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J Cole vs Kendrick

Started by xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Dec 3, 2016, in Music Add to Reading List

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Simon023
Dec 6, 2016

YiT said

every facet? cmon bro. Here's what I think they're better than each other at, objectively

Pure technical skill: Kendrick. I don't see how this can really be debated, Cole has had some great technical verses here and there like return of simba and everyone dies, but put up whatever you think is Cole's best bars technically speaking and compare that to Black Friday, Deep Water, Pay for it, maad city, BDKMV remix, cartoon & cereal, That Part remix, etc. On black Friday alone kdot blew away cole's remix and anything else he's ever done technically imo, and you can objectively look at this by looking at rhyme schemes, syllables, etc.

Hooks/singing: Cole. Kdot has some great hooks as well like Money trees, alright, BDKMV, C&C, etc but I feel Cole just s----s out these hooks constantly, he's the best at this in rap imo. And singing goes to cole without question bc kdots "singing" is admittedly cringey

Emotional Impact: Split. I think Cole is great at relating to people about everyday s---, and songs like 03 adolescence, apparently, see world, 2face, false prophets, and more are powerful. But Kendrick does this great as well throughout GKMC, and his most relatable album imo S80. Too many songs to name but Sing about me, no makeup, and U are the ones that really stick out in this regard. Kdots songs just have a wider range of emotions in them, and in songs like U and Cartoons and ceral, u can feel the intensity and rawness.

Social Issues/Impact: Kendrick. Alright is basically the protest anthem of our generation, which speaks volumes. And while Cole tackles plenty of social issues, he does it directly. Which is fine, but Kdot does it in a really poetic way. There are layers to what he says, and you can't take much of what he says on TPAB at face value, you have to dig into it and interpret a lot of it for yourself, which imo is more effective. If either of them will be talked about 50 yrs from now, I'm pretty sure it will be Kendrick.

Song making ability: Cole. I'm giving cole a slight advantage here. This is mainly because kdot focuses more on making his concept projects as a whole mesh together and sound great, at the expense of making each song have lots of replay ability and catchiness themselves. Kendrick can make great songs obviously, and he uses a wider variety of sounds/voices than cole, but Cole gets the edge imo simply because he has more songs that have better replay value out of the context of their album.

Overall talent/ability: Kendrick. I think Kendrick has the edge overall because the quality and craftsmanship of his work is unmatched. Cole makes lots of great songs, but he hasn't put together a project yet (and I don't think he can) that can match TPAB or GKMC in terms of cohesiveness and the thought put into it. For Kendrick's work, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While for Cole, the individual parts or songs are better than the whole of any of his actual projects. Kendrick is just a better artist because of this imo. When I listen to TPAB from start to finish, it feels like art. Every song, every sound, every rhyme, is there for a reason. I don't get this feeling from any of Cole's projects. All this being said, Cole is still a great artist imo, and my 2nd current favorite.

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Most in-depth post of a Kendrick/Cole debate I have seen yet.
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WalterWhite

Dec 6, 2016
Kendrick literally sounds like he is dying in every verse imo...

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YiT Kornrow Kenny

Dec 6, 2016

Simon023 said

Most in-depth post of a Kendrick/Cole debate I have seen yet.
Click to expand...

Thx. Idk if @BigCountry still runs the sxn80 blog that I applied to join and never wrote anything, but if he does I'd like to make this into an article. Flesh it out more and s--- tho

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Dec 6, 2016

WalterWhite said

Kendrick literally sounds like he is dying in every verse imo...
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Nah that's Eminem he literally says it in psychopath killer

"I perform like I'm gonna die at the end of every song so it's hard for the rhyme to END"

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NoRoleModelz
Dec 6, 2016

YiT said

every facet? cmon bro. Here's what I think they're better than each other at, objectively

Pure technical skill: Kendrick. I don't see how this can really be debated, Cole has had some great technical verses here and there like return of simba and everyone dies, but put up whatever you think is Cole's best bars technically speaking and compare that to Black Friday, Deep Water, Pay for it, maad city, BDKMV remix, cartoon & cereal, That Part remix, etc. On black Friday alone kdot blew away cole's remix and anything else he's ever done technically imo, and you can objectively look at this by looking at rhyme schemes, syllables, etc.

Hooks/singing: Cole. Kdot has some great hooks as well like Money trees, alright, BDKMV, C&C, etc but I feel Cole just s----s out these hooks constantly, he's the best at this in rap imo. And singing goes to cole without question bc kdots "singing" is admittedly cringey

Emotional Impact: Split. I think Cole is great at relating to people about everyday s---, and songs like 03 adolescence, apparently, see world, 2face, false prophets, and more are powerful. But Kendrick does this great as well throughout GKMC, and his most relatable album imo S80. Too many songs to name but Sing about me, no makeup, and U are the ones that really stick out in this regard. Kdots songs just have a wider range of emotions in them, and in songs like U and Cartoons and ceral, u can feel the intensity and rawness.

Social Issues/Impact: Kendrick. Alright is basically the protest anthem of our generation, which speaks volumes. And while Cole tackles plenty of social issues, he does it directly. Which is fine, but Kdot does it in a really poetic way. There are layers to what he says, and you can't take much of what he says on TPAB at face value, you have to dig into it and interpret a lot of it for yourself, which imo is more effective. If either of them will be talked about 50 yrs from now, I'm pretty sure it will be Kendrick.

Song making ability: Cole. I'm giving cole a slight advantage here. This is mainly because kdot focuses more on making his concept projects as a whole mesh together and sound great, at the expense of making each song have lots of replay ability and catchiness themselves. Kendrick can make great songs obviously, and he uses a wider variety of sounds/voices than cole, but Cole gets the edge imo simply because he has more songs that have better replay value out of the context of their album.

Overall talent/ability: Kendrick. I think Kendrick has the edge overall because the quality and craftsmanship of his work is unmatched. Cole makes lots of great songs, but he hasn't put together a project yet (and I don't think he can) that can match TPAB or GKMC in terms of cohesiveness and the thought put into it. For Kendrick's work, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While for Cole, the individual parts or songs are better than the whole of any of his actual projects. Kendrick is just a better artist because of this imo. When I listen to TPAB from start to finish, it feels like art. Every song, every sound, every rhyme, is there for a reason. I don't get this feeling from any of Cole's projects. All this being said, Cole is still a great artist imo, and my 2nd current favorite.

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But you could literally make up criteria for how you judge your favorite rapper. Doesn't mean much and highly subjective also based on personal preference. Throw in categories like commercial performance, production, live performances, etc and you could argue in Cole's direction
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DKC shortygonletmecrush

Dec 6, 2016

YiT said

Thx. Idk if @BigCountry still runs the sxn80 blog that I applied to join and never wrote anything, but if he does I'd like to make this into an article. Flesh it out more and s--- tho
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Blog is long gone unfortunately

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Dec 6, 2016

BigCountry said

Blog is long gone unfortunately
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oh d---. Sorry I never got to write anything lol

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Mike Tyson big cuntry's alias

Dec 6, 2016

YiT said

oh d---. Sorry I never got to write anything lol
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new blog soon come dw

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NoRoleModelz said

But you could literally make up criteria for how you judge your favorite rapper. Doesn't mean much and highly subjective also based on personal preference. Throw in categories like commercial performance, production, live performances, etc and you could argue in Cole's direction
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well I just did what I thought were the most important, but you have a point and it is very subjective (except technical ability). But for those categories you said

commercial: Cole slight edge cuz double platinum no features blah blah. But TPAB still did really good when you factor in streaming etc. and GKMC did very well too iirc
production: cole's own production is amazing so I'd give this to him (that hiiipower beat tho). But kdot has a wider variety of sounds, so it really depends on how much you like jazz/funk.
live performances: kdot and it's not even close imo. All the untitled performances blow away any I've seen from cole.

but it's not like I'm saying Kendrick is way ahead of cole anyhow, he's not. If Eyez is really dope and has some cool concept it could change the whole convo

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Mike Tyson said

new blog soon come dw
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oh word. Tag or pm me when it's up I'd love to at least contribute this!

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Simon023

Dec 6, 2016

Mike Tyson said

new blog soon come dw
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Wouldn't mind getting on this when the blog come's if you're looking for writers.

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NoRoleModelz

Dec 6, 2016

YiT said

well I just did what I thought were the most important, but you have a point and it is very subjective (except technical ability). But for those categories you said

commercial: Cole slight edge cuz double platinum no features blah blah. But TPAB still did really good when you factor in streaming etc. and GKMC did very well too iirc
production: cole's own production is amazing so I'd give this to him (that hiiipower beat tho). But kdot has a wider variety of sounds, so it really depends on how much you like jazz/funk.
live performances: kdot and it's not even close imo. All the untitled performances blow away any I've seen from cole.

but it's not like I'm saying Kendrick is way ahead of cole anyhow, he's not. If Eyez is really dope and has some cool concept it could change the whole convo
Click to expand...

Sales: Just judging off their latest albums FHD heavily outselling TPAB but thats likely due to how the albums were received also.

Production: Cole Produces his own music so have to give this one to him.

Performances: I've seen both live and IMO Cole is a better performer. Kendrick obviously does more live award shows and such but Cole seems to really put his all into performances. The Letterman Performance was >>> . When i last saw Kendrick he skipped a bunch of his lines and just repeated his hooks to prolong the set time whereas Cole is beast when it comes to touring (selling out MSG, highest selling tour of 2015, etc.) .

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Simon023 said

Wouldn't mind getting on this when the blog come's if you're looking for writers.
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i'd prob get you on for more than just that, i seen your site and it's dope

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NoRoleModelz said

Sales: Just judging off their latest albums FHD heavily outselling TPAB but thats likely due to how the albums were received also.

Production: Cole Produces his own music so have to give this one to him.

Performances: I've seen both live and IMO Cole is a better performer. Kendrick obviously does more live award shows and such but Cole seems to really put his all into performances. The Letterman Performance was >>> . When i last saw Kendrick he skipped a bunch of his lines and just repeated his hooks to prolong the set time whereas Cole is beast when it comes to touring (selling out MSG, highest selling tour of 2015, etc.) .
Click to expand...

Kendrick has improved drastically at live performances (at least in regards to award shows/late night shows) cuz when he did the NBA ASG halftime show or whatever a couple years ago I thought so too. Cole's letterman performance was dope, but I don't see how it beats this tbh
or this:

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Simon023

Dec 6, 2016

Mike Tyson said

i'd prob get you on for more than just that, i seen your site and it's dope
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Thanks for checking the site out! Appreciate it!

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reD10S The real is back

Dec 6, 2016
Cole's Letterman performance better than anything Kendrick has done

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rizzzy

Dec 7, 2016

reD10S said

Cole's Letterman performance better than anything Kendrick has done
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Michael Myers Moderator

Dec 7, 2016
Props for the dude on the previous page with the whole essay but honestly only thing I care about is how much I enjoy it.

The other "'aspects"' and all that objective bs doesn't matter to me at all

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trutheazy

Dec 7, 2016

rizzzy said

reD10S said

Cole's Letterman performance better than anything Kendrick has done
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Click to expand...

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Kenneth a p----'s assistant.

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