What's the Best Song on GNX? | LAST SONG STANDING
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Hi everyone, we're currently taking a few weeks off from our analysis of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. However, I will be publishing special episodes every week until we return. Next week, I'll finally be releasing the long-awaited analysis of Kendrick's Super Bowl halftime show. I can't wait to share it with you as I believe it's the most comprehensive analysis of the show to date, so be on the lookout for that next week. I'm equally excited to share today's show, a special one-off episode of Last Song Standing.

For those who aren't familiar, Last Song Standing is an annual show in which me and The Ringer's Charles Holmes attempt to determine an artist's single best song by debating our way through their entire catalog. So far we've done seasons on Outkast, Frank Ocean, and our very first season back in 2022 was on Kendrick Lamar. Now obviously Kendrick hadn't released GNX back then, so we thought it would be fun to do an addendum episode to figure out if GNX has any songs that should be in contention for Kendrick's greatest of all time.

I flew down to Los Angeles to record this with Charles in person and had a really great time. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome everyone to Last Song Standing. I'm Cole Kushner. And I'm Charles Holmes. And yesterday, somebody whacked out our podcast. So the LSS boys are moving to Europe for a special one-off episode to discuss what might be the most consequential album in Kendrick Lamar's career. That's right. We're discussing G and X. Woo!

Cole, how have you been? Because I feel like the last time we were on camera discussing Kendrick Lamar was...

probably like two or three days removed from not like us and it seems like we've lived five years how are you doing i'm doing good yeah it's good to see a person in studio for the first time i think the last time we saw each other in person i was beating your ass in cornhole oh dog i i'm not very good at cornhole and you are you're a frat boy at heart yeah i'm good at cornhole hell yeah hell fuck you yeah but for today we're here

Because we were having a conversation. Our first season of Last Song Standing was on Kendrick Lamar. Been a few years since then. I think this might arguably, we are coming off the biggest career year for Kendrick. Oh yeah, for sure.

So we wanted to kind of travel back in time. Yeah, it's kind of like an addendum to our season to make sure that we named our last long standing. We won't spoil it to the end. So if you want to catch up on that season, you guys can go back and listen to it on Spotify. But this is an addendum episode to address, see if any of the songs on GNX can be in contention for Kendrick's best song of all time. I'm curious to know, we've talked a little bit about GNX just on like text, right?

But how did you receive the album? How do you like it now? What are your thoughts? What do you just open me up with a general thoughts on GNX? So, you know, I like to come out swinging every single show we do podcast. I felt this the day dropped. I felt it once later. I feel it today. I think GNX is Kendrick's best album. It's my favorite album of his.

Even when everybody, I remember the day everybody's like, there's another album coming. There's another, another album. I was part of that crew. Sorry. And I was just like, everybody relax, chill, appreciate what he gave us because what he gave us is a near perfect body of work. Wow. This is how I feel like you feel every single time you're talking about. Can we switch roles? Am I about to undermine GNX right now? You said it's his best album.

I will say this. I will say I need a little bit more time, but to me, I can make an argument that for everything that I look at and look for in a project, this is his best project. Yeah. This is one of my favorite Kendrick Lamar. A lot to process. I'll admit, I mean, G and X, I love G and X. I listened to it almost every day. Still legitimately. I just want to hear it all the time. So it might be his most replayable album in terms of like,

There's no skits, even on like Good Kid, Mad City, where like a lot of hits on that album. There's still the skits, there's still the narrative. So you do have to like skip around if you just want to vibe to an album. So it definitely has, at least for me right now, the most replay value of a Kendrick album. Although with that said, it might be my least favorite Kendrick album. Whoa! But we're talking about all-time discography, starting with Good Kid, Mad City, of course. But-

What I love about it is also a detractor about it, is that it is a little bit more digestible, which works in its favor on one hand and is to its detriment in a best album conversation on the other hand. But I love the fucking album and I listen to it, like I said, all the time. That's what I like about it. I think you can make the argument that this is not maybe his most...

artistically impactful album or most difficult album in terms of just like having all those layers. But in terms of just to me at its core, what a great album can do, which is,

worm itself into your life in the way that you're talking where it's like, you're a way bigger Kendrick fan than me. And I can guarantee you, I've listened to GNX probably more than you. I listen to it every single day. I just play even the songs I do not. There's a lot of songs I don't like on this album and they just wash over. I like listen to them because they're good enough where I'm just like, fuck, I'm just going to listen to the 12 tracks and I'm going to play it back. And I think that that is...

honestly almost a little bit more difficult like i think a lot of people are like well to pimp a butterfly was probably a way harder record to to release and i'm just like yeah in some ways but in others how many times are we always begging for artists to give us the perfect 12 song record right no fat no skips get in get out i think with streaming

We just saw it with the Playboy Cardi album. It's so easy to be like, here are 30 songs. And you're just like, oh, fuck. I need a good 48 hours to parse through it all. But it's like within those 30 songs, you're going to get a hit. If you release 30 songs, you're going to trip into one. Kendrick did the opposite. He's like, there's no room for mistakes. There's no room for like bullshitting. I need to basically prove that I can pull this off in such a short amount of time. And I think...

Whether it's the charts, whether it's the Super Bowl, I think he pulled it off very well. Yeah, there's also an immediacy to this record where you look at the little things that people have said that have worked on it. There are stories that a lot of these songs have just been created definitely post-battle with Drake, but also in the month or two leading up to its release. There's an immediacy that's different from...

I mean, I would say probably every Kendrick album in that it feels like it was written for a very specific moment, whereas other albums feel... I think this album has timeless qualities, but there's a timelessness to To Pimp a Butterfly. There's a timelessness to Good Kid. And they're rooted in a narrative and a moment in his life. But this... I don't know. Do you feel that kind of immediacy where he's talking about things that just had happened, just had transpired? It feels like...

It feels curated, but it also feels like... I don't know how many other songs he threw out to make this album. I get the impression that there wasn't 30 songs to pull from. Maybe if you go back years, but the ones that were created, almost all of them speak to the post-battle timeline that we're currently experiencing with him. And that's what I appreciate about the album. It's also what I don't like about the album. Big picture, but...

It's great. I just love that we have a Kendrick album that feels fun. Yes. Feels loose. He's very serious. There's message. There's not a concept, but there's a message. But there's also jokes. I was trying to think of the last album that he had jokes on. It's probably Good Kid Mad City. This is his funniest album. This is actually the record where I feel like

Kendrick is being his most day-to-day self, where I think a lot of his records, like Mr. Morales is a big example where I'm like, that's who Kendrick is, but he's mining years and years of trauma and generational stuff that's going back from before he was born, when he was a kid, married, maybe not married, but...

father, all of that. And to your point, I wrote about this when it dropped. This reminded me of a Drake record because every Drake record is essentially about his celebrity and giving you an update, like the report card of like, here's how the status of the Drake industrial complex is going. Right, right. And Kendrick doesn't really do that. Kendrick, each album,

you can be like, okay, damn religion, this part of his life, Mr. Morale. Oh, you're going into a little bit more of like the heady existential therapy lane for this. It's just like, gee, that's, is about Kendrick being the God, the goat right now. And I think to your point for what you probably look, look forward to Kendrick record, you're just like, this isn't, this is what I want. And for me, who's always been like,

I fell in love with Kendrick's music when looking out for detox dropped the, the freestyle he did over like some child scambino beat. And that's always been the Kendrick when it's rigor mortis, whenever he pops back up is a Kendrick. I always was like,

Doc, just get into the booth and fucking go. Yeah, I know. We finally got that. And what I love about it as someone that tracks his entire career is that we do have, we have four albums that are doing what you just laid out beautifully, mining his experience and then curating this concept in this narrative. So to have the weight of that

contrast with GNX, especially after Mr. Morale. They're almost paired together in my mind because they're two sides of a coin. They're so opposite. One is so burdened and so heavy and GNX feels liberated and free and confident, egoic even. And so I love the contrast between the two. And it's

Yeah. If there was ever a moment to get this kind of Kendrick Lamar album, it was this moment. I mean, also, Mr. Morale is such a rapper thing to do where it's like, Mr. Morale is a project where Kendrick is showing you not only the work of making an album, but the work that he's doing on himself and kind of trying to...

go into a different phase in his life where he's stripping away a bunch of a bunch of the muck that you just get as you age into your 20s and 30s and 40s it's so funny that the next record is just like alright we're pausing on the shit I'm being my most negative self like that is I cannot imagine a more like rapper thing to do to be like alright fuck all that shit let me get this motherfucker up out of here

I was so confused when G and X dropped. I've gotten theoretically like wrap my mind around it and how it plays into the stuff that, cause I'm deep into morale right now. I'm doing, we're doing the season of it on him on morale right now. And it took me a while to be like, how does this, how does this fit in? Is it a,

Is it a linear progression or is he backtracking or is it, what am I not understanding? I feel like I have a little bit more of a context with a lot of the moves that he's made after the album drop. I remember just being so confused. Like this is what we get after GNX or after Morale. And it's just, but. Isn't that what they teach you in therapy? It's just like, you know, you take a couple steps forward and then you slide back. And if anybody could make Kendrick be his worst self, it is Aubrey the light-skinned.

So before we get too much, we're going to discuss the album. But let's kind of go back to just walk our listeners through what we're doing this episode. So purpose of this episode is to find out if GNX has any songs that should be in contention for the greatest Kendrick Lamar song of all time. To do this, we are going to run through our normal episode format. We'll start with a general discussion of the album, do some album trivia. Then we'll each nominate our favorite songs off the project.

Yep. And then at the end of the episode, we'll debate our picks until we both agree on the last song standing, the best song off of GNX. Then we'll put that song up against our top five Kendrick songs from our season on Kendrick to see if it could crack the list or even take the top spot. And make sure to stick around for a bonus segment later in the episode where we get into some of our favorite records from the never-ending beef. But before that, let's return to

some little facts about GNX. Do you have a title for this? Did you come up with a title? Do I have? We don't have a title for the album background. Okay, right. You're right. Have we? I thought we did. I'm letting us down. I was looking forward to your titles, but it's okay. I thought I was going to come up with one right there. It just did not come to me anyway. All right. These are some background facts on GNX.

Kendrick's sixth studio album, 12 Songs, released on November 22nd, 2024. The project features appearances from an entire generation of LA rappers such as Doty 6, Lefty Gunplay, AZ Chike, Hitta J3, among others. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 200, selling 319,000 album equivalent units in its first week. And so far, it's spawned two singles, Squabble Up and the Meteoric record that is...

which I don't actually understand how big it's gotten. Like, I think it's still as of this recording number one. I know it's insane. I knew that record was going to be big. We might talk about it later, but this big, no, it might end up being bigger than not like us.

over its lifetime. Not in terms of impact. Yeah, yeah, no, I know, I know. But in terms of like, because think about it, you can play Luther at weddings. Right, yeah. You can play it at more places where I think like not like us is, we're always going to talk about it like it's here, but I could see Luther just kind of riding into the summer just being,

I know. It does have that quality. And it's going to be, hopefully it's bigger than All the Stars, which is technically, I think, Kendrick's biggest song. I hate All the Stars. I know. I don't like that song. And I love Luther. I really legitimately like Luther. So I feel like Luther is the best iteration of that side of Kendrick. So do you want to get us into some themes surrounding GNS? Yeah. I mean, it's a little bit different than...

past seasons or past albums where I came in here with like a whole timeline and I outlined the narrative. And so I think the biggest thing is like, it's not a concept record as much as I tried to make narratives out of the track list. And it was, I figured out all the connections and what is reincarnated doing and blah, blah, blah. Like, I just don't think there's a concept. I think there's,

The very few things that he said about the album on the Apple interview before the Super Bowl, they asked him directly about what is GNX and he said, I'm trying to take it back to hard-ass beats and hard raps, what I fell in love with hip-hop. So there is...

a simplicity to the record that we just talked about that I feel like was intentional. And I think it does tie into this broader goal of Kendrick this past year, which is trying to his best to restore hip hop to its roots, get it back closer to the foundation, what he represents, bringing regionality back into the genre and just

for him simplifying things and just returning to day one, giving us that just pure rap album that a lot of us were just yearning for, but he wasn't able to, he wasn't emotionally ready, you know, for that. He had a lot of stuff to unpack with Mr. Morale to get to this moment, but you know, GNX doesn't, I don't think GNX exists. I don't think the Drake battle exists without the self-work that he did on morale. Um,

celebration of the west coast obviously um you made a very intentional point to pick west coast sounding beats feature more underground west coast uh album or artists and then as much as we want to avoid talking about drake like this is in part of victory lap to maybe the biggest hip-hop beef that we've definitely experienced in our lifetime so there's there's not a you can't

you can't detach this album from the battle this is there's clear kind of victory lap vibes going on there's direct lines that i mean over and over almost every song mentions it alludes to it in some way um and to your point putting a stake in the ground you know proving he over this past year he has proven it's not the big three it's big me and i think

At least in my mind, that is clear as day. I don't know where you fall on that now, but out of the three, J. Cole, Drake, and Kendrick, for me, there's only one winner. So I think I love everything you said thematically about the album. What I think is special to me about GNX is that there's a part in every rap beef to me that gets to this mainstream level where you transition from, is this just a hip hop ecosystem beef?

Or are we now battling for the spirit of the culture? Right. And I think if you take Pusha T and Drake, that's a hip hop battle. Yeah. Where when Pusha T raps over the story of Adidon, it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in a beef, which is someone being like, you're hiding a child. And in fact, that rapper is hiding a child. I never thought that this beef could leapfrog over that. But yeah,

What Kendrick was able to do is that once he won those first couple rounds with Euphoria, Meet the Grams, and then Not Like Us, Gia next to me is a pivot point where the beef, it no longer becomes about I'm competing against Drake. It's Kendrick like I'm competing with myself to see how far I can push it. And to me, Gia next is a record, and you already hinted at it, where it's

It's saying, I'm taking this back. GNX has a symbol of this car that he's got the souped up version, but a car that his dad had when he was a child is like, this is 12 tracks. This is you putting this CD on in a car and doing the thing that I think hip hop does better than any other genre. You can ride around the street and there's going to be a song for everyone. There's a song for the kids. There's a song for the hustlers. There's a strong song for the women. And it sounds like

project if you if you say it like that you're like is that below kendrick and to me it's him saying no this is the one thing that y'all told me i couldn't do yeah exactly like him not putting not like us on this is such a smart thing because it's like oh no no no this is going to be a hit album without my hit record right i'm going to show you i can give you squabble up i can give

you Luther. I'd give you TV off. I can give you Dodger blue. And to me, that's why this album works to me because it's a rapper saying, no, I'm going to prove to you that I am the number one rapper of my generation. Here you go. Right. Yeah. I love that. This is so yeah, it's like it's post battle, but also he took great length to kind of separate it outside of it. And to your point about the car, I think that if there is any concept of what this of what GNX is, it is

like a lot of people were speculating this as a mixtape because it has that feel to it. It is feels like it was made to put on in your car. And there is a variety of sounds. There isn't, I mean, there is a through line, but there is a lot of ups and downs with variety. You'll go from Luther to, Hey now, or you'll go from reincarnated a TV off. And it's like, it, it really does kind of totter back and forth between a bunch of variety of sounds. And yeah,

And there's a through line, but it's not as concise as past records. But I think that was kind of the point to broaden the appeal, to give a song for everyone and not feel the pressure to have this like, you know,

brain-breaking concept where you can play it forward and backwards or you could, you know, there's no crazy theatrics. There's no gimmicks. It's just, like you said, hard-ass beats, hard-ass raps. I mean, but also we got to be real too. Even I was critical of some elements of the Super Bowl performance, but you have to give credit where credit's due.

He released this album in November, which is a very regional... This is a regional record. He is building upon a bunch of modern, old school, West Coast hip hop. And from November to the Super Bowl, these songs being in the popular consciousness enough where he can perform...

almost what half of this record on the biggest stage is like, you can't, it's crazy. What other rapper or even artists has even had the balls to be like, this is what I'm doing. Cause he didn't perform a lot of the, I was like, there weren't money trees. There wasn't a lot of the other joints where I was like, God damn, you're doing a record like peekaboo. Euphoria. Insane. What? So I'd like, I do want to like,

I know people probably like we're done with Kendrick. We're so tired of here. Right. It's still, we're going to look back on this moment and just be like, no, I don't know if this can be repeated ever. No, not like this. Everything lined up. You think about just the timeline of everything from like that, which we just celebrated the one year anniversary, everything that transpired this year. And now, and he's going to go on a stadium tour. He's not done yet. He's not done yet. I mean, people are speculating. There's another album coming.

But we'll see. We'll see. But yeah, let's move on to our next section. Did you get a name for this one? Album. I didn't know I was supposed to get the name. That's okay. This is usually, usually we come up with names for the entire season. We didn't have our little meeting before this. Damn. It's all right. I've let you down. I've let you down. But anyway.

Our trivia section, we do this every single season. It is where each of us try to stump each other. I don't think we're really competing for anything this episode. Maybe first pick of the nomination since we're not going to overlap. All right, cool. All right. What's your first trivia point? I'm starting out with a softball. So we'll do two questions each. And if we need a tiebreaker, we can get a tiebreaker. But I think you're going to know this one.

The GeneX, or the Grand National Experiment, was only made in one year ever. What year was it made? And bonus half point if you can tell me how many exactly were produced. Oh, fuck. I read this and I don't... I'm not even gonna... I'm gonna get 1987. Yeah. Is it a year? Yeah. It is? Yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. That... I knew it was around there. Well, it's Kendrick's birth year. Hell... So...

I don't know how many were created. 547. Ooh. Okay. That was just bonus. That was a good one. One point. All right. I'm going to throw you a softball. Okay. How many other rappers had the Hey Now beat before Kendrick and who are they? One is Quavo, right? Yes. And he said, what do you want me to do? Whisper on this or something? Okay. So there's definitely one.

That's the one I know about. So I'm going to guess two.

But I don't know the second artist. So it's three. Oh, damn. The beat, if I'm remembering this correctly, was made in front of YG and he wasn't feeling it. Okay, that sounds familiar. Then Mustard was trying to give it to Quavo and he said, what do you want me to whisper over it? And I think Ty Dolla Sign actually recorded something over it. But Mustard, for some reason, wasn't feeling it, didn't get released. Damn. Like, here's the thing. I don't know if we're going to pick it, but I will say...

hey now might be the best beat on this entire it easy i was listening to tyler's freestyle over a reason oh my god yeah i was just like this beat it is so funny because it's like it's such a actually simple beat i think mustard was like i'm trying to recreate clips is grinding right so i could see how a bunch of rappers like what do you want me to fucking do over that but once you hear like kendrick over it yeah it's almost it smacks you in the face like wait why did it take so long for someone to be like this isn't this is an insane beat

Yeah. And they, well, I think they built it up too, because that bridge, when it goes into the spaceship, seeing spaceships on Rosecrans and the synth opens up, I don't think that doesn't sound like mustard to me. So I think they kind of beefed it up with some of the Jackson off and sound wave. They probably kind of like gave it the, instead of it just being this straightforward, I mean, a lot of the beats on this record are,

TV off is very similar as well, where that was two beats and they buried it together. That's another thing I like about GNX is even though the beats are very regional and simple, they're all, they always take you on a, on a journey of almost just like ecstasy of like, pow. Yeah. Hey, now it's one of my favorites. It's just, it was my favorite song on the record when it first came out. It's not no longer my favorite, but I love that song. Hell yeah. All right. What's your second question? Question two, according to producer rascal, uh,

He sent Kendrick a beat for a song that made the album just two days before the album's release. What song is it? You're cheating. I'm looking at your notes. We're on video, dude.

This is scrolling through your notes. Is it GNX? Yeah. Hell yeah. Damn. Hell yeah. Sorry, I cheated a little. All right. Just for the listeners, GNX title track. Rascal shared the text exchange between him and Kendrick for proof. Kendrick requested, quote, some ignorant West Coast shit, but let the drums have space. I'm about to hit the studio. That was two days before the album released. That's crazy. That's why...

That's why I also love the album because there is an immediacy of delivery on this album where sometimes...

I can tell when I'm listening to a Kendrick record how thought over it is, how he's hitting the exact pocket, rapping in the exact way with the exact inflection. And to me, this is still a thought over record, but a lot of them do feel like freestyles. A lot of them do feel like first thought, best thought, go. Yeah, exactly. And the thing that makes Kendrick such a technician is that

It's not like he's like when he's rapping, he's still killing these fucking beats. He's still at the top of his game.

But there is just more. So I'm like, dog, I can tell you were just kind of like hungry that day. Like I'm not leaving until we finish this record. Well, he says like on whacked out murals, this is not for lyricists. Fuck a double entendre. Yeah. He's setting the tone right there on the start of the album. Like, yeah, it's, this is not going to, it has lyrical, it has wordplay. He does all the rapper things, but it's not again, we'd said it a million times now, but it's not,

He's setting expectations like this is not your concept thematic record. Like, it's just not what it is. And this is what, what's my cliche Charles thing? Can I play this in the whip? Does it pop in the whip and it fucking does. All right. One more question for you. What's the name of the artist or brand that designed Kendrick's custom belt buckle seen on the cover of GNX and in the video for squabble up?

Is it Martine Rose? Did she do it? No. Martine Rose? No. Is it? I definitely... La something?

Eli Russell Linitz from the brand ERL. Okay. I think that was what I was trying to remember, but I didn't get it. Damn. Damn. Come on. You didn't even want to do the trivia and you just, there's not a lot of trivia for this album yet. Everybody. I don't know what type of NDA Kendrick has these rappers. Yeah. But like, God damn, they are very tight lipped about it. Yeah. Time to move on to the next segment of the show. That's right.

It's time for nominations. Remember, the goal of today's episode of Last Song Standing is for Cole and I to determine the single best song from GNX. The song we select will then be put up against our top five Kendrick songs at the end of the episode in order to determine whether or not it makes the cut or can even make the top spot. Right now, we're nominating two songs each. I'll go first. I'm so curious where you're going to go. We should say...

Usually in episodes past, if there's overlap, that would count as a nomination on each side. But there's no overlap. So whatever you pick, I can't pick. I can also count as my nomination. See, I don't think you're going to pick either of mine. So I'm going with... Damn. Hmm.

I'm going with whacked out murals. Yesterday. Somebody whacked out my mural. That energy. I make you make us move to Europe, but it's regular for me. That's for sure. The love and hate is definitely. Wow. Whacked out murals produced by soundwave doggy, Jack Antonoff, Rayna Craig, Balmaris, M tech and Tyler Reese. I knew I like, I'm shocked. Why are you shocked? I don't know. I don't know. All right. This doesn't seem like a, you saw him like it.

This is everything that I want from a rap song. Okay. This is everything that I think makes Kendrick special. Because Kendrick, we've already touched upon this. Kendrick doesn't do these type of records. I think a rapper that has made this type of intro, their bread and butter is Drake. And I would not be surprised if Kendrick, this is one of his like weird, like I'm kind of making fun of you. Like take a song like Tuscan Leather off Nothing Was The Same.

Drake likes to do these long, winding intros that are essentially like, here's everything that I've been up to in the last year. And Whacked Out Murals is such a gossip record. If you listen to this record 10 years from now, the amount of shit that you would have to have known that happened in 2024, Whacked Out Murals is talking about...

an incident where someone did throw a bunch of paint on a Kendrick Lamar mural. He's talking about Snoop and the Taylor made AI fiasco. Nas being the only one to congratulate him after the Superbowl. Lil Wayne basically crashing out because he wasn't the performer of the New Orleans Superbowl. This is everything that for years, I feel like Kendrick Lamar,

almost acted like he was above or when he would rap about this type of stuff, he would always leave it off the album. If you think about control, even though that's a big Sean song, when he was ready to do his like, fuck the industry, I'm the best. It's a big Sean, big Sean song. It's a future and Metro song. He there, or it's like a part of the heart series. Very rarely does he try to bog down his records in any of the, uh,

the blog headlines type of shit. Would you agree? Yeah, no, definitely. And for the one time he does it, he just sounds so pissed off. He sounds so much like he sounds disgusted. He sounds disgusting. Like, is this what you want from me? Are you not entertained? It has that feeling. Um, I think on just like this technical level, I love how this beat

It starts out so sparse, but it's propulsive. And we don't... The drums don't really come in until full force, into two minutes into it, which is...

Once again, such a bold move because we're coming off a year of like, not like us. And Kendrick has finally given us these records and for whacked out murals to just start in such a low key part where Kendrick and his voice and how honestly grotesque and demonic it is at some point as they carry us, the drums come in and boom, he's off to the races. And then he,

he delves into almost like this battle rapper-esque form of himself, whereas the, especially in the third verse, you can, you can hear it. His rhyme scheme does not change that much over the course of the record, but he's speeding up. Yeah. Like very, very, very gradually to the point where he's rapping juices all in my cup. So we'll up and knock them all off. Like it's, it's the shit, like put it in my veins. Um,

I'm going to break down my top five pettiest moments off whacked out murals so I can kind of like to show you the level of just like ain't shitness and pettiness that he's on. Number five. Okay.

making every rapper not named nas second guess why they didn't congratulate because to me i can see a rapper being like i'm not trying to be a dick rider i don't want to just text kendrick whatever but if i hear this song and i'm like one of kendrick's boys you think like abso's like damn you think he's talking about me i didn't send him a text that day so that's number five number four i actually this is

It's one of my favorite parts of the record because it's when he starts doing the double time flow or it gets into it. But it's one of it irks me when he references Andrew Schultz. I'm like, all right, there's a little like you don't have to like mention this random white comedian. I feel like we're fine. Once again, it's a very Drake thing to do being like no one's getting out of this. I this is the one song where everybody is getting it. No subliminals. We're just going off the cuff. Number three mocking himself for letting Lil Wayne down.

In that part, Lil Wayne is like one of the greatest of all times. I love Lil Wayne and his discography. And if you are a true Kendrick fan, you know how much, especially of Kendrick's early career in those mixtapes, is just Lil Wayne cosplay. And once again, when you get to this level as a rapper, you have a decision. Either you're going to kind of be like, you know what? I'm gonna let it go.

I lost Snoop Dogg or you're going to be like, I kind of have to kill my OG and goddamn this. He just like back to fucking bring stuff up over fucking Lil Wayne's corpse. I fucking love it. Number two, chastising Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg was just like had to come out and be like my bad dog. But also can we agree with Snoop on some shit? I was like Snoop. Come on, bro.

I don't think he, like, I think that was a total, like, I mean, he's kind of past unk energy now. I think he's in the grandpa territory. I don't think he knew, like, what was happening, really, with the TaylorMade stuff. Do you think he, like, actually knew? I think, and this is what I think makes all of this so, this record and just the album so special to me, is that this is a very cynical record. I think Whacked Out Murals is also very cynical, where...

Kendrick's not stupid. And this record to me is an amalgamation of him finally doing what the dumb critics like me are just like, you should make a tight album. You should make some hits. Step up in the whip. You don't got any song for the bitches. And it's just like, if you're going to make the cynical record, kind of have to be like, Snoop, I don't care what you was on. Right, right. You got to get got to. Right. So yeah, I just, I love this song. And number one,

I want to ask you about this. Removing the line that is almost undoubtedly about J. Cole. Oh, you think so? All right. So this has been, this has been, do you have it written down? Cause there's been a lot of theories about what it is and like what, what it rhymes with.

So he said, put the head on a Cuban lick as a monument. I paid homage and I always mind my business. Yeah. I made the, and it blanks out. And I think people have said, I made the born sinner, like beg for forgiveness or something like that. Right. It fits. It fits. It 100% fits. I mean, we'll just never know, but it feels like.

right? Because he bleeps out Drake's name later. So do you think the one that he bleeps out after that is the Drake line? He said people cackling about Drake, but all y'all on trial. I guess Diddy would be the only other, right? So I think it's probably Drake. Okay. And I think the reason that it's also J. Cole is because the line that he comes back on is, I never lost who I am for a rap image. I'm like...

Right. That's him being like, like Cole, you're my boy. So I'm a bleep this out, but also he's doing once again, the petty cynical thing, which is, I'm sorry, but you, you chose a side. Right. And I got to address it. Right, right, right. He's, I mean, he let, I think he let Cole off pretty easy. Cause Cole made a diss track about Kendrick and Kendrick. I mean, he, Paul obviously apologized and all that, but like Kendrick could have still went at him even taking random shots and

Which felt like this was, but he made it. Kendrick, but here's the thing. Kendrick did the thing where, first of all, J. Cole was lying up a storm on one of those records where I'm just like, here's the thing.

I'm a critic. I can shit on to pimp a butterfly as much as I want. I'm not trying to create it to pimp a butterfly. I'm like, Cole, you got to make a record as good as to pimp a butterfly before you shit on it. Like, I'm sorry, Cole fans. I am. But it's like, right. I know you not talking, Cole. Yeah. I'm not trying to be a dickhead, but right. He was trying to count Kendrick's classics. And I'm like, right, bro. Cole, I'm not even sure you have one. So,

People are kicking me back. You're staying quiet and you know I'm not lying though. How many classics does Cole have? I'll give him Forest Hill Drives. Forest Hill Drive is one. I think Kendrick could honestly lay claim to having two on a bad day, three pretty easily. Yeah. I think to me, Good Kid, To Pimp a Butterfly, and Damn are kind of undisputed. I would say Good Kid, To Pimp a Butterfly, Easy, and

I would not be surprised if GNX ends up taking the damn throne. Because to me, damn felt like the graduation moment of like Kanye completing the trilogy. And now GNX almost feels like the graduation moment of like Kendrick's pop album completing the like, hey guys, I gave you all of the great art that took a lifetime. Now I'm giving you the slop. And GNX is not slop. It's just-

I wouldn't mind another one just like this. I'll say that. Give me the deluxe because I'm ready for, I'll receive a full 12 track album just like GNX. Oh, same. The amount that I've listened to even just album tracks is like peekaboo. Hey, now. Yeah. Is incredible. But why were you so surprised I picked Whacked Out Murals?

I mean, it just doesn't feel like just knowing you, but you, I mean, I'm always surprised at your picks. So I just don't have you, I don't have you pinned down, but it doesn't feel like I don't want to step on any of your other potential picks, but it's just not the obvious one though. I respect the hell out of the pick. It wasn't really even on my short list. I like this song. Don't get me wrong. There's something about it that I've even since the day one, I heard it. And it just, I think it's just a personal thing.

It feels too slow to me. Every time I hear the song, I'm like, can you just turn the BPM up like five to 10? The way that he has to drag out some of his, now I'm critiquing Kendrick's rapping, which is Jesus Christ. But because that's one of the reasons I didn't pick it though. It's like, there's something about when he, I love it when he gets into that double time feel and maybe that's why he kept the tempo lower. But yeah,

a lot of the early verses where he's having to like elongate some of the words just to fit the slower tempo, always kind of like, I just kind of like want it to just propel a little bit. And it does pay off when he does start doing the double time stuff. But the first half of it, I'm just like, I want that. I'm just waiting for that acceleration, which could be a positive for this, you know, for the song. But I mean, he's like, what I love is that he's just like on a, on a record where he's just going to rap, where he's just trying to do hard ass beats, hard ass raps, uh,

I mean, it's kind of like euphoria in that he's just fucking rapping. I mean, there is a hook technically on this where euphoria doesn't have a hook, but yeah,

I mean, I didn't count the bars, but it's like three full fucking verses. We never get three verses anymore. And he's like... And some of the verses got to be more than 16. Oh, hell yeah. Like verse two I'm looking at right now, that looks like a 32. Even though, yeah, I think the verse two and verse three are over 16. So he's just rapping. But I think I like the slowness, actually. I like that you have to wait so long for the payoff because you already brought up the line.

when he's talking about fuck a double entendre, I think it does make sense that if this record is supposed to be your, hey, there's no reading in between the lines with this. There's no getting confused. This is what it is. I'm going to tell you. You can understand every word. Every single word, every single breath, every single fucking voice inflection and change. I'm going to give y'all, he talks about, I'm going to give y'all the blueprint to how I became

not only the best rapper, but the biggest rapper. And to me that it's not easy to land that plane as a record, you know, because I could have, I could see a version of this album that starts with a squabble up, you know, or starts with a, Hey now, or starts with something that's a little bit more like, Hey, party fun record. And he's still like, no, we're going to get to that. Right. But I got to shit on these motherfuckers one more time.

So whacked out murals is my first nomination. Where are you going? This was so hard. We'll probably talk about it after the nominations briefly. This was so hard because my heart, my head is telling me one thing for these nominations and my heart is telling me another. And I feel like this is, I feel like this is a record where I, I gotta go with my heart more than my head because it is as we've been talking about. It's not the heady record, but,

So fuck it. I'm going peekaboo. It is my favorite song off of GNX right now. I didn't think you were going to pick peekaboo. I'm so happy. Dude, I love this song. So this was on your shortlist? This was on my shortlist. It wasn't going to get picked because

but I was almost going to like pitch a fit if we didn't like have time. So please clear out for peekaboo. I mean, there's, I can't give you like an intellectual explanation for it other than the beats hard. The flows are hard. The chemistry between, uh, him and him and AZ Chike phenomenal. Um,

The beat, I love this, like the sample sounds, very minimal texture, not like anything crazy going on, but the clarity that allows like a very clear intonation in the vocals. We got the great, give me your helping hand sample that kicks it off. And I just like how fun it is. It starts out kind of serious, you know, with the opening lines and maybe we'll talk about some of the

I do have a most dissectable moment about the opening lines, but when it starts to just like kind of descend into the, the, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey,

but never on his own albums, very rarely. And so to hear the lightheartedness of those second, two second verses, again, to hear the chemistry in the back and forth, and even the chorus is fun. It's just like the, what you're talking about, like, just like- AZ was saying like he could barely do it. Like, have you ever tried to like,

rap it's it's impossible yeah it's so hard like i'm actually amazed because it sounds so easy yeah exactly but to be in the i'm just like wait how did he fucking get all this yeah in the pocket and clarity with clarity yeah because it ends because talking about that talk that k ends on such a hard right percussive yeah sound for him to not stop yeah to keep it going he's like

something that i don't know if you're just listening you're like oh this is a regular hook but if you really love rap you're like he had to probably try this hundreds of times to get it that's the thing i know and i like that we have az's uh story saying that he like literally couldn't do it that's why he they splice him he does like half of it and then they splice kendrick back in which sounds great like it's a great back and forth and like i love their verse where they're trading bars it's like it's so fun he sounds great on this like

He's equal. He's right with Kendrick the entire song. Arguably, like, might have gotten Kendrick on his own song. I think he might have gotten Kendrick, but even AZ, he was saying, he was like, what's so weird about Kendrick is when we were, he recorded his stuff first. Kendrick did. Kendrick did. And then Kendrick was impersonating AZ. He was just like, he had actually listened to my music. He's like, oh no, this is where you're going to do it. And he was like, and that's what I love where I'm like, oh, even if

for years people have been like, oh, Kendrick doesn't put on West Coast rappers for him to be like, no, I've listened to this rapper enough that I know he has the possibility to get me on the song. Oh, right. Yeah. And yeah, I love that he, yeah, I feel like he does that a lot with his features where he gives them at least like a starting point. Yeah. Because I've been working on the Purple Heart episode with Ghostface and Ghostface was saying like Kendrick sent him a reference track, not just what to say, but how to like, here's what your cadence should sound like.

But it sounds like he did the same thing with this song. Okay. Can I give you my most dissectable moment of the episode? So this is a segment where I do one of my dissect breakdowns and then Kendrick, or Kendrick, Charles tells me if I'm full of shit or not. Okay. Okay. So it's, it's the opening lines.

He says peekaboo. I just put them boogers on my chain. Obviously he's talking about like yellow diamonds with the boogers there. Starts out simple enough. Peekaboo 80 pointers like a Kobe game. So this is a play obviously on 80, 81 point game.

Kobe Bryant, which was in Toronto, by the way. So there's a little Drake sub there, but also 0.8 carats diamonds. So he's playing on 80 pointers from the previous line about diamonds, boogers, and the chain. But here comes the dissectable moment. 7-6-2s will make him plank.

So this continues the decimal point motif. So it's 7.62. So this is the caliber of ammunition in the AK-47, make them plank. Obviously, it's like illusion to killing. But in Kobe's 81-point game,

He had seven three-pointers, six rebounds, and two assists. 7-6-2. Fuck out of here. Really? Yeah. 81 points with seven threes, six rebounds, and two assists. 7.2. 7-6-2. Make him plank. 81 pointers like a Kobe game. I know I'm a hater, but that's so cold. That's actually like, you know, even when I'm like, oh, you did. That's a dissectable moment. Sometimes I'm like, Kendrick doing too much.

Nah, that shit cool. You buy it? You think that's intentional? I think that's intentional. You got that one. Okay. Hell yeah. I'm so surprised. Like, damn, I'm so happy you picked me. Hey, hey, hey, hey, that's my bitch. It's so fun. But I'm going to my next nomination. This one I think is a little bit more obvious to my taste in my last longstanding pedigree. Okay.

Bitch, I cut my granny off. If you don't see it how I see it. We're going TV off the spiritual successor to Not Like Us reunites Kendrick with Mustard. Soundwave, Jack Antonoff, Sean Amonberger, and Kamasi Washington are also credited. Um...

I just think this song is so fun. It's so good. It's just so good. Rappers always try to do this where they'll have like a big hit and then they'll try to make like the sister record to the hit. And nine times out of 10,

Those songs always suck, and I'm just like, you should have just left Well Enough alone. Don't go back to the well. It's never good. TV Off, to me, beats that curse. Yeah. Where you can tell... I think GNX as a whole is an album that is indebted to the lessons that Kendrick learned on Not Like Us, where I can take a producer like Mustard, who at this point, Mustard is a legend, but...

Before Not Like Us, I think Mussel was probably on the down slope of his career. He hadn't had too many huge, huge records. Not Like Us is super fucking regional, super bouncy, super Bay Area influence, all that shit. Coming back with TV Off, something that's even more bombastic, that feels like it's exploding. And to me, the central taunt of this is so funny, which is...

I don't know if he already had the Super Bowl deal before this. For the second half, for sure, he wrote for the Super Bowl. Because I'm like, it is the funniest time ever to be like, hey, yo, Drake, I think you're going to have to turn the TV off. That is insane. It is just like, I would want to rip off my skin if I was Aubrey. I love this. The funniest moments on TV off, I have four. This record to me is also a perfect example of...

If you take something like Humble off of Damn, that record to me now in 2025, you can kind of tell how much Kendrick is trying to conform to hit making. Yeah, for sure. Where he's trying to figure out what is a Kendrick Lamar hit. He's had hits before that, but Kanye said something similar around the time of graduation, which is how do I make records that I can play in arenas and stadiums and it can go up against rock acts and whatever, right?

And to me, TV off is Kendrick knowing how to do that so effortlessly that it doesn't you don't feel that like him yelling mustard sounds so organic. It doesn't feel like, oh, I'm going to create a meme. It feels like, oh, no, he heard this beat and he was just like he yells it. Yeah. And it becomes a meme. So that's number four. Funniest moment. Number three.

We already mentioned it telling Drake to turn his TV off months before the actual Super Bowl and then doing it at the Super Bowl. Hilarious. Funny shit ever. I think if we've learned anything from this beef, Kendrick is a monster and no wonder he had to fucking go to Eckhart Tolle. God damn, you got some demons, boy. Number two, once again, already mentioned it. Bitch, I cut my granny off. She don't see how I see it. Instantly, I think goes into the top five greatest one liners of Kendrick's career. It's also...

Knowing how much Kendrick loved his grandmas, I think both of them have a past. And he has talked about in his music how much that affected him. Even on Gloria, he talks about losing his grandma at a young age. And so to hear, it makes it even funnier because it's just the whacked out murals energy. It's just like, it's all gloves are off. That's why I picked both records because to me, what Kendrick needed after Mr. Morale

Was a new storyline. And I think most rappers throughout their careers get to an inflection point where what else am I going to rap about? Yeah. Kendrick's rapped about his upbringing, his

politics, fame, fame by Mr. Morale. He's, he's getting to, he basically dropped his four, four, four at what Kendrick is 30, four or five or six. Maybe. Yeah. Where the fuck else do you go? And I think the Drake beef is,

finally gave him enough ammunition where to me gnx isn't a drake response record it is a no this is actually what i think of hip-hop this is what i think of everything that's been allowed to take place yeah this is all of y'all have written me off i'm going to prove to you that i can do every like it was a choice yeah it was a choice this entire time that i didn't want to do these type of records right that i didn't want to do this yeah exactly like

And I'm going to prove to you when you make me do it, it's going to seem effortless. TV off to me is that mustard is told, has said that these were two beats stitched together, anchored by two samples, Mac Arthur Park by Maul Kiggins and the Black Hole Overture by John Barry. And,

What I love about this record is once again, it's not that complicated of a beat. No, really? No. Yeah. It's not. It damn to me when I listened to damn, that is like a very ornate cinematic record because of everything that's coming at you. This is cinematic in a different way where it's leading you to the climax of the, of the mustard. It's leading you to the climax of the beat switch and,

And finally, Kendrick learned how to do a beat switch. It does not fucking annoy me because the baby team era was just the era of them. Just like we're done with beat switch. I'm just done. I never want to hear it again. TV off. You finally figured it out. This is amazing. I can't. There's. Yeah.

I don't know what else to say about this record besides it's just every single time I hear it, I feel like I want to be the Kool-Aid man running through a fucking wall. Yeah. We should point out that the Monk Higgins, why it sounds like Not Like Us is because Not Like Us also samples the same Monk Higgins album.

that TV off sounds samples. So it's literally the same band that you're hearing those little hits from. So that's why it feels like a sister song. It's literally the same sample. This was going to be my next pick. It was. Yeah. Because I feel like in the part, it's, I mean, it's definitely not my, like, I love this song, but it's not like my favorite song, but it's also in this discussion of last song standing. What is Kendrick Lamar's best song? I do feel like it's a great representative of,

for it because it does have commercial appeal. It's not an official single, I guess, but it feels like a single. It wasn't a single, but it felt it arrives halfway through the album. So it does feel like what at least the first half of the album is leading towards. Right. And then I guess the mustard kind of put it into the pop culture thing.

lexicon like it like it just felt like a moment yeah maybe that's why it felt like a single so it's like it has cultural prominence it has a great quote quick great quotables to your point great production great beat switch that does feel seamless and smooth and actually does have a function because that second beat comes on it's like it takes it turns the notch up you know yeah um but i also love part of why i think the beat switch works is because

Lyrically, he threads together where it doesn't feel like here's one song, here's another. Lyrically, he says TV off in, I think, the first verse of part one. Or no, it's the starting line on verse two on the first part of the song. He says, hey, turn your TV off. And then he doesn't say TV off until the second chorus, the second part of the song, second beat.

it becomes the main thing of the chorus, but we've heard TV off in the first half. So there's a lyrical connection also on the chorus part one's chorus. He says, I get that on the ass. Somebody got to do it, make him mad. Somebody got to do it. But then that comes back as a, as a chorus element on the second beat where you're saying acting bad, but somebody got to do it foot up on the gas, but somebody, so there's these lyrical, there's these lyrical connections that like tie the two parts together where it's not like,

Here's one song I had, here's another song. Let's like copy paste and put them together. So I think that goes a long way in like how smooth and climactic that second half sounds and feels, everything feels a part of each other. Um, I was going to call out all the same quotables that you did. And that whole verse too, speaking of the, uh, second half, um,

second beat that entire last verse that was written for the super bowl which he says at the end walk in new orleans with the etiquette of la yell and mustard obviously that's written for the super bowl he performs that verse which is arguably one of the hardest verses it's definitely the hardest verse in his entire super bowl performance and one of the hardest verses on gnx to perform just lyrically and he performed it last on after a 13 minute

performance where he's running across the football field. Like the breath control of the Super Bowl performance is insane. Revolutionary televisor tells you what it is. It's crazy. I try to wrap it in the card. I always fuck up. He has full breath control. Like the whole time I'm just like, dude, he must have been just preparing for getting sidetracked. But

Every time I hear verse two, I'm thinking of that moment of him actually rapping that live at the Super Bowl. Would you say GNX is the album that has that many moments where it's like he is like he'll

whacked out murals has it tv off has it even when he's going back and forth the peekaboo where i'm like even if he's not saying the deepest shit he's saying it in a way where he's just playing with flows yeah and tempos in a way where i'm just like oh you're having fun yeah i think yeah because it's lyrically not as technical as his past work but i feel like in terms of flow delivery cadence it's like it's up there like it's like where it's almost like a trade-off where like

You're getting all this other elements of rap he's really shining at and not so much like the lyrical miracle stuff.

But all that stuff is just as important to an impactful verse. And you get that even on like Squabble Up is a three verse song and he's doing different flows on each verse. Even on TV Off, it's like not, you can probably go through this entire album and he's not repeating a flow on the same song. Yeah. Verse one is going to have a different flow in verse two and he'll switch. Even on TV Off, he has that switch effect.

There's one moment where he just flips his flow in the middle of the first or second verse.

And he just, oh, it's like when he says, hey, what up, doe? And then he goes into an entirely new flow. It's not just the flows, even the voices where it's like, usually in past records, I feel like the voices were carrying more weight thematically. They were saying something about the story structure, emotion. So it was more recognizable with this. He'll change up not only his flow,

but his actual voice and the way he's rapping and it will have almost really nothing to do with the record besides just being like i want to get this voice off and this flow off and like i've listened to it so much sometimes i'm like no this is really hard it's not like he was just rapping one verse he's like all right we're stopping i'm gonna do this silly voice it's gonna be double time it's gonna sound dope and i was just like oh so there is a level of like

Kendrick can kind of almost free himself of the shackles of being like, damn, this almost alien-esque voice is going to have to tell you something about this song versus... Nah, I'm just that kid. Let me just get this off. All right. I love TV Off pick. Anything else you want to move on? No, TV Off is... I thought you were going to make more fun of me because you're like, of course he chose TV Off. Well, I mean... So did you know the story where...

I don't know anime, but apparently Goku is an anime character. Goku. You don't know who Goku is? I know the picture. We've been over this. I don't know anime. But apparently when he heard that second beat, he felt like Goku. That's why he screams mustard. Is this obvious? Is this an Easter egg that is obvious to you? Well, there is a like, you know, when Goku has to perform the...

Kamehameha. Okay. A spirit or the spirit bomb. Okay. Okay. It's like a blast. Like a hot, like a hot duken. Oh yes. That is actually, that is a street. Yes. Yes. Not dragon ball, but yes. Street fighter. Yes. Goku who yells or when he powers up, when he has to go super saying, how many super sayings can you name just off the cuff off top? Yeah. Zero. Well,

I don't know. What's a Super Saiyan? Well, a Super Saiyan is when Goku taps into his long lineage and his hair goes yellow because he's powering up. So there's base Goku and then there's Super Saiyan 1, Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3, Super Saiyan 4, Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan Blue. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Are these like past lives, ancestors, like coming back? No, no, no, no. These are all the same Goku.

but you're powering up. So sometimes you get just blonde hair, there's blue hair, there's red hair. There's a lot of different hairs. There's ultra instinct. Yeah.

You know nothing about this. First of all, I know your kids like the anime, man. Not yet. Not yet? They're not watching Demon Slayer? No. My Hero Academia? Some of their friends know Demon Slayer, but they haven't gotten to it. Well, they might be a little too young for Demon Slayer. Let's get back to the fucking country. So if you can't pick TV off, please pick the only other correct choice. The only other correct choice? Okay.

Before I do the last nomination, let's give some love to some possible other ones. Or should I just pick and then we'll talk about the ones we didn't pick after? All right. So let's go through the ones that I don't think you're going to pick. Okay. Don't think you're going to pick Heart Part 6, even though I love Heart Part 6. I'm not going to pick that. But yeah, I love that song. Heart Part 6 is actually very heartwarming for me because...

the first Kendrick project that I remember listening to must have been O.D. Okay. And that was around the time of like Black Hippie. Like I was watching a clip this week where Schoolboy Q was basically like, I had to make Black Hippie because they're about to kick me off the record label. I'm like, you can't kick me off a part of the group now. But like hearing Kendrick being very transparent about, yeah,

becoming a superstar and maybe that black hippie album never coming out because he right he moved past it and i love that record i'm not actually as big on this record i don't think you're gonna pick this a fan favorite is dodger blue i don't really like dodger blue that much i like it i it feels like a very like a lot of people from la seem to like that song yes it's a bop i like it but it's not like i'm not dying to put it i didn't think you're gonna pick it but shout out dodger blue people would be very mad i think it's a it's

It's a fine song. It's just for last song standing. Yeah. It's too feature heavy. It's too feature heavy. I also think I don't like GNX that much. The title track. I like that song. It's a posse cut though. So it's like... Yeah, it doesn't... Yeah. I like it. I like it, but it's on the lower tier. Yeah. Now, can I guess what is in contention for you? Yeah. I want to say Man at the Garden. No. No. No. I like that song, but...

it doesn't resonate with me personally that it does seem to have an audience for sure. And I appreciate it. Like it's one of the more important songs on the album. Kendrick said it's the most important to him on the album, but I don't know. So it doesn't resonate with me as much. If it's not, Hey, now it's probably reincarnated. Okay. This is the head and heart battle because reincarnated is the song that I would pick, right? Yes.

It is the most conceptual song on the album by far. It is amazing. If this was a best written song on, you know, Kendrick Lamar song, I think reincarnated to me is the best written song, lyrically storytelling concept, like dramatic conclusion moment. Like everything about the song is like classic Kendrick, what we love Kendrick about, but that's like one GNX is not just not that album for me.

Reincarnated does feel like an odd man out a little bit on the album. And he's also done this type of record better. Like in terms of like having a conceptual record and like landing the point. Where it's like, if you explain to me what reincarnated is about, I'm like, no, no, no, that makes sense. There's nothing very confusing about it. I just feel like on...

albums like the pimple butterfly mr morale yeah he's handled it's also because a lot of the time on those albums the album narrative leads you to that moment of the song where this because there's it doesn't build in that way it just doesn't hit the same thematically or even emotionally sometimes um so but that's like my head is telling me pick reincarnated but my heart i'm debating between luther and

and squabble up. And I think I'm just going to go squabble up. All right. If you were about to pick Luther, I would be like, let's fucking just wrap it up. You don't like you, Luther. I know it's a hit. And here's the thing. I don't love that song. I get why people love Luther. Like I, I don't think it's a bad song. I just, to me, Kendrick and SZA don't actually have that much chemistry to me. It's just that they're both like super, super,

popular artists who happen to be on the same label. And it's like one of those things when you think of who could actually be a, like an R and B feature on a Kendrick record,

Beyonce, Rihanna, SZA. It makes sense, but I don't like all the stars. I don't really like the song either. But okay, I'm not picking Luther, but I love that song. Squabble up. Luther is, I think I said this earlier, but I think Luther is the best iteration of that type of Kendrick Lamar song, and I'm glad that it's- I agree. I think it is, if I had to pick, I'm like, all right, SZA and Kendrick have gotten to a point where I'm like, I would much rather listen to Luther than all the stars.

Yeah. Do you like 30 for 30? All right. Gloria is good too. Okay. I'm sorry. This is my opinion. Okay. Let's go squabble up. Tell me why you love squabble up.

I mean, there's nothing deep about it. Again, it's kind of the same conversation we've been having. There's three verses. All of them are exceptional. All of them have different flows, different cadences, different voices, different

There's multiple quotables. There's a great sample in the Debbie Deb. When I hear music sample. And that intro, it hits every time when he comes in with the stargazing reincarnated and the beat drops.

I love that he shouts out Kamasi Washington, high key, keep a horn on me. That is one of my favorite lines ever. That Kamasi, who's a saxophone player, if you didn't know the wordplay there. And then like the second verse, one of my favorite parts on the entire album, when he says, what the fuck? I got hits. I got bucks. I got new paper cuts. I got friends. I got money. Woo!

That part is so sick. And the beat, I love the beat. If you listen to like the kick drum specifically in the song, the pattern is so good when it hits the three in a row. I don't really have anything smart to say, except that I just love this song. And it represents, I feel like it represents G and X so well. It's just fun. He's rapping his ass off.

There's even like Crescendo at the end where the wolf's out. I've been a dog with the werewolf coming in. Wait, when he says the...

What he said? Tell me why the fuck you niggas rap. If it's fictional, tell me why you fucking niggas bad. If you criminal, hey, doc, get a drop. I'm like, nigga, I laugh every single time. Yeah. Let the wolves out. I've been a dog. And then that super high voice. Crazy. It's so sick. Yeah. Nothing smart. I have nothing smart to say, except that I just love this song. I put my kids love this song. My kids are at an age now where they're, you know, they're old. They're still young, but they're, they're old enough.

To let me know what has mass appeal. And you don't need to know, like, does this song kind of resonate with the masses? Yeah. If they like it, usually it has mass appeal and they love this song. They love squabble up. Is it similar to not like us where the beat is so kind of,

Simple but wonky in a way that even if a child doesn't know what's being said, Kendrick sang it in such a fun way that there's just a nursery rhyme-esque quality. Because I think...

squabble up not like us hey now there's a bunch of records that have that kind of theatrical that theatrical where like a kid a kid doesn't fucking care about the drake beef now they're like oh kendrick is like doing some silly shit on yeah my my my kids love screaming a minor they like they literally they out now they're to a point on on not like us where they say say drake i heard you like him yeah

Which is a little bit uncomfortable to hear them say, but I love it. I feel like there's going to be a lot of listeners who are just like, Cole, I have the same problem in my household. Everybody's just like a little Kendrick demon just running around. So you like Squabble Up? Squabble Up is so good. I was watching the video. The first time I watched the video in full was today before I got here. Oh, really? I am...

This is probably the weirdest thing about me. I don't... I'm not really into music videos. Like, not because... Like, the... The Squabble Up video is very, very good, but sometimes I feel like when I watch videos at my old age now, it just kind of ruins the mystique of it a little bit. I can see that. But I love Squabble Up. It's so funny that...

that's the record that they leaned on so heavily because I went back to watch the Not Like Us video and I forgot that it starts with Squabble Up. So they, from the beginning, were just like, this is the record. And to me, I'm like, Squabble Up is such a fucking weird song. Like, I can see why they were just like, this is going to be a hit. But to me, like TV Off, Luther, those are the ones where I'm just like, oh, this makes sense. Squabble Up is still very, very...

The beat is wonky. It's like... Even the hook, Scrabble Up. Yeah, it doesn't really have a hook. No, but it...

It works. I never skip it. I literally, I listen to whacked out murals, squabble up starts and just like, hell yeah. Then I have to skip a bunch of records until I get to eight now. Oh, then you just skipped Luther and man at the garden, right? I skipped Luther man at the garden and reincarnated every single time. Okay. See, this is usually where I shit on you, but I kind of do the same thing. Sometimes. Yeah.

Cause okay. Like in the morning, like in the morning when I'm just trying to like get kind of pumped up for the day, it's just, it's sometimes whacked out murals, but sometimes I'll just go squabble up. Hey, now TV off peekaboo. Yes. And I just hit those songs and it's just, it's the perfect part of me thinks he should have put man at the garden closer to the heart part six. He, okay. So he talked about that in his Timothy Chalamet interview before the super bowl and

And he said that usually those, like, cause that was the most important record to him. Uh, thematically, it kind of explains that where he is at this time in his life, which makes sense when you listen to that song. Um, but he said, usually I put those records at the, at the end of the album. He said this time, and it kind of ties into, I deserve it all. I'm just doing it my way, whatever. Yeah. I put it early and he was like proud that he put it early. But to your point, I do feel like it's more of a closing song than a, but,

But once again, when I'm like not actually paying attention, I'm just kind of like stuck in traffic. There's been plenty of times where I've like listened to Man at the Garden and just be like, oh, this is a dope song. Why don't I listen to it more? It's just like to your point, when I'm trying to get ready, I'm at the gym. I'm just like, all right, Kendrick, I don't need to hear this right now. But that's a... I mean, this is a...

the rare Kendrick record where I don't feel bad skipping songs. Usually I just put on a Kendrick record and just let it play. But this one, I'm just like, let me grab this for a playlist or, you know, let me, I don't feel bad skipping. It's this Kendrick album to me is the difference between a perfect 90 minute movie and

And like a two and a half hour movie. Right, right, right, right. Where it's like, I could watch a two and a half hour movie and be like, yo, that was a masterpiece. But then it's going to be years until I'm like, I want to sit down that long. And this is just like, damn, this is my favorite movie. It's only 90 minutes. I could put it on when I'm cooking, put it on when I'm going to fall asleep. Hey, there's a bunch of scenes in this that I love. And even the scenes I don't love, I'm still like pretty fucking good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But can we just talk about some...

some of my favorite moments that from these nominations that I didn't pick. Yeah. I love Hey Now. I hated this line when it first came out. And I rap it every single time now when Doty goes, I feel like I feel like Joker. Harley Quinn opened the cup with a blower. Shit gets spooky every day in October. It's so terrible. The way Kendrick comes back in with that voice. That's the fun shit. I think Doty almost gets him on this song.

I think AZ Trike has a better case for that. But Doty, he nailed it. That opening line is so fun. But even that eeny, meeny, miny, moe, I'm trying to tell you, I'm aggressive on the people in real life, niggas. No. Oh my gosh. I love...

Hey, now is... I wish more... We were in a healthier ecosystem where rappers were just dropping freestyles. Because I'm like, I would listen to 5,000 freestyles of rappers trying... None of them would be better than Kendrick because I think... Tyler got close. Tyler's is great. Want to know what I... Where I feel like Tyler kind of... I get what he was trying to do. Mm-hmm.

I like Hey Now because Kendrick's voice is a little bit more aggro. And I'm just like, damn, I want to hear that type of Tyler because Tyler already has the deep fucking voice. And instead, Tyler goes one octave above and almost does the fly, Pharrell, skateboard P type shit. He still kills it, but it's a different thing. But still, I will say this.

Tyler also, I'm in and out on Tyler's production for himself. But if there's one thing Tyler's always been very good at in his career, he can hear someone else's beat. And you go, this is hard. What's the Kanye beat he took off Life of Pablo?

Who put Tyler to pick? What do you mean? What life of Pablo? He freestyled over the ASAP Rocky as a weird title. It's like something for something. You know which one I'm talking about. Yeah, it's like the most random weird beat, but it's like when Tyler picked that Pete, I was like, why the fuck are you wrapping over this Tyler? And then I heard him wrapping over it. I'm just like, oh, you have a really good fucking

year for like what beats would make great freestyles freestyle for yes freestyle for yeah so yes i just wanted to shout out hey now because hey now is like if i had to it was gonna be the third one where i was just like yeah i almost i don't want to say it's better than whacked out murals but i feel like hey now is more popular

For me, it's more replayable. Yes. I definitely have listened to Hey Now way more than I've listened to all of Whacked Out Murals. Because Whacked Out Murals is kind of an intense listen. It is. That's why. Because Whacked Out Murals and this entire project, the reason I love it is it teaches us all a valuable lesson, which is the best thing in life is not only being negative, but channeling that negativity back.

on your biggest haters and shitting on them constantly and never stopping. And Kendrick tried to be like, I'm above this guys. I am a God fearing man with a family and children. And I've gone to therapy. And then Drake did some fuck shit. I was like, forget all that. Fuck it. And that's this out. Here's the thing. Don't lie. I've kind of convinced you over this podcast, negative coal, mean coal. I'm sure. Yeah.

Share myself? Show yourself. Yeah, I know. Because here's the thing. In the group chats we have, that's the real Cole. Since you began off in the group chats, I'm like, damn, Cole. Yeah, it's inside me. I don't know how to express it in real life. When are we going to get your GNX season? I know. Not you breaking down GNX the record, but what is your GNX version of Dissect? I don't know.

don't know you'd have to help produce it i think you could help bring that out of honestly it should just be you dissecting the albums you hate the most okay yeah i could go in as much as i i i could go in on albums and songs that i love and like show why i love them explain why they work i think i could like obliterate your gnx because it's just gonna be like a drake record you're just like i'm gonna dissect why this drake sucks don't tempt me

uh now i know like why you like g and x so much though because it like resonates in your spirit and your hater spirit it's the first album that from kendrick that you related to or what no because this is before we get on uh to picking our last song standing and into some of these beef records i will say the reason i love this record the most is because i think kendrick

The way he's been positioned, the way he's positioned himself is almost like, and he talks about it on Miss Morale, this trying to break away from that holier-than-thou figure that's supposed to lead his people, all of that shit. And here's the thing. Someone who's a hater, someone who ain't shit, someone who is just like an evil, evil person, I can spot our own. And I'm sorry I've been a Kendrick Lamar fan for a long time. I knew that little gremlin. Yeah.

had just just fucking like that's not a sane man the shit that he's had to do in his life i'm like that's not when you look at kendrick sometimes you're just like you okay no god he he got fucking napoleon complex he's a little short angry man and i was finally this was the record and this was the year where i was finally like see you're right hey you know your own okay so we got to address the battle let's address the battle in the in a conversation about kendrick's best ever song

Do we think the battle songs we have? Are we counting like that? Probably not. Just do Kendrick Lamar. Just Kendrick Lamar. So we have Euphoria, 616 in LA, Meet the Grams, Not Like Us. And I think I might be wrong for purposes of this. It's Euphoria, Not Like Us. In terms of like, what are the songs? Yeah. Shout out Meet the Grams, but that had a function. Evil, evil, evil song. But when I tell you, because...

When I forgot, what's the Drake family matters? Yeah. When family matters came out, I was a little scared. I was like, like, I'm not saying it was a good record, but I was like, it did the job. It did the job. And I was a little like, okay, yeah,

What you're going to do. And when Kendrick dropped meet the grams, I remember the, the timeline was just like, this isn't fun anymore. You went too far, Kendrick. We don't even know who won anymore. Like he shit on that record in such a calculated way where it's like Drake couldn't, he was celebrating in the video. I won the beep and then meet the grips and just salted the earth. And then he wakes up the next day and he's just like,

sorry guys my bad here's not like us and we were all like it's funny yeah i think in this conversation it is euphoria not like us so and i think and i feel like you are more on the euphoria side and i'm more on the not like us side but i understand the importance of not like us my favorite song is certainly euphoria

Out of the whole battle. I think it's one of his best songs ever. He rapped, I counted the bars. He raps 115 bars, no chorus, just straight up raps. He calls the entire beef in the intro. You can look back at some of the lines now. What is it, the braids? Yeah, many quotables. I mean, it has everything you want, but not like us and

The success of it, the cultural moment of it, the lasting impact of it. It was just number one. Again, like a few weeks ago, it was the fastest rap song to hit a billion streams. So in the conversation of

What is the best Kendrick Lamar song? I think I would go to bat for Not Like Us more than Euphoria. So I was listening to Euphoria, a song that I do like, on the way into work today to record this. And I feel like the thing that has always tripped me up about Euphoria is I think lyrically it's a lot more potent than Not Like Us. And obviously we talked about how it predicted the beef. But it seems in the delivery almost a little rushed.

Where GNX to me seems effortless in the way that he's rapping, the way he's attacking the beats. And Euphoria almost is like he has too many ideas and too many thoughts because he's like hated this man for so long. And it's like the song feels like someone's burn book being like, I've been waiting forever.

years and if you don't stop i have more and like not like us feels like the record where he's like he took his foot off the gas a little bit and it's like the genius and i think we talked about it last time i was on the dissect feed is not like us doesn't work unless you have euphoria and meet the grams and all these other records seeding what not like us would be which is like

This isn't just a beef about Drake being a pedo. This is a beef about Drake is fake. Drake is everything that's wrong with hip hop. And I'm going to list it from him being a fucking culture vulture to all the other shit. And I think not like us is the culmination. When I listened to that, I'm like, okay, you're not trying as hard. It's more effortless fun. It's fun. You're not over explaining like euphoria to me as I'm like, Oh, you have to do a lot of heavy. Cause it's,

Like that is such a funny record in retrospect because it's not going that in on Drake. No, there's only a few lines directed at Drake, really. And then once Euphoria hits, it's like an avalanche. And he ends up kind of getting back to like that with Not Like Us, which is like, all right, you guys have seen all my work. You know all the points. Now it's time to dance on his grave. Yeah, so...

So do you want to, I think it sounds like we're both comfortable taking Not Like Us into the final round of the episode. Okay. So now we need to have a little mini Royal Rumble between our nominations to determine which of the GNX songs we're going to take in to the top five Kendrick songs to see if they can crack the list. So we had Squabble Up, TV Off, Peekaboo, and Whacked Out Murals. Okay. Is there any song that you feel right off the bat

Just as weaker than the rest in this. I think Whacked Out Murals is one of my favorite songs off the project. But if I'm thinking of what Last Song Standing means and what it does, I think it is very, very hard. It will be in ensuing years very hard to put Whacked Out Murals on.

In the conversation, because it might sound dated. It's going to sound of a time. Right. Because he's addressing so many things that if you weren't there for it, you're just going to have to do a lot of homework. And I think the best Kendrick Lamar songs...

thread the needle a little bit more. They find the balance. Is that fair? I think so. And I'm not even trying to shit on my own. I like whacked out murals, but if I'm thinking of like, can an alien come down to this planet and listen to whacked out murals and understand it? No, like they might be like, oh, this guy's rapping, but... Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah, that'd be my pick too. If I had to knock one off of mine, I think I love Peekaboo. It's my probably favorite song off GNX, but in a best Kendrick Lamar conversation...

I don't know. It feels like the weak link. Am I wrong there? I really love Peekaboo. I know. I love Peekaboo. I think... I wish we were able to celebrate the fun Kendrick Lamar songs more. Right. And I think Peekaboo is in a category of its own where it's like, these are the fun Kendrick songs. Right. But last song standing, I think kind of weights what are the important Kendrick Lamar songs. Yeah. And can Peekaboo... Will Peekaboo ever be...

in that upper echelon? I don't think so because it's not even trying to attempt to be. Right, yeah, exactly. But when Peekaboo came on at the Super Bowl, I was like, this is fucking incredible. I can't believe it. It was the funniest shit I've ever seen. I was laughing. I was like, this is, it looks amazing. It's funny. And I think Peekaboo is such a difficult record to pull off because if someone was just, before you even heard GNX, if someone's going to be like, all right, cool. Kendrick Lamar is about to drop this song.

And it's based off a children's game called peekaboo. And he's trying to make it into this West coast hood classic with this rapper named easy. Sure. And when you actually listen to you, you're just like, Oh shit. He fucking pulled it off. Right. So it, I love it, but I don't think we can. Yeah. Have you heard the, the XXX Tentacion theories around peekaboo?

Have you been down that rabbit hole? I try to stay as far away from that world. I don't like to talk about it too much on Dissect, but if you're ever curious, just Google it. It's a deep rabbit hole. Okay. So is TV Offer or Squabble Up? Do you feel an affinity? I can make a case for either of those. I know. The only thing... They're so good, but kind of in different ways. Well, they give you a lot of the same thing, but...

For me, at least, I think TV-Off feels slightly more dynamic. So I like TV-Off more than I like Squabble Up, but are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we've already picked Not Like Us and TV-Off is one rung below Not Like Us? Where it's like Squabble Up, actually, I think you can make the case that

Is the song that best exemplifies what GNX is trying to do? I think not in terms of Man at the Garden is obviously story-wise, or at least where Kendrick is at, is doing a little bit more of that heavy lifting. But if we're talking about like sonically, regionally, Squabble Up has everything that GNX is in it. Whereas TV Off almost feels like a sequel movie. Yeah, I get that. I don't know if that matters so much to me.

Because I'm just thinking about the dynamics of TV Off versus Squabble Up. But both have good quotables. In 10 years, which song do you feel like people will be playing more? Because I feel like it will probably be Squabble Up. Yeah, that's a good point. It's a very self-contained song. I'm trying to pick TV Off. I'm trying to talk myself out of picking TV Off. Because I think TV Off is the best. Yeah, I mean, just intuition is saying TV Off.

but I love squabble up and you can definitely make a case for it, but just TV off just feels more in the conversation for me. It just, it's easier to put it in with the other songs. It's going to go up against. I don't know if that's just a bias I have, but it, and because of the beat is more Epic sounding and because it has two beats and there are through, it just feels like more, again, more dynamic. There's more going on.

But squabble up is great because it is straightforward and he nails three verses and he has a hook, but it's not really a hook. Like it has a great beat.

You can make a case for both, but I feel like TV off just has a slighter edge for me. And I think if we take the Super Bowl performance into consideration, TV off is something that you rarely get in a rap battle, which is like ending it with the neatest bow possible, which is just like not like us is the dancing on the grave moment and TV off is they'll just like

I did it. Like, good luck. You know, it's just, can you name me another beef record in the history of rap? Like TV off. That is essentially, uh, I'm looping around one more time with the same producer and we're going to make a song. That's just as good. Like that is maybe not as big of a hit. Right. But when I heard Tito, I was like, fuck mustard did it fucking again. Kendrick did it again. Like, yeah.

I'm good with TV off. All right, me too. I think so. That's what my heart's going with TV off. So if that's your intuition to let's go with. So here's the thing now. All right. Spoiler alert for our Kendrick season of last song standing our top eight for Kendrick Lamar's greatest song starting from eight was Mother I sober you fear Wesley's theory DNA money trees and then sing about me at number two and Mad City at number one. How's it look today?

I'm not mad at this at all. I actually think that this is a very, very good balance list. Yeah, it's not quite like a true top five because we didn't actually... These were just the remaining songs from the finale and the way that we eliminated them wasn't exactly out of a top five in mind. But the top five itself is very solid. Mad City, Sing About Me, Money Trees, DNA, and Wesley's Theory. Feels right. Now. Yeah. TV Off.

Or not like us? Well... I don't think TV Off could probably break the top eight. I can make a case that not like us should be in the top five. Yeah, is TV Off better than Fear? I don't think so. I don't think so. It's not better than Wesley's Theory. It's not better than DNA. Yeah, I don't think it's cracking... To me, TV Off would be right outside of the top 10, maybe. Maybe in the top 10, top 15. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's cracking the top five. So...

Sorry, TV off. I love you. But do you think not like I should crack the top five then? Yeah, I do. I I'm comfortable putting it below money trees. I am too. I was actually wondering if I should go higher. Do you think it should be? Okay. Is again passing about me? I'm not even that big a fan of sing about me, but because of what it means to Kendrick Lamar, it's like the skeleton key to kind of unlocking everything that comes after it. Yeah.

I don't know if you can put it above that. Because if I would, on my personal list, but for something as, for a song as petty, it, I don't think Not Like Us is healthy for the ecosystem of rap. And that's nothing, that has less to do with Kendrick Lamar and that has more to do with

just the state of celebrity culture and how everything has to be a bunch of gossip right right shit and artistically i kind of would feel shitty if we're rewarding that over a sing about me am i getting too much on my high horse no the most vulnerable song ever yeah no i'm right there with you um i can't put it over sing about me and i like money trees more but i think not like us is more important so

So I can put it above money trees at number three. I'd feel comfortable with that too. I'd probably, I do really like not like us. I think is an incredible song. Very well written. There's, it's a flawless song to me in terms of like lyric, everything you want Kendrick Lamar to accomplish in a hit single. It does it in spades. He didn't sacrifice anything about his integrity. He did it his way. And it's just going to be his biggest song ever.

So, but I, I don't know. Money trees. I love money trees though too. I think on a Kendrick Lamar list, all things considered though, I think it has to go above money trees. I'll put it at number three. I'm happy with it at number three. So our new list would be mad city at number one. Sing about me. Not like us. Money trees, DNA, Wesley's theory, fear you mother. I sober. It feels good to me. I,

We didn't argue that much. I was expecting us to argue way more. Honestly, this is where we should argue now. Okay. You give me your Kendrick Lamar ranking because you're doing the, whatchamacallit season? Morale? Mr. Morale season right now. Album. Album ranking? Let's give an album ranking with GNX, but full-length albums. Untitled, Unmastered doesn't go in there. The mixtape's just the full-length album. Good Kid from Good Kid on. Yep.

Is this personal favorite or best Kendrick Lamar albums? I think this should be personal. Okay. Personal favorite. It's probably Pimpin' Butterfly 1. This is going to be like the exact opposite of your left. I think it's Pimpin' Butterfly 1. It might be Morale 2. Mr. Morale, you're insane. This is recency bias. It might be because I'm so deep into that record, but goddamn, it's an important album.

Let me go to Pimba Butterfly. I'm just going to lean into it. Mr. Morale, number two. Give me Good Kid, number three. Damn four. GNX five. Is that the exact opposite of your list? Not the exact opposite. Right now, it would be GNX number one. Good Kid, Mad City. Good Kid, Mad City, number two. Damn number three. To Pimba Butterfly. Mr. Morale. So you have to Pimba Butterfly. You had it four? Yeah.

so it is the exact opposite except to put i never i never like i go like because you're doing it uh for the season i've gone back to mr moran like oh i like this like i like this record yeah i never go back to tip of a butterfly it's it's too intense it's just like i'm like there's a lot going on in this record it's so good and it's also it was a time in america where i'm just like i remember everything that's going on i know yeah i'm like because i'm just like

Shit. Shit has only got a person. I know. Goddamn. And then we, we skipped this and I'm sorry to bring it back. Okay. But you had a question here that I thought was good. Obviously I've been an Aubrey's angel. Oh yes. Okay. Yes. This entire time. And it's, this has been a great year, honestly, just in terms of just like seeing everything unfold. So I want to see, let's see where we're at. Okay. Where do we, where, what's the status of the big three? Um,

Kendrick Cole, Drake, what's the status of Drake? What are your thoughts on how all of this is like unfolded? Okay, well, you know my bias. I've never been a big Drake fan. You know that about me. It seems like you're even less of a J. Cole fan. J. Cole, I've always just been kind of neutral on. I respect some of his work. I'm not like crazy about it. I'm definitely not passionate about it at all. But as a Kendrick fan, as someone who thinks Kendrick is...

the most important artists of our generation of this generation might be the most important artist in my lifetime to see him have such a unanimous victory warm has warmed my heart. It has been so because like the artist one, that's why I'm so enthusiastic about it because artistry one, not saying Drake's not talented, that he's not an artist. He's just a different kind of artist.

And if Drake had won as unanimously as Kendrick won, I don't know how I would take that. Like, I don't know. Seriously, because what it means symbolically in terms of like, even to what you just said about today, the state of things today in the world politically, but also just like culturally, if Drake won over Kendrick Lamar,

That says something really gross about where we are today. And so I just, the artist one, he's a true artist. He has, he's, he's, he's impactful thematically, conceptually, commercially, he's proving you can do it all. I think where I, where I've been a little bit uncomfortable saying like Kendrick Amar is like the greatest rapper of all time or in that conversation, I no longer feel

weird about entering that even though i felt that in my heart that he was in that conversation to me this entire year has he is undeblate undebatably in that conversation whether he's your favorite or whether he's the goat or whatever that's still up for debate but he is a hundred percent without argument in that conversation would you agree he's in the conversation he's not he's not the goat he's not the greatest but what i will say having been i'm still a huge strike fan uh

I was already getting to the point where Drake's best years were far behind him. There's been just a decade straight of not great music, you know? When I don't think long-term this has really done anything that Drake can't come back from. And what, what I mean by that is like, Drake was already, um,

going down this pathway where I think his best corollary is like an Eminem where it's like if we look at the arc of Eminem's career the fine to middling and quite bad albums far outstretch the good period but Eminem

was so commercially potent and changed so much in such a specific era of music that he's going to have a certain fan base, a certain amount of people that are always going to come out for him. But that's also, I think, a little bit

it can free someone artistically in time where they don't necessarily have to grow as much. They don't have to change as much because they just have this bucket of a fan base. It's like, well, we just kind of want the same thing. And I think Drake was on that trajectory of, he was just giving us the same thing year after year after year. He seemed almost on autopilot. Like he was just chugging out shit. So it warmed my heart as just a music fan where it's like,

Kendrick Lamar is dropping some of the most infectious, biggest rap songs on the biggest stage. And just as someone who likes spectacle, I'm just like, this is fucking dope. He's doing everything I've ever wanted Kendrick Lamar to do. And to your point, I do think it is a net positive thing.

that we are out of the Drake era. Like, I think it is a net positive where I'm just like that type of lazy song making where it's like, and Drake wasn't always like this. I think the reason that actually the beat was so good is that I think both rappers in different ways just do love hip hop and are nerds and wanted to win. It was just one of those people wanted to win a little bit more. And I think the thing that helped Kendrick win is Drake had been releasing so much music for so long that

and feeding the system and almost creating a music industry. So I would put Taylor Swift in the same book where it's like, how can there actually be true quality when you're releasing an album or multiple albums every year? There's just going to be a lot of bullshit. Like don't attack me Swifties or Hobbies Angels, but you kind of get what I mean. And for Kendrick to be like, when I come out, it's going to mean something and I'm going to go about it in a certain way.

Yeah. I have to reward that. Like, it's I'm glad it was rewarded. Like, there's a part of me. I don't care. There's no size. I'm just like, hey, yeah, I would like the the artist who actually kind of is like, all right, I'm not going to feed you guys a bunch of bullshit every fucking year. I like that guy to win. I'm sorry. Shoot me. Yeah. And like to see the way Drake has handled himself after the beef has been really equally disappointing only in that

To your point about him, I feel like everyone aside from the Drake stans had felt this monotony from him. He was just giving us just tons of songs. Nothing really stuck out. Maybe one single off of every album hit. You know what I mean? He had one song. But for the most part, it was just like, yeah, he was on autopilot.

And the beef, even though he lost the beef, I thought it presented him a wonderful opportunity to go away. Yes. And come back with something interesting, whatever that was. Like use this as an opportunity to just take a break, make people miss you, come back with just something different. And even if it didn't work as well as your past work, at least it would be something refreshing, something that was thoughtful, but yet he just kind of just

In multiple ways, we don't have to rehash everything he's done, but it just feels like he dug his grave even deeper with all his decisions post-Beef and coming out with this collab album that just has seemed like it's come and go aside from Nokia. Hey, you know, I like some tracks off of it. I still bump it, but it was not the record he should. I would have been like, hey, yo, this is not the record you should be dropping.

Yeah. I just feel like it was in a career that just needed a shakeup. This loss like could have really worked to his advantage. I think I would, I would generally would have been interested in the next Drake album if he had put time into it. If it was something that was doesn't even necessarily have to do with the beef, but it just presented him an opportunity to break out of this monotonous stream of shit that he's been putting out for decades.

I don't know, five years now. Well, can I ask you this? Do you also think that Drake is almost weirdly in a place where I think Kanye was, but not right now, but in terms of just like when Drake started stepping on Kanye's corner and Kanye goes from being the most important rapper and when he drops, everything stops to, oh no, you're one rung above. And it's kind of funny seeing where it's like,

Drake was kind of Kanye 2.0, seeing them both end up in a certain place where it's like, hey, you can't be the king forever. You can't be the biggest celebrity ever. And seeing them both kind of crash out in similar ways where I'm like, I do think Kendrick

has like here's the thing like I said Kendrick is very cynical I don't I think that the way he maneuvered people like he's being hypocritical I'm like every art major label artist every artist at a certain state is hypocritical it's it's a rap beef it's not you're gonna do what you need to do to win but I do think that

Kendrick has positioned his career in a way where he goes away. He's not fucking running around trying to be caught by TMZ. He's not trying to ingratiate himself to the Kardashians. He's like doing the rap shit where it's like,

Here's my album. I'm dropping it. I'm going on tour. Here's some videos. Fuck off. Even within the moment that he's having, he hasn't said shit. He hasn't said anything. He did the one Super Bowl interview because I think it's an obligation. It's a press interview ahead of the Super Bowl. But if he wasn't forced to do that, he literally would have done zero interviews.

you just look at his Twitter thread and it's just yeah beef beef songs and then album drop link and it's like he has said nothing while having this huge moment where I feel like Drake is always in always trying to be in the center of streamers yeah I said yeah exactly yeah that steak to your point maybe this is where we end it I think more rappers could learn hey just drop the fucking songs drop the put the link on fucking Twitter

I don't, don't, don't be doing too much. Just fucking give us the music. Beautiful. I'm, I'm happy we have ended on you praising Kendrick and shitting on Drake. Stop. It completes the run, Kendrick's run even more for me. So thanks for, for joining Dissect again. We're going to be back with Last Song Standing after the morale season with the, well, let's not spoil it. Let's keep it a surprise, but we're going to shake it up just a little bit. All right. The next season of Last Song Standing. All right.

Thanks for everyone for listening. Charles, we'll see you soon.