KT from The Source just compiled the top 50 albums of all time according to the most known sources of ratings

[papertrail08]

The Kendrick dikkriding has got to stop

 

[papa pimp]

looks like your typical white guy list

 

[Tony D'Amato]

I always say that To Pimp A Butterfly wash everything Electric Circus tried to be.

Common is a way better lyricist than Kenny imo. I just dont see how anyone can say TPAB is the best album ever. Or even the best hip hip album ever when its not even his best album.

 

[tehparadox]

Common is a way better lyricist than Kenny imo. I just dont see how anyone can say TPAB is the best album ever. Or even the best hip hip album ever when its not even his best album.

Disagree...but let's say Common is a better lyricist, Tpab is still miles better than anything he has done. Tpab is the definition of a perfectly musically composed album...and I mean PERFECTLY...as in there isn't a single flaw in the musical composition.

This is an almost never seen before thing in rap music.

And it is by far his best album, thats not even up to debate. Gkmc is a classic, but gkmc had way too many musical flaws (shyt scales, polyrhythms not used properly, etc).
And Kendrick has been a much better performer on TPAB, he had a way better comprehension of melodies, rythms, tri-c, basically a much better comprehension of the technical aspects of music. which allowed him to perfectly execute an album like tpab.

 

[Revolutionary]

Common is a way better lyricist than Kenny imo. I just dont see how anyone can say TPAB is the best album ever. Or even the best hip hip album ever when its not even his best album.

Tpab is amazing lyrically, but there's way more, WAY more to music than lyrics
And na, there's no kendrick album better than TPAB, matter of fact there's probably no album "better" than it. It was even called a critic-proof album because Kendrick and his collaborators made sure it couldn't be criticized from a quality angle

 

[Cloutius Maximus]

Disagree...but let's say Common is a better lyricist, Tpab is still miles better than anything he has done. Tpab is the definition of a perfectly musically composed album...and I mean PERFECTLY...as in there isn't a single flaw in the musical composition.

This is an almost never seen before thing in rap music.

And it is by far his best album, thats not even up to debate. Gkmc is a classic, but gkmc had way too many musical flaws (shyt scales, polyrhythms not used properly, etc).
And Kendrick has been a much better performer on TPAB, he had a way better comprehension of melodies, rythms, tri-c, basically a much better comprehension of the technical aspects of music. which allowed him to perfectly execute an album like tpab.

nikkas keep saying "flawless musical composition" like it's the first rap album to use live musicians and add jazz music

you could say the same thing about Like Water for Chocolate, Ridin Dirty, Low End Theory, Sons of the P (most folks don't know about that one), I'd say Aquemini but the Mamacita hook is ass tho, fukkin Too Short had live musicians on his shyt. C'mon man this is disrespectful and I say this as a black dude who grew up in LA, nikka I'm in the hood right now lol

but cacs don't know about "Get In Where You Fit In" so Short don't get his love and we act like Kendrick isn't doing shyt Q-Tip was doing over 30 years ago

 

[derro13]

Just please explain why TPAB is your goat album? Like u still go back to listen to it?

What makes this album amazing, and the reason it is the highest rated rap album ever, is because that not only is Kendrick a great rapper but his music accentuates the ideas he's trying to get across and for me, this isn't an opinion I reserve for Kendrick... it's what I use to measure every rapper by.
When I listen to Jay-Z or Nas or Kool G Rap or with more more contemporary artists when I listen to Blu, Pusha, Kendrick Lamar, Wale, Fashawn etc. I'm judging them by how they use the beat AND their pen, in Kendrick's case he's taken it a step further and hired on some incredibly talented musicians that can bring more to the table than the typical beat maker can. And the cherry on top, Kendrick is literally very involved in the music making process as well...Kendrick isn't just rapping "over a beat", He's crafting music and his voices, melodies, rythms, are part of the instruments.

On average they (the typical beat maker) simply won't know anything about Bebop scales or Altered scales, syncopation and polyrhythms, shifting keys several times throughout a song, writing charts for several instruments or other more complex musical ideas.
I feel this musical ambition once tied to his writing is what makes for a pleasing listening experience.
Like for example when the beat swells on "How Much A Dollar Costs" along with his increasingly frantic flow or how they the hard "Trap drums" seem almost at odds with the sweet and mellow sounding "Seventh Chords" on "Alright" or the dope head nodding hard hitting rhythm and the beat switch on "Institutionalized".

That album is simple pure perfection musically, and Kendrick really pushes the enveloppe as an hip-hop artist by doing things that have never been done, such covering rythmic transitions that never existed in rap, covering the 5 criteria of sentence structures, when nobody else before covered more than 4.

Tpab been analyzed to death, and we could talk about its technical aspects for DAYS...just look at a song like For Free, probably one of the best free jazz songs in the last 15 years. Like for example, when was the last time normal, triadic (3-note) chords were replaced and extended to have lots of notes like that? These extended, spacy chords are reflected all over the album... Jazz has been in rap for a while, as on TCQ songs. But those were always samples. Tpab has successfully produced organic and perfect jazz elements, and like Kamasi Washington (probably the best jazz artist right now) said, TPAB could be considered the best jazz album of the past 15 years, despite being a rap album first.

Tpab, on top of being a great rap album, is a groundbreaking musical album. And some of the songs, as opposed to what been said in this thread, aren't hip hop...so I fail to see how all tracks could be judged as hip hop songs lmao.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Where the fukk is Thriller list null and void.

OTW is better than Thriller

 

[Tony D'Amato]

Disagree...but let's say Common is a better lyricist, Tpab is still miles better than anything he has done. Tpab is the definition of a perfectly musically composed album...and I mean PERFECTLY...as in there isn't a single flaw in the musical composition.

This is an almost never seen before thing in rap music.

And it is by far his best album, thats not even up to debate. Gkmc is a classic, but gkmc had way too many musical flaws (shyt scales, polyrhythms not used properly, etc).
And Kendrick has been a much better performer on TPAB, he had a way better comprehension of melodies, rythms, tri-c, basically a much better comprehension of the technical aspects of music. which allowed him to perfectly execute an album like tpab.

N1gga maybe that compose shyt is over my head. I care about songs. What album has the best songs.

There is nothing on TPAB better than Dont kill my vibe or Money trees. Nothing

 

[CP3.]

TPAB is great but it's not better than Illmatic.

 

[derro13]

nikkas keep saying "flawless musical composition" like it's the first rap album to use live musicians and add jazz music

you could say the same thing about Like Water for Chocolate, Ridin Dirty, Low End Theory, Sons of the P (most folks don't know about that one), I'd say Aquemini but the Mamacita hook is ass tho, fukkin Too Short had live musicians on his shyt. C'mon man this is disrespectful and I say this as a black dude who grew up in LA, nikka I'm in the hood right now lol

but cacs don't know about "Get In Where You Fit In" so Short don't get his love and we act like Kendrick isn't doing shyt Q-Tip was doing over 30 years ago

Indeed, Kendrick has done things Q-Tip wasn't doing... Q-Tip using jazz samples, and Kendrick having organic, better, more complex, innovative jazz elements are 2 very different things.

 

[DrexlersFade]

OTW is better than Thriller

You bugging bruh watch the thriller Documentary not a chance.

 

[derro13]

Syncopation and swings have always been bad on Q-Tip music... it's not about who did rap jazz first, it's about who did it better...

 

[Rekkapryde]

You bugging bruh watch the thriller Documentary not a chance.

I did

Off The Wall is better to me.

Not >>>>>>>>>

But >

 

[tehparadox]

N1gga maybe that compose shyt is over my head. I care about songs. What album has the best songs.

There is nothing on TPAB better than Dont kill my vibe or Money trees. Nothing

That compose shyt is about music.
What you're talking about here is songs that you personally prefer...not songs that are better.

Don't kill my vibe or money trees wouldn't even be top 8 songs on TPAB.