Kendrick Lamar -Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City [Aftermath] & Meek Mill – Dreams and Nightmares [Maybach Music Group]
It’s one thing to be next. It’s another thing entirely to be now. Both Kendrick Lamar and Meek Mill have impeccable credentials as they release their shop-stock debuts. Meek’s been to Rick Ross’s protégé for years now, and he hit three million official downloads on his last mixtape in a staggeringly short amount of time. Kendrick, on the other hand, was on the receiving end of an actual torch-passing ceremony with Dr Dre, Game and Snoop Dogg recently. They both have the CV. But who has now?
It’s a false opposition, obviously, but it’s unavoidable. Dreams and Nightmares comes across as an excellent specimen of current rap music, better than mentor Rick Ross’s last effort, all pseudo-cinematic romance and looks-like-we-made-it narrative. The worries about cementing commercial have been largely allayed: the Drake feature, Amen, is charming rather than annoying and Meek can, as always, be hair-raising when he gets off the leash. It’s a very good album, but it’s not a classic, and that’s dangerous.
Why? Because it came out right after Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, which is. Kendrick’s effort is huge in its scope. He ticks every box on the ‘saviour of rap’ checklist: he tells compelling ‘real life’ stories, he doesn’t name-check fashion houses, he’s respectful of the elders and he owns a thesaurus. But, more than that, he’s managed to marry art rap to the art of rap, weaving a concept album about Compton out of songs that aren’t just listenable but self-evidently the best thing out. Backseat Freestyle is three minutes of carrying a minimal beat with big-balling. Swimming Pools is, alchemically, both ‘conscious’ and radio friendly in a non-derivative and eminently appealing way. And on the closer and centre-piece Compton, he gets the epic Just Blaze beat, like Drake, TI and Jay-Z before him, and he destroys it while doing the one thing that has consistently anointed rappers for decades now, making Dr Dre sound like a great rapper.
Meek just beat the game; Kendrick changed it.
Meek: 4/5, Kendrick: 5/5
See also: Rick Ross – Teflon Don, Nas – Illmatic, MC Eiht – Section 8
