Where do you rank Kendrick’s current run?

[Ziggiy]

He's not bigger than '03 50 Cent

He's not bigger than '02 Eminem

Those 2 were global phenomenons.

He has an argument for being bigger than DMX in '98. DMX was an inferno that died out fast, if Kendrick carries this into next year then I'd say he's surpassed DMX.

Wayne and Drake were more about longevity and hearing them everywhere. Drake ruled the waves for a decade. Lil Wayne had the streets and mixtapes on lock. I'd say Kendrick's current run is nearly equivalent but he needs to show he's more than riding the waves of this Drake beef.

I'll give an example. Nas won in 2001. Stillmatic was awesome. Then... he just fell off the map. Once the beef euphoria wore off (no pun, also, pause), what did he have to lean back on? Is Kendrick's run better than Nas in 2001? I'd say no. Come back in a year and let's see who's ruling the waves before we make a determination.

Nas didn’t fall off the map after Stillmatic. That doesn’t even make any sense to claim that. He transitioned into 2002 with One Mic which was a hot single. He was so hot that year the label put out The Lost Tapes which despite no single or video debuted at number 10 on BIllboard. Followed that up with Made You Look which was a hit. Demand was so high for Gods Son he dropped it four days earlier due to massive bootlegging (Friday when albums came out on Tuesdays) then in 03 had his biggest song of his career with I Can.

From 01-03 Nas was arguably as popular as he was from 96-99.

 

[SNG]

I addressed this in my first three sentences. Kendrick is benefiting from the global mainstreaming of hip hop, where it’s basically synonymous with pop culture and lower case p pop music.

Rappers can headline super bowls. That wasn’t a thing in other eras.

Kendrick came up in the 2010’s rappers weren’t headlining the Super Bowl in that era. You know how hard it is for rappers to do stadiums? The boy didn’t even do a stadium tour and he’s considered one of the biggest. A lot of yall are undermining what dot is doing right now. This isn’t even in North America hes doing this on an International level too.

 

[Pseudo]

In terms of record sales , i'd put a couple runs over him (for now) but if we look at it in totality it's the greatest run ever.

1. Won the biggest rap battle ever against the biggest rapper ever.
2. The diss song that ended the battle definitively ended up being one of the biggest rap song ever and a cultural touchstone
3. First rapper to headline the Superbowl (Ended up being the most watched ever)
4. The most awarded song in Grammy history
5. First rapper to headline a stadium tour of this length and magnitude. He has already broken numerous records

Obviously, some people value different things. For example, maybe you can argue 94-96 Nas if you're looking at it purely from a rapping standpoint but if we're looking at it in terms of commercial success than you really can't argue against this.

 

[Tasha And]

Kendrick came up in the 2010’s rappers weren’t headlining the Super Bowl in that era. You know how hard it is for rappers to do stadiums? The boy didn’t even do a stadium tour and he’s considered one of the biggest. A lot of yall are undermining what dot is doing right now. This isn’t even in North America is doing this on an International level too.

Yes I understand how hard it is to headline stadiums. The point is it took a few decades of the mainstreaming of rap as a global phenomenon for it to happen. Kendrick could have existed in 1996 making the exact same music and he would have not headlined a global tour selling out stadiums. It took decades worth of Outkast and Kanye and Eminem popularizing rap as THE lower case p pop music stronghold that it is today. It took Jay headlining glastonbury. All of that is what has created an environment where what Dot's doing can be possible. But you needed everyone alive under 25 to have grown up with rap= pop music as their baseline.

 

[SNG]

Yes I understand how hard it is to headline stadiums. The point is it took a few decades of the mainstreaming rap as a global phenomenon for it to happen. Kendrick could have existed in 1996 making the exact same music and he would have have headlined a global tour selling out stadiums. It took decades worth of Outkast and Kanye and Eminem popularizing rap as THE lower case p pop music stronghold that it is today for a top artist in this era to do it. But you needed everyone alive under 30 to have grown up with rap=pop music as their baseline.

See in this is the shyt I’m talking about even when they did popularize it Em didn’t do stadiums until he did it with Jay and they only did the cities they from. Kendrick is to do it all over America and Internationally he is literally braking new ground in hip hop right now. Yall nikkaz keep minimizing his impact.

 

[Tasha And]

See in this is the shyt I’m talking about even when they did popularize it Em didn’t do stadiums until he did it with Jay and they only did the cities they from. Kendrick is to do it all over America and Internationally he is literally braking new ground in hip hop right now. Yall nikkaz keep minimizing his impact.

I get what you're saying but I don't think you get what I'm saying

And I'm not sure I can explain it any other way

 

[SNG]

I get what you're saying but I don't think you get what I'm saying

And I'm not sure I can explain it any other way

nikka had the whole world doing his superbowl performance like the gotdamn moonwalk nikka none of those nikkaz listed has had that shyt.

 

[L $ C]

This is a never seen before run in hip hop, but if I had to make a comparison, I'd say Eminem... he was indeed able to build a strong audience that almost never left him.

All those records Kendrick is breaking, he's doing it with brand new fans that will stay loyal to him.

LOL

you were born 2 years ago?


its a good run nothing close to prime 50 em dmx or even wayne or 2018 drake

 

[Pseudo]

I get what you're saying but I don't think you get what I'm saying

And I'm not sure I can explain it any other way

I get what both of you are saying but what Kendrick is doing is HISTORIC. Even if you adjust for era (lol) no rapper has ever attempted to do something of this magnitude. This shouldn't be hand waved away like it's normal

 

[keon]

This is the only “run” in rap history that I can think of that’s based solely off of one song lol

This shyt could never be compared to legendary runs by Wayne, Future and Drake

Fact is The majority of black people just isn’t listening to Kendrick on that level like that.

 

[tweezy]

LOL

you were born 2 years ago?


its a good run nothing close to prime 50 em dmx or even wayne or 2018 drake

Lmfao This kendrick run is far bigger than 2018 Drake, Dmx and wayne run. Not up to debate

 

[Hum Alistair]

This is the only “run” in rap history that I can think of that’s based solely off of one song lol

This shyt could never be compared to legendary runs by Wayne, Future and Drake

Fact is The majority of black people just isn’t listening to Kendrick on that level like that.

Lol...

Before dissing Drake, kendrick had and still has:

-the 2nd biggest rap album of the whole century (when it comes to charts), ahead of any drake album, as confirmed by Billboard
-the best selling rap song ever
-the longuest chartin rap album ever
-the #1 highest rated rap album ever by critics
-the #2 highest rated rap album ever by critics
-the only pulitzer prize ever won by a non classical artist
-the 2nd best selling rap tour ever as a solo rapper, only topped by Travis.

And considering Kendrick has been the biggest rapper in Africa for the past couple of years...nobody has more black people listening to him.

 

[Revolutionary]

In terms of record sales , i'd put a couple runs over him (for now) but if we look at it in totality it's the greatest run ever.

1. Won the biggest rap battle ever against the biggest rapper ever.
2. The diss song that ended the battle definitively ended up being one of the biggest rap song ever and a cultural touchstone
3. First rapper to headline the Superbowl (Ended up being the most watched ever)
4. The most awarded song in Grammy history
5. First rapper to headline a stadium tour of this length and magnitude. He has already broken numerous records

Obviously, some people value different things. For example, maybe you can argue 94-96 Nas if you're looking at it purely from a rapping standpoint but if we're looking at it in terms of commercial success than you really can't argue against this.

This, and the list goes on.

Kendrick's run is unmatched.

 

[SNG]

LOL

you were born 2 years ago?


its a good run nothing close to prime 50 em dmx or even wayne or 2018 drake

Only nikka I’ll give you is drake since he had over a 10 year run in hip hop but the rest were short lived. Kendrick was always right behind Drake only reason Drake dominated was because of his constency and output over dot,

 

[Ike omad]

Probably the single most impressive run in rap history.

-Rap Song with the most GRAMMY wins EVER (5x — Not Like Us) - won in general categories too, something that is very, very rare for hip hop
-SuperBowl
-The MOST watched Super Bowl Halftime show EVER (133.5M viewers)
-The record for Rapper with the MOST all-time Spotify monthly listeners (110M)
-First rap song to ever be eligible for 2x diamond (Humble)
-Critically Acclaimed album
-First attempt for a rapper at a full stadium tour and it's being a success (international tour instantly sold out)
-Highest grossing concerts for a black man in music history
-First album under 15 tracks to reach these numbers in the streaming era
-Tied Michael Jackson record with the most #1 hits on the hot 100 in the span of 12 months - He produced four number 1 hits, faster than anybody else before
-On pace to beat Eminem for the longest charting song at #1 for a rapper
-His tour is impacting the industry, they're already changing the concert models after Kendrick performance
-...

There's way too many to list.

Kendrick isn't just beating one or two records, he's breaking them all!!! And like billboard said, nobody in music thought it was possible for a 12 track album like GNX to pull these numbers in the dsps era, this is the equivalent of going 2x platinum first week in 2000.