The one rapper Kendrick Lamar believes he can never compete with
Kendrick Lamar knows he’s good, and he clearly has a claim to being the best MC of his generation, but that doesn’t mean he is without respect for his elders.
Kendrick’s career is built upon the legacies of plenty of rappers that came before him, and this he understands keenly. There are two older MCs, in fact, that he has admitted he can’t hold a candle to, with one of them especially untouchable.
Speaking to Erykah Badu for an Interview magazine feature in 2013, Kendrick listed Eminem and Jay-Z as his biggest rap influences. Their level of skill, he admitted, was something he could only aspire to reach. He wouldn’t ever match them, he believed.
“Jay, for sure,” he elaborated, “just off the simple fact of his longevity. That, to me, is probably one in a million for rappers”.
Kendrick went on to suggest that a good rap career lasts for maybe “five or six years”, generally speaking. But the fact that Jay-Z had managed to stay relevant across several decades was hugely impressive and arguably unprecedented.
“I hope I get to that level and keep my work ethic up and strategically think of certain things,” Kendrick admitted, “But there will probably only ever be one Jay”.
This interview admittedly took place a long time ago now, with Kendrick still, in the grand scheme of things, establishing his place at the top of the contemporary hip hop scene. The fact that his popularity and acclaim only grew in the years that followed suggests that he actually may well have the longevity to give Jay a run for his money. He has already overtaken him when it comes to Grammy wins.
But, still, it’s too early to quite tell how Kendrick’s career will compare to Jay’s in years and decades to come. The younger rapper has certainly already enjoyed a successful career for longer than the five to six-year period he suggested is typical, but he has quite a while to go yet before he can be considered in the same category as Jay-Z.
“He’ll probably go down as the greatest to ever do it,” Kendrick said of Jay, “Pac also could’ve had that, but due to his passing, we’ll never know if he’d have reached that”.