Drake: Jay-Z :: Kendrick Lamar: Nas.
My immediate reaction (and what other kind of reaction can you have 16 hours after an album leaks?) is that Drake (to be specific, rapping Drake) is the Jay-Z to Kendrick Lamar’s Nas. It’s a loose analogy, so before you start poking holes, I’ll clarify:
Kendrick is a self-indulgent artiste. A singular talent who makes music within his own little literary bubble. As a result, his music feels original and deep and timeless. Drake, on the other hand, is very much a now rapper, of-the-moment, hyper-relevant, neurotically self-aware. Nothing Was The Same finds him in that Jay Z “A Million and One”/“Streets Is Watching” zone, where every line is a quotable or a subliminal and usually both. He’s listening to the haters, reflecting on their criticisms, and responding—trolling them, even. The urgency of his raps means that they may feel dated by his next album.
Kendrick raps like only Kendrick can, and that is why he is unique and great. Drake raps like a lot of other rappers do, only he does it way better. He’s a style carpetbagger, but like Jay was, he’s the best at it. Just imagine Kendrick trying to hop on a Migos record—it’d be like Nas putting a verse on Juvenile's “Ha.”
What this all basically means is that, like the peak of the Jay-Z/Nas era, you won’t be able to argue the merits of Drake without bringing up Kendrick for the next few years, and vice-versa. It also means that it may only be a matter of time before they collide for real, for real. —Donnie Kwak
http://www.complex.com/music/2013/09/dr ... ndrick-nas
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