Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have a fan in Hip Hop pioneer Big Daddy Kane, who has hailed the two rappers as “true lyricists” in the game.
In a new interview with AllHipHop, which dropped on Saturday (June 10), the Juice Crew vet was giving an update on his upcoming Netflix documentary, Paragraphs I Manifest, when he gave his props to Kendrick and Cole — while tracing their rap lineage to other pillars of the genre.
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“When you look at the era of the Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee and then you see how it evolved and became Rakim and KRS-One, and then you see how it evolved again in the era of Nas, Biggie and JAY-Z, from a lyrical standpoint, you want to see it keep evolving,” he said.
“By the time the ’90s came around, Hip-Hop had become so commercial, that it was more important about having commercial songs and something more simplistic. A lot of the artists that came after that, their mindset wasn’t really on being lyrical, it was on writing catchy songs. That’s really where their mindset was.”
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He continued: “So when you see people like J. Cole, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Kendrick Lamar and Lady London, I have a special respect for that because they’re true to lyricism.”
This isn’t the first time that Big Daddy Kane has given J. Cole his flowers. In January, he called the “Work Out” rapper his hero — and shouted out the To Pimp a Butterfly rapper as well.
“J. Cole is my hero,” he said. “That’s my dude right there. J. Cole is my hero. I love Kendrick as well. Rhapsody, Lady London. Lady London is a monster. She is incredible.”
The Juice Crew legend also posted a video of himself on Instagram talking with J. Cole about how important he is for Hip Hop.
“A lot of people out there right now are coming to people such as myself and many others, giving us our flowers and whatnot while we’re still here,” Kane says in the clip. “But listen, I wanna give this young brother right here his flowers like on the real.”
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Cole looked down and replied: “Damn,” before Kane continued: “I want this brother right here to know that he is my favorite MC out here right now. This is the brother right here that makes me feel like Hip Hop is still alive and it’s here to stay when I listen to this here brother spit and listen to his music. Love you, fam.”
