I mean the events to put him in GOAT conversations

Control verse - declaring himself as the best
TPAB era -king kunta leak etc.
GKMC - orking with Dre
The City Feature- where he showedproved and introduced himself in mainstream
Destroying drake - superbowl performance
Putting TDE on map and leading it and his impeccable feature run
Mr Morale- making an amazing and very personal album
od s80 - bringing back Conscious rap to hiphop and grinding on it
DAMN- successfully making a dope mainstream album

what am i missing and how you guys are ranking these?

Classic discography is what does it for me, everything else is just extra credit

That's always been how I measure greatness, thats why its so sad when rappers ruin their discography with bloated nonsense or manic episode collab albums and slop

How do you not mention DAMN. ?

Making tpab

Not to speak for him, but I think that being his most commercial album kinda puts a stink on it for a fanbase that doesnt really give a f*** about commerical success, great album, but for me, its not one of his best at all imo, I would put GNX and MM over it personally

Historically -

Section .80/GKMC - Gaining a place in mainstream convo
TPAB - Taking over the world
Beef - fighting the dragon and winning

This solidified it for a lot of people tbh

Honestly, for me it’s his run after the beef with Drake.

He had a classic back n fourth with a huge rapper.
Released a great album
Put on a classic show
Superbowl

Few rappers have had similar back to back wins

when he lost the beef to drake

I feel you but it was his definitive commercial peak sans 2024/2025 and honestly just a great album for me personally. Very memorable time in my life so I will always hold it in high regard. The tour for that album was the only time I saw him live so also gets extra points from me

For sure, crazy moment, and seeing that album be huge was very cool, I also rank FEAR as one of the greatest kendrick songs ever

I just f***in hate HUMBLE tho

Same bro but you know what we gonna let it slide he deserved a mindless banger

Still wild how he topped gkmc in quality in only 2 years

Damn the Kanye lashings. But I dont think bad projects take away from a rappers greatness.

baby keem career

Nigga took a fat s*** on the sophomore slump with a goddamn jazz/funk album

Idk if this counts but all the west coast legends crowning him in 2011

I hear you, and usually a bad album here and there wouldn't hold too much weight, but the nigga let Dave Blunts write an entire album for him, I'll never forgive him

he didn't tho

I was going to but forget
Yeah list it for successfully making a dope mainstream album

I think consistently holding his spot as a top rapper and one of the faces of the genre without having to do any of the social media pandering is huge too

In a time where people think you NEED to constantly be present on social media to keep your name buzzing, he did the exact opposite, now that we know the damage social media can do to a person's mental health, I think that's pretty commendable

I mean if kendrick dropped 10 vultures and bullys i dont think that would take away from his greatness as a rapper.

Like if a hall of fame sports player has great 10 seasons worth then is trash for the last half of their career i dont think that makes them bad all of a sudden.

Passed the torch of the west coast
Solo #1 with Humble
Pulitzer
Super Bowl
Founding pgLang
NLU #1
Beef win
5 Grammies one night
Stadium tour

Might not for you, but it def would for me, I would personally replace him in my top list with someone who has a tighter discography with less misses

and for your sports a***ogy, they talk about players not retiring and playing themselves out of the HOF all the time, thats a real thing

Him dropping bad raps wouldn’t affect how you rate him?