Joey is not as creative as Kendrick. You don't like Kendrick so you're going to say he is. But nonetheless, New York doesn't value spitters, because if they did Joey would be more popular than he is. He literally has 1 Platinum single, nothing else, no Gold or anything.
And Kendrick had a strong enough presence in LA to get Interscope to pick him up and give him the "machine" in the first place, which doesn't matter because tens of rappers signed to the same label and drowned. His peers/predeccsors in LA made a point to give him the torch.
I disagree. Joey is as creative and is as skilled as him in a vacuum. I would even say Joey is even more lyrical than Kendrick and was writing shyt at 16 that Kendrick has never come up with.
Joey has one Platinum single and he did so independently without any urban radio play. This is why Joey is where he is because he doesn't want the mainstream validation. He doesn't want to be in a 360 and he doesn't want labels controlling his creative process. He also doesn't chase clout nor does he want all that fame that's just not who he is. He's a private dude.
Joey dropped 1999 in 2012 and his performance had the blogs going crazy comparing him to the likes of Nas and Big L. It was also for my generation one of the hottest tapes when it dropped in NYC. He dropped that tape to critical acclaim and it's as good as any of Kendrick's works. Joey had a deal lined up with Roc Nation and declined it. Joey was linked to Bad Boy and it never materialized. Joey isn't mainstream by choice.
His paper is longer than most rappers on majors he does numbers independently (last album 51,000 first week sales, Platinum single), he's a beast on the festival tour scene, has acting roles in Mr. Robot/Grownish/Wu-Tang, has his own hip-hop collective, ghostwrites for the likes of Post Malone, and has the respect of legends.
Joey pretty much like a modern day Mos Def.
