Then it needs to stop.

Part of illmatic’s legacy is that it has no filler, it’s perfection. With this in mind I say Scorpion

Here’s your quote

Tbh these conversations have gone on for every era, probably getting worse in the 70s when fans got more focused on the album format. Fans being able to get their views out there online like they can now probably just makes it feel more intense.

If you go back to a lot of the milestone moments from other decades, you hear artists or critics going 'this is the Beatles of this generation' or 'this is the new Bob Dylan or James Brown' etc. etc. That's just the same as people talking about Illmatic or the purple tape

Remember when earl was “the next Nas”

And now with the advent of the internet and nobodies having platforms, it's gotten worse.

imagine not thinking this is easily one of the best hip hop albums of all time

on another note, does anyone have an interpretation of why he’s holding a white baby on the cover? i can’t really find an explanation anywhere and im pretty stumped myself

It hasn't really gotten worse tho, it's just more obvious now. This is just a way people talk about music, most people want a point of reference, it makes it easier for them to talk about careers, songs or albums. Everyone uses what came the era before to understand the current era in anything and also I think it's just measuring legacy really

Illmatic still sounds fresh and you can listen to at all times

Tpab just exhausting af

Nah it has gotten worse, historical revisionism, people with no credibility at the forefront, yakubification/culture vultures, and since rap is as mainstream as it is, now corporations are more involved than ever.

Maybe you got the right interpretation, but I instantly thought about comparing illmatic to gkmc, cause I think that years from now people are gonna refer to GKMC as this generation's illmatic, both in quality and theme. Doesn't mean either of them was the best rap album of their respective generation, but they're both iconic and amazing as projects, so them respectively representing the 90s and the 2010s is great for hip hop.
And yeah, forgot about public enemy, kendrick probably took some notes from Chuck d

Almight so exists

Gonna have to listen again tnight

Not really, this generation isn’t as invested into lyricism as the 90s

Rap is more diverse now

Only Kendrick stans and hip hop heads will be checking for this

You mean like brands? The big rock and pop artists did loads of brand deals. It's not how people see 'rock' looking back but it totally happened The ones who didn't do it weren't as popular. A lot of the punk bands got involved too, like the frontman of the S***Pistols doing butter adverts And as much as hip hop has a material-centric point of view sometimes, it's also been much better at putting social issues at the forefront of some of it's biggest issues, so I don't really get why hip hop is more corporate. If anything, it's probably less

Who has no credibility? There's idiots in every era, that's not time exclusive

In a way it seems revisionist to glorify the past music eras. I do think we are lacking a few GOATs that maybe the 60s or 70s had over us but we've witnessed some greats too.

GKMC and TPAB one of the best back to backs ever

On God
Can't wait for next album bro, we can't even imagine what he's cooking up in the studio, I'm ready to get blown away again

Yeah I didn't like DAMN outside of my favourite tracks but he didn't fall off like some made out. Peak Kendrick is all in that album in lots of moments it just doesn't come together as well as a vision imo but in a lot of ways it felt like the relief he needed after two very intense albums (Three really counting Untitled Unmastered )

He gonna be back soon tho

If i was the president
Id pay my mommas rent
Free my homies and them
Bulletproof my chevy doors
Lay in the white house
And get high
Lord
Whoever though?
Master, take the chains off me

I personally really enjoyed damn, it's in my top 10 albums of the decade lol. But I kinda understand why someone would be disappointed in an album without an overarching theme, especially after heavily conceptual albums with strong narratives like gkmc and tpab. Also, songs like love, God and loyalty are not songs we're accustomed to get from him, so I get why someone wouldn't enjoy them.
Like you said though, the highs on that album show kendrick is still a fantastic artist, so we just have to wait for him to f*** the game up once again

Y’all just saying s*** lmfao

And he surpassed him

This ain’t it

No, MBDTF will