What's the Best Song on GNX? | LAST SONG STANDING

Summary

Dissect Podcast Episode Summary Episode Title: What's the Best Song on GNX? | LAST SONG STANDING
Release Date: April 15, 2025
Host/Authors: Cole Kushna & Charles Holmes, The Ringer

---

1. Introduction and Special Announcements

At the outset of the episode, Cole Kushna informs listeners about a short break from their ongoing analysis of Kendrick Lamar's albums Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. During this hiatus, Cole promises special weekly episodes leading up to the release of an in-depth analysis of Kendrick's highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show.

Cole Kushna [00:00]: "I'll finally be releasing the long awaited analysis of Kendrick's Super Bowl halftime show... I believe it's the most comprehensive analysis of the show to date."

He also introduces today’s special episode of Last Song Standing, a segment where he and Charles Holmes deliberate to crown the best song from an artist's catalog—this time focusing on Kendrick Lamar's latest album, GNX.

2. Last Song Standing: GNX Edition

Charles Holmes joins Cole in Los Angeles to discuss whether any tracks from GNX deserve a spot among Kendrick Lamar's all-time best songs, serving as an addendum to their previous season on Kendrick.

Charles Holmes [01:08]: "I felt this. The day it dropped, I felt it months later. I feel it today. I think GNX is Kendrick's best album. It's my favorite album of his."

3. Initial Impressions of GNX

Charles advocates strongly for GNX, praising its consistency and replay value, contrasting it with Kendrick’s earlier, more narrative-driven albums like Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and To Pimp a Butterfly. Cole, while enjoying the album's accessibility, expresses ambivalence, noting its lack of intricate storytelling as both a strength and a potential weakness in a "best album" debate.

Cole Kushna [04:33]: "But we're talking about an all-time discography... I just want to hear it all the time. So it definitely has, at least for me right now, the most replay value of a Kendrick album."

4. Thematic Exploration of GNX

The duo delves into the thematic elements of GNX, highlighting its departure from Kendrick's introspective themes towards a more assertive and confident tone, possibly influenced by his ongoing beef with Drake.

Charles Holmes [08:19]: "This is actually the record where I feel like Kendrick is being his most day-to-day self... GNX is not maybe his most artistically impactful album, but it’s a great album for its replayability."

5. Album Trivia Segment

Cole and Charles engage in a trivia segment to test their knowledge about GNX. They touch upon interesting facts such as the album's release year, limited production run, and the background of specific tracks like "Whacked Out Murals" and "Squabble Up."

Cole Kushna [26:00]: "According to producer Rascal, he sent Kendrick a beat for a song that made the album just two days before the album's release. What song is it?"

Charles Holmes [26:21]: "GnX title track."

6. Song Nominations and Analysis

Each host nominates two standout tracks from GNX:

• Charles Holmes: Whacked Out Murals and TV Off
• Cole Kushna: Squabble Up and Peekaboo

They provide detailed analyses, discussing lyrical content, production quality, and the songs' cultural impacts. Charles emphasizes the significance of Whacked Out Murals in addressing real-life incidents and feuds, while Cole highlights the infectious beats and versatility of Squabble Up.

Charles Holmes [29:36]: "Whacked Out Murals produced by Soundwave, Doggy Jack Antonoff, etc. I think that's everything that makes Kendrick special..."

Cole Kushna [43:41]: "It's a flawless song to me in terms of lyric. Everything you want Kendrick to accomplish in a hit single, it does it in spades."

7. Debating the Final Pick

After thorough discussion, Cole and Charles deliberate between their nominations to decide on the ultimate Last Song Standing from GNX. They weigh factors like replayability, lyrical depth, and cultural resonance.

Cole Kushna [89:08]: "Do you feel an affinity I could make. I could make a case for either."

Charles Holmes [90:14]: "And I think if we take the Super Bowl performance into consideration, TV Off is something that you rarely get in a rap battle."

Ultimately, they select TV Off as the top song from GNX, though they acknowledge it doesn't make it into their all-time top five Kendrick songs.

8. Final Rankings and Reflections

The hosts reveal their top five Kendrick Lamar songs from the Last Song Standing season, ensuring that GNX tracks like TV Off are considered but remain outside the elite tier.

Charles Holmes [93:34]: "So our new list would be Mad City at number one, Sing About Me, Not Like Us, Money Trees, DNA, etc."

9. Industry Commentary: Kendrick vs. Drake

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Kendrick Lamar's position in the rap industry, especially in contrast to Drake. They analyze how Kendrick's strategic releases and authentic artistry have positioned him as a premier artist, while critiquing Drake's perceived stagnation and commercial overexposure.

Cole Kushna [99:07]: "If Drake had won over Kendrick Lamar, that says something really gross about where we are today... the artist won."

Charles Holmes [101:16]: "He's in the conversation. He's not the goat. He's not the greatest. But... he is 100% without argument in that conversation."

10. Conclusion and Future Episodes

Cole and Charles wrap up the episode by expressing their admiration for Kendrick Lamar's artistry and forecasting future episodes of Last Song Standing post-Mr. Morale season. They also hint at exploring their favorite records from the ongoing Drake-Kendrick beef in upcoming segments.

Cole Kushna [108:40]: "Thanks for joining Dissect again. We're going to be back with Last Song Standing..."

---

Notable Quotes

• Cole Kushna [04:33]: "But we're talking about an all-time discography... I just want to hear it all the time."

• Charles Holmes [09:00]: "Kendrick doesn't really do that. Kendrick, thematically each album..."

• Cole Kushna [27:15]: "Yeah, exactly."

• Charles Holmes [35:35]: "This is everything that for years I feel like Kendrick..."

• Cole Kushna [43:28]: "I love this song. So this was on your short list?"

• Charles Holmes [71:05]: "Rappers always try to do this where they'll have, like, a big hit and then they'll try to make the sister record to the hit."

• Cole Kushna [85:10]: "It's a perfect example of... when they get to drop the songs..."

---

This episode of Dissect offers an in-depth exploration of Kendrick Lamar's GNX, blending musical analysis with industry insights. Through engaging debate and thoughtful commentary, Cole and Charles provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the album's impact and its standing within Kendrick's illustrious career.

Transcript

[Cole Kushna]

Hi, everyone. We're currently taking a few weeks off from our analysis of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. However, I will be publishing special episodes every week until we return next week. I'll finally be releasing the long awaited analysis of Kendrick's super bowl halftime show. I can't wait to share it with you as I believe it's the most comprehensive analysis of the show to date. So be on the lookout for that next week. I'm equally excited to share today's show, a special one off episode of Last Song Standing. For those who aren't familiar, Last Song Standing is an annual show in which me and the Ringer's Charles Holmes attempt to determine an artist's single best song by debating our way through their entire catalog. So far, we've done seasons on Outkast, Frank Ocean, and our very first season back in 2022 was on Kendrick Lamar. Now, obviously, Kendrick hadn't released Gen X back then, so we thought it would be fun to do an addendum episode to figure out if GNX has any songs that should be in contention for Kendrick's greatest of all time. I flew down to Los Angeles to record this with Charles in person and had a really great time. I hope you enjoy it. Welcome everyone to Last Song Standing. I'm Cole Kushna.

[Charles Holmes]

And I'm Charles Holmes. And yesterday somebody whacked out our podcast. So the LWS boys are moving to Europe for a special one off episode to discuss what might be the most consequential album in Kendrick Lamar's career. That's right. We're discussing gnx. Cole, how have you been? Cause I feel like the last time we were on camera discussing Kendrick Lamar was probably like two or three days removed from not like Us. And it seems like we've lived five years. How are you doing?

[Cole Kushna]

I'm doing good.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

It's good to see you in person, in studio for the first time. I think the last time we saw each other in person, I was beating your ass in cornhole.

[Charles Holmes]

Oh, dog. I'm not very good at cornholes. And you are. You're a frat boy at heart.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I'm good at cornhole.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell yeah. Hell fucking yeah. But for today, we're here because we were having a conversation. Our first season of Last Song Standing was on Kendrick Lamar. Been a few years since then. I think this might arguably we are coming off the biggest career year for Kendrick, so we wanted to kind of travel back in time.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's kind of like an addendum to our season to make sure that we named our last song Standing. We won't spoil it to the end. So if you want to catch up on that season, you guys can go back and listen to it on Spotify. But this is an addendum episode to address. See if any of the songs on GNX can be in contention for Kendrick's best song of all time. I'm curious to know. We've talked a little bit about GNX just on like text, but how did you receive the album? How do you like it now? What are your thoughts? What are your. Just open me up with the general thoughts on gnx.

[Charles Holmes]

So, you know, I like to come out swinging every single show. We do podcast. I felt this. The day dropped. I felt it months later. I feel it today. I think GNX is Kendrick's best album. It's my favorite album of his. Even when everybody, I remember the day, everybody's like, there's another album coming. There's another album coming.

[Cole Kushna]

I was part of that crew. Sorry.

[Charles Holmes]

And I was just like, everybody, relax, chill. Appreciate what he gave us. Because what he gave us is a near perfect body of work.

[Cole Kushna]

Wow.

[Charles Holmes]

This is how I feel like you feel every single time you're talking about Kendrick. We switch roles right now.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. Am I about to undermine GNX right now? You said it's as bad best album or your favorite?

[Charles Holmes]

I'll say this, I will say I need a little bit more time. But to me, I can make an argument that for everything that I look in. Look for in a project, this is his best project. Yeah, this is one of my favorite.

[Cole Kushna]

Kendrick Lamar lot to process, I'll admit. I mean, Gen X, I love Gen X. I listen to it almost every day still legitimately. I just want to hear it all the time. So it might be his most replayable album in terms of like there's no skits. Even on like Good Kid Mad City, where it like a lot of hits on that, on that album, there's still the skits, there's still the narrative. So you do have to like skip around if you just want to vibe to. To to an album. So it definitely has, at least for me right now, the most replay value of a Kendrick album. Although with that said, it might be my least favorite Kendrick album.

[Charles Holmes]

Whoa.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. But we're talking about an all time discography starting with Good Kid Mad City, of course. But what I love about it is also what is also a detractor about it is that it is a little bit more digestible, which works in its favor on One hand, and is to his detriment in a best album conversation on the other hand. But I love the fucking album and I listen to it, like I said, all the time.

[Charles Holmes]

That's what I like about it. I feel. I think you can make the argument that this is not maybe his most artistically impactful album or most difficult album in terms of just like having all those layers, but in terms of just to me, at its core, what a great album can do, which is worm itself into your life in the way that you're talking, where it's like, you're a way bigger Kendrick fan than me. And I can guarantee you I've listened to GNX probably more than you. I listen to it every single day. I just play. Even the songs I do not. There's a lot of songs I don't like on this album and they just wash over. I listen to them because they're good enough, where I'm just like, fuck, I'm just gonna listen to the 12 tracks and I'm gonna play it back. And I think that that is honestly almost a little bit more difficult. I think a lot of people are like, well, to Pimp a Butterfly was probably a way harder record to release. And I'm just like, yeah, in some ways, but in others. How many times are we always begging for artists to give us the perfect 12 song record? No fat, no skips, get in, get out. I think with streaming, we just saw it with the Playboi Carti album. It's so easy to be like, here are 30 songs and you're just like, oh, fuck. I need a good 48 hours to parse through it all. But it's like within those 30 songs, you're gonna get a hit. If you release 30 songs, you're gonna trip into one. Kendrick did the opposite. He's like, there's no room for mistakes. There's no room for, like, bullshitting. I need to basically prove that I can pull this off in such a short amount of time. And I think whether it's the charts, whether it's the Super Bowl, I think he pulled it off very well.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. There's also an immediacy to this record where you look at the little things that people have said that have worked on it. There are stories that a lot of these songs have just been created, definitely post battle with Drake, but also, like in the month or two leading up to its release. Like, there's an immediacy that's different from. I mean, I would say probably every Kendrick album in that it feels like it was written for a very specific moment. Whereas other albums feel. I think this album has timeless qualities, but there's a timelessness to Tabima Butterfly, there's a timelessness to Good Kid and they're rooted in a narrative and a moment in his life. But this, I don't know. Do you feel that kind of immediacy where he's talking about things that just, just had happened, just had transpired? It feels like. It feels curated, but it also feels like. I don't know how many other songs he threw out to make this album. I get the impression that there wasn't like 30 songs to pull from. Maybe if you go back years, but the ones that were created, almost all of them speak to the post battle kind of timeline that we're currently experiencing with him. And that's what I appreciate about the album. It's also what I don't like about the album. Big picture, but it's great. I just love that we have a Kendrick album that feels fun, like, yes, feels loose. He's very serious. There's message. There's not a concept, but there's a message. But there's also jokes. I was trying to think of the last album that he had jokes on. It's probably his funniest album.

[Charles Holmes]

This is actually the record where I feel like Kendrick is being his most day to day self. Where I think a lot of his records, like Mr. Morale is a big example where I'm like, that's who Kendrick is. But he's mining years and years of trauma and generational stuff that's going back from before he was born, when he was a kid. Married, maybe not married, but father, all of that. And to your point, I wrote about this when it dropped. This reminded me of a Drake record because every Drake record is essentially about his celebrity and giving you an update. Like the report card of like, here's how the status of the Drake industrial complex is going.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, right.

[Charles Holmes]

And Kendrick doesn't really do that. Kendrick, each album thematically you can be like, okay, damn religion. This part of his life, Mr. Morale. Oh, you're going into a little bit more of like the heady existential therapy lane for this. It's just like gee, Nexus about Kendrick being the God, the goat right now. And I think to your point, for what you probably look for in a Kendrick record, you're just like, this is what I want. And for me, who's always been like, I fell in love with Kendrick's music when looking out for Detox dropped the freestyle he did over some childish Gambino. And that's always been the Kendrick. When it's rigor mortis, whenever he pops back up is the Kendrick I always want. It's like, dog, just get into the fucking go.

[Cole Kushna]

I know we finally got that. And what I love about it, as someone that tracks his entire career, is that we do have. We have four albums that are doing what you just laid out beautifully, mining his experience, and then curating this concept in this narrative. So to have the weight of that contrast with GNX, especially after Mr. Morale, they're almost, like, paired together in my mind, because they're two sides of a coin. They're so opposite. One is so burdened and so heavy, and GNX feels liberated and free and confident, egoic even. And so I love the contrast between the two. And it's. Yeah. If there was ever a moment to get this kind of Kendrick Lamar album, it was this moment, and he delivered.

[Charles Holmes]

Mr. Morale is such a rapper thing to do, where it's like, Mr. Morale is a project where Kendrick is showing you not only the work of making an album, but the work that he's doing on himself and kind of trying to go into a different phase in his life where he's stripping away a bunch of the muck that you just get as you age into your 20s and 30s and 40s. It's so funny that the next record is just like, all right, we're pausing on the shit. I'm being my most negative self. Like, that is. I cannot imagine a more, like, rapper thing to do to be like, all right, fuck all that healing shit. Let me get this motherfucker up out of here.

[Cole Kushna]

I was so confused when GNX dropped. I've gotten theoretically, like, wrapped my mind around it and how it plays into the stuff that. Because I'm deep into morale right now, we're doing the season of it on him, on morale right now. And it took me a while to be like, how does this. How does this fit in? Is it a. Is it a linear progression? Or is he. Is he backtracking? Or is it. What am I not understanding? I feel like I have a little bit more of a context with a lot of the moves that he's made after the album drop. I remember just being so confused, like, this is what we get after GNX or after. After morale, and it's just.

[Charles Holmes]

But isn't that what they teach you in therapy? It's just like, you know, you take a couple steps forward, and then you slide back. And if anybody could make Kendrick B's worst sel it is Aubrey the Lightskin. So before we get too much, we're gonna discuss the album, but let's kind of go back to just walk our listeners through what we're doing this episode. So purpose of this episode is to find out if GNX has any songs that should be in contention for the greatest Kendrick Lamar song of all time. To do this, we are going to run through our normal episode format. We'll start with a general discussion of the album, do some album trivia, then we'll each nominate our favorite songs off the project.

[Cole Kushna]

Yep. And then at the end of the episode, we'll debate our picks until we both agree on the last song standing, the best song off of gnx. Then we'll put that song up against our top five Kendrick songs from our season on Kendrick to see if it could crack the list or even take the top spot.

[Charles Holmes]

And make sure to stick around for a bonus segment later in the episode where we get into some of our favorite records from the Neverending Beef. But before that, let's return with some little facts about gnx.

[Cole Kushna]

Do you have a. Do you have a title for this? Did you come up with a title?

[Charles Holmes]

Do I have. We don't have a title for the album. Background.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Right. You're right.

[Charles Holmes]

Have we.

[Cole Kushna]

I thought we did.

[Charles Holmes]

I'm letting. I'm letting us down.

[Cole Kushna]

I was looking forward to your. Your titles, but it's okay.

[Charles Holmes]

I don't. I thought I was going to come right there. It just did not come to me. Anyway. All right, these are some background facts on gen X, Kendrick's sixth studio album, 12 Songs. Released on November 22, 2024, the project features appearances from an entire generation of LA rappers such as Doty 6, Lefty Gunplay, Az Chike, Hit a J3, among others. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 200, selling 319,000 album equivalent units in its first week. And so far, it's spawned two singles, Squabble up and the meteoric record that is Luther, which I don't actually understand how big it's gotten. Like, I think it's still, as of this recording, number one.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. It's insane. I knew that record was going to be big. We might talk about it later, but this big?

[Charles Holmes]

No, it might end up being bigger than not like us. Wow. Over. It's over its lifetime. Not in terms of impact.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, no, I know, I know.

[Charles Holmes]

But in terms of like. Because think about it. You could play Luther at weddings. You could play it at More places where I think like, not like us is we're always gonna talk about it like it's here. But I could see Luther just kind of riding into the summer just being.

[Cole Kushna]

I know it does have that quality and it's gonna be. Hopefully it's bigger than all the Stars, which is technically, I think Kendrick's biggest song. Or maybe I know I don't like that song. And I love Luther. I really legitimately like Luther. So I feel like that's Luthor is the best iteration of that side of Kendrick.

[Charles Holmes]

So do you wanna get us into some themes surrounding gnf?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit different than past season or past albums where I came in here with like a whole timeline and I outlined the narrative. And so I think the biggest thing is like it's not a concept record. As much as I tried to make narratives out of the track list and was I figuring out all the connections and what is reincarnated doing and blah blah, blah. Like, I just don't think there's a concept. I think there's, you know, the very few things that he said about the album on the Apple interview before the super bowl, they asked him directly about what is genex? And he said, I'm trying to take it back to hard ass beats and hard raps. What I fell in love with hip hop. So there is a simplicity to the record that we just talked about that I feel like was intentional. And I think it does tie into this broader goal of Kendrick this past year, which is trying his best to restore hip hop to its roots, get it back closer to the foundation, what he represents. Bringing regionality back into the genre. And just for him, simplifying things and just returning to day one, giving us that just pure rap album that a lot of us were just yearning for. But he wasn't able to. He wasn't emotionally ready for that. He had a lot of stuff to unpack with Mr. Morale to get to this moment. But you know, GNX doesn't. I don't think GNX exists. I don't think the Drake battle exists without the self work that he did on Morale Celebration of the west coast, obviously you made a very intentional point to pick west coast sounding beats, feature more underground west coast artists. And then as much as we want to avoid talking about Drake like this is in part of Victory Lap too, maybe the biggest hip hop beef that we've definitely experienced in our lifetime. So there's. There's not a. You can't, you can't detach this album from the battle. This is. There's clear kind of victory lap vibes going on. There's direct lines that I mean over and over, almost every song mentions it, alludes to it in some way. And to your point, putting a stake into the ground, you know, proving over this past year, he has proven it's not the big three, it's big me. And I think, at least in my mind, that is clear as day. I don't know where you fall on that now, but out of the three, J. Cole, Drake, and Kendrick, for me, there's only one winner.

[Charles Holmes]

So I think I love everything you said thematically about the album. What I think is special to me about GNX is that there's a part in every rap beef, to me, that gets to this mainstream level where you transition from. Is this just a hip hop ecosystem beef, or are we now battling for the spirit of the culture?

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

And I think if you take Pusha T and Drake, that's a hip hop battle where when Pusha T raps over the story of adidon, it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in a beef, which is someone being like, you're hiding a child. And in fact, that rapper is hiding a child. I never thought that this beef could leapfrog over that. But what Kendrick was able to do is that once he won those first couple rounds with Euphoria, Meet the Grams, and then not like us, gnx, to me, is a pivot point where the beef, it no longer becomes about, I'm competing against Drake. It's Kendrick. Like, I'm competing with myself to see how far I can push it. And to me, GNX is a record. And you already hinted at it, where it's saying, I'm taking this back. GNX has a symbol of this car that he's got, the souped up version, But a car that his dad had when he was a child is like, this is 12 tracks. This is you putting this CD on in a car and doing the thing that I think hip hop does better than any other genre. You can ride around the street and there's gonna be a song for everyone. There's a song for the kids. There's a song for the hustlers. There's a song for the women. And it sounds like this project. If you say it like that, you're like, is that below Kendrick? And to me, it's him saying, no, this is the one thing that y'all told me I couldn't do. Yeah, exactly like him not putting Not Like Us on this is such a smart thing because it's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is going to be a hit album without my hit record. I'm gonna show you. I can give you Squabble Up. I can give you Luther, I can give you TV Off. I can give you Dodger Blue. And to me, that's why this album works to me, because it's a rapper saying, no, I'm going to prove to you that I am the number one rapper of my generation. Here you go.

[Cole Kushna]

Right? Yeah. I love that disassociate. Yeah, it's like it's post battle. But also he took great length to kind of separate it outside of it. And to your point about the car, I think that if there is any concept of what this, of what GNX is, it is like a lot of people are speculating this is a mixtape because it has that feel to it. It feels like it was made to put on in your car. And there is a variety of sounds. There isn't. I mean, there is a through line, but there's a lot of ups and downs with variety. You'll go from Luther to Hey Now. Or you'll go from reincarnated to TV Off. And it's like it really does kind of totter back and forth between a bunch of variety of sounds. And there's a through line, but it's not as. It's not as concise as past records. But I think that was kind of the point to broaden the appeal to give a song for everyone and not feel the pressure to have this like, you know, brain breaking concept where you could play it forward and backwards or you could, you know, there's no crazy theatrics, there's no gimmicks. It's just like you said, hard ass beats, hard ass raps.

[Charles Holmes]

I mean, but also we gotta be real too. Even I was critical of some elements of the super bowl performance. But you have to give credit where credit's due. He released this album in November, which is a very regional. Like this is a regional record. He is building upon a bunch of modern old school west coast hip hop. And from November to the super bowl, these songs being in the popular consciousness enough where he can perform, right? Almost what half of this record on the biggest stage is like. You can't.

[Cole Kushna]

It's crazy.

[Charles Holmes]

What other rapper or even artist has even had the balls to be like, this is what I'm doing. Because he didn't perform a lot of the. I was like, there Weren't money trees. There wasn't a lot of the other joints where I was like, God damn, you're doing a record. Like, peekaboo being performed at the Super Bowl.

[Cole Kushna]

Euphoria.

[Charles Holmes]

Insane.

[Cole Kushna]

It's like, what?

[Charles Holmes]

So I do wanna like. I know people probably like, we're done with Kendrick. We're so tired of here. It's still. We are going to look back on this moment and just be like, no, I don't know if this can be repeated ever.

[Cole Kushna]

No, not like this. Everything lined up. You think about just the timeline of everything from like that. Which we just celebrated the one year anniversary. Everything that transpired this year. And now Annie's gonna go on a stadium tour.

[Charles Holmes]

He's not done yet.

[Cole Kushna]

He's not done yet. I mean, people are speculating. There is another album coming, but we'll see. We'll see. But yeah, let's move on to our next section. Did you get a name for this one album?

[Charles Holmes]

I didn't know I was supposed to get the name.

[Cole Kushna]

That's okay.

[Charles Holmes]

Usually we come up with names for the entire season. We didn't have our little meeting before this. Damn.

[Cole Kushna]

It's all right.

[Charles Holmes]

I've let you down. I let you down. But anyway, our trivia section. We do this every single season. It is where each of us try to stump each other. I don't think we're really competing for anything this episode.

[Cole Kushna]

Maybe first pick of the nomination since we're not gonna overlap.

[Charles Holmes]

All right, cool. All right, what's your first trivia point?

[Cole Kushna]

I'm starting out with a softball. So we'll do two questions each and then if we need a tiebreaker, we can get a tiebreaker. But I think you're gonna know this one. The Gen X or the grand national experiment was only made in one year ever. What year was it made? And bonus half point if you can tell me how many exactly were produced.

[Charles Holmes]

Fuck. I read this and I don't. I'm not even gonna. I'm gonna get 1987.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Is the year. Yeah, it is.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell fucking yeah. That. I knew it was around. There was Kendrick's birth year, so I don't know how many were created.

[Cole Kushna]

547.

[Charles Holmes]

Ooh.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, that was just bonus. That's so. That was a good one point.

[Charles Holmes]

All right, you're gonna this. I'm gonna throw you a very. A softball.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

How many other rappers had the hey now beat before Kendrick and who are they?

[Cole Kushna]

One is Quavo, right?

[Charles Holmes]

Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

And he said, what do you want me to do whisper on this or something. Okay. So there's definitely one. That's the one I know about, so I'm gonna guess two. But I don't know the second artist, so it's three. Oh, damn.

[Charles Holmes]

The beat, if I'm remembering reading this correctly, was made in front of YG and he wasn't feeling it.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, that sounds familiar.

[Charles Holmes]

Then Mustard was trying to give it to Quavo, and he said, what do you want me to whisper over it? And I think Tidala Sign actually recorded something over it. But Mustard, for some reason, wasn't feeling it. Didn't get released.

[Cole Kushna]

Damn.

[Charles Holmes]

Here's the thing. I don't know if we're going to pick it, but I will say, hey, now might be the best beat on this entire. It is easy. I was listening to Tyler's freestyle over a reason.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I was just like, this beat. It is so funny because it's such a actually simple beat. I think Mustard was like, I'm trying to recreate clips grinding so I could see how a bunch of rappers like, what do you want me to fucking do over that. But once you hear, like, Kendrick over it.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

It's almost. It smacks you in the face. Like, wait, why did it take so long for someone to be like, this is. This is an insane beat.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. And they. Well, I think they built it up too, because that bridge, when it goes into the spaceship, seeing spaceships on Rosecrans and the synth opens up, I don't think. That doesn't sound like Mustard to me. So I think they kind of beefed.

[Charles Holmes]

It up with Soundwave. They probably kind of, like, gave it the. Instead of it just being this straightforward. I mean, a lot of the beats on this record, TV off, is very similar as well, where that was two beats and they married it together. That's another thing I like about GNX is even though the beats are very regional and simple, they always take you on a journey of almost just ecstasy. Of like, Bow. Hey, now is one of my favorite.

[Cole Kushna]

It was my favorite song on the record when it first came out. It's no longer my favorite, but I love that song.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell, yeah. All right, what's your Second question?

[Cole Kushna]

Question 2. According to producer Rascal, he sent Kendrick a beat for a song that made the album just two days before the album's release. What song is it? You're cheating looking at your notes. We're on video, dude. This is scrolling through your notes.

[Charles Holmes]

Is it gnx?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell, yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Damn.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell yeah. Sorry I cheated a little.

[Cole Kushna]

All Right. Just for the listeners. GNX title track. Rascal shared the text exchange between him and Kendrick for proof. Kendrick requested, quote, some ignorant west coast shit, but let the drums have space. I'm about to hit the studio. That was two days before the album released. That's crazy.

[Charles Holmes]

That's why. That's why I also love the album. Because there is an immediacy of delivery on this album where sometimes I can tell when I'm listening to a Kendrick record how thought over it is, how he's hitting the exact pocket, rapping in the exact way with the exact inflection. And to me, this is still a thought over record. But it almost. A lot of them do feel like freestyles. A lot of them do feel like first thought, best thought, go.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Charles Holmes]

The thing that makes Kendrick such a technician is that it's not like he's like, when he's rapping, he's still killing these fucking beats. He's still at the top of his game, but there is just more. So I'm like, dog, I can tell you were just kind of like hungry that day.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Like, not leaving until. Yeah, we finished this record.

[Cole Kushna]

Well, he says, like on whacked out murals, this is not for lyricists, a double entendre. Yeah. He's setting the tone right there on the start of the album. Like, yeah, it's. This is not gonna. It has lyrical, it has wordplay. He does all the rapper things. But it's not. Again, we said it a million times now. But it's not. He's setting expectations like, this is not your concept thematic record. Like, it's just not what it is.

[Charles Holmes]

And this is. What's my cliche? Charles Stigg. Can I play this in the whip? Does it bump in the whip? And it fucking does. All right, one more question for you. What's the name of the artist or brand that designed Kendrick's custom belt buckle seen on the COVID of GNX and in the video for Squabble Up?

[Cole Kushna]

Is it Martine Rose? Did she do it? No. Martine Rose? No. Is it? Damn. I definitely something.

[Charles Holmes]

Eli Russell Linnitz from the Brand erl.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, I think that was what I was trying to remember, but I didn't get it. Damn. Damn.

[Charles Holmes]

Come on.

[Cole Kushna]

You didn't even want to do the trivia and you just.

[Charles Holmes]

There's not a lot of trivia for this album yet, everybody. I don't know what type of NDAs Kendrick has these rappers. Yeah, no. Shining, but like, God damn, they are very tight lipped about it.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Time to move on to the next segment of the show. That's right. It's time for nominations. Remember, the goal of today's episode of last song standing is for Cole and I to determine the single best song from gnx. The song we select will then be put up against our top five Kendrick songs at the end of the episode in order to determine whether or not it makes the cut or can even make the top spot. Right now, we're nominating two songs each. I'll go first.

[Cole Kushna]

I'm so curious where you're gonna go. We should say usually in episodes past, if there's overlap, that would count as a nomination on each side, but there's no overlap. So whatever you pick, I can't pick. I can also count as my nomination.

[Charles Holmes]

See, I don't think you're gonna pick either of mine. So the. I'm going with.

[Cole Kushna]

Damn.

[Charles Holmes]

Hmm. I'm going with whacked Out Murals. Yesterday, somebody whacked out my mural. That energy of make you niggas move to Europe, but it's regular for me. Yeah, that's for sure. The love and hate is definitely.

[Cole Kushna]

Wow.

[Charles Holmes]

Whacked Out Murals produced by Soundwave, Doggy Jack Antonoff, Frano Craig, Balmaris, M Tech and Tyler Reese. I knew, like, why are you shocked?

[Cole Kushna]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Charles Holmes]

All right.

[Cole Kushna]

This doesn't seem like a you song.

[Charles Holmes]

This is everything that I want from a rap song. There's everything that I think makes Kendrick special because Kendrick. We've already touched upon this. Kendrick doesn't do these type of records. I think a rapper that has made this type of intro their bread and butter is Drake. And I would not be surprised if Kendrick. This is one of his, like, weird. Like, I'm kind of making fun of you. Like, take a song like Tuscan leather off, Nothing was the same. Drake likes to do these, like, long, winding intros that are essentially like, here's everything that I've been up to in the last year.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

And Whacked Out Murals is such a gossip record. Like, if you listen to this record 10 years from now, the amount of shit that you would have that happened in 2024, it. Whacked out Murals is talking about an incident where someone did throw a bunch of paint on a Kendrick Lamar mural. He's talking about Snoop and the tailor made AI fiasco. Nas being the only one to congratulate him after the Super Bowl. Lil Wayne basically crashing out because he wasn't the performer of the New Orleans Super Bowl. This is everything that for years I feel like Kendrick almost acted like he was above or when he would rap about this type of stuff, he would always leave it off the album. If you think about control, even though that's a Big Sean song, when he was ready to do his like fuck the Industry album, the best, it's a Big Sean, right, Big Sean song. It's a Future in Metro song. Or it's like a part of the Hart series. Very rarely does he try to bog down his records in any of the blog headlines type of shit. Would you agree?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.

[Charles Holmes]

And for the one time he does it, he just sounds so pissed off. He sounds so much like.

[Cole Kushna]

He sounds disgusting.

[Charles Holmes]

He sounds disgusting. Like, is this what you want from me? Are you not entertained? It has that feeling, I think on just this technical level. I love how this beat. It starts out so sparse, but it's propulsive. And we don't. The drums don't really come in until full force into two minutes into it. Which is once again such a bold move because we're coming off a year of not like us and Kendrick has finally given us these records. And for whacked out murals to just start in such a low key part where Kendrick and his voice and how honestly grotesque and demonic it is at some point has to carry us. The drums come in and boom, he's off to the races. And then he delves into almost like this battle rapper esque form of himself. Whereas the. Especially in the third verse, you can hear it. His rhyme scheme does not change that much over the course of the record, but he's speeding up very, very, very gradually to the point where he's rapping juices all in my cup solve and knock them all off like it's the shit. Like put it in my veins. I'm gonna break down my top five pettiest moments off whacked out murals. So I can kind of just show you the level of just ain't shitness that he's on number five. Making every rapper not named Nas second. Guess why they didn't congratulate him. Because to me, I could see a rapper being like, I'm not trying to be a dick writer. I don't want to just text Kendrick whatever. But if I hear this song and I'm like one of Kendrick's boys, you think like absol was like, damn, you think he's talking about me? I didn't send him a text that day. So that's number five, number four. I actually this is. It's one of My favorite parts of the record because it's when he starts doing the double time flow or gets into it, but it's one of. It irks me when he references Andrew Schultz. I'm like, this is a little like, you don't have to mention this random white comedian. I feel like we're fine. But once again, it's a very Drake thing to do. Being like, no one's getting out of this. This is the one song where everybody's getting it. No subliminals. We're just going off the cuff. Number three, mocking himself for letting Lil Wayne down. That part. Lil Wayne is like one of the greatest of all times. I love Lil Wayne and his discography. And if you are a true Kendrick fan, you know how much, especially of Kendrick's early career. And those mixtapes is just Lil Wayne cosplay. And once again, when you get to this level as a rapper, I know, right. You have a decision. Either you're going to kind of be like, you know what? I'mma let it go a la Snoop Dogg, or you're going to be like, I kind of have to kill my OGs. And goddamn, does he just like back the fucking brinkstruck up over fucking Lil Wayne's corpse? I fucking love it. Number two, chastising Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg was just like, had to come out and be like, my bad dog. But also, can we agree with Snoop on some shit? I was like, snoop, come on, bro.

[Cole Kushna]

I don't think he like. I think that was a total, like. I mean, he's kind of past unk energy now. I think he's in the grandpa territory. I don't think he knew, like, what was happening really with the Taylor Made stuff. Do you think he, like, actually knew?

[Charles Holmes]

I think. And this is what I think makes all of this so this record and just the album so special to me is that this is a very cynical record. I think Whacked Out Murals is also very cynical where Kendrick's not stupid. And this record to me is an amalgamation of him finally doing what the dumb critics like me are just like, you should make a tight album. You should make some hits, step up in the whip. You don't got any song for the bitches. And it's just like, if you're going to make the cynical record, kind of have to be like, Snoop, I don't care what you was on.

[Cole Kushna]

Right? Right.

[Charles Holmes]

You got to get got too. Right? So, yeah, I just. I love. I love this song. And number one, I want to ask you about this. Removing the Line that is almost undoubtedly about J. Cole.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, you think so?

[Charles Holmes]

All right, so this has been. This has been.

[Cole Kushna]

Do you have it written down? Because there's been a lot of theories about what it is and, like, what. What it rhymes with.

[Charles Holmes]

So. So he said, put that. Put the head on a Cuban lick as a monument. I paid homage. And I always mind my business. Yeah, I made the. And it. It blanks out. And I think people have said I made the born sinner, like, beg, ask for forgiveness or something like that.

[Cole Kushna]

Right?

[Charles Holmes]

It fits.

[Cole Kushna]

It 100% fits. I mean, we'll just never know. But I. It feels like. Right, because he bleeps out Drake's name later.

[Charles Holmes]

So you think the one that he bleeps out after that is the Drake line?

[Cole Kushna]

He said people cackling about Drake, but all y'all on trial, I guess. Or I guess Diddy would be the only other. Right? So Diddy.

[Charles Holmes]

I think it's probably Drake.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

And I think the reason that it's also J. Cole is because the line that he comes back on is, I never lost who I am for a rap image. I'm like, that's him being like. Like, Cole, you're my boy. So I'm a bleep this out. But also, he's doing, once again, the petty, cynical thing, which is, I'm sorry, but you chose a side, and I got to address it.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, right, right. I mean, he let. I think he let Cole off pretty easy because Cole made a diss track about Kendrick. And Kendrick. I mean, he obviously apologized and all that, but, like, Kendrick could have still went at him, even taking random shots, which felt like this was. But he made it Kendrick.

[Charles Holmes]

But here's the thing. Kendrick did the thing where, first of all, J. Cole was lying up a storm on one of those records where I'm just like, here's the thing. I'm a critic. I can shit on top of Butterfly as much as I want. I'm not trying to create a Topimpa Butterfly. I'm like, cole, you gotta make a record as good as Topima Butterfly before you shit on it, before you shit on him. Like, I'm sorry, Cole fans. I am. But it's like, I know you not talking, Cole. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm not trying to be a dickhead, but he was trying to count Kendrick's classics. And I'm like, bro, Cole, I'm not even sure you have one. So, shit, people are kicking. You're staying quiet. And, you know, I'm not Lying though. What's. How many does Cole have?

[Cole Kushna]

I'll give him four SEAL drives.

[Charles Holmes]

Four SEALs drive is one.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I think Kendrick could honestly lay claim to having three. Two on a bad day. Three pretty easily.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I think to me, Good Kid to pimp a Butterfly and DAM are kind of undisputed.

[Charles Holmes]

I would say Good Kid to pimp butterfly. Easy. I would not be surprised if GNX ends up taking the DAM throne because to me, DAM felt like the graduation moment of Kanye completing the trilogy. And now GNX almost feels like the graduation moment of Kendrick's pop album completing the hey guys, I gave you all of the great art that took a lifetime. Now I'm giving you the slop. And GNDX is not slop. It's just.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't mind another one just like this. I'll say that give me the deluxe because I'm ready for I'll receive a full 12 track album just like GNX.

[Charles Holmes]

Oh same. The amount that I've listened to even just album tracks like Peekaboo hey now is incredible. But why were you so surprised I picked Whacked out Murals?

[Cole Kushna]

I mean, it just doesn't feel like just knowing you, but you. I mean, I'm always surprised at your picks, so I just don't have you. I don't have you pinned down. But it doesn't feel like I don't want to step on any of your other potential picks. But it's just not the obvious one though. I respect the hell out of the pick. It wasn't really even on my short list. I like this song. Don't get me wrong. There's something about it that I've even since the day one I heard it and it just. I think it's just a personal thing. It feels too slow to me. Every time I hear the song I'm like, can you just turn the BPM up like 5 to 10? The way that he has to drag out some of his Now I'm critiquing Kendrick's rapping, which is Jesus Christ, but because that's one of the reasons I didn't pick it though. It's like there's something about when he. I love it when he gets into that double time feel and maybe that's why he kept the tempo lower. But a lot of the early verses where he's having to like elongate some of the words just to fit the slower tempo always kind of like, I just kind of like want it to just propel a little bit and it does Pay off when he does start doing the double time stuff. But the first half of it, I'm just like, I want that. I'm just waiting for that acceleration, which could be a positive for this, you know, for the song. But I mean, he's like. What I love is he's just like, on a record where he's just gonna rap, where he's just trying to do hard ass beats, hard ass raps. I mean, it's kind of like euphoria in that he's just rapping. I mean, there is a hook technically on this, where Euphoria doesn't have a hook. But, I mean, I didn't count the bars, but it's like three full verses.

[Charles Holmes]

We never get three verses anymore. And he's like.

[Cole Kushna]

And some of the verses got to be more than 16.

[Charles Holmes]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Like, verse two, I'm looking at right now. That looks like a 32. Even though. Yeah, I think the verse two, verse three are over 16. So he's just rapping, but I think.

[Charles Holmes]

I like the slowness, actually. I like that you have to wait so long for the payoff because you already brought up the line when he's talking about, Fuck a double entendre. I think it does make sense that if this record is supposed to be your A, there's no reading in between the lines with this. There's no getting confused. This is what it is. I'm gonna tell you.

[Cole Kushna]

You can understand every word, every single.

[Charles Holmes]

Word, every single breath, every single fucking voice inflection and change. I'm going to give y'all he talks about. I'm gonna give y'all the blueprint, right? To how I became not only the best rapper, but the biggest rapper. And to me, that it's not easy to land that plane as a record, you know? Cause he could have. I could see a version of this album that starts with a squabble up, you know, or starts with a hey, now. Or starts with something that's a little bit more like, hey, party fun record. And he's still like, no, we're gonna get to that. But I gotta shit on these motherfuckers one more time. So whacked out. Murals is my first nomination. Where are you going?

[Cole Kushna]

This was so hard. We'll probably talk about it after the nominations, briefly. This was so hard because my heart. My head is telling me one thing for these nominations, and my heart is telling me another. And I feel like this is. I feel like this is a record where I. I gotta go with my heart more than My head. Because it is, as we've been talking about. It's not the heady record, so fuck it. I'm going Peekaboo.

[Charles Holmes]

Peekaboo. I just put them bookers in my chain pickle bow 80 pointers like a Kobe game pickleball 7 6, 2s I make them plain Peekaboo Popping out.

[Cole Kushna]

It is my favorite song off of GNX right now.

[Charles Holmes]

I didn't think you were going to pick Peekaboo. I'm so happy, dude.

[Cole Kushna]

I love this song. So this was on your short list?

[Charles Holmes]

This is. This is. This was on my short list. It wasn't going to get picked, but I was almost going to, like, pitch a fit if we didn't, like, have time to clear out. So please clear out for Peekaboo.

[Cole Kushna]

I mean, there's. I can't give you, like, an intellectual explanation for it other than the beats. Hard. The flows are hard. The chemistry between him and. Him and Az, Chike, phenomenal. The beat. I love this. Like, the. The sample sounds very minimal texture. Not like anything crazy going on, but the clarity that allows, like, a very clear intonation in the vocals. Um, we got the great Give Me youe Helping Hand sample that kicks it off. And I just like how fun it is. It starts out kind of serious, you know, with the opening lines. And maybe we'll talk about some of the. Well, I do have a most dissectible moment about the opening lines, but when it starts to just, like, kind of descend into the.

[Charles Holmes]

The.

[Cole Kushna]

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And then like the big bop boom bop bam part, I'm just like, when do we get to hear Kendrick have this much fun on an album he's had as features? Like, to your earlier, like, yeah, he. He has fun on features, but never on his own albums. Very rarely. And so to hear the light heartedness of those second two second verses again, to hear the chemistry and the back and forth and even the chorus is fun. It's just like the. What you're talking about.

[Charles Holmes]

Like, just like Az was saying, like, he could barely do it. Like, have you ever tried to, like, rap the. It's impossible.

[Cole Kushna]

It's impossible. Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

It's so hard. Like, I'm actually amazed. Cause it sounds so easy.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Charles Holmes]

But to be in the. I'm just like, wait, how did he fucking get all of this?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. In the pocket. And clarity. With clarity.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah. Because it ends. Because talking about that talk that K ends on such a hard and percussive sound. For him to not stop, but to keep it Going is like, something that I don't know. If you're just listening, you're like, oh, this is a regular hook. But if you really love rap, you're like, he had to probably try this hundreds of times to get it. That's the same.

[Cole Kushna]

And I like that we have Az's story saying that he, like, literally couldn't do it. That's why they splice him. He does, like, half of it. And then they splice Kendrick back in, which sounds great. Like, it's a great back and forth. And, like, I love their verse where they're trading bars. It's like, it's so fun. He sounds great on this. Like, he's equaled or he's right with Kendrick. The entire song. Arguably, like, might have gotten Kendrick on his own side.

[Charles Holmes]

I think he might have gotten. But even Az, he was saying. He was like, what's so weird about Kendrick is when we were. He recorded his stuff, first Kendrick did, Kendrick did. And then Kendrick was impersonating Az. He was just like. He had actually listened to my music. He's like, oh, no, this is where you're gonna do it. And he was like, and that's what I love, where I'm like, oh. Even if for years people have been like, oh. Kendrick doesn't put on west coast rappers for him to be like, no. I've listened to this rapper enough that I know he has the possibility to get me on the song.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, right. Yeah. And, yeah, I love that he. Yeah, he. I. I feel like he does that a lot with his features, where he gives them at least, like, a starting point.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Because I was. We've been working on the Purple Heart episode with Ghostface, and Ghostface was saying, like, Kendrick sent him a reference track. Not just what to say, but how to. Like, here's what your cadence should sound like. But it sounds like he did the same thing with this song. Okay, can I give you my most dissectible moment of the episode? So this is a segment where I do one of my dissect breakdowns, and then Kendrick or Kendrick Charles tells me if I'm full of shit or not.

[Charles Holmes]

Okay.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. So it's the opening lines. He says, peekaboo. I just put them boogers in my chain. Obviously talking about, like, yellow diamonds with the boogers there. Starts out simple enough. Peekaboo. 80 pointers. Like a Kobe game. So this is a play obviously, on 81 point game, Kobe Bryant, which was in Toronto, by the way. So there's a little Drake Sub there, but also 0.8 carats diamonds. So he's playing on 80 pointers from the previous line about diamonds, boogers, and the chain. But here comes the dissectible moment. Seven 6, 2s will make him plank. So this continues the decimal point motif. So it's 7.62. So this is the caliber of ammunition in the AK47. Make him plank. Obviously it's like allusion to killing, but in Kobe's 81 point game, he had seven three pointers, six rebounds, and two assists. Seven, six, two.

[Charles Holmes]

Fuck out of here. Really?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. 81 points with seven threes, six rebounds, and two assists. 7.2, 762 make him plank. 81. 81 pointers like a Kobe game.

[Charles Holmes]

I know I'm a hater, but that's so cold, actually. Like, you know, even when I'm like, oh, you did. That's a dissectable moment. Sometimes I'm like, kendrick doing too much. Nah. That you buy it.

[Cole Kushna]

You think that's intentional?

[Charles Holmes]

I think that's intentional. You got that one?

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell yeah. I'm so surpr. Like, damn. I'm so happy you pick me. Hey, hey, hey. That's my. That's so fun, but I'm going to my next nomination. This one I think is a little bit more obvious to my taste in my last long standing pedigree.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, bitch.

[Charles Holmes]

I cut my granny off. If you don't see it how I see it, we're going TV off. The spiritual successor to not like us reunites Kendrick with Mustard. Soundway, Jack Anof, Shawn Momberger, and Kamasi Washington are also credited. I just think this song is so fun.

[Cole Kushna]

It's so good.

[Charles Holmes]

It's not enough Few solid left but it's not enough Few that are really st. But it's not enough Say you bigger than myself but it's not enough it's just so good. I. Rappers always try to do this where they'll have, like, a big hit and then they'll try to make the sister record to the hit. And nine times out of 10, those songs always suck. And I'm just like, you should have just left well enough alone. Don't go back to the well. It's never good, right? TV off to me beats that curse where you can tell. I think GNX as a whole is an album that is indebted to the lessons that Kendrick learned on not like us. Where I can take a producer like mustard, who at this point, Mustard is a legend. But before not like us, I think Mustard was probably on the down slope of his career, he hadn't had too many huge, huge records. Not like us is super fucking regional, super bouncy, super Bay Area influence. All of that shit coming back with TV off, something that's even more bombastic, that feels like it's exploding. And to me, the central taunt of this is so funny. Which is. I don't know if he already had the super bowl deal before this.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, he had for the second half, for sure. He wrote for the Super Bowl.

[Charles Holmes]

Because I'm like, it is the funniest taunt ever. To be like, hey, yo, Drake, I think you're going to have to turn my TV off. That is insane. And he's just like, I would, like, want to rip off my skin if I was Aubrey. Like, I just. I love this. The funniest moments on TV Off. I have four.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

This record, to me is also a perfect example of. If you take something like humble off of damn, that record to me. Now in 2025, you could kind of tell how much Kendrick is trying to conform to hit making.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Where he's trying to figure out what is a Kendrick Lamar hit. He's had hits before that, but Kanye said something similar around the time of graduation, which is, how do I make records that I can play in arenas and stadiums and it can go up against Rock Ax and whatever. And to me, TV off is Kendrick knowing how to do that so effortlessly that it doesn't. You don't feel that any like him yelling, Mustard sounds so organic.

[Cole Kushna]

It doesn't feel like, oh, I'm gonna create a meme.

[Charles Holmes]

I'm gonna create a meme. It feels like, oh, no. He heard this beat and he was just like. He yells it and it becomes a meme. So that's number four. Funniest moment. Number three, we already mentioned it. Telling Drake to turn his TV off months before the actual super bowl and then doing it at the Super Bowl. Hilarious. Funniest shit ever. I think if we've learned anything from this beef, Kendrick is a monster. And no wonder he had to fucking go to Eckhart Tolle. It's God damn, you've got some demons, boy. Number two, once again, already mentioned it, bitch. I cut my granny off. She don't see how. I see it instantly. I think goes into the top five greatest one liners of Kendrick's career.

[Cole Kushna]

It's also knowing how much Kendrick loved his grandma. I think both of them have passed. And he has talked about in his music how much that affected him. Even on Gloria, he talks about losing his grandma. At a young age. And so to hear it makes it even funnier because it's just the whacked out murals energy. It's just like it's all gloves are off.

[Charles Holmes]

That's why I picked both records because to me, what Kendrick needed after Mr. Morale was a new storyline. And I think most rappers throughout their careers get to an inflection point where what else am I gonna rap about?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Kendrick's rapped about his upbringing, politics, Trump and fame. Fame by Mr. Morale. He basically dropped his 4, 4, 4 at what Kendrick is 30, 34, 5 or.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, 6, maybe. Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Where the fuck else do you go? And I think the Drake beef finally gave him enough ammunition. Where to me, GNX isn't a Drake response record. It is a no. This is actually what I think of hip hop. This is what I think of everything that's been allowed to take place. Yeah, this is. All of y'all have written me off. I'm going to prove to you that I can do every. Like, it was a choice. It was a choice this entire time that I didn't want to do these type of records, that I didn't want to do this.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Charles Holmes]

And I'm going to prove to you when you make me do it, it's going to seem effortless. TV off to me is that Mustard has said that these were two beats stitched together, anchored by two samples. MacArthur park by Mal Kiggins and the Black Hole Overture by John Barry. And what I love about this record is, once again, it's not that complicated of a beat. Really.

[Cole Kushna]

No.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah, it's not. If Damn, to me, when I listen to Damn, that is like a very ornate, cinematic record because of everything that's coming at you. This is cinematic in a different way where it's leading you to the climax of the. Of the mustard. It's leading you to the climax of the beat switch. And finally, Kendrick learned how to do a beat switch. That does not fucking annoy me because the big Heem era was just the era of him. Just like we're done with beat switching. I'm just done. I never want to hear it again. TV off. You finally figured it out. This is amazing. I can't. There's.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I don't know what else to say about this record. Besides. It's just every single time I hear it, I feel like I want to be the Kool Aid man running through a fucking wall.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. We should point out that the Monk Higgins, why it sounds like not like us is because not like us Also samples the same Monk Higgins album that TV off sounds samples. So it's literally the same band that you're hearing those little hits from. So that's why it feels like a sister song, because it's literally the same sample. This was going to be my next pick. It was, yeah. Because I feel like in the part, it's. I mean, it's definitely not my. Like, I love this song, but it's not like my favorite song. But it's also. In this discussion of Last Song Standing, what is Kendrick Lamar's best song? I do feel like it's a great representative for it because it does have commercial appeal. It's not. It's not an official single, I guess, but it feels like a single.

[Charles Holmes]

I get it wasn't a single, but it felt it arrives halfway through the album. So it does feel like what at least the first half of the album is leading towards.

[Cole Kushna]

Right. And then I guess the mustard kind of put it into the pop culture lexicon. Like, it. Like it just felt like a moment.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Maybe that's why it felt like a single. So it's like it has cultural prominence. It has a great quotables, to your point. Great production, great beat switch that does feel seamless and smooth and actually does have a function because when that second beat comes on, it's like it takes. It turns the notch up, you know? Yeah. But I also love. Part of why I think the beat switch works is because lyrically he threads together where it doesn't feel like, here's one song, here's another. Lyrically, he says TV off in I think, the first verse of part one. Or. No, it's the starting line on verse two. On the first part of the song, he says, hey, turn your TV off. And then he doesn't say TV off until the second chorus. The second part of the song, second beat, it becomes the main thing of the chorus. But we've heard TV off in the first half, so there's that lyrical connection. Also on the chorus, part one's chorus, he says, I get that on the ass. Somebody got to do it. Make him mad. Somebody got to do it. But then that comes back as the. As a chorus element on the second beat where you're saying, acting bad, but somebody got to do it. Foot up on the gas, but somebody. So there's these lyrical. There's these lyrical connections that, like, tie the two parts together where it's not like, here's one song I had, here's another song. Let's copy paste and put them together. So I think that goes a long way in how smooth and climactic that second half sounds and feels. Everything feels a part of each other. I was going to call out all the same quotables that you did. And that whole verse two, speaking of the second half, second beat, that entire last verse that was written for the super bowl, which he says at the end, walk in New Orleans with the etiquette of LA yell and mustard. Obviously that's written for the Super Bowl. He performs that verse, which is arguably one of the hardest verses. It's definitely the hardest verse his entire super bowl performance. And one of the hardest verses on GNX to perform just lyrically. And he performed it last after a 13 minute performance where he's running across the football field like. The breath control of the super bowl performance is insane.

[Charles Holmes]

Revolutionary televisor tells you what it is. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Crazy. Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I try to wrap it in the car and I always fuck up.

[Cole Kushna]

He has full breath control. Like the whole time I'm just like, dude, he must have been just preparing for getting sidetracked. But every time I hear verse two, I'm thinking of that moment of him actually rapping that live at the Super Bowl.

[Charles Holmes]

Would you say GNX is the album that has that many moments where it's like he is like, he'll whacked out Murals has it. TV off has it. Even when he's going back and forth to Peekaboo where I'm like, even if he's not saying the deepest shit, he's saying it in a way where he's just playing with flows and. And tempos in a way where I'm just like, oh, you're having fun.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I think, yeah. Because it's lyrically not as technical as his past work, but I feel like in terms of flow, delivery, cadence, it's like it's up there. Like, it's like where it's almost like a trade off where like, you're getting all this other. Other elements of rap he's really shining at. And not so much like the lyrical miracle stuff, but all that stuff is just as important to, you know, an impactful verse. And you get that even on like Squabble up is a three verse song and he's doing different flows on each verse. Even on. On TV off, it's like not. You could probably go through this entire album and he's not repeating a flow on the same song. Yeah, verse one's gonna have a different flow in verse two and he'll switch. Even on TV off, he has that switch. There's one moment where he just like flips his flow, like in the middle of the first or second verse and he just. Oh, it's like when he says, hey, what up, doe? You know? And then he goes into an entirely new flow. There's like.

[Charles Holmes]

It's not just the flows, even the voices where it's like, usually in past records, I feel like the voices were carrying more weight thematically. There was something about the story structure, emotion. So it was more recognizable with this. When he'll change up not only his flow, but his actual voice and the way he's rapping. And it will have almost really nothing to do with the record besides just being like, I want to get this voice off and this flow off. And like, I've listened to it so much, sometimes I'm like, no, this is really hard. It's not like he was just rapping one verse. He's like, all right, we're stopping. I'm going to do this silly voice. It's going to be double time. It's going to sound dope. And I was just like, oh. So there is a level of like, Kendrick can kind of almost free himself of the shackles of being like, damn. This almost alien esque voice is going to have to tell you something about this song versus. No, I'm just that.

[Cole Kushna]

Kidding. Let me just get this off. All right. I love TV off. Pick anything else you want to move on?

[Charles Holmes]

No. TV off is. I thought you were going to make more fun of me because you'd be like, of course he chose TV off.

[Cole Kushna]

Well, I mean, so did you know the story where. I don't know, anime. But like, apparently Goku is like anime character Goku.

[Charles Holmes]

You don't know who Goku is?

[Cole Kushna]

I know the picture. We've been over this. I don't know Anime. But apparently when he heard that second beat, he felt like Goku. That's why he screams. Mustard. Is this obvious? Am I just like. Is this an Easter egg? That is an obvious.

[Charles Holmes]

Well, there is a. Like, you know when Goku has to perform the Kamehameha.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

A spirit or the spirit bomb. Okay. It's like a blast.

[Cole Kushna]

Like a Hadouken.

[Charles Holmes]

Yes. That is actually. That is a street fight. Yes. Yes. Not Dragon Ball, but yes. Street Fighter. Yes. Goku. Who yells. Or when he powers up when he has to go Super Saiyan. How many Super Saiyans can you name? Just off the cuff, off top. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Zero.

[Charles Holmes]

Zero.

[Cole Kushna]

I don't know. What's a Super Saiyan?

[Charles Holmes]

Well, a Super Saiyan is when Goku taps into his long lineage and his hair goes yellow because he's powering up. So there's Base Goku, and then There's Super Saiyan 1, Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3, Super Saiyan 4, Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan. Okay, you know what I'm saying?

[Cole Kushna]

Are these past lives, ancestors coming back?

[Charles Holmes]

No, no, no, no. These are all the same, Goku. But you're powering up, so sometimes you get just blonde hair. There's blue hair, there's red hair. There's a lot of different hairs. There's ultra Instinct. You know nothing about this. First of all, I know your kids like the Anime man.

[Cole Kushna]

Not yet.

[Charles Holmes]

Not yet. They're not watching Demon Slayer?

[Cole Kushna]

No.

[Charles Holmes]

My hero Academia.

[Cole Kushna]

Some of their friends know Demon Slayer, but they haven't gotten.

[Charles Holmes]

Get them into. Well, they might be a little too young for Demon Slider. Let's get back to fucking country. So if you can't pick TV off, please pick the only other correct choice.

[Cole Kushna]

The only other correct choice. Okay, before. Okay, before I do the last nomination, do you want to. Let's give some love to some possible other ones, or do you want. Should I just pick and then we'll talk about the ones we didn't pick after?

[Charles Holmes]

All right, so I. Let's go through the ones that I don't think you're gonna pick.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

Don't think you're going to Pick Heart Part 6. Even though I love Heart Part 6.

[Cole Kushna]

I'm not gonna pick that. But, yeah, I love that song.

[Charles Holmes]

Heart Part 6 is actually very heartwarming for me because the first Kendrick project that I remember listening to must have been od, and that was around the time of Black Hippie. I was watching a clip this week where Schoolboy Q was basically like, I had to make Black Hippie because they were about to kick me off the record label. I'm like, you can't kick me off a part of the group now. But, like, hearing Kendrick being very transparent about becoming a superstar and maybe the Black Hippie album never coming out because he moved past it, and I love that record. I'm not actually as big on this record. I don't think you're gonna pick this. A fan favorite is Dodger Blue. I don't really like Dodger Blue that much.

[Cole Kushna]

I like. Feels like a very. Like, a lot of people from LA seem to like that song. Yes, it's a bop. I like it. But it's not like I'm not dying to put it.

[Charles Holmes]

I didn't think you were gonna pick it, but shout out Dodger Blue, people would be very mad. I think it's a fine song. It's just for last song standing, I guess.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah. It's too feature heavy.

[Charles Holmes]

It's too feature heavy. I also think I don't like GNX that much.

[Cole Kushna]

The title track, I like that song. It's a posse cut, though, so it's like.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, I like it. I like it. But it's on the lower tier now. Can I guess what is in contention for you? Yeah, I want to say man at the Garden. No, not. No, no.

[Cole Kushna]

I like that song, but it doesn't resonate with me personally that it does seem to have an audience for sure. And I appreciate it. Like, it's one of the more important songs on the album. Kendrick said it's the most important to him on the album, but I don't know. So it doesn't resonate with me as much.

[Charles Holmes]

If it's not, hey, now, it's probably Reincarnated.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. This is the head and heart battle, because Reincarnated is the song that I would pick, right?

[Charles Holmes]

Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

It is the most conceptual song on the album by far. It is amazing. If this was a best written song on, you know, Kendrick Lamar song, I think Reincarnated, to me, is the best written song lyrically. Storytelling concept, like, dramatic conclusion moment. Like, everything about the song is like, classic Kendrick, what we love Kendrick about. But that's like, one. GNX is not just not that album for me. Reincarnated does feel like an odd man out a little bit on the album.

[Charles Holmes]

And he's also done this type of record better, like, in terms of, like, having a conceptual record, like, landing the point right, where it's like, if you explain to me what Reincarnated is about, I'm like, no, no, no. That makes sense. There's nothing very confusing about it. I just feel like on albums like The Pimple Butterfly, Mr. Morale, he's handled.

[Cole Kushna]

It's also because a lot of the time on those albums, the album narrative leads you to that moment of the song where this. Because there's. It doesn't build in that way. It just doesn't hit the same thematically or even emotionally sometimes. So. But that's like my head is telling me, pick Reincarnated, but my heart. I'm debating between Luther and Squabble up, and I think I'm just gonna go Squabble Up.

[Charles Holmes]

All right. If you were about to pick Luther, I would be like, let's Fucking just wrap it up.

[Cole Kushna]

You don't like you Luther?

[Charles Holmes]

I know. It's a hit. And here's the thing.

[Cole Kushna]

I love that song.

[Charles Holmes]

I get why people love Luther. I don't think it's a bad song. To me, Kendrick and SZA don't actually have that much chemistry. To me, it's just that they're both super, super popular artists who happen to be on the same label. And it's one of those things when you think of who could actually be an R and B feature on a Kendrick record. Beyonce, Rihanna, Sza. It makes sense. But I don't like all the stars. People are. You know what I don't like?

[Cole Kushna]

I don't really like the song either, but. Okay, I'm not picking Luther. But I love that song.

[Charles Holmes]

Squabble up is fun.

[Cole Kushna]

Luther is. I think I said this earlier, but I think Luther is the best iteration of that type of Kendrick Lamar song. And I'm glad that it's.

[Charles Holmes]

I agree. I think it is. Of. If you had. If I had to pick, I'm like, all right. SZA and Kendrick have gotten to a point where I'm like, I would much rather listen to Luther than all the stars.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Do you like 30 for 30? All right. Eh, Gloria's good too.

[Charles Holmes]

Eh.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

I'm sorry. This is why people get mad at me. I'm sorry. It's just my opinion.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, let's go Squabble up.

[Charles Holmes]

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Reincarnated I was stargazing Life goes on I need a hard love My babies woke up looking for the barley hot key Keep a horn on me Tell me why you love Squabble up.

[Cole Kushna]

I mean, there's nothing deep about it. Again, it's the. It's kind of the same conversation we be having. There's three verses. All of them are exceptional. All of them have different flows, different cadences, different voices. There's multiple quotables. There's a great sample in the Debbie debate. When I hear music sample. And that intro, it hits every time. When he comes in with the stargazing reincarnated and the beat drops, I love that he shouts out Kamasi Washington high key. Keep a horn on me. That is one of my favorite lines ever. That Kamasi, who's a saxophone player, if you didn't know the word play there. And then, like the second verse, one of my favorite parts on the entire album, when he says, what the fuck? I got hits, I got bucks, I.

[Charles Holmes]

Got new paper cuts I got friends, I got folks.

[Cole Kushna]

That bar is so sick. And the Beat. I love the beat. If you listen to the kick drum specifically in the song, the pattern is so good. When it hits the three in a row, I don't really have anything smart to say except that I just love this song. And it represents. I feel like it represents GNX so well. It's just fun. He's rapping his ass off. There's even, like, crescendo at the end. Where the. The wolves out. I've been a dog with the. The werewolf coming in.

[Charles Holmes]

Wait, when he says that what he said, Tell me why the you niggas rap if it's fictional? Tell me why you fucking bad if you criminal. Hey, doc, get it, get a drop I'm like, I. I laugh Everybody single.

[Cole Kushna]

Time, yeah, let the wolves out I've been a dog. And then that super high voice.

[Charles Holmes]

Crazy.

[Cole Kushna]

It's so sick. Yeah. Nothing smart. I have nothing smart to say except that I just love this song. I put my kids love this song. My kids are at an age now where they're, you know, they're old, they're still young, but they're. They're old enough to let me know what has mass appeal. And you don't need to know, like, does this song gonna resonate with the masses? Yeah, if they like it, usually it has mass appeal. And they love this song. They love Squabble Up.

[Charles Holmes]

Is it similar to Not Like Us where the beat is so kind of simple but wonky in a way that even if a child doesn't know what's being said, Kendrick sang it in such a fun way that there's. There's just a nursery rhyme quality. Because I think Squabble Up, Not Like Us. Hey, there's a bunch of records that.

[Cole Kushna]

Have that kind of theatrical.

[Charles Holmes]

That theatrical where, like, a kid. A kid doesn't care about the Drake beef. They're like, oh, Kendrick is, like, doing some silly on you.

[Cole Kushna]

Hell yeah. Yeah. My. My. My kids love screaming a minor. They like. They literally. They out. Now they're to a point on. On Not Like Us, where they say, say, Drake, I heard you like him. Which is a little bit uncomfortable to hear them say, but I love it.

[Charles Holmes]

I feel like there's gonna be a lot of listeners who are just like Cole. I have the same problem in my household. Everybody's just like a little Kendrick demon just running around.

[Cole Kushna]

So you like Squabble Up?

[Charles Holmes]

Squabble up is so good. I was watching the video. The first time I watched the video in full was today before I got here.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, really?

[Charles Holmes]

I am. This is probably the weirdest thing about me, I don't. I'm not really into music videos. Like, not because, like, the Squabble up video is very, very good. But sometimes I feel like when I watch videos at my old age now, it just kind of ruins the mystique of it a little bit.

[Cole Kushna]

I can see that.

[Charles Holmes]

But I love Squabble Up. It's so funny that that's the record that they leaned on so heavily, because I went back to watch the Not Like Us video and I forgot that it starts with Squabble Up. So they, from the begin, the beginning, were just like, this is the record.

[Cole Kushna]

Right?

[Charles Holmes]

And to me, I'm like, squabble up is such a weird song. Like, I can see why they were just like, this is going to be a hit.

[Cole Kushna]

Right?

[Charles Holmes]

But to me, like, TV Off Luther, those are the ones where I'm just like, oh, this makes sense. Squabble up is still very, very. The beat is wonky.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

It's like, it's Even the hook. Squabble Up.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. It doesn't really have a hook.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah, no, but it. It works. I never skip it. I literally. I listen to whacked out murals. Squabble up starts, and I'm just like, hell, yeah. Then I have to skip a bunch of records until I get to hate now.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, then you just skip Luther and Man of the Garden.

[Charles Holmes]

Right, I skipped Luther, man at the Garden and reincarnated every single time.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, see, this is usually where I shit on you, but I kind of do the same thing sometimes because. Okay. Like in the morning. Like in the morning when I'm just trying to, like, get kind of pumped up for the day, it's just. It's sometimes whacked out murals, but sometimes I'll just go squabble up. Hey, now. TV off. Peekaboo.

[Charles Holmes]

Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

And I just hit those songs and it's just. It's the perfect.

[Charles Holmes]

Part of me thinks he should have put man at the Garden closer to the Hard Part six.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. So he talked about that in his Timothy Chalamet interview before the Super Bowl. And he said that usually those. Because that was the most important record to him thematically. It kind of explains where he is at this time in his life, which makes sense when you listen to that song. But he said, usually I put those records at the end of the album. He said, this time. And it kind of ties into, I deserve it all. I'm just doing it my way. Whatever. I put it early. And he was proud that he put it early. But to Your point? I do feel like it's more of a closing song than a track score.

[Charles Holmes]

But once again, when I'm not actually paying attention, I'm just kind of like stuck in traffic. There's been plenty of times where I've liked it and just be like, oh, this is a dope song. Why don't I listen to it more? It's just like, to your point, when I'm trying to get ready, I'm at the gym. I'm just like, all right, Kendrick. I don't need to hear this right now.

[Cole Kushna]

But that's. I mean, this is the rare Kendrick record where I don't feel bad skipping songs. Usually I just put on a Kendrick record and just let it play, but this one, I'm just like, let me grab this for a playlist or, you know, let me. I don't feel bad skipping.

[Charles Holmes]

It's this Kendrick album, to me is the difference between a perfect 90 minute movie and like a two and a half hour movie.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, Right.

[Charles Holmes]

Where it's like, I could watch a two and a half hour movie, be like, yo, that was a masterpiece. But then it's going to be years until I'm like, I want to sit down that long. And this is just like, damn, this is my favorite movie. It's only 90 minutes. I could put it on when I'm cooking. Put it on when I'm gonna fall asleep. Hey, there's a bunch of scenes in this that I love. And even the scenes I don't love, I'm still, like, pretty fucking good.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

But can we just talk about some. Some of my favorite moments that from these nominations that I didn't pick. Yeah, I love hey now. I hated this line when it first came out, and I rap it every single time now. When Dodecah with his opening line, I feel like. I feel like Joker. Harley Quinn opened the cup with the blower. She gets spooky every day in October. It's so the way.

[Cole Kushna]

The way Kendrick comes back in with that voice.

[Charles Holmes]

That's the fun shit. That is the. I think Dodie almost gets him on this song.

[Cole Kushna]

I think AZ track has a better case for that. But Dodie, he nailed it.

[Charles Holmes]

That opening line is so fun, but even that. Eeny meenie miny moe I'm trying to tag your nigga toe I'm aggressive on the big era life niggas no. Oh, my gosh. I love hey hey now is I wish more we were in a healthier ecosystem where rappers were just dropping freestyles because I'm like, I would listen to 5,000 freestyles of rappers, none of them would be better than Kendrick because I.

[Cole Kushna]

Think Tyler got closed. Tyler's is great.

[Charles Holmes]

Want to know what I. Where I feel like Tyler kind of. I get what he was trying to do. I like, hey now. Because, like, Kendrick's voice is a little bit more aggro and I'm just like, damn, I want to hear that type of Tyler because Tyler already has the deep fucking voice. And instead Tyler goes like one octave above and almost does like the fly Pharrell skateboard P type shit. He still kills it. Yeah, yeah, but it's like, it's a different thing.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, Right.

[Charles Holmes]

But still, I will say this, Tyler also, I'm in and out on Tyler's production for himself. But if there's one thing Tyler's always been very good at in his career, he can hear someone else's beat and you go, this is hard. What's the Kanye beat? He took off Life of Pablo.

[Cole Kushna]

Tyler took. What do you mean? What?

[Charles Holmes]

Life of Pablo. He freestyled over the A. Rocky has a weird title.

[Cole Kushna]

It's like something four or something.

[Charles Holmes]

You know which one I'm talking about?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's like the most random, weird beat, but he.

[Charles Holmes]

And it's like when Tyler picked that beat, I was like, why the fuck are you rapping over this, Tyler? And then I heard him rapping over this. I'm just like, oh, you have a really good fucking ear for like, what beats would make great freestyles?

[Cole Kushna]

Freestyle four.

[Charles Holmes]

Yes, Freestyle four. So, yes. I just wanted to shout out hey now because hey now is like, if I had to, it was going to be the third one where I was just like, yeah, I almost. I don't want to say it's better than whacked out murals, but I feel like hey now is more popular for me.

[Cole Kushna]

It's more replayable.

[Charles Holmes]

Yes, it's the.

[Cole Kushna]

I definitely have listened to hey now way more than I've listened to all of whacked out murals. Because whacked out murals is kind of an intense listen.

[Charles Holmes]

It is. That's why. It's because it is whacked out murals in this entire project are. The reason I love it is it teaches us all a valuable lesson, which is the best thing in life is not only being negative, but channeling that negativity on your biggest haters and shitting on them constantly and never stopping. And Kendrick tried to be like, I'm above this, guys. I am a God fearing man with a family and children and I'VE gone to therapy and then Drake did some fuck shit. It's like, forget all that fuck it. And that's this. Here's the thing. Don't lie. I've kind of convinced you over this podcast. Negative Cole. Mean Cole. I Share yourself.

[Cole Kushna]

What? Share myself?

[Charles Holmes]

Show yourself.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I know.

[Charles Holmes]

Because here's the thing. In the group chats we have, that's the real Cole. The shit you be getting off in the group chats, I'm like, damn, Cole.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, that. Yeah, yeah. It's inside me. I don't know how to express it in real life.

[Charles Holmes]

When are we going to get your GNX Season of Not you breaking down GNX the record. But what is your GNX version of Dissect?

[Cole Kushna]

I don't know. You'd have to help produce it. I think you could help bring that out of me.

[Charles Holmes]

Honestly, it should just be you dissecting the albums you hate the most.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Yeah, I could go in as much as I could go in on albums and songs that I love and show why I love them, explain why they work. I think I could, like, obliterate your.

[Charles Holmes]

Gnx because it's just gonna be like a Drake record. You're just like, I'm gonna dissect why this Drake record sucks.

[Cole Kushna]

Don't tempt me. Now I know, like, why you like GNX so much, though, because it, like, resonates in your spirit, in your hater spirit. It's the first album that. From Kendrick that you related to or what?

[Charles Holmes]

No, because this. And before we get on to picking our last song standing and into some of these beef records, I will say the reason I love this record the most is because I think Kendrick, the way he's been positioned, the way he's positioned himself is almost like. And he talks about it on Mr. Morale. This, trying to break away from that holier than thou figure that's supposed to lead his people, all of that shit. And here's the thing. Someone who's a hater, someone who ain't shit, someone who is just like an evil, evil person. I can spot our own. And I'm sorry. I've been a Kendrick Lamar fan for a long time. I knew that little Gremlin had just. Just fucking like. That's not a sane man. The shit that he's had to do in his life. I'm like, that's not. When you look at Kendrick, sometimes you're just like, you okay, little guy? He got fucking Napoleon complex. He's a little short, angry man. And I was finally. This was the record. And this was the year where I was finally like, see, you're right.

[Cole Kushna]

Hey, you know your own. Okay, so we got to address the battle. Let's address the battle in a conversation about Kendrick's best ever song. Do we think the battle songs we have, Are we counting like that? Probably not. Just do Kendrick Lamar.

[Charles Holmes]

Just Kendrick Lamar.

[Cole Kushna]

So we have euphoria 616 in LA meet the grams, Not Like Us.

[Charles Holmes]

And I think I might be wrong for purposes of this. It's Euphoria and Not Like Us in terms of like, what are the songs?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, Shout out, Meet the Grams. But that had a function.

[Charles Holmes]

Evil, Evil, Evil song. But when I tell you. Because when I forgot. What's the Drake Family Matters. When Family Matters came out, I was a little scared. I was like. Like, I'm not saying it was a good record, but I was like, it did the job. It did the job. And I was a little like, okay, whatcha gonna do? And when Kendrick dropped Meet the Grams, I remember the timeline was just like, this isn't fun anymore. You went too far, Kendrick. We don't even know who won anymore. He shit on that record in such a calculated way where it's like Drake couldn't. He was celebrating the video. He was like, I won the beef and then Meet the Grim Trump and just salted the earth. And then he wakes up the next day and he's just like, sorry, guys, my bad. Here's Not Like Us. And we were all like, it's funny.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I think in this conversation, it is Euphoria. Not Like Us. So.

[Charles Holmes]

And I feel like you are more on the Euphoria side and I'm more on the Not Like Us side.

[Cole Kushna]

But I understand the importance of Not Like Us. My favorite song is certainly Euphoria out of the whole battle. I think it's one of his best songs ever. He rap. I counted the bars. He raps 115 bars, no chorus, just straight up raps. He calls the entire beef in the intro. You can look back at some of the lines. Now he drinks.

[Charles Holmes]

What is it, the braids?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, Many quotables. I mean, it has everything you want, but Not Like Us. And the success of it, the cultural moment of it, the lasting impact of it, it was just number one again, like, a few weeks ago, it was the fastest rap song to hit a billion streams. So in the conversation of what is the best Kendrick Lamar song I had, actually, I think I would go to bat for Not Like Us more than Euphoria.

[Charles Holmes]

So I was listening to Euphoria a song that I do like on the way into work today to record this. And I feel like the thing that has always tripped me up about Euphoria is, I think, like, lyrically, it's a lot more potent than Not Like Us. And obviously we talked about how it predicted the beef, but it seems in the delivery, almost a little rushed, where GNX to me, seems effortless in the way that he's rapping, the way he's attacking the beats. And Euphoria almost is like he has too many ideas and too many thoughts because he hated this man for so long. And it's like the song feels like someone's burn book being like, I've been waiting years, and if you don't stop, I have more. And, like, Not Like Us feels like the record where he's like. He took his foot off the gas a little bit and is like, the genius. And I think we talked about it last time I was on the Dissect feed is Not Like Us doesn't work unless you have Euphoria and Meet the Grams and all these other records seeding what Not Like Us would be. Which is like, this isn't just a beef about Drake being a pedo. This is a beef about Drake is fake. Drake is everything that's wrong with hip hop. And I'm going to list it from him being a fucking culture vulture to all the other shit. And I think Not Like Us is the culmination. When I listen to that, I'm like, okay, you're not trying as hard.

[Cole Kushna]

It's more effortless fun.

[Charles Holmes]

It's fun. You're not over. Explaining, like, Euphoria to me is like, oh, you have to do a lot of heavy. Because, like, that is such a funny record in retrospect, because it's not going that in on Drake.

[Cole Kushna]

No, there's only a few lines directed at Drake, really.

[Charles Holmes]

And then once Euphoria hits, it's like in Avalanche. And he ends up kind of getting back to like that with Not Like Us, which is like, all right, you guys have seen all my work. You know all the points. Now it's time to dance on his grave.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. So for you. So do you want to. I think it sounds like we're both comfortable taking Not Like Us into the final round of the episode. Yes. Okay, so now we need to have a little mini royal rumble between our nominations to determine which of the GNX songs we're gonna take into the top five Kendrick songs to see if they can crack the list. So we had Squabble up tv off Peek a Boo and Whacked Out Murals.

[Charles Holmes]

Okay.

[Cole Kushna]

Is there any song that you feel right off the bat just is weaker than the rest in this?

[Charles Holmes]

I think Whacked Out Murals is one of my favorite songs off the project. But if I'm thinking of what last song song standing means and what it does, I think it is very, very hard. It will be in ensuing years. Very hard to put Whacked Out Murals in the conversation because it might sound dated. It's going to sound of a time.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

Because he's addressing so many things that if you weren't there for it.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

You're just going to have to do a lot of homework. And I think the best Kendrick Lamar.

[Cole Kushna]

Story songs thread the needle a little bit more. They find the balance.

[Charles Holmes]

Is that fair?

[Cole Kushna]

I think so.

[Charles Holmes]

And I'm not even trying to shit on my own. I like Whacked Out Murals. But if I'm thinking of, like, can an alien come down to this planet and listen to Whacked Out Murals and understand it? No. Like, they might be like, oh, this is this guy's rapping. But.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah, that'd be my. That'd be my pick, too, if I had to knock one of off of mine. I think I love Peekaboo. It's my probably favorite song off gnx, but in a best Kendrick Lamar conversation, I don't know. It feels like the weak link. Am I wrong?

[Charles Holmes]

I really love Peekaboo.

[Cole Kushna]

I know.

[Charles Holmes]

I love Peekaboo. I think I wish we were able to celebrate the fun Kendrick Lamar songs more.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

And I think Peekaboo is in a category of its own, where it's like, these are the fun Kendrick songs.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

But last song standing, I think, kind of weights what are the important Kendrick Lamar songs.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

And can Peekaboo. Will Peekaboo ever be in that upper echelon? I don't think so, because it's not even. It's not even trying to attempt to be right.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Charles Holmes]

But when Peekaboo came on at the Super Bowl, I was like, this is fucking incredible. Can't believe I said it was the funniest shit I've ever seen. I was laughing. I was like, this is. It looks amazing. Yeah, it's funny, this. And I think Peekaboo is such a difficult record to pull off, because if someone was just before you even heard gnx, if someone's going to be like, all right, cool. Kendrick Lamar is about to drop the song, and it's based off a children's Game called Peekaboo. And he's trying to make it into this west coast hood classic with this rapper named Azy Chike. Sure. And when you actually listen to, you're just like, oh shit, he fucking pulled it off.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

So it. I love it, but I don't think we can.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Have you heard the XXXTENTACION theories around Peekaboo? Have you been down. You haven't been down that rabbit hole?

[Charles Holmes]

I try to stay as far away from that world.

[Cole Kushna]

I don't like to talk about it too much on Dissect, but if you're ever curious, just Google it. It's a deep rabbit hole. Okay, so it's TV offer or Squabble Up. Do you feel an affinity I could make.

[Charles Holmes]

I could make a case for either.

[Cole Kushna]

I know if the only thing they're so good but kind of in different ways. Well, they give you a lot of the same thing, but for me at least. And I think tvos feels slightly more dynamic.

[Charles Holmes]

So I like TV off more than I like Squabble Up. But are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we've already picked Not Like Us and TV off is one rung below Not Like Us where it's like Squabble Up. Actually, I think you can make the case is the song that best exemplifies what GNX is trying to do. I think not in terms of man at the Garden is obviously story wise or at least where Kendrick is at is doing a little bit more of that heavy lifting. But if we're talking about like sonically, regionally, Squabble up has everything that GNX is in it. Whereas TV off almost feels like a sequel movie.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I get that. I don't know if that matters so much to me because I'm just thinking about the dynamics of TV Offers a Squabble Up. There's the but both have good quotables.

[Charles Holmes]

But TV in 10 years, which song do you feel like people will be playing more? Because I feel like it will probably be Squabble Up.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, that's a good point. It does. It's a very self contained song.

[Charles Holmes]

I'm trying to pick TV Off. I'm trying to talk myself out of picking TV off because I think TV off is the best.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I mean my just intuition is saying TV off. But I love Squabble up and you could definitely make a case for it. But just TV off just feels more in the conversation for me. It just. It's easier to put it in with the other songs. It's going to go up Against. I don't know if that's just a bias I have, but it. And because the beat is more epic sounding and because it has two beats and there are through, it just feels like more again, more dynamic. There's more going on. But Squabble up is great because it is straightforward and he nails three verses and he has a hook, but it's not really a hook. Like, it has a great beat. Like, you can make a case for both. But I feel like TV off just has a slighter edge for me.

[Charles Holmes]

And I think if we take the super bowl performance into consideration, TV off is something that you rarely get in a rap battle, which is like ending it with the neatest bow possible, which is just like. Not like us is the dancing on the grave moment. And TV off is. They'll just like, I did it. Like, good luck. You know, it's just send off.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

Can you name me another beef record in the history of rap like TV Off? That is essentially, I'm looping around one more time with the same producer, and we're gonna make a song that's just as good. Like, that is maybe not as big of a hit.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

But when I heard tv, I was like, fuck. Mustard did it fucking again. Kendrick did it again. Like, yeah, I'm good with TV Off.

[Cole Kushna]

All right. Me too. I think so. That's what my heart's going with. TV Off. So if that's your intuition too, let's go with.

[Charles Holmes]

So here's the thing now. All right, Spoiler alert for our Kendrick season of Last song standing. Our top eight for Kenja Kumar's greatest song starting from eight was Mother Eye Sober. You fear Wesley's theory, DNA, Money Trees. And then Sing About Me at number two and Mad City at number one.

[Cole Kushna]

How's that look today? You happy?

[Charles Holmes]

I'm not mad at this at all. I actually think that this is a very, very good balance list.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. It's not quite like a true top five because we didn't actually. These were just the remaining songs from the. The finale. And the way that we eliminated them wasn't exactly out of a top five in mind, but the top five itself is very solid. Mad City, Sing About Me. Money Trees, DNA and Wesley's theory. Feels. Feels right now, do you? Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

TV off or not like us? Well, I don't think not. I don't think TV off could probably break the top eight. I couldn't make a case that not like us should be in the top five.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Is TV off better than Fear? I don't think.

[Charles Holmes]

I don't think so.

[Cole Kushna]

It's not better than Wesley's theory DNA. It's not better than DNA. And I don't think it's cracked.

[Charles Holmes]

To me, TV off would be right outside of the top 10. Maybe. Maybe in the top 10. Top 15.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's cracking the top five. So. Sorry, TV off. I love you, but do you think.

[Charles Holmes]

Not like I should crack the top five then?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I do.

[Charles Holmes]

I. I'm comfortable putting it below Money Trees.

[Cole Kushna]

I am, too. I was actually wondering if it should go higher. Do you think it should be okay? Is it getting past Sing About Me?

[Charles Holmes]

I'm not even that big a fan of Sing About Me, but because of what it means to Kendrick lamarsk. It's like the skeleton key to kind of unlocking everything that comes after it. I don't know if you can put it above that, because I would on my personal list, but for something as. For a song as petty, I don't think Not Like Us is healthy for the ecosystem of rap, and that's nothing that has less to do with Kendrick Lamar and that has more to do with just the state of celebrity culture and how everything has to be a bunch of gossip and shit. And artistically, I kind of would feel shitty if we're rewarding that over a singing bell beat. Am I getting too much on my high horse? No.

[Cole Kushna]

The most most vulnerable song ever. Yeah, no, I. I'm right there with you. I can't put it over Sing About Me.

[Charles Holmes]

And I like Money Trees more, but I think Not Like Us is more important. So I could put it above Money Trees at number three.

[Cole Kushna]

I'd feel comfortable with that too. I pro. I do really like Not Like Us. I think it is an incredible song. Very well written. There's. It's a flawless song to me in terms of, like, lyric. Everything you want Kendrick to accomplish in a hit single, it does it in spades. He didn't sacrifice anything about his integrity. He did it his way, and it's going to be his biggest song ever, so. But I. I don't know. Money Trees. I love Money Trees though, too. I think on a Kendrick Lamar list. All things considered, though, I think it has to go above Money Trees.

[Charles Holmes]

I'll put it at number three. I'm happy with it at number three. So our new list would be Mad City at number one. Sing About Me not Like Us, Money Trees. DNA Wesley's theory. Fear you, mother, Eyes sober, Feels good to me. We didn't argue that much. I expected us to argue way more. Honestly. This is where we should argue now.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

You give me your Kendrick Lamar ranking because you're doing the which McCallit season. Mr. Morale season. Right now.

[Cole Kushna]

Album. Album ranking.

[Charles Holmes]

Let's give an album ranking with gnx. But full length albums. Untitled, Unmastered. Doesn't go in there. The mixtapes.

[Cole Kushna]

Just the Good kid from. From Good kid on.

[Charles Holmes]

Yep.

[Cole Kushna]

Is this personal favorite or best Kendrick Lamar albums?

[Charles Holmes]

I think this should be personal.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Personal favorite. It's probably pimpa butterfly. 1. This is going to be like the exact opposite of your lift. I think It's a butterfly. One. It might be morale. Two.

[Charles Holmes]

Mr. Morale, you're insane. This is Recency Bias.

[Cole Kushna]

It might be because I'm so deep into that record, but God damn, it's an important album. Let me go to Pimpa Butterfly. I'm just going to lean into it. Mr. Morale. Number 2. Give me good kid. Number 3. Damn. 4. GNX 5. Is that the exact opposite of your list?

[Charles Holmes]

Not the exact opposite. Right now it would be GMX number one. Good kid. Bass City. Number two. Damn. Number three to pimple. Butterfly. Mr. Morale.

[Cole Kushna]

So you have. You have timing Butterfly. You had it. Four.

[Charles Holmes]

Yeah. Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

So it is the exact opposite. Except I never.

[Charles Holmes]

I know. Like, I go like. Because you're doing it for the season. I've gone back to Mr. Morale. I'm like, oh, I like this. Like, I like this record.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I never go back to Tibet. Butterfly. It's too intense. It's just like. I'm like, there's a lot going on in this record.

[Cole Kushna]

So good.

[Charles Holmes]

And it's also. It was a time in America where I'm just like. I remember everything that's going on. I don't.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Charles Holmes]

I'm like. Because I'm just like, shit. Shit has only got worse.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. God damn.

[Charles Holmes]

And then we. We skipped this and I'm sorry to bring it back.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

But you had a question here that I thought was good, obviously. I've been in Aubrey's Angel.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, yes. Okay. Yes.

[Charles Holmes]

This entire time. And it's. This has been a great year, honestly, just in terms of just like seeing everything unfold. So I want to see. Let's see where we're at.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Charles Holmes]

Where do we.

[Cole Kushna]

Where.

[Charles Holmes]

What's the status of the big three? Kendrick, Cole, Drake? What's the status of Drake? What are. What are your thoughts on how all of this is, like, unfolded?

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, well, you know my bias. I've never been a big Drake fan. You know that about me.

[Charles Holmes]

It Seems like you're even less of a J. Cole fan.

[Cole Kushna]

J. Cole. I've always just been kind of neutral. I respect some of his work. I'm not, like, crazy about it. I'm definitely not passionate about it at all. But as a Kendrick fan, as someone who thinks Kendrick is the most important artist of our generation, of this generation, might be the most important artist in my lifetime, to see him have such a unanimous victory warm has warmed my heart. It has been so. Because, like, the artist won. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about it, because artistry won. Not saying Drake's not talented, that he's not an artist. He's just a different kind of artist. And if. If Drake had won as. As unanimously as Kendrick won, I don't know how I would take that, like, I don't know, like, seriously. Because what it means symbolically, in terms of, like, even to what you just said about today, this, the state of things today in the world politically, but also just, like, culturally, if, like, if Drake won over Kendrick Lamar, that says something really gross about where we are today. And so I just. The artist won. He's a true artist. He's impactful thematically, conceptually, commercially. He's proving you can do it all. I think where I've been a little bit uncomfortable saying Kendrick Amar is the greatest rapper of all time, or in that conversation, I no longer feel weird about entering that. Even though I felt that in my heart that he was in that conversation, to me, this entire year has. He is undebatably in that conversation. Whether he's your favorite or not, whether he's the goat or whatever, that's still up for debate. But he is 100% without argument in that conversation. Would you agree?

[Charles Holmes]

He's in the conversation. He's not the goat. He's not the greatest. But what I will say, having been, I'm still a huge Strike fan, I was already getting to the point where Drake's best years were far behind him. There's been just a decade straight of not great music, you know, when I don't think long term this has really done anything that Drake can't come back from. And what I mean by that is, like, Drake was already going down this pathway where I think his best corollary is like, an Eminem, where it's like, if we look at the arc of Eminem's career, the fine to middling and quite bad albums far outstretch the good period. But Eminem was so commercially potent and changed so much in such a specific era of music that he's going to have a certain fan base, a certain amount of people that are always going to come out for him. But that's also, I think, a little bit. It can freeze someone artistically in time where they don't necessarily have to grow as much, they don't have to change as much because they just have this bucket of a fan base. Like, we just kind of want the same thing. And I think Drake was on that trajectory of he was just giving us the same thing year after year after year. He seemed almost on autopilot. Like, he was just chugging out shit.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Charles Holmes]

So it warmed my heart as just a music fan, where it's like, Kendrick Lamar is dropping some of the most infectious biggest rap songs on the biggest stage. And just as someone who likes spectacle, I'm just like, this is fucking dope. He's doing everything I've ever wanted Kendrick Lamar to do. And to your point, I do think it is a net positive that we are out of the Drake era. Like, I think it is a net positive where I'm just like that type of lazy song making, where it's like, and Drake wasn't always like this. I think the reason that actually the beat was so good is that I think both rappers, in different ways, just do love hip hop and are nerds and wanted to win. It was just one of those people wanted to win a little bit more. And I think the thing that helped Kendrick win is Drake had been releasing so much music for so long and feeding the system and almost creating a music industry. I would put Taylor Swift in the same boat where it's like, how can there actually be true quality when you're releasing an album or multiple albums every year? There's just going to be a lot of bullshit like Don't Attack Me, Swifties or Aubrey's Angels. But you kind of get what I mean for sure. And for Kendrick to be like, when I come out, it's going to mean something and I'm going to go about it in a certain way. Yeah, I have to reward that. Like, it's. I'm glad it was rewarded. Like, there's a part of me. I don't care. There's no size. I'm just like, hey, yeah. I would like to the artist who actually kind of is like, all right, I'm not gonna feed you guys a bunch of bullshit every fucking year. I like that guy to win. I'm sorry. Shoot me.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. And like, to see the way Drake has handled himself after the beef has Been really equally disappointing. Only in that. To your point about him, I feel like everyone aside from the, you know, Drake Stans had felt this monotony from. From him. He just giving us just tons of songs. Nothing really stuck out. Maybe one single off of every album hit. You know what I mean? He had one song, but for the most part it was just like, yeah, he was on autopilot. And the beef, even though he lost the beef, I thought it presented him a wonderful opportunity to go away.

[Charles Holmes]

Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

And come back with something interesting. Whatever that, Whatever that was. Like, use this as an opportunity to just take a break, make people miss you. Come back with just something different. And even if it didn't work as well as your past work, at least it would be something refreshing, something that was thoughtful. But yet he just kind of just in multiple ways. We don't have to rehash everything he's done, but it feels like he dug his grave even deeper with all his decisions. Post beef and coming. Coming out with this collab album that just has seemed like it's come and go. Aside from Nokia.

[Charles Holmes]

Hey, you know, I, I like some. I like some tracks off of it. I still bump it. But it was not the record he should. I would have been like, hey, yo, this is not the record you should be dropping.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's. I, I just feel like it was in a career that just needed a shake up. This loss, like, could have really worked to his advantage. I think I would. I generally would have been interested in. In the next Drake album if he had put time into it. If it was something that was. Doesn't even necessarily have to do with the beef, but it just presented him an opportunity to break out of this monotonous stream of shit that he's been putting out for, I don't know, five years now.

[Charles Holmes]

Well, can I ask you this? Do you also think that Drake is almost weirdly in a place where I think Kanye was, but not right now. But in terms of just like when Drake started stepping on Kanye's corner. And Kanye goes from being the most important rapper and when he drops, everything stops to oh, no, you're one rung above. And it's kind of funny seeing where it's like Drake was kind of Kanye 2.0, seeing them both end up in a certain place where it's like, hey, you can't be the king forever. You can't be the biggest celebrity ever. And seeing them both kind of crash out in similar ways where I'm like, I do think Kendrick has, like, here's the thing, like I said, Kendrick is very cynical. I think that the way he maneuvered people, like, he's being hypocritical. I'm like, every art, major label artist, every artist at a certain state is hypocritical. It's a rap beef. It's not. You're gonna do what you need to do to win. But I do think that Kendrick has positioned his career in a way where he goes away. He's not fucking running around trying to be caught by tmz. He's not trying to ingratiate himself to the Kardashians. He's like doing the rap shit where it's like, here's my album. I'm dropping it. I'm going on tour. Here's some videos. Fuck off.

[Cole Kushna]

Even if within the moment that he's having, he hasn't said shit. He hasn't said anything. He did the one super bowl interview because I think it's obligated, you know, an obligation as a. It's a. It's a press interview ahead of the Super Bowl. But if he wasn't forced to do that, he literally would have done zero interviews. You just look at his Twitter thread and it's just beef songs and then album drop link and it's like he has said nothing while having this huge moment where Drake is always in. Always trying to be in the center of streamers.

[Charles Holmes]

Kaiseni, this, that steak. To your point, maybe this is where we end it. I think more rappers could learn. Hey, just drop the fucking songs. Drop the. Put the link on fucking Twitter. I don't. Don't. Don't be doing too much. Just fucking give us the music.

[Cole Kushna]

Beautiful. I'm happy we have ended on you praising Kendrick and shitting on Drake.

[Charles Holmes]

Stop.

[Cole Kushna]

This completes the run, Kendrick's run even more for me. So thanks for joining Dissect again. We're going to be back with last song Standing after the morale season with the. Well, let's not spoil it. Let's keep it a surprise, but we're going to shake it up just a little bit the next season of Last Long Standing. Thanks for everyone for listening, Charles. We'll see you soon.

[Charles Holmes]

Sa.