Kendrick Lamar reveals his favourite current rapper
Following his battle with Drake earlier this year, Kendrick Lamar is currently at the top of hip-hop and is one of the most powerful MCs in contemporary rap music. Lamar has produced critically acclaimed Grammy Award-winning albums and crafted a CV that makes him among the most creative and skilled musicians in the business.
That said, if Lamar gives props to an artist, it most likely means that their music is worth listening to and they are destined for greatness. With so much material on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, it takes a certain level of excellence for MCs to cut through the noise and needs to be high-quality if it is to reach the ears of other renowned creatives.
As such, one rapper was shocked when Lamar recently took to social media to declare that they were the “hardest” in the game right now. That rapper is Doechii. On Instagram, Kendrick uploaded the artwork of the TDE lyricist’s latest mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, writing, “The hardest out.”
Unsurprisingly, Doechii was very appreciative of the lofty praise and replied with her own Instagram post, writing, “Thank you Dot. You the greatest.” She later added: “Getting your flowers while you can still smell them.”
To many fans, Lamar’s support came out of nowhere. However, many saw it coming as the female rapper recently featured in a CashApp commercial produced by the DAMN creator’s company pgLang. Furthermore, she is on his former label TDE.
During an appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast, Doechii admitted she wants to collaborate with Lamar at some point but still feels she isn’t ready, telling the host, “I don’t assume anything, and I also don’t feel entitled to a Kendrick feature, but I would absolutely love that. That’s the goal.”
She continued, “I’m sure that, like, for my debut project, eventually I’m gonna ask Top [Dawg] if he could ask Kendrick, or ask Kendrick myself and see what comes from that. But I’ma be real, I don’t think I have the record right now for that opportunity. I think I would have to come a certain way, and I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
Doechii’s mixtape hasn’t just received praise from Lamar but was also shouted out by ScHoolboy Q earlier this year, who wrote, “Just Here to say DOEcHii… dats all I care about at da moment.”
The acclaimed project has even been compared to Kendrick’s breakout 2011 project Section.80 by TDE founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. On Instagram, Tiffitch wrote, “I have the same feeling I had when KDOT dropped Section 80. She’s 1 of those ones 4sho !!!! #TDE20 #TimelessClassicMusic.”