Kendrick Lamar Emerging as Apple Music's Top Rapper for 2024 Fuels Heated Debate

Kendrick Lamar's emergence this week as the top hip-hop artist on a 2024 Apple Music end-of-year rundown has fueled a passionate debate about the artist on social media.

However, some of the discussion isn't necessarily new, with several sentiments seemingly still entrenched in this year's Drake vs. Kendrick feud that split hip-hop fans.

But stll, as one might expect, Lamar's most ardent fans seem to be defending the Apple Music accolade, while others are arguing over whether the choice of K-Dot is correct.

The discourse re-ignited on Tuesday (Nov. 19). As Apple Music continues to share its "lineup of this year's genre-defining artists," it shared a post showing Lamar as the face of Apple Music's Rap Life channel. Apple added, pointing to several playlists, "Swipe through the 2024 leaders of the Rap Life, Alpha, Superbloom, and La Oficial playlists."

Though Apple Music's post doesn't actually call Lamar "Rapper of the Year," the message is clear, especially as Apple noted that Lamar's Drake diss "Not Like Us" has "dominated culture" in 2024 in a way that few others did. (In order, it lists 2024's top Rap Life songs as "Not Like Us," followed by Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar's "Like That," then Gunna's "One of Wun" and Key Glock's "Let's Go" remix.)

In response on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, the account for NFR Podcast ran with Apple Music's post, re-sharing the streaming service's image with Lamar and proclaiming, "Kendrick Lamar is officially Apple Music's 'Rapper of the Year' for 2024."

As one might imagine, the Kendrick debate fired up right quickly after that. Various replies to the NFR podcast post included things like "i find it crazy how you can be given 'rapper of the year' without dropping a project tbh" — as well as, in reference to Drake, "Bigger than that 69 God They think It's all about streams It's quality over quantity."

Plenty others seemed perturbed by the choice. "Most glazed artist I might have ever seen," someone else said of Lamar. "All this just for 'Not Like Us' calling another man a pedophile with no proof," they added. "The industry glaze is different for this midget."

And that's not all. "You already know A certain side of twitter is Finna be mad at this," one person summed up.

As illustrated above, several commenters seem to argue that Kendrick unfairly got the accolade despite not dropping a new full-length album this year, only a handful of related singles including the white-hot "Not Like Us."

"Is Apple Music justified in naming [Kendrick Lamar] 'Rapper of the Year' with no full project in 2024?" another person asked. See more responses from X below.

Tags

Kendrick Lamar, Apple Music, Music