Slept on the dude since GKMC, mostly because of hype. When people start calling someone the greatest rapper of all time, you know there's something to it, but such labels always leave me with this instinctual sense of disbelief. I think to myself "so... ...let's hear this 'greatest rapper alive' <_<" I can't help but question anyone who worships any artist or work of art. It's too divisive to be meaningful.
Just ruins it for me. With things like this, I get a lot more mileage if I wait until I find a genuine reason to listen/watch from within myself, rather than going straight into it just because people are talking it up. It helps to have a genuine interest in something before hoping to enjoy it. Things never go as expected when you allow other people to completely inform your opinions on something that you have no exposure to.
I'm a hard person to recommend shit to, heh. I don't hate things that are popular for being popular. I don't
want them to suck. I just hate how people tend to take away other people's ability to form their own perceptions of it by making it this obligatory thing that you just have to experience and enjoy. If it is truly good, then it will stand true without all of the dick-riding.
Anyway... ...musically, it's very esoteric. Lyrically, it's very dense, heavy, and even weirder than some of the tunes themselves. A lot of it is very deranged and emotionally charged... ...the ramblings of an incomplete person. But occasionally there are these very beautiful poetic moments of clarity and completeness. It's a strange and often dysphoric, but very rewarding ride.
A lot of people say it's about people, black and white... ...but I think it's more about Kendrick - his visions, his world, his experiences. Glad I listened to it. It's not the best thing ever to me, but it's very good and I can understand how so many people can resonate with it so. It's one of those things that you don't have to relate to directly because the display of humanity alone is enough to reach a person's heart. I don't have the reference point to truly get it, but I definitely feel it.