Keep in mind this is the same website who gave ENCORE (Eminem's worst album or certainly bottom 2-3) a 3.0 and Eminem Show (3rd best album at worst and some rank higher but it's 3rd for me behind SSLP/MMLP but real close) a 2.5. They have MMLP as a 5.0 now, but i feel like they may of had that as a bad review initially.
This album is a solid 2014 Def Jam album. GKMC is solid as well but Kendrick is severely overrated as a lyricist. There are 50+ in the underground and mainstream who would eat them both for lunch.
Examples you ask of who is better than them at raw rhyming (and again they're some of the best more KNOWN artists I agree and both very talented for how young they are)? Peep Diabolic, Elzhi, Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Tonedeff, Louis Logic's old stuff, Apathy, Brother Ali, RA The Rugged Man, Reks, One Be Lo, Ka, Crooked I, Royce da 5'9, Percee-P, Juice, Horseshoe Gang, Chino XL, Locksmith, NinoBless, Cambatta, CunninLynguists, Eminem, Nas, Kool G Rap, Rakim, KRS, Big Daddy Kane, AZ, RasKass, Blu, Phonte, Skyzoo, Torae, Sadistik, Budden, Joell Ortiz, Celph Titled, HexOne, A.F.R.O, Teknition, Ghostface, Raekwon, Method Man, Redman, Sean Price....and so on and so forth
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"It’s not a verbatim copy of Kendrick’s work, but it’s every bit the stylistic counterfeit, and while it, along with the other mentions above, could be seen as imitations done in reverence had they been released on a free mixtape, their use on an album is no doubt a calculated effort to profit off of the ideas and work of another who did it first, in an attempt to capitalize on the ignorance of those listeners who may not know better – that’s biting, and we’ve never stood for it in hip-hop."
That is an overwhelmingly long sentence, man. It took me a few retakes to comprehend what point you were trying to get across. Great review overall, but that sentence really hinders the continuity, especially when you're trying to hammer it home in the final paragraph.
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