Album Rating: 5.0

“hype for kids born in 2003, and it isn't very good”



To you

Album Rating: 4.3

if we're calling any album released in the 2010s impactful how could this not be among them. I mean whatever I'm not its hugest fan but...impact can be a self-fulfilling prophecy thing (which I assume are the charges levied against this indeed-very-self-important album) and still be impact, yknow?

Album Rating: 5.0

"even doggystyle sucks compared to today's standards"



If you actually think this, then I can't take you seriously. How does it suck?



Also, next to no one on this site can even form an opinion on Snoop whether it be if he fell off or what his best verse is because they've only heard singles or one album.

Album Rating: 5.0

Impactful albums of 2010s:



Kanye - MBDTF - why: Production and grandiose feeling never before seen in hip hop that shaped how people later created albums. See: Drake - Take Care



Chief Keef - Finally Rich - why: As far as I know, no one was making music quite like this and it was highly highly influential and most people making popular music nowadays says he's an influence and you can hear it.



Drake - Take Care - why: Drake was able to bring a hybrid of rnb and hip hop that hadn't been done this well since possibly Miseducation. It showed you could show feelings and emotions in rap which a lot of people do nowadays.



Kendrick - TPAB - why? I don't know how this has shaped what hip hop is. Sure a lot of people like it but I don't know what its done other than give metalheads a rapper they can like

"Sure a lot of people like it but I don't know what its done other than give metalheads a rapper they can like "


Hahaha

Album Rating: 4.3

I guess I shouldn't have been so forthright in stating my take, because I'll admit I keep writing comments to expand on why I think TPAB is influential and then deleting them because they don't seem well-considered enough. But I think its influence per se is more philosophical than sonic, as dumb as that sounds, although I think the dense weave of funk and jazz is indeed pretty unique for a #1 album in itself--there's been jazzy psychedelic rap on all levels of popularity before of course, but idk the "density" is what I keep returning to...it really is a lot to listen to...anyways that's beside the point but I think the approach to an album that tries to be this "comprehensive" and at least intentional about centering the experience of black people in america--and by comprehensive I mean that it takes a wide angle lens, really tries to "comprehend" things--and wields genre AS philosophy/criticism/history in that manner, and to wrap that up in the form of an honest-to-god Concept Album, seems like an approach that will resonate for generations of socially-minded artists. Someone on a genius thread mentioned solange's A Seat at the Table as an example--an album whose sound i'm not huge on, for what that's worth--and I think that's just one instance of an artist who was emboldened by the philosophical (yep) landscape kendrick lamar helped (helped! for sure) to inaugurate. there have always been these kinds of artists grinding in obscurity but Lamar is the figurehead in this admittedly nebulous regard. You could argue that Lamar is too haughty or self-conscious about his role in shaping this aesthetics-of-politics but so were the beatles or whatever



You don't want to continue the cycle of praising mainstream albums for their influence because they're mainstream and diminishing the underground artists who operate as true innovators in a more subterranean manner but idk I guess I just can't help seeing this album as some sort of zenith, a crystallization of a moment, something we will indeed look back upon as maybe a tier below Sgt. Pepper's in terms of...yeah, I'll call it influence. But again I've written and deleted this comment like five times so I'm not 100% sure of myself.



Maybe you were just talking about sonic influence, too. I agree with your choices with the possible exception of Take Care. Chief Keef fo sho



wow I just hit submit on this comment and it is UGLY. sorry about that

Album Rating: 4.3

and as crazy as it sounds for people to be considering this as an open question in 2015-'18, I sincerely think TPAB helped to further legitimize hip hop as an art form because of its alacrity in grabbing from different genres and the skein of a politically conscious concept stretched across the album, like people are teaching it at all different academic levels (I think? googleable). which again, the game of "who is influential" can feel circular but idk, not a lot of hip hop albums make it into the academy in that manner



it might also be because a beloved professor of mine was partly or majorly responsible for DAMN. earning the pulitzer and I want to defend her in some oblique way for that controversial decision lol

Album Rating: 2.0

people who don't take hip hop as a serious art medium need to get a grip & know nothing of music

Album Rating: 4.3

my language is probably a bit outmoded there but I guess in response I'd say that "influence" doesn't really care about our take on that stuff. influence exists within a world that is sometimes bad

Album Rating: 5.0

I feel like this conversation is on the verge of shifting from "is TPAB influential?" to "does TPAB deserve to be an influential album?"...because atm most (not all) of the opposing arguments seem to be boiling down to "I didn't like the album so it's not good and therefore not influential"



At any rate I'd argue that any album with as mainstream of popularity as TPAB inherently is pretty damn influential

Album Rating: 4.3

I also think, and I'm trying to select my words very carefully here, that the past few years have not only seen (obviously) the ascent of #BlackLivesMatter itself as a sort of generalized outlook/grievance against civil society but also the cooptation or at least borrowing of that language and perspective, and of the positive representation of the black radical political tradition in media, by mainstream cultural production. Like, idk, check the "strong black lead" account that Netflix, maybe the biggest media company in the world (? idk this stuff), runs. I have not seen Black Panther, the ninth most grossing movie of all time, but maybe you'd lump in marvel's spearheading of that project in with this broad cycle, even if it was "going to happen anyways". Oh wait I completely forgot kendrick lamar did the soundtrack. Haha. Whatever though maybe this is a bad point to make but it's in my head and I love sputnikmusic enough to type my garbage thoughts



At that point it gets veeeery nebulous and you can't really point to individual instances of this and be like "Kendrick did that" but I still think TPAB is an icon, maybe even the flashpoint

Album Rating: 5.0

I think I'm starting to understand now why this album is important, but I can't see why it's influential, to music at least.



Also yeah Robert Take Care is the least influential of the albums I listed but it was just the third biggie that came to mind.

Album Rating: 4.3

I feel you dude, I feel like my take is more moderate having talked to (at) you

Album Rating: 5.0

I agree with everything you've said, robertsona. And to clarify I meant influential and important in general, not in terms of pure sonics. Though I feel like I heard a small influence in some records that came out after. Schoolboy, Krit, .Paak, etc.



But basically it's a "just" another classic underground record that happened to be released by a household name like Kendrick Lamar. But with all the disagreement we've had over this, Drifter, let it be known that I definitely respect your views on hip hop. But also who has dropped a single that sounded like "Alright" before Kendrick? There is at least a little bit of sonic innovation/originality on this album if you ask me. Similar blends have happened and will happen, but something has to be said for HOW someone puts everything together. Igor Stravinsky and Gyorgy Ligeti are both great modernist composers, but how their writing sounds is so different.

Album Rating: 2.5

Jammed GKMC for the first time in a while yesterday. Shits all over this.

Album Rating: 5.0

So... I just listened to this again and... It's a 5

Album Rating: 5.0

lol

Drifter you were supposed to be the voice of reason regarding Kendrick Lamar and this album. You've failed

Album Rating: 4.5

He just learned the truth

Album Rating: 5.0

I'm sorry nostalgia and just plain quality is too strong 😭😭😭