On Friday, April 14th, 2017, Kendrick Lamar may have cemented himself as one of the greatest rappers to ever do it when he released DAMN. You can legitimately argue whether or not this is his greatest album (it's not IMO) but you can no longer argue his place among the greats. He hasn't released a bad album in his life, and I think he's incapable of doing such a thing. Section.80 was a classic. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was a classic. To Pimp a Butterfly was a classic and one the greatest albums ever. Even Overly Dedicated and untitled unmastered were great. He's allergic to making bad music. But for some reason, in 2017, there are a decent amount of people who dislike King Kenny. And who do I blame for this?
Lil Yachty.
Well, not just Lil Yachty. There's a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of reasons (from somewhat legitimate to lololololol) as to why they dislike this man.
It's starts with the "rappers" of today. The Yachtys and Desiigners and Migoses (is that how you would spell that?) of the world. Mumblers. They're trash, but since trap music life, they're "great". They have people believing that their version of rap is how is should be. Meanwhile the Kendricks and J. Coles of the rap world are overlooked. One of the prevailing opinions of Kendrick's newest albums that I've been reading is that it's "good lyrically, but musically it's trash". This is an opinion, so i can't call them wrong, but these opinions are wrong. Like if I can't murder the sub woofer of a car with this album it sucks. FOH. I've also seen "it sucks lyrically and musically". These are the people who believe Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper ever. Their opinions are invalid. But it's not just mumblers that have a problem with Duckworth. March 30, 2017, Kendrick released his biggest single ever, HUMBLE. It was an immediately hit. Millions of views with an hour on YouTube. Successful AF.
Well, not just Lil Yachty. There's a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of reasons (from somewhat legitimate to lololololol) as to why they dislike this man.
It's starts with the "rappers" of today. The Yachtys and Desiigners and Migoses (is that how you would spell that?) of the world. Mumblers. They're trash, but since trap music life, they're "great". They have people believing that their version of rap is how is should be. Meanwhile the Kendricks and J. Coles of the rap world are overlooked. One of the prevailing opinions of Kendrick's newest albums that I've been reading is that it's "good lyrically, but musically it's trash". This is an opinion, so i can't call them wrong, but these opinions are wrong. Like if I can't murder the sub woofer of a car with this album it sucks. FOH. I've also seen "it sucks lyrically and musically". These are the people who believe Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper ever. Their opinions are invalid. But it's not just mumblers that have a problem with Duckworth. March 30, 2017, Kendrick released his biggest single ever, HUMBLE. It was an immediately hit. Millions of views with an hour on YouTube. Successful AF.
I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop
Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor
Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks
Oh shit. With these lines in the song his next group of unsupporters showed up: feminists! Hooray! Now I'm not going to bash all feminists because I do personally know a few and I understand how women need to be treated fairly and equally on this very sexist planet of ours. But the above lines do not show me any misogyny. Unless I am completely misunderstanding the actual definition of the word. Totally possible. nah
The anger seems to stem from the "don't tell women how they should look" school of thought. This anger would be justified IF Kendrick was speaking from a place of malice. Believe it or not, he's trying to uplift a woman, Don't believe me? Section.80, listen to the pre-mainstream song No Make-Up (Her Vice). He's been saying shit like this for years, but now is time to dog him. Gotcha. Hell, Kendrick doesn't catch slack for some of the obvious misogynistic shit he says, but when it's not obvious (or even non-existent) is when everyone loses it.
And then, most curiously of all maybe, there are some Black women who dislike the man. I 've always believed that this is due to darker-skinned women disliking that fact that Kendrick's fiance, Whitney Alford, identifies as Black (she is half-Black), but is light-skinned. Why do I believe this? Click here. Need more than that? Look up Carter Kim. She is the woman you see in the HUMBLE. video. She said in an interview recently that has gotten some criticism from darker-skinned Black women. Guess why?
Look. Dislike the man if you just don't like his style. I'm cool with that. Dislike him if you wished he wasn't so political in songs. That's fine too (just don't go around loving Nas). But some of this dislike is unnatural and borderline insane. Carter Kim, take me home:
The anger seems to stem from the "don't tell women how they should look" school of thought. This anger would be justified IF Kendrick was speaking from a place of malice. Believe it or not, he's trying to uplift a woman, Don't believe me? Section.80, listen to the pre-mainstream song No Make-Up (Her Vice). He's been saying shit like this for years, but now is time to dog him. Gotcha. Hell, Kendrick doesn't catch slack for some of the obvious misogynistic shit he says, but when it's not obvious (or even non-existent) is when everyone loses it.
And then, most curiously of all maybe, there are some Black women who dislike the man. I 've always believed that this is due to darker-skinned women disliking that fact that Kendrick's fiance, Whitney Alford, identifies as Black (she is half-Black), but is light-skinned. Why do I believe this? Click here. Need more than that? Look up Carter Kim. She is the woman you see in the HUMBLE. video. She said in an interview recently that has gotten some criticism from darker-skinned Black women. Guess why?
Look. Dislike the man if you just don't like his style. I'm cool with that. Dislike him if you wished he wasn't so political in songs. That's fine too (just don't go around loving Nas). But some of this dislike is unnatural and borderline insane. Carter Kim, take me home:
"I feel like a lot of people are blaming Kendrick and pretty much are throwing the heat on Kendrick for this whole situation being not feminist. But it’s almost like people aren’t understanding the real picture, and the real picture is not just him but guys appreciate a natural girl. Whether you decide to wear makeup or you don’t, it’s just to make girls feel more comfortable. You know what, guys do like girls with no makeup. You don’t have to dress up every day to impress somebody or get the guy that you want or things like that. They’re not always looking for the girl that’s the most done up or the extra pretty girl, they’re mostly looking for somebody that’s genuine and humble and modest and has a good personality. I think that’s the whole picture that people are missing; the whole purpose of the video. It’s for all women, not just Black women, not just light skin women. I also feel like people are kinda missing that. I feel like women are very particular today in how they want to be portrayed and every time that’s trying to be achieved, it’s not good enough or something’s wrong with it. So that’s kinda how I feel on the whole negative end of the feminist situation, I guess. I’m definitely for women’s empowerment, for sure. I just feel like to criticize another woman or to criticize a man who’s just trying to portray a natural woman and being a feminist, I think that’s a little bit backwards. But that’s just my personal opinion, I guess, on the situation."
Damn.
