I feel like rap is spending way too much time talking about who the best of the best is. You've seen this serious increase in diss tracks and this rapper talking about so and so. Lyrically it's all very stylish, and diss track are still few and far between. I just want this discussion of who is the greatest to end really. In my eyes there isn't anyone that could possibly be the best at something so rabidly subjective. Maybe that's just me though, and I guess in some regard the challenge of competition drives creativity. I did like the track though, and I'm interested to see what Kendrick does this time around.
This is not a diss track. His verse has a lot of shit-talking, but I think he's playing a sort of character with that personality, and he fucking murders it. A diss track is much more specific, towards a certain person or group. If you're putting "look how fly I am"-type songs under the umbrella of diss tracks, this is certainly one of them, but I still think there is a lot more going on.
No I was more focused on the best of the best bit with diss tracks being an aspect of that discussion. I don't disagree that this track isn't just about an expression of who the best is in the game, there is definitely more to it. I guess I didn't express the more general meaning of my post. Not specifically Kendrick in this song, but rap in general recently. This was spurred by the intro to this song being about his greatness lol.
I'd be really interested to know when, if not from the very beginning, boasting in hip-hop became a normal thing. It just seems so natural for a hip-hop artist to do that. The reason I'm not worried about the prevalence of boasting and diss tracks is because there are so many more topics to rap about-- while it's probable that Biggie was addressing a greater variety of topics than Rae Sremmurd and Migos are now, at least Kendrick is still talking about these things. To Pimp a Butterfly was a racial endeavor. I think unmastered unitled (or whatever) was an instrumental exploration. Just saying I wouldn't cry "doom" just yet :) edit: Speaking of doom-- just look at MF DOOM! And Earl. And the fact that those "pop hip-hop" artists like Migos rely almost entirely on fire production skills which are more important to their audience than their absolutely bullshit rhymes.