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TheeEssFo t1_j1sphb2 wrote

Reply to comment by HistoryPaintings in Who is the Patrick Mahomes of the music industry by Alive-Ad-4164

OP didn't say "good," OP said "dominate." How do you dominate without making as much money or having as much influence as your competitors? What does Kendrick Lamar dominate and by which metrics is he doing it?

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HistoryPaintings t1_j1st5kz wrote

Kendrick Lamar is a critical darling... though you have pointed out he's not even particularly financially impressive in the rap field. Whatever dominance he asserts is through the quality of his work and the critical hype that follows it?

Granted, critics feel the need to hail everything Swift or Knowles release- but that's more s symptom of the power that's invested in their continued sales... "too big to fail" rather than a reflection of the quality of their work.

I don't follow football so I don't know who Mahomes is- but I have to assume that if he "dominates" it because he's actually good at what he does.

Herp Albert probably made more money than Dizzy Gillespie, but there's no real question who was the more influential and dominant trumpet player?

*OP also said "make a reasonable argument about somebody else being better than them".

I can make a reasonable argument that Weyes Blood is a better singer-songwriter than Swift.

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TheeEssFo t1_j1un0go wrote

This (the original) post has really gotten me thinking. I agree with you about Dizzy/Herb, for example. Also, I think by most subjective and objective metrics that Lamar is one of the greats. But it really bothers me that -- given he's been recognized as great for a decade now -- he doesn't overshadow rap, at least not the way the other greats did. From where I sit -- the suburban father of a teen and a tween who recognize his name but can't name a song (apart from Swift's "Bad Blood") -- he doesn't transcend rap.

I'd say that's partly because rap is so ubiquitous today, but then Drake . . . Kanye (pre meltdown) . . . Travis Scott . . . Minaj . . . Cardi . . . I'm not much of a fan of any of them, but I look at them and then at where hip-hop is headed and I see the connection. With Kendrick, I feel like I'm his core audience. That his fans skew older. Much older.

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HistoryPaintings t1_j1ut54j wrote

I think part of this is just that the way music is consumed is more niche and insular now vs. when we were younger (I'm 35). Streaming has replaced radio in how a lot of young people access music- especially at the ages where they actively develop their taste/ identity. There isn't the same dominant source dictating what they hear- just algorithms.

I used to work in a High School and I can tell you Drake was everywhere, but none of the others felt ubiquitous?

Where is hip-hop headed exactly? When I did my year end lists a few weeks back jazz and hip-hop came out with (by far) the strongest output. A really weak year for pop. I have a focused interest in contemporary jazz, so my ability to glean the gold is no surprise- but my interest in hip-hop is secondary at best. Yet there were great records from billy woods, Fatboi Sharif, al.divino x Estee Nack, as well as Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals ( but don't listen King Cobra unless you're ready to be on a list. They say the kind of things that get your phone tapped).

Granted, they all cater to a sound that revolves around my Madvillain roots, but it sounds fine? The mumblers and crossover acts haven't prevented the creation of quality hip-hop- or killed its audience.

The cultivation of niche and eccentric voices with cult audiences is a healthy thing for pop forms that have existed for a few decades. Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, etc.

And uh, I could make a reasonable argument that billy woods > Kendrick Lamar.

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