It is so tough to put things in perspective from two dramatically different eras. And there's a lot of questions to ask. In attempt to be concise (y'all know better...):

- Has the average person's capacity to enjoy multiple albums at the same time increased since 94? I know the OPPORTUNITY and AVAILABILITY is there, but I'm talking capacity of the average individual to listen to music. I want to say it SHOULD be much higher because people take in so much more information now. But is it also possible that all of the information people take in now actually leaves less room for music than ever before? There's updates for pretty much everything: sports, news, weather, celeb stalking, facebook/personal updates, twitter, blackberry work emails, etc. Who has AND takes time to listen to Good Kid, MAAD City a few times from front to back until all of the songs and skits make perfect sense? I know how many times I listened to Illmatic before I got used to the speed and appreciated the rhyme schemes, etc.

- How much does the 'I want to be the one who is too cool for what other people like' thing hurt ANY album from becoming an over the top beloved album in today's world? I mean...folks didn't argue about Doggystyle, did they?! Most folks either said it wasn't their thing and kept it moving. Everyone else said 'yeah...its pretty much jamming...dub me a copy..I'll bring a blank tape tomorrow..does your copy have 'Gs up, hoes down' on it? Awww...nevermind mane...'

- Did everyone really put things aside when Illmatic dropped?

- Was that a regional reaction? I ask because I remember folks forgetting everything else when Doggystyle hit. Doggystyle was like the Friday of rap albums. For like 2 years, that album was on EVERYWHERE I went. Of course/however, in Houston, Illmatic was something different/slower to develop. You listened to on your walkman or discman randomly in between UGK, Scarface, Maze, Isley Brothers, Jodeci, and Keith Sweat albums. It wasn't something you threw on with a chick in your mama's car or even with your boys when you were trying to look cool rolling around the food court to park at the mall or at Oasis. And since the world was much bigger then, it was like late 95 or around the time It Was Written was dropping before I asked folks 'hey, I've been listening to Nas for a while. Illmatic was dope as shit, right?' and then the other person's face would light up and the response would be 'hell yeah! I thought it was just me! I still listen to that! Dude was rappin his ass off on there!'.

- Impact is hard to project, right? Sometimes, you HOPE an album makes folks try harder (College Dropout) or do better in terms of lyrical thickness (Illmatic). But sometimes, it just makes folks do double CDs (All Eyez on Me/Life After Death) or try to go into something for everybody mode, which I still see as an issue when cats who don't have the flexibility or talent to pull of 'something for everybody' try to do it. GFID for instance...and I'm a supporter of most things Rawse (HUH!). He was on the verge, but he swung too hard for the something for everybody thing and made an album with several good songs in between some 'ehh' tracks that were in a VERY wrong order. And don't start me on how he gave away too much on Rich Forever, guest songs (no way you give up Lord Knows), and how I Love My Bitches after 3 Kings sounds great.

To play along on the Kendrick situation, I'll say that having any decent artist with a movement of some kind is going to make me smile. That clip of him, Dr. Dre, and 3000 in the studio makes me smile cuz he rapped along with it like he FELT it. The video of him 'performing' Money Trees at Best Buy with a older white guy in a suit damn near wincing everytime he says 'ya bish!' with the small crowd singing along the whole time? Folks krunk to see Jay Rock show up for his verse? Still smiling. It is simple hiphop situations like that..that's why I'm still listening to this shit.

I think...at a minimum...the hope surrounding this GKMC project has been born and bred on the hope that it forces the issue with other artists to do better. I don't think everyone wants every cat to be having skits and stories happening throughout their album. I don't think everyone wants Rawse using squirrelly voices on hooks. And I don't think everyone is ready for folks to try to hit them in the face with the death and drama that is STILL happening in their city (ask Lupe how it is going with F&L2). I DO think this is a damn good album that might send some lesser folks back to the drawing board. And that 'oh shit...I gotta do better' feeling is almost always a good thing.

I personally hope that fans of the music have heard the album more than they've heard the hype and managed to take away great things away from it that are really there: the heart of the story (I made it almost by accident or lack of fatal accident, but folks around me weren't as lucky), the statements made from the use of the parents throughout the skits/ludes, the vulnerable nature of everyone involved in the story, the more than solid rapping, the attempt at cohesion without just having the same beat over and over, the hits that fit the album AND manage to sound 'current' without sounding like bad mimickry (some of Kendrick's earlier stuff), etc.

Also, I hope folks on both 'sides' of the argument allow this album to grow into whatever it becomes instead of trying to tack leaves and branches onto the album artificially to make the album something that it hasn't even had time to become yet. And my god mad folks, put down the damn chainsaws! Even if you don't like it, the world is going to keep spinning. Stop standing on top of shit to shout out that you don't like it only to be shocked and appalled when somebody throws a rock or two at yo ass. Get the fuck down and get over it..negative nancy ass niggas..go listen to and talk about something that you DO like. Spread love or something like that.

A warning: wack music will get made because of Kendrick's album. History tells us that. How many 'super lyrical' but ultimately hollow as hell albums came out after Illmatic? How many horrible 'gangsta' albums hit after NWA, Chronic, and Doggystyle? How many wack as shit, barely singing, no lyric-having headwrap folks did we have to suffer through in R&B/soul music after D, Max, and Badu came in? How many 'regular guys' popped up after College Dropout who not only didn't have ANYTHING to say, but didn't even have the decency to be at least kinda jamming? How many bloated double CDs did we all slog through in the late 90s after Pac and BIG got shot and left those 4 discs for everyone to study and attempt to mimick with far less talent behind the boards and on the mic? It is going to happen. And folks will blame Kendrick for that. Just like folks blamed Pac for his psycho fanbase who says he's the best (*raises hand*) and Ja Rule. If Pac is dead (he is), he probably rolled in his grave. Or maybe his ashes got ashier...

Jimaveli

>we put all that shit aside when Illmatic came out*
>
>alot of GREAT artists and albums came out around that time
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>Tribe
>De La
>Mobb
>Pete and CL
>WU
>Dre
>GStarr
>KRS
>Kast
>Roots
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>were all at or near their creative peaks
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>in terms of artistry, and even output
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>those are big names, and some of those names had arguably
>either just released their best album, or were on the verge of
>releasing their repsective classic
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>all of that was put on pause when Illmatic came out
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>it had its moment, but it was its moment in its entirety
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>no arguments
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>GKMC will probably go the way of MBDTF
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>it will get alot of hype and critical claim initially
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>and deservedly so
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>it's a really GOOD album
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>but it won't be as sustaining or impactful as Illmatic
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>a better analogy might have been Pharcyde's Bizzare Ride
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>Kendrick didn't go the way of trap music, or whatever label
>you put on the music his counterparts are releasing
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>he did him
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>yeah, Pharcyde would have been a better analogy
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>*I can remember the day, VIVIDLY, that Illmatic was released
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>I cut school to go buy that shit
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