How Kendrick Lamar Reached the Highest Rap Peak of the Past 25 Years
There are exceptions, but battle raps aren’t supposed to be hit records. Sure, they’re designed to get attention, but by nature, they’re coarse diatribes conceived for the purpose of their targets’ destruction; loud shouts, sickle cell jokes and taunts to enemies who aren’t alive to hear them. Harnessing hyphy’s kinetic energy, a decade of animosity, and the instincts of a true master manipulator, Kendrick Lamar pushed the concept of a commercial diss song to its upper extreme for “Not Like […]
