Kendrick Lamar's Best Album is Good Kid M.A.A.D City
Kendrick Lamar has one of the greatest discographies of any rapper ever. You could debate for hours about which one of his albums is the best. In my opinion, that album is good kid, m.A.A.d city. It seems like the consensus is that To Pimp a Butterfly is his best, and I don't see it. It's not like I hate TPAB or anything, I just like GKMC better. GKMC resonates more with me than TPAB because it was a more memorable album. I can name a bunch of songs off the top of my head from GKMC but struggle to name more than three from TPAB. It felt like Kendrick was more passionate and his storytelling was best on GKMC. TPAB doesn't have a song that comes close to the quality of songs like "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe," "Backseat Freestyle," "The Art of Peer Pressure," "Swimming Pools," and so many more. Maybe it's because I listened to this album more than TPAB. Or maybe I didn't listen to TPAB enough times to fully understand it. But as of right now, I think Kendrick's best album is GKMC.
Selling Out Isn't Always a Bad Thing
Many "Day 1 Fans" like to claim their favorite artist "sold out" after hearing new material from them that gets very popular on Top 40 radio. I'm not denying that an artist is selling out if they're trying to put out radio-friendly content to gain more fans and money. It's more about how they're selling out and what kind of content it is. For example, I'm more okay with how Travis Scott has "sold out" than how Eminem has "sold out." Sure albums like Birds In the Trap Sing McKnight and Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho aren't as good as Rodeo. But both albums have given us some enjoyable songs and they have gained Travis more success than ever. You also have to note that Travis kept the moody and atmospheric aspect part of his music while moving to a more mainstream sound. Eminem, on the other hand, abandoned his older sound completely. Eminem used to be this wacky, zany, unique personality and anger that he put into his older albums. He also promoted himself as a rebel who was against the mainstream. Since 2010, Eminem has turned against his older self and went from dissing big pop stars to collaborating with them. He barely collaborates with other rappers anymore (on his solo music, not counting the 2011 Bad Meets Evil album or his recent features). I would have been okay with Eminem's 2010s sound if most of his new music wasn't utter shit. Before I end up going on a tangent, I'm just going to say that my point is that selling out isn't a bad thing if the music at least sounds good.
I like Testing
I'm well aware that I already said this. I had no idea that this album was going to get as much criticism as it's already gotten. A lot of people have said this album was underwhelming and I could see why given that people will love or hate when an artist experiments with different ideas. Popular critics have been trashing this album a lot last week. Its average score among Pitchfork staff was a 6.7 despite having 3 tracks named Best New Music. YouTuber theneedledrop gave it a 4/10 and wore his red flannel for it. The sales between AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP and TESTING had plummeted by 42,000 copies (from 114K to 72K). I get why people wouldn't like this album since I already said that an artist experimenting with different sounds is polarizing. I just appreciate the fact that A$AP Rocky doesn't want to stagnate and for the most part, I liked most of the songs on this album.
Tomorrow, I will be ranking Kanye West's discography. Then on Thursday, I will listen to 8 collaborations between Kanye West and Kid Cudi ahead of their collaborative project this week.
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