Dissect - What's the Best Song on GNX? | LAST SONG STANDING

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

We're taking a few weeks off Dissect's Cole Cuchna is joined by The Ringer's Charles Holmes to discuss Kendrick Lamar's GNX and debate it's best song. There's GNX background and trivia, lyrical breakdowns, and best song nominations. They also discuss the Kendrick x Drake battle songs to see whether any of Kendrick's battle tracks make the cut. Last Song Standing is an annual show on the Dissect podcast feed that attempts to crown an artist's greatest song of all time by debating their way through their entire discography. Past season can listened to for free on Spotify. Dissect will resume its season on Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers in a few weeks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 ringers 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 Outcast, 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 Kushna.

And I'm Charles Holmes. And yesterday, somebody whack out our podcast. So the L-Double S boys are moving to Europe for a special one-off episode to discuss what might be the most consequential album in Kendra's career. That's right. We're discussing G&X. 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'm not very good at cornholes and you are you're a frat boy at heart yeah I'm good at Cornell hell yeah hell fucking yeah

but for today we're here because we were having a conversation our first season of Last Song Standing was on Kenrick Lamar been a few years since then I think this might arguably

we are coming off the biggest career year for Kendrick 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

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 we, if any of the songs on G&X can be in contention for Kendrick's best song of all time. I'm curious to know, we've talked a little bit about G&X just on like text, but how did you receive the album? How do you like it now? What do you just open me up with the general thoughts on G&X? 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 album coming.

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, Kendrick, we switch roles. I know.

Am I about to undermine G&X right now? You said it's his best album? To me, I'll 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 in, 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, GNX, I love GNX. I listen 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 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 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. album. Whoa! We're talking about an all-time discography, starting with good kid Maddicity, of course.

But what I love about it is also what 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 his 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 feel, 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've listened 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. Yeah. 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 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. No fat, no skips, get and 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 bullshit in. 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 like in the month or two leading up, up to its release. Like there's an immediacy that's different from a, 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 Pima Butterfly. There's a timelessness to a 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 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 like 30 songs to pull from.

Maybe, maybe if you go back years, but the ones that were created, almost all of them speak to the post-battle kind of 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. Like, yes. Feels loose. He's very serious.

There's, 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. This is the 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, a bit, 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, like, 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, thematically, you can be like, okay, damn, religion, this part of his life. Mr. Morow, oh, you're going into a little bit more of like the heady existential therapy laid. For this, it's just like, gee, X is a belt. Kendrick being the god, the goat right now. And I think to your point, for what you probably look for in a 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 freestyle he did over like some child scambino beat. And that's always been the Kendrick when it's rigamortis whenever he pops back up.

Yeah. Is the Kendrick guy always like, talk, just get into the fucking go. Yeah. I know. We finally got that. And what I love about it, as someone that's true. tracks this entire career, 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. Morrell, like, they're almost like paired together in my mind because they're two sides of a coin. Yeah. They're so opposite. One is so, so burned 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 we're ever, if there was ever a moment to get this kind of Kendrick Amar album, it was this moment.

I mean, also, Mr. Morrell is, it's 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, all right, 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, all right, fuck all that, eating shit. Let me get this motherfucker up. bad here. I was so confused when G&X dropped. I've gotten theoretically like wrap my mind around it and how it plays into the stuff that, because I'm deep into morale right now. 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 linear progression or is he, 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 G&X or after after 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 B's worst self it is uh arbor the lights game so before we get too much we're going to discuss the album yeah 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 Kendra 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 number ending beef.

But before that, let's return with some little facts about GNX. Do you have a title for this? Did you come over 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 title. your titles, but it's okay. I don't, I thought I was going to come right there. It just did not come to me anyway. All right. These are some background facts on G&X.

Kendrick's six 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, Azee Chike, hit a 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 spawned two singles, squabble up, and the meteoric record that is Luther, 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. Wow. 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. 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.

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 old star. I know. I don't like that song. And I love Luther.

I really legitimately like Luther. So I feel like that's, Luther is the best iteration of that side of Kendrick. So do you want to get us into some themes surrounding G&S? 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 was I figuring out of the connections and what is reincarnated doing and blah, blah, blah, blah, like, I just don't think

there's a concept. I think there's, you know, the very few things that he's. about the album on the Apple interview before the Super Bowl, they asked him directly about what is G&X 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 him to this broader goal of Kendrick this past year, which is trying to his best to restore hip-hop to its roots, get it back, act 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 for that. He had a lot of stuff to unpack with Mr. Morality get to this moment. But, you know, G&X doesn't, I don't think G&X exists. I don't think the Drake battle exist without the self-work that he did on morale. Celebration of the West Coast, obviously. You made a very intentional point to pick West Coast sounding beats, feature more underground West Coast 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 not a, you can't. You can't detach this album from the battle. 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. And to your point, putting a stake into the ground, you know, proving over this past year he has proven is 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 Push-a-Tee and Drake, that's a hip-hop battle. Yeah. Where when Push-a-Tee wraps over the story of Adi-Don, it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in the 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 what Kendrick was able to do is that once he won those first couple rounds with euphoria

um meet the grams and then not like us gea next to me is a pivot point where the beef it no longer becomes about i'm competing against trache it's kendrick like i'm competing with myself to see how far i can push it and to me gnax is a record and you are 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 this 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, 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 swabble 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. 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 kind of. like a lot of people are speculating this as a mix tape because it has that feel to it. It 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. Yeah. Or you'll go from reincarnated to TV off. And it's like, it really does kind of totter back and forth between a bunch of variety of sounds. And there's a,

through line, but it's not as, 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 can, you know, there's no crazy theatrics. There's no gimmicks. It's just, like he 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 credits do. He released this album in November, which is a very regional record. Like, 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. Right. Almost what, half of this record on the biggest stage is, like you can't.

It's crazy. What other rapper or even artist has even had the balls to be like, this is what I'm doing. Because 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 Pekaboo being performed at the Super Bowl.

It's crazy. Eucharia. Insane. It's like, what? So I 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 is 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 names. That's okay. This is usually,

usually we would 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. 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 going to. I'm going to get in 1980. Yeah. Is the year? Yeah.

It is? Yeah. How fucking 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. That was just bonus. That's so. That was a good one. point. All right. You're going to, this, I'm going to throw you a very, a softball. Okay. How many other rappers had the Hey, now beat before Kendrick. And who are there? One is Cuevo, 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 reading 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 Cuevo, and he said, what do you want me to whisper over it? And I think Tidalas signed actually recorded something over it, but mustard, for some reason,

wasn't feeling it, didn't get released. Damn. Like, here's a 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 is 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 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

It's almost a smacks you in the face Like wait why do it take so long for someone To be like this isn't this is 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 Yeah 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 jacking 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, TV off is very similar as well where that was two beats. Yeah. And they buried it together. That's another thing I like about G&X is even though the beats are very regional and simple,

they always take you on a, on a journey of almost just like ecstasy of like, bow. Yeah. Hey, now is one of my favorite. It's just. It was my favorite song on the record when it first came out. It's no longer my favorite, but I love that song. Hell yeah.

All right. What's your second question? Question two. According to producer Rascal, 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. Looking at your notes. We're on video, dude.

Just scrolling through your notes. Is it G and X? Yeah. Hell yeah. Damn. Hell yeah. Sorry, I cheat a little. All right.

Just for the listeners, G&X 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 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 Kendra. 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 it almost, 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 we're just kind of like hungry that day I'm not leaving until we finish this record well he says like on whacked out murals this is not for lyricist fuck a double entendre I watch him set a little shit

yeah he's setting the tone right there on the start of the album like yeah it's this is not gonna it has lyrical it has wordplay he does all the rapper things but it's not again we've 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 bump 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? So Martin Rose, did she did? No. Martin Rose? No.

Is it? Yeah. I definitely Lamar Lamar 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 don'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 fucking shit but like god damn they are very tight leapt about 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 Colin 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 I'm going with whacked out murals yesterday somebody whacked out my mural that energy will make you make it's move to Europe but it's regular for me

that's for sure the love and hate is death wow Whacked out murals produced by Soundwave, Doge, Jack Antonoff, Frano, Craig Belmaris, M. Tech, and Tyler Reese. I knew, like, I'm shocked. Why are you shocked? I don't know. I don't know. All right. This doesn't seem like a U song. 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, uh, nothing was the same.

Drake likes to do these like long, winding intros that are essentially like, here's everything that I've been up to in the last year. Right. And whacked out murals is such a gossip record. Like, 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, it 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 tailor-made AI fiasco. Nas being the only one to congratulate him after the Super Bowl. Lil Wayne basically crashing out because he wasn't the performer. of the New Orleans Super Bowl. This is everything that for years, I feel like Kendrick 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 out, I'm the best.

It's a big Sean. Right. Big Sean song. It's a future and metro song. Right. He very, or it's like a part of the heart series. Very rarely does he try to bog down his records in any of the, the blog headlines type of shit. Would you agree?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, definitely. And for the one time he does it, he just sounds so pissed off. He sounds so much as like. He sounds disgusting. 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 the 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 crotesque,

Demonic it is at some point as to carry us. The drums come in and boom, he's off to the races. And then he delves into almost like this battle rapper-esque form of himself, whereas the, especially in the third verse, you can hear it. His rhyme scheme does not change that much over the course of the record. Right. But he's speeding up. Yeah.

Like very, very, very gradually to the point where he's rapping, juices all to my cover soble up and knock them all off like it's it's the shit like put it in my veins um I'm gonna break down my top five pettiest moments off whacked 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 gnaz 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 writer. 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,

Absol'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, Oh, right.

It's a little, like, you don't have to, like, mention this random white comedian. I feel like we're fine. But once again, it's a very Drake thing to do being like, no one's getting out of this. 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 low-wing cosplay. And once again, when you get to this level as a rapper,

I know, right? You have a decision. Either you're going to kind of be like, you know what? I'm going to let it go, a la Snoop Dog, or you're going to be like, I kind of have to kill my OGs.

And God damn, does he just like back the fucking Brinkstruck up? over fucking Lil Wayne's corpse. I fucking love it. Number two, chastising Snoop Dog. Snoop Dog 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 you're 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 Taylor made stuff.

Do you think you, 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 signal, cynical record kind of have to be like, Snoop, I don't care what you was on.

You got to get got to. 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? Because there's been a lot of theories about what it is and like what it rhymes with. So he said put the head on a Cuban lick as a monument.

I paid homogen. 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. Ask for forgiveness or something like that. Right. It fits.

It, it, 100% fits. I mean, we'll just never know, but I. It feels like, right? Because he bleeps out Drake's name later. So you think the one that he bleeps out after that is the Drake line. He said people cackling about Drake, but all y'all in trial. I guess, or I guess Diddy would be the only other, right? So did he?

I think it's probably Drake. And I think the reason that it's also Jay Cole is because the line that he comes back on is, I never lost why I am for a rap image. I'm like, 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 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 because Cole made a diss track about Kendrick. And Kendrick, I mean, obviously he apologized and all that. But like, Kendrick could have still went at him, even taking random shots, which felt like this was, but he made. Kendrick, but here's the thing. Kendrick did the thing where, first of all, Jay Cole was lying up a storm on one of those

records where I'm just like, here's a thing. I'm a critic. I can shit on to Pimp a Butterfly as much as I want. I'm not trying to create a 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. Before you shit on it. Like, I'm sorry, Cole, I am, but it's like, I know you not talking Cole. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm not trying to be a dickhead, but 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

kidding. You're staying quiet and you know I'm not lying though. What's, how many classics does Cole have? I'll give him

Forest Hill drives. Forrestle's drive is one. Yeah. I think Kendrick could honestly lay claim to having three.

Two on a bad day. Three pretty easily. Yeah. I think to me, good kid to Pimp a butterfly and Dam are kind of undisputed.

I would say good kid to Pimp a Butterfly Easy, 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. Right. Now I'm giving you the slop.

And GNX is not slop. I know. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't mind another one just like this. I'll say that. Give you the deluxe because I'm ready for, I'll receive a full 12 track album just like G&X. Oh, same. It's 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 Wacked Out Murals? I mean, it just doesn't feel like just knowing you. But I mean, I'm always surprised at your pick. So I just don't have you. I 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 the 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 shortlist. I like this song. Don't get me wrong. There's something about it that even since the day one I heard it. And 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 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 he's just like on a record where he's just going to rap, where he's just trying to do hard ass beats, hard ass raps. 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 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 there's a hook. And there's Some of the verse has got to be more than 16. Oh, hell yeah. Like verse 2 I'm looking at right now. That looks like a 32. Even though, yeah, I think the verse 2 or verse 3 are over 16. So he's just, 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 you 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 he 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 gonna get to that

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 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 got to go with my heart more than my head because it is, as we've been talking about. It's not the heady record. So fuck it. I'm going piccaboo. Pickable. I just put them bookers in my chain. Biggible 80 points like a Kobe game. Pickable. Seven, six tools. I'm making playing. Picable. Popping out you. It is my favorite song off a G and X right now. think you were going to pick peekaboo i'm so happy dude i love this song i so this was on your short list this is this is this is this was on my short list i i would it wasn't going to get picked

but i was almost going to like pitch a fit if we didn't like have time ignore so please clear out for peekaboo i mean there's i 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 in him and a z chike phenomenal. 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, and then like the big, the big bot, boom bot band part. I'm just like, when do we get to hear Kendrick be have this much fun on an album? He's had as features like to your point earlier, like, yeah, he does, he has fun on features, 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. A. Z was saying like he could barely do it. Like, have you ever tried to like wrap the, it's impossible?

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 clear, with clarity. Yeah, because it ends because talking about that talk, that K ends on such a hard. Right. percussive sound for him to not stop but 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. I know. And I like that. We have AZ's story saying that he 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 A. Z, 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 that. 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, he did. 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, could 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 Kendra Charles tells me if I'm full of shit or not. Okay. So it's the opening lines. He says,

peekaboo, I just put them boogers in my chain. Obviously he's talking about like yellow diamonds with the boogers there. Starts out simple enough. Pekaboo.

80-pointers like a Kobe game. So this is a play, obviously, on 81-point game Kobe Bryant, which was in Toronto, by the way. So there's a little Drake sub there, but also 0.8 carrots,

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 and AK-47, make him plank. Obviously, it's like illusion to killing. But in Kobe's 81 point game, he had 7-3-pointers, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists,

762. Fuck out of here, really? Yeah. 81 points with 7-3s, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists, 7.2, 7. 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 cold. 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've been. 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, my last song standing pedigree. Okay. Bitch, I cut my granny off if she don't see it, how I see it. We're going TV off, the spiritual successor to not like us, reunites Kendrick with mustard, Soundway, Jack Antonov, Sean Amamburger, and Kamasi Washington are also credited. I just think this song is so fun. It's like,

It's not enough. Few solid niggas left, but it's not enough. Few bidsies that have reached that, but it's not enough. Say you bigger than myself, but it's not enough. 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. Right. And nine times out of 10, those songs always talk. And I'm just like,

you should have like just left well enough alone. Don't go back to the well. It's never good. Right. 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 Mustard would probably on the down slope of his career, he hadn't had two.

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. He had, for the second half, for sure, he wrote for the Super Bowl. Because I'm like, it is the funniest. taunt 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 like want to rip off my skin if I was awkward. Like I just, I love this. The funniest moments on TV off, I have four. Okay. 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 is 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.

And to me, TV off, is Kendrick knowing how to do that so effortlessly? that it doesn't, you don't feel that any. Like him yelling mustard sounds so organic. It doesn't feel like, oh. I'm going to create a meme. I'm going to create it.

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 start his TV off months before the actual Super Bowl and then doing it after the Super Bowl, hilarious.

Funny as 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 Eckertolay. It's got him. 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 pastor

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 glimpse are off.

That's why I picked both records because to me, what Kendrick needed after Mr. Moral 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 wrapped about his upbringing, politics, religion, fame. Fame. Yeah.

By Mr. Moral, he's getting to, he basically dropped his 4-44-4 at what? Kendrick is 34, 5 or, yeah, 6 maybe, yeah. Where the fuck else do you go? And I think the Drake beef finally gave him enough ammunition, where to me GNX is in 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. It was a choice this entire time that I didn't want to do these type of records, that I didn't want to do this. Yeah, exactly. And I'm going to prove to you

when you make me do it, it's going to seem effortless. Right. TV off to me is. And, you know, that mustard has said that these were two beats stitched together anchored by two samples, MacArthur 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, really. No, yeah. It's not, it damned to me when I listen 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 mustard. It's leading you to the climax of the beat switch. And finally, Kendrick learned how to do a beat switch that's not fucking annoy me because the big 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 because 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, um, last song standing was his Kendrick Kumar's best song. I do feel like it's a great representative, uh, for it because it does have commercial appeal.

It's not, it's not an official single, I guess, but it feels like a single, I guess. 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 lexicon. Like it just felt like a moment.

Maybe that's why it felt like a single. So it's like it has cultural prominence. It has 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 in the notch up, you know. Yeah.

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 there on

the ass, somebody got to do it, make him mad, somebody got to do it. But then that comes back 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. 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 sound and feels, everything feels a part of each other. I was going to call out all the same quotables that you did. And that whole verse two, speaking of the second half, second beat, that entire last verse that was written for the Super Bowl, which he says at the end,

walking New Orleans with the etiquette at L.A. Yel 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 is entire Super Bowl performance and one of the hardest verses on G&X to perform just lyrically. And he performed it last after a 13 minute

performance where he's running across the football field. Like the breath control of the Super Bowl performance is insane. Revolution to be televised.

I was going to tell to what it is. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. 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 to think 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's like he'll,

Whacked Out Murals has it, TV off has it. Even when he's going back and for 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 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 password, 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 tradeoff where like you're getting all this other 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 verse one's gonna have a different flow in verse two and he'll switch even on TV off

he has that switch there's one moment where he just like flips his flow like in the middle of the first or second verse. And he just, oh, it's like when he says, hey, what up, Do? You know, he like, and then he goes into an entirely new flow. There's like, 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. When 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 going to do this silly voice. It's going to be double time. It's going to 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. is.

No, I'm just that kid. Yeah. Let me just get this off. All right. I love TV off pick. Anything else? Do you want to move on? No, TV off is,

I thought you were going to make more fun of me because, like, of course he chose TV off. Well, I mean, so did you know the story where I don't know anime, but like, apparently Goku is like, a anime character, a anime character, Goku. Do 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? Am I just like, is this an Easter egg that is an obvious to you? Well, there is like, you know, when Goku has to perform the kamea mea, mea, or the spirit bomb. Okay. It's like a blast. Like a hot ducan.

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 sayan How many super sayings can you name? Just off the cuff Off top? Yeah. Zero. Zero? I don't know.

What's a super saan? Well, a super saan 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 sane one, Super sane two,

Super saying three, Super saying four, super saying God, Super sane 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 there's ultra instinct. 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. Am I here Academia? Some of their friends know Demon Slayer, but they haven't got to it. Get them into, 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, do you want to 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 I,

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. six, even though I love our part six. I'm not going to pick that, but yeah, I love that song. Hart Part 6 is actually very heartwarming for me because the first Kendrick project that I remember listening to must have been OD. 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 becoming a superstar and maybe the black hippie album never coming out because he moved past it. I love that record. I'm not actually as big on this record. I don't think you're going to pick this.

A fan favorite is Dodger Blue. I don't really like Dodger Blue that much. I like it. It feels like a very, like a lot of people from L.A. 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 on.

I didn't think you were going to pick it, but shout out Dodger, believe people would be very mad. I think it's a, it's a fine song. It's just for last song standing. Yeah. 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. No. I like that song, but it doesn't resonate with me personally.

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 hay 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. This was the best written song on, you know, Kendrick-Omar's 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, G&X 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. Right. 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 Pimp a Butterfly, Mr. Morow. 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. Yes. Because it doesn't build in that way, it doesn't hit the same thematically or even emotionally sometimes. But that's like my head is telling me pick reincarnated. But my heart, I'm debating between Luther 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 don't think it's a bad song.

I just, to me, Kendrick and Siza 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 like an R&B feature on a Kendrick record. Beyonce, Rihanna, Siza, it makes sense. But I don't like all the stars. People are, you know, I don't like it's... I don't really like the song either. But, okay, I'm not picking Luther, but I love that song.

Squabble love is. Luther is, I think I said this earlier, but I think Luther is the best iteration of that type of Kendrick Klamar song. And I'm glad that it's... I agree. I think it is of, if you have to pick, I'm like, all right, Siza and Kendrick have gotten to a point where I'm like, I would much rather listen to Luther than all I'm sorry.

Yeah. Do you like 30 for 30? All right. Gloria's good too. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. This is what you're getting that in you.

I'm sorry. It's just my opinion. Okay. Let's go squabble up. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Reincarnated. I was stargazing.

Life goes on. Honey and all my babies. Gowkeh. Glock up. Looking for the broccoli. I keep a horn on me. That's my seat. Tell me why you love Squabble up.

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

quotables. There's a great sample in the Debbie Deb. When I hear music sample, When I makes me dance, oh! And the intro, it hits every time when he comes in with the stargazing, reincarnated,

and the beat drop. 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 word play there. And then 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 both. That bar 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 don't don't 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 wolves 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 his picture don't tell me why you fucking dig his fan if you criminal Hey, dot, get a drop. I'm like, nigga, not. I laugh every single time. Yeah, let the wolves out, I bit of dog, and then that super high voice. Like, crazy.

That's so sick. Nothing smart. I have nothing smart to say, except I just love this song. 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 old enough to let me know what has mass appeal. Any time I need to know, like, does this song going to register? resonate with the masses. 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 as quality. Because I think Squabble Up, not like us. 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

no they're like oh Kendrick is like doing some silly shit on yeah my my kids love screaming a minor they like they literally they're to a point on not like us where they say

say Drake I heard you like him which is a little bit uncomfortable to hear them say but I love it I feel like that this is there's gonna 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, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, 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 this, 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. Right. 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. Yeah. It's like, it's, even the hook, squabble up. Yeah, it doesn't really have a hook.

Yeah. No, but it works. I never skip it. I literally, I listen to Wacked out murals. Squabble up starts and I'm just like,

hell yeah, and then I have to skip a bunch of records until I get to hate now. Oh, Then you just skip Luther and Man at the Garden, right? I skip 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.

Hell you. Because, 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 Chalomain interview before the Super Bowl. And he said that usually those like because that was the most important record to him. Thematically it kind of explains out where he is at this time in his life, which makes sense when you listen to that song. but he said usually I put those records at the end of the album he said this time 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 track four when I'm like not actually paying attention I'm just kind of like stuck in traffic there's been plenty of times oh yeah I like I like this is a dope song I don't I listen to it's a dope song I don't I listen to it

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. But that's a, I mean, this is 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 like a two and a half. half hour movie. Where it's like, I could watch a two and a half hour movie 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 them. So like pretty fucking good. Yeah, yeah. But can we just talk about some of my favorite moments that from these nominations that I didn't pick? Yeah. I love Haynow. I hated this line when it first came out. And I rap it every single time now when Dode goes with his opening line.

I feel like I feel like Joker. Horticwin opened a cup with a blower. Shit gets spooky every day in October. It's so tough. The way Kendra comes back in with that voice, shirkker, or. That's the fun shit. That is the, I think Doty almost gets him on this song. I think AZ track has a better case for that.

but Doty, he nailed it. That opening light is so fun. But even that einy, meeny, monimo, I'm trying to tag you, I'm aggressive on the people ever like, 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.

None of them would be better than Kendrick because I think. Tyler got closed. Tyler's is great. want to know what I where I feel like Tyler kind of I get what he was trying to do I like hey now

because like Kendrick's B's like voices a little bit more agro 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 like one octave above and almost does like

the fly, Ferrell skateboard P type shit. He still kills it. Yeah. But it's like, it's a different thing. Right, right, right. 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 if you go, this is hard. What's the Kanye beat? He took off Life of Pablo. What do you mean? Life of Pablo. He freestyled over the Aesap Rocky with Asap Rocky.

as a weird title. It's like something four or something. You know which one I'm talking about. Yeah, it's like the most random weird beat. And 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 rapping over it. And I'm just like, oh, you have a really good fucking ear for like what beats would make great freestyles. Freestyle four. Yes, freestyle four.

Yeah. So yes, I just wanted to shout out, Hey, now, because hey now is like, if I had to, it was going to 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. It's the way. I definitely have listened to Hey Now way more than I've listened to all of

Wacked Out Murals. Because Wacked Out Murals is kind of an intense listen. It is, that's why. It's because it is, whacked out murals in 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 on your biggest haters and shitting on them constantly and never stop it. And Kendra 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 Cole, me and Cole. Share yourself. Share myself. Show yourself. Yeah, I know. Because here's the thing. In the group chats we have, that's the real cold. Since you be getting off in the group chats, I'm like, damn, Cole.

Yeah, that, yeah, 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. Of, of, not you breaking down GNX the record. but what is your GNX version of dissect? I don't know. You'd have to help produce it.

I think you can help bring that out of it. Honestly, it should just be you dissecting the albums you hate the most. Okay, yeah. I could go in. As much as I could go in on albums and songs that I love and show why I love them, explain why they work. I think I could like obliterate. Your GNX seems going to be like a Drake record.

You're just like, I'm going to dissect why these Drake record sucks. Don't tempt me. Now I know why you like G&X so much though because it like resonates in your spirit and your Hater's spirit. It's the first album from Kendrick that you related to or what? No, because this is. Before we get on 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 this morale, this trying to break away from that whole. than now figure that's supposed to lead his people all of that shit and here's a 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 omar fan for a long time i knew that little gremlin had just just fucking like that's not a sane man the shit that he's had to do and it's like i'm like that's not when you look at kendrick sometimes you're just like you okay 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 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 Kenj Kumar so we have Euphoria, 616 in LA, Meet the Grams, not like us. And I think I might be wrong

for the purposes of this. It's euphoria, not like us. In terms of like, what are the songs? 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? When Family Matters came out, I was a little scared. I was like, what? 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, I, what you're going to do? And when Kendrick dropped Meet the Grams, I remember 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 could it, he was celebrating in the video. I won the beep. And then Meet the Gramps dropped. and just salted the earth. And then he wakes up the next day and he's just like, sorry guys,

my bad. Here's the not like us. And we were all like, it's funny. Yeah, I think in this conversation, it is euphoria, not like us.

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. whole battle. I think it's one of his best songs ever. He wrapped, I counted the bars. He wraps 115 bars, no chorus, just straight up wraps. He calls the entire beef in the, in the intro. You can look back at some of the lines now. He Drakeville. 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. go. It was the fastest rap song to hit a billion streams. So in the conversation of what is the best Kendrick-Omar song, I'd actually, 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 like, 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 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 petto. 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 listen 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 is i'm like oh you have to do a lot of heavy because it's like that is such a funny record in retrospect because it's not going

that no no there's only a few lines directed at 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 grade. Yeah.

So for you, 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. Yes. Okay. So now we need to have a little mini Royal Rumble between our nominations to determine which are the G&X songs we're going to take into 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 Wacked Out Murals is one of my favorite songs off the project. but if I'm thinking of what last song 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

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's songs throw 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 would be my pick two. If I had to knock one of them off of mine, I think I love peekibou. It's my probably favorite song off G&X. But in the best Kendrick Kumar conversation, I don't know. It feels like the weakling. I really love Peacoboo.

I know. I love Peacaboo. I wish we were able to celebrate the fun Kendrick Lamar songs more. Right. And I think Picaboo is in a category of its own where it's like, these are the fun Kendrick songs. Right. But last song's standing, I think kind of waits what are the important Kendrick Lamar songs. Yeah.

And can Picaboo, will Picaboo ever be in that upper echelon? I don't think so because it's not even, it's not even trying. trying to attempt to be right yeah exactly yeah but when peekaboo came on at the super bowl i was like this fucking incredible it was the funny shit i've ever seen i was laughing i was like this is it looks amazing yeah it's funny this and i think peekaboo is such a difficult record to pull off because if someone was just before you even heard janax if someone's going to be like all right cole kentric lamar is about to drop this song and it's based off a children's game called Peacaboo. And he's trying to make it into this West Coast Hood classic with this rapper

name Easy Chike. Sure? And when you actually listen to you're just like, oh shit, he fucking pulled it off. So it, I love it, but I don't think we can. Yeah. Have you heard the XXXXTentatian 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 Just Google it.

It's a deep... All right. Okay. So is TV Offer or Squabble Up? Do you feel an affinity? I could make... I can make a case for either. I know.

If... The only thing... They're so good, but kind of in different way. Well, they give you a lot of the same thing, but for me at least, I think TVOs 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. 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.

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. There's the, but both have so, have good quotables, but TV. 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, my, 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's easier to put it in with the other songs that's going to go up against. I don't know if that's just a bias I have, but it, and because 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. Like you can make a case for both, but I feel like TV Off just has a slider. 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, it's, it's, can you name me another beef record in the history of rap? Like TV off, that is essentially, I'm looping around one more time with the same producer and we're gonna make a song that's just as good

like that is maybe not as big of a hit but when I heard TN's 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 too let's go with so here's the thing now

all right spoiler alert for Kendrick season of last song standing. Our top eight for Kenj Kumar'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 how out of top five in mind. But the top five itself is very solid. Mad City, sing about me, Money Trees, DNA, and Wesley's series feels, feels right. Now. Do you, yeah, TV off or not like us? Well, I don't think not, 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. It's not better than Wesley's theory.

It's not better than DNA. To me, TV off would be right outside of the top 10, maybe, maybe in the top 10, top 15. 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 it getting past Singh about me? I'm not even that big a fan of Singh about me, but because of what it means to Kendrick-L-Mars.

It's like the skeleton key. Yeah. 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. Right. But for something as, for a song as petty,

and I don't think not like us is healthy for the ecosystem of rap. And that's nothing that has less to do with Kendra Kumar 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, right. 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. 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 I can put it above money trees at number three. I'd feel comfortable with that, too. I do really like Not Like Us.

I think it's an incredible song very well written. It's a flawless song to me in terms of like lyric, everything you want Kendrakemaar 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 going to be his biggest song ever. But I don't know. Money Trees.

I love Money Trees though too. I think on a Kendrick-Gelmar 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, saying about me, not like us, money trees. DNA, Wesley's theory, fear you, mother eyes over. Feels good to me.

We didn't argue that much. I don't expect 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. You're doing the, which I'm call it season. Moral? Mr. Moral 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 mixtapes, just the full length of album. 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 Pimp and Butterfly 1. This is going to be like the exact opposite of your lift. I think it's two. Tabibba Butterfly 1.

It might be morale 2. Mr. Morales, you're insane. This is recency bias. It might be, it might be because I'm so deep into that record. But God damn, it's an important album. Let me go to Pimba Butterfly. I'm just going to lean into it. Mr. Moral, number two.

Give me good kid number three. Damn four. GnX 5. Is that the exact opposite of your list? Not the exact opposite. Right now it would be GNX number one. That's crazy. Good Kidnaz City number two.

Damn number three, Topeka Butterfly, Mr. Moran. So you have Timba Butterfly. You had at four? Yeah. So it is the exact opposite except Tipma Butterfly.

I never, like I go, like because you're doing it for the season, And I've gone back to Mr. Moran. Like, I like this record. I'd never go back to Tippa Butterfly. It's too intense. It's just like, I'm like, there's a lot going on in this record.

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 don't know. I'm like, because I'm just like, shit, shit has only got worse. Oh, no. God damn. 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 we, where, what's the status of the big three?

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 not, I've never been a big Drake fan. You know that about me. It seems like you're even less of a Jay Cole. J. Cole have 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 artist 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 won. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about it, because artistry won, 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, like, seriously, because what it means symbolically in terms of like, even too, what are you just said about today, the state of things today in the world politically, but also just like culturally, if, like, if Drake won over Kendrick Lamar, that says something really gross about where we are today. And so I just, the artist won, he's a true artist. He has, he's, he's, he's impactful, thematically, conceptually, conceptually, commercially, he's proving you can do it all. I think where I, where I've been a little bit uncomfortable saying like Kendra Marr 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 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 100% 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. 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, I don't think long term this has really done anything that Drake can't come back from and what I mean by that is like

Drake was already going down this pathway where I think his best corollary is like an M&M 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 freeze 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. Right. 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. Right.

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 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 our nerds and want it 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 and feeding the system and almost creating a music industry. 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. Hobbies angels, but you kind of get what I mean. For sure. 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 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. I is like, 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 you know Drake stands had felt this monotony from him he 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 he dug his grave even deeper with all his decisions post beef and like coming coming out with this collab album that just has

seemed like it's come and go aside from Nokia hey you know I 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, 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, 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 cynical I think that the way he maneuvered people are like he's being hypocritical I'm like every major label artist

every artist at a certain state is hypocritical it's a rap beef it's not you're going to 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 obligate you know

an obligation as a 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 beef

songs and then album drop link. And it's like he has said nothing while having this huge moment. I think Drake is always in always trying to be in the center of streamers. Yeah, I said it. 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 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 joining and dissect again. We're going to be back with Last Song Standing after the morale season with the, well, let's not spoil us. Keep it a surprise, but we're going to shake it up just a little bit. the next season of Last Long Standing.

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