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surge42-blog · 7 years

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A King And His Kingdom

In each era of rap music there's always the select few who are said to have the game on lock and in this current era it can be none other than the rap triad itself: Drake, J.Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. If you have been a fan of any of these you would know that no fan discussion...or more precisely fan arguments can name one of these rappers without mentioning the other two. -SYNOPSIS- Drake, from the kid in the wheelchair on Degrassi to arguably one of the most revered rappers in the game. There is nothing that Drake does not touch lately that doesn't become an instant hit. The ladies love him, horny teenage girls have his pictures on their bedroom walls...he's that pretty boy almost every girl wants. J.Cole, born in Germany, raised in the U.S of A. Raised by a single mother much like certain of his contemporaries. From rap battling with highschool friend and fellow Dreamvillain, Omen, to being the producer/pro-rapper dominating the 2010's. Jermaine, a married man(ooh shocker), allowed even single mothers to stay in his childhood home... quite a good Samaritan. And lastly, Kendrick Lamar. The man who was officially inaugurated as The King Of The West Coast, acknowledged by big names and cosigned by Lil Wayne in his C4 days and later by Dr. Dre in much of the latter part of his career. Among these three artist he is perhaps the most controversial among them, from song related law suits to conflicts with feminists(I think the HUMBLE incident was the second),he always manages to find himself in the headlines. -RISE TO FAME- YMCMB The Canadian rapper and producer(under his C-Papi pseudonym) started out with a couple of mix tapes,of course having had an acting career prior to that it was hard for him to gain respect as a rapper. But Dreezy wouldn't give up,having a cosign from Lil Wayne he started booming in a time was still hot and Young Money was killing it. He released his best ever album, Take Care, and he had the clubs jamming, the crowds dancing, the ladies singing alongside the hottest female hip-hop act Nicki Minaj. Although I admittedly am not a Drake fan I cannot take away his influence on the sound of hip-hop as he popularized the singer/rapper motif. ROCNATION Jermaine has had impressive mix tapes in his younger days like Friday Night Lights for instance. I remember being a kid seeing him on TV while channel surfing with his nicely cut hair and that goatee rapping out his then-signature song Work Out after signing with music mogul, Jay-Z. I remember my best friend letting me bump Lights Please and that was one of our jams back when we were still newbies to rap music(around the early 2010's). Cole was clearly a major threat to the rap game. TOP DAWG ENT. Kendrick,formerly K.Dot,was still maturing when he released his first mixtape Hub City. He was an unknown learning from his musical big brother, Jay Rock, although he clearly had the Weezy influence in his sound he was just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Mixtape after mixtape, Kendrick dropped his first and only independent album Section.80 soon followed up by the masterpiece that was good kid m.A.A.d city(the first full album I owned on my phone and the first album that made me a hip-hop fan). Kendrick has slowly and aggressively climbed the ladder to success. -CONTROL VERSE- These three rappers have crossed paths and even collabed in a couple of their tracks before. On one fateful night during The Grammy Awards, Big Sean performed Control alongside his features,Lamar and Jay Electronica. Big Sean delivered a killer verse that had everyone bumping their heads and finally he made way for Kendrick's much awaited verse. It started out quite smoothly and then he named dropped his contemporaries including Cole & Drake (much like Ab-Soul did in his song "Hell Yeah") saying "I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you niggas". The verse triggered responses from rappers and hilarious memes. And this has changed rap music as Kendrick confirms "nothing's been the same since they dropped Control". Since then we have seen a sudden change in Drake,Cole, and Kendrick's musical relationship. They no longer did any more features together. This sparked some theories that there might be some beef amongst each of them although it seems like the rappers are on good terms as Drake shouted out Kendrick in his appearance DJ Khaled's Major Key album which coincidentally sees all three rappers on the album,and Cole has produced for fellow rapper Ab-Soul on his song Sapiosexual. Recently Cole and Kendrick have hinted at their long speculated collaboration album with the release of their Black Friday songs. -PRESSURES OF FAME- These three artists have went from peasants to kings of their respective kingdoms. Jermaine ruling his Coleworld, Drake honored as The 6 God, and Kendrick reinvented as King Kunta. Their place in the hip-hop pantheon has been solidified already but all this fame must be getting to them of course. As kings they're responsible for their kingdoms. Each artist is expected to do so much for the fans. Drake released his long awaited Views,his worst album. This showed some mortality in The 6 God. But Drake is not only a rapper but also a pop star,he thrives on sales, trends, and always bringing something "new". He released his mixtape If You're Reading This Is Too Late,which in retrospect is really an album,he released his commercially successful Views album, and lately he released a "playlist" called More Life (again it's just an album). He uses his different cultural personas from the Jamaican Drake to the pseudo-English Drake to appeal to international fans. He jumps on every feature to make sure he stays relevant, it's a lot of work really. NB: Common Drake fan arguments are "He still makes more money than you and your artist" J.Cole on the other hand has a different struggle. Unlike Drake who is expected to feature on so many songs he rarely did any features. When he dropped 2014 Forest Hills Drive the pressure must've got to him after he became the first artist in years not only to go platinum, but double platinum with no features. His subjects celebrated his accolade although much of them have expressed their anger towards The Grammy Awards for not acknowledging his talent. But nonetheless Cole's album even led to him being the highest paid rapper of 2015. Cole had gone silent up until releasing some singles in late 2016 which led up to the release of his album 4 Your Eyez Only. The album performed well, also going platinum with no features. But fans have been split about this album some calling it his best effort and some calling it his worst. Even Twitter has went on to say Do What Thou Wilt by Ab-Soul which dropped on the same day as Cole's album is better than J.Cole's album. Jermaine became the no feature king after it was announced that after his collaboration with Joey BadA$$, Cole wouldn't be doing any more features(although we're not sure if that applies to his own projects either). NB: Common J.Cole fan arguments are "Cole still went double platinum no features" And lastly Kendrick Lamar. He has underwent through various incarnations from K.Dot,The Good Kid,King Kendrick,King Junta,Cornrow Kenny all the way to Kung Fun Kenny. Much like his change in honorifics,he too is expected to change things up all the time. Kendrick is known for his vast change of flows,voices,lyricism etc. He released To Pimp A Butterfly a couple years back....along with Tupac's ghost on the final track. The pressure has piled up on Kendrick for years, having cosigns from Dre,The Game,Eminem,NWA,and many more. Eminem even went as far as testing Kendrick's penmanship by making him write a verse on the spot for him, and to make things even more intense Kendrick got to meet with the former POTUS, Barack Obama. Kendrick has been called for features around the clock from Jidenna's Classic Man remix to Travis Scott's Goosebumps and many others. Then Kendrick released DAMN,which fans considered the below TPAB and GKMC,although these comments don't necessarily mean the album is bad although there are other fans who considered his worst album...period. NB: In the absence of a specific phrase as of late the common Kendrick fan phrase is "Bitch be humble, sit down". -THE FANS- "From a peasant to a prince to a mother******* king" as Kendrick says pretty much sums up all three of these men's journey to the top. They fought long and hard to gain our attention but now that they have it is it perhaps a blessing and a curse? They give us so much and it seems we want more from them,even to excess. The pressure we put on them must be taxing on them,although still relevant in the game,and although they're careers have reached god-status,4 Your Eyez Only,DAMN, and Views just show us their more mortal sides....although they're not to be considered failures...oh not at all. Their respective fan bases love their respective albums and in the end if the fans enjoy their music that's all that really matters, this article and many other review sites will not really change how their overall fan bases feel about them...and really they shouldn't. So kudos to the rap triad that is Drake, Cole, and Kendrick, we're looking forward to more fantastic music from you all.

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