What is it about Kendrick Lamar that people find so appealing? Ever since the Compton rapper dropped his debut album, there has been a demand for him that no other rapper seems able to quantify. Waiting five years for an album? No problem; if it’s Kendrick, people would wait ten, so long as they get music of the highest quality from someone widely considered the greatest of all time. But what is it specifically about his music that is so appealing?
The truth is that several different elements of Kendrick’s sound make him unique. The way he intertwines narrative throughout his albums, his excellent lyricism, the way he uses features, and his emotive tone are all huge components that build some of the most exciting music this side of ’73. However, one of Kendrick’s best features is his flow.
All of the characteristics mentioned above came up when the rapper was asked to talk about some of his favourite albums. When it came to putting together an album and weaving narrative throughout his music, he referenced a number of different West Coast rappers, such as Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac. However, when it came to Kendrick’s cadence, it was one East Coast rapper whose work he found himself studying.
“I got into Reasonable Doubt like 2002, 2001. I was super late,” he said, talking about Jay-Z’s 1996 debut. “On the West Coast, we weren’t really playing East Coast music like that just because of all the beef stuff that was going on – we was really influenced by that. I’m like 9, 10, 11 years old. I don’t wanna listen to nothing on the East Coast. Everything everybody was playing was Death Row.”
That being said, when Kendrick eventually set the beef aside and listened to Jay-Z, he heard what everybody else did: one of the best rappers ever to pick up a mic begin to step into his prime. A budding rapper, Kendrick heard the album as a textbook, not just something that could be enjoyed but something that needed to be studied thoroughly.
“I had to double back and listen to Jay-Z once I started writing. And one of my favourite tracks on there is ‘Politics As Usual’. Just the vibe of it and the flow. I really captured that flow and stole that cadence just being a student of the game,” he said. “It really stuck with me.”
The beef between East Coast and West Coast rappers took precedence over a lot of music being made throughout an elongated period of rap. Now, with the power of hindsight, as Kendrick did, it’s easy to see that the beef got in the way of people listening to exceptional music. We’re lucky that Kendrick eventually dabbled in the work of Jay-Z, given it helped him establish a flow that since has made him one of the greatest to commit lyrics to music.
