NOT A TROLL THREAD - just genuinely confused and want yall perspective. tpab was like my favorite album for a couple years after it dropped and then i kind of fell off listening to as much hip-hop as i once did through heavily getting into some other genres of music. i just listened to the family ties track with keem, as well as the "range brothers" track off the keem record. i dont have a problem with keem, i liked his part on donda. but im not going to lie man what the hell was kendrick doing on these songs? I dont understand why the reception was so positive. the "face it brother, gracious brother, be patient brother, show my ass take yall to class" s*** was so whack. the range brothers track with the whole top of the morning thing like i get its got meme appeal right but idk it just felt weird for kendrick to be kind of falling into the whole repeat one line off beat carti type thing. i dont want to sound like im hating, just sort of confused a little bit and wanting the perspective of some other listeners after being out of the kendrick loop for awhile. am i missing something here?

Amazing brother

Sounds like you’re hating on carti

We don’t do that here

not at all. huge fan of all 3 records, love his contributions to donda as well

Pop off only on occasion brother

Great artist, great albums. Wish he'd release music more often.

Anyways, the point is that he’s so good he doesn’t need to care and he’s aware of it

Just wait for the album for the serious stuff

so you think that this stuff with keem is purposefully kind of goofy and vapid?

Yeah

That’s exactly what Keem is as an artist

Hes just having fun with his lil cousin. His album will have more serious music on it for sure

okay that must be what im missing then

hilarious seeing people still try to put kendrick in a box because they've been trying since 2011 and it never worked

His Family Ties verse was amazing. All of it. Excellent

That top of the morning s*** tho? Ass.

not trying to put him in a box at all. i was the first one defending TPAB for how groundbreaking it was when people were b****ing about wanting another GKMC and did the same for DAMN when people wanted another TPAB. was just confused by these performances is all

(were not the wayans)

(h e ' s b a b y k e e m)

Still cant believe one feature is enough to make people doubt Kendrick like he hasnt been spitting his ass off on every single project of his

yeah like i get it that its supposed to be tongue and cheek but i just thought it was a little goofy to have this whole verse about like smoking on top 5s dont address me unless its 4 letters bullshit and then he has this 20 second bit sounding like garb

does he really need another killer verse to prove anything?

this isn't me doubting kendrick, i never have. im just confused by these performances and wondering if this is indicative of the type of thing he will be giving us due to the fact that this is some of the first stuff we've gotten in a very long time from him

Promotion through memes (range brothers) and WWE esce rap beef (family ties)

I’m pretty sure his actual album will be more serious and dark and depressing as most of his albums are, but he just left TDE, had a hiatus, and started PgLang. Think of it like putting a spoon full of sugar in medicine. The medicine is the message Kendrick sends in his music, and the sugar is the goofy material to get people to be entertained and tune into the main event.

really interesting a***ogy

Kendricks an amazing artist, I think he gets over a***yzed and in return ctitized for not being as a***ytical as he was on tpab.

To me it's just music, make your words tango with that beat and I'm good but for others they want to be fed poetry.

Boils down to preference

I imagine the pressure to give deep verses make him compile a stack of good-throw away verses that he gave to lil cuz for his SoundCloud and which ultimately birthed baby keem