Earlier this week, the New York Times put out a list of the top 30 best living American songwriters. There was no specific order, but it still generated a lot of debate. That goes for the hip-hop fans too as artists like Eminem, Drake, Kanye West, and J. Cole didn't make the cut.
Given that it was an all-inclusive list, it wasn't a surprise to see just a handful of MCs make it. One of them to do so was Kendrick Lamar, which wasn't shocking. He was joined by Jay-Z, OutKast, Missy Elliott and Young Thug, believe it or not.
Lamar's track record speaks for itself as albums like good kid, m.A.A.d. city and To Pimp a Butterfly feature some of the best writing and storytelling front to back this century. DAMN., while not his most consistent body of work, even has a Pulitzer Prize to its name and TPAB is in the Library of Congress.
Overall, it's hard to argue leaving Kendrick off a list like this and one of his former collaborators agrees. George Clinton, who worked with the Compton rapper on the TPAB opener "Wesley's Theory," had nothing but high praise for his penmanship.
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Speaking with the NYT per PEOPLE, he said, "I'll put it like this: He, along with Motown, Sly Stone, the Beatles—that kind of institution is going to last. There are a lot of slick writers out here nowadays with lyrics and things, but he writes with soul."
Clinton also expressed how mature and thought-provoking he was and still is. "He's a young kid, but when I met him, he sounded my age. He's like a psychiatrist on record—he talks about sh*t that most people are afraid to talk about.
Clinton continued, "He's at that point where he can move the conversation. Nobody will talk about these topics, and he talks about them so matter-of-factly that you don't even think, 'You can't say that.'"
He added, in part, "Kids today, they want their new artist; they don't want their older brother or sister's artist or their mother and father's. Kids don't like you after a few years. When you can go past that and have the next generation after that still talking about you, you're doing something."
Speaking of which, fans are eagerly awaiting his next move as we speak. Thanks in part to DJ Akademiks, he raised Lamar's supporters' eyebrows when he claimed he heard he's been working on new material.
The West Coast icon hasn't outwardly announced anything yet. But his attire at the Grammy's this year and Ak's intel have us hoping something is on the horizon.
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