic in the first month or two of its release. I don’t even like calling albums classic until they’ve been out for two or three years, because often time can change our perspective on music. But not like us is already a certified West Coast classic. We need another album like that. And that’s it, guys. If Kendrick drops this summer and he delivers on those three things, I believe he’ll go down as the undisputed champion, the Michael Jordan, the Mohammad Ali of hip. And that’s dead or alive. Since the birth of the genre up to this point. I know he might already be there without the things on this list. Let me know what y’all think.