Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar's Damn album was a masterpiece. He had a unique position in hip hop because of his hype origin and he delivered a fantastic exploration of culture. He falls into the trap of a lot of artists in the sense that he doesn't have a clear enough plan.

His ethnic empowerment is too intellectual to have the support of a modern Tupac within his genre's community. That problem doubles with the alienation of his Pitchfork hype by being so confrontational. We all get frustrated by negativity and injustice but he needs to lead his audience to an actual culture changing plan in order to really empower them. Self-esteem is important but intellectual-hood pride is a slim demographic.