tl;dr #1 - Nosetalgia Video
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDQu8DNLzIY

Let's start with Kendrick's addition. He's awkward. He's impeding Pusha's natural movement. Kendrick is staccato; he stops in the street, to emphasize himself. He needs to make his motion point towards his lyrics. He stops, pauses, and embraces himself. Pusha wants to have Kendrick, a hot name, on this track, so he stops his gait awkwardly in unison with Kendrick. You can tell it's awkward. Pusha acts out with his arms more actively during Kendrick's verse. Kendrick's verse is fine. It's fine. But it's not in keeping with Pusha's truth or the direction of this video. Kendrick is a necessary addition that Pusha deals with amicably just to do so. Kendrick is dope, when he's just Kendrick. This is not his place.

So let's go in reverse to Pusha's verse. His verse is the best music video released in quite some time. You start off behind him, slave to the gait, beholden to the cornrows. Waiting for the pan around. Then he takes complete control of the screen. The film is because of him, not on him. He's chopping, he's Ivan Drago, he's sniffing off sinuse's. He's the legacy of Pharrel, "Grindin'", losing his partner, and the continued pursuit in one longshot. Whereas in Kendrick's portion of the video you focus on everything besides Kendrick's theatrics, when Pusha is on the screen he is the only thing. His charisma is real. When he waves his hands you're captivated. When he starts mimicking chopping up his favorite subject you can't take your eyes off the hands. The lyrics just accent his presence. As he walks he seems bigger than everything; the cars, houses, the street itself.

Kendrick can be ignored. The star of Kendrick's portion of this video is still Pusha.

This song, and video, should have stopped at 1:35 and just served as the calling card of a legend owed his dues.

How observant. Im quite impressed

Yes

Quite impressed indeed

Upon further observation. ...kendrick was mediocre borderline avg on this..only segment remotely dope was 9 outta ten..pay attention bit..bubble bath gimmick voice made me cringe

Kendrick overall try's to hard on everything

He's good but he's sippin on that try to hard juice

The Kendrick Lamar backlash reminds me a lot of the Kanye West haters after people started calling College Dropout a classic.

I hope that's not directed towards me. I love Kanye like a bro, and Good Kid is one of the few rap ablums released in the last few years I listen to regularly.


You're mega-hipster, Certain. How did you like the OP?

I'm not mega-hipster. My tastes run pretty line with critical opinion, if anything. Someone putting Kanye West, Daft Punk and Janelle Monae at the top of his albums of the year list right now probably doesn't qualify as hipster at all. And it wasn't directed at you. It was directed at Tom Sparks. I actually prefer when people try hard at things. I have no idea why that became a bad thing, but it says a lot of negative things about this culture.

I agree with most of your points in the OP. Kendrick Lamar is better served by more musical beats because he rides them so well. Pusha T gets buried by complicated beats because his words are meant to stand out more.

Some times I just can't stand anything about Kendrick.

Likewise

Kendrick worked like 8 years to make it as big as he did.. thats a lot of figuring out exactly how to present yourself

Pusha slayed this verse with flow, lyrics, energy... seemed like he was just in the fucking zone. i agree with cake's interpretation

then you have Kendrick, who knows a collab with Pusha would be sick, and he probably wanted to just vibe off what Pusha was saying. So, instead of going from the heart/ just going OFF he focuses on how he's coming across in the track, says a whole lot of nothing, tries to look badass in the video/ seems overly dramatic

instead he spits a bunch of nonsense about shit that isnt really true, talks about his dad for like 9 bars to many on what was basically a flex piece, runs his flow all weird on a killer beat, and goes into concert mode where he looks cooler than he's rapping

If Kendrick had gone Section 80 on this verse, it probably wouldve been good enough that I woulda created an alt account to post it in the OM so i could nominate it for HOF


you could tell Pusha wasnt feeling the verse either and Kendrick was looking fake as fuck the whole time

I don't like Kendrick either

I played Kendrick's verse for 30+ mins over and over again
Fuck You

Your young. Youll regret ut later..like i regret thibking bling bling was a good song when it came out

i doubt it, theres nothing wrong with kendrick lol..

Kk. See u in a decade

and what if im right and ur wrong muffy

"Bling, Bling" WAS a good song when it came out. Matter fact, that whole Choppa City in the Ghetto album was raw as fuck.

Lol . I pull up in the expedition..dey be like nonononono he didnt. *gay laugh*

Cash money is an army nigga, a navy nigga. If you ever try to harm me nigga, it ain't gravy nigga! *no gay laugh*