it’s interesting ppl feel this way because tbh I’ve played this album front to back more than any of his others besides GKMC

He easily is. I’ve been critical of Cole his entire career but ever since 2019 he’s been sharpening his pen and improving as a lyricist every year

I like The Off Season more than Mr. Morale

Kendrick isn't focused on bars/punchlines anymore. His lyrics on Damn and Morale are more focused towards forming a complete narrative across the album. If you want bars, Cole might be your preference now. But across their careers, Kendrick is still the far better lyricist

(Think this a mez song tho)

I agree to some degree but one thing i wanna say, I do think Cole does storytelling way better than he get credits for too

I think where Cole fails for a lot of people is that he isn't super artsy or experimental. Different rappers have different strengths, and Cole isn't some deep philosopher or existential artist, he's just a guy who can rap really well. the people in hip hop he looks up to and he's inspired by shine through a lot in his career

i will say tho when he pulled up to No Jumper during the "fuck j cole" meme days, he literally told adam22 he like didn't understand what atheism was. Obviously after hearing something like that I didn't think he was gonna drop a masterpiece reflecting on the human condition. however, i don't think something needs to be deep or philosophical or artsy to be good or even a masterpiece.

this is one thing that annoys me, people who talk as if kendrick's work is automatically better than his contemporaries because it touches on philosophical topics. like yeah it adds a level of interest to it for sure but some of the highest rated albums in the history of the genre are just people taking the medium to the best extent of its technical elements (i.e. Illmatic), not everything needs to be some wild existential piece of philosophy to be meaningful musically

Cole getting murdered on a track with Kendrick and Drake

Like Cole, but god the disturbing amount of literal poop bars is astonishing

First things first Rest In Peace uncle Phil forreal

You’re the only father that I ever knew I had my b**** praying I would be a better you

Disingenuous

I hear you but yeah that’s what I’m saying

Cole has become that guy for bars out of the big 3 now days & he’s been positioning himself that way for a few years now

somebody put a fitted cap on a snapback

Not surprised. This project was Kendrick’s closest to a Cole project in a lot of ways and the sales put him in Cole’s category

RIP the KenDrake wars

there is a chasm between these two there should never be a comparison

Cole definitely separated himself in terms of raw rapping ability. Off season still was not the better overall album though.

MM is last out of the 3 quality wise.

literally. he didn’t go the commercial route which i expected but this s*** is a chore to listen to

Yankee with no brim on a yankee?

I'm tending to the things I already live for
If my grass is greener you should really clip yours
White picket fence or on that tenement floor
No such thing as a life that's better than yours

• Drizzy version

I thought the Off-Sesaon is actually Cole's finest work. It was the first Cole album where I feel he wasn't being cringe af and sounding like his actual potential

BTW: I'm a fan of 2014FHD

Anymore? Kendrick never seemed to be focused on bars at any point

I feel like he has more potential, but he definitely toned down the corniness

As “hated” as i am, i gotta be about 80% on predictions lol