Are we allowed to be critical of Kendrick Lamar? Hip hop's Golden Child, is one of my favorite artists of all time, frankly. Numerous times in numerous videos, I have absolutely praised this man's work. I think he's made not just some of the best rap music of all time, but some of the best music of the modern era.

And in some recent coverage I did around his stuff, I had some criticisms about some decisions that he's made, specifically the very generous set of crossovers and collaborations he recently did with Playboi Carti on his new music album, considering the very staunch moral positions Kendric Lamar has taken at various points in his career, but especially as of late in light of his recent beef with Drake, I don't know, that crossover just felt odd to me, not really fitting in with a lot of the narratives he's been pitching in his tracks.

And these observations, these comments were met with quite a bit of pushback in my YouTube comments on my subreddit, too. Digging into a lot of the responses, I've got to be honest, I feel like the arguments aren't really holding up. The laziest and most disappointing of all of these arguments takes on this flavor of, 'Hey, remember all those bars and songs where Kendrick told you he's not your savior and he's not here to be your role model. He's not a perfect person, so on and so forth?' When, in fact, yeah, I remember those tracks. I remember those bars. I was there.

And I would argue to you that I or anybody else could seek from Kendrick Lamar a little bit more consistency between the talk that he talks and the walk that he walks without looking at him or observing him as the savior of hip hop, the savior of all music, or like some angel that God brought us to grace our ears with just music musical divinity.

Because here's the thing, to be a savior, to be Christ-like, to be perfectly moral in all ways, that is at a level of behavioral perfection that is far, far, far, far, far beyond the conscious choice of collaborating with a guy who has very credible woman beating allegations. Those are not the same thing. And if they are the same thing, the bar's in fucking hell.

If you came up to me and told me, 'Oh, man, I'm so Christ-like, I'm so moral, I'm so good. I'm not friends with any woman beaters. Man, I wouldn't even think about hitting a woman. I'm basically God, I'm so good.' I would look at you like you're a psychopath.

The problem is these people are treating Kendrick's albums and bars like they're the fucking Bible or like they're the Ten Commandments etched into stone. You're telling us that Kendrick is not your savior, and yet you're treating him as if he's infallible. You're doing the thing. You're projecting.

I mean, I'm sorry, regardless of how great Kendrick's albums are and how impressive the lyricism is and so on and so forth, you can't have it both ways here. Kendrick can't avoid any and all accountability for his actions and behaviors and the actions and behaviors of those he voluntarily surrounds himself with while simultaneously making a big stink and to-do about the moral actions and behaviors of his biggest competitors in the rap industry and whoever those people associate with.

Regardless of what he says on Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, that's a double standard. One, he's applying to himself sometimes, the other, he's applying to those he doesn't like when it's convenient. And we either got to go with one or the other. And look, we don't even need to dig into the Drake stuff in order to highlight what doesn't quite make sense about this Carti crossover.

"They judge you, they judge Christ. Godspeed for women's rights. They judge you, they judge Christ. Godspeed for women's rights. They judge you, they judge Christ. Godspeed for women's rights." - Kendrick Lamar

How are we in one breath, the women's rights guy, and then we turn around and we're the collab with the guy who puts hands on a pregnant woman guy? I'm sorry, you cannot be both guys.

And look, I'm not saying this makes Kendrick the worst person of all time, and he's garbage, and he's trash, and as a result of this, you can't listen to his music anymore, and none of his music means anything. I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is key points of your messaging and points of your behavior are not really fully lining up in a way that optically is not that great, less than ideal, to put it nicely.

I understand the point that Kendrick was trying to make with Kodak Black on Mr. Morale. Were there better ways of going about doing it than having Kodak Black in the cut? Yeah, I think so. I'm not against people growing and changing and writing their past wrongs. That's totally fine. I support that. But growth without actual change or apology or some alteration in and the path that you're moving forward through, it means nothing.

I've also been seeing that Drake deserved all the smoke in the midst of the beef because he's a fake thug and for other reasons outside of just the moral stuff. You could feel that way, but the thing is, again, I feel like we are issuing a double standard here because loads of people in the fucking music industry are fake.

You think Drake is the only person who's fake in the world of hip hop that Kendrick has encountered or is aware of on some level or maybe he's even worked closely with or has been in proximity of?

Some people seem to believe that the whole Drake beef was just a spectacle and a takedown of sorts, which, I mean, for sure, on some level, it most definitely was. But simultaneously, it did come along with a lot of moral proclamations and posturing, making Drake out to be not just the inferior rapper artistically, but morally, too, in comparison with Kendrick.

If on the moral front, the only bar we're trying to clear is looking better than the guy who we're labeling as a pedo. I don't know. I think we could do slightly better.

Kendrick is not your savior... find me an innocent rapper!!! So much for being a so called Kendrick fan...shameful!!! - YouTube Comment

What's funny about this perspective is this is the exact argument a lot of Drake fans use to defend him in the midst of all these accusations being thrown at him in these Kendrick tracks, as many of them are like, look at Kendrick, he's a flawed human being himself, he has his own issues. So why try to hold Drake accountable for any of the stuff that he's done because the guy who is accusing him and is attacking him is imperfect himself?

And I'm sorry, just like expecting the most minor baseline level of consistency between what you say and what you do, that doesn't make you a savior, not in my fucking eyes. That just makes you a normal, trustworthy person and not a dirtbag. No one with any real serious common sense here is expecting Kendrick to be perfectly innocent of any sins, and for that to be doubly the case of anybody who comes within a three-foot radius of him.

What I'm saying is that it's a bit silly to, at the same time, be the "Godspeed women's rights" guy, and also the "I'm going to ignore when women suffer abuse guy", unless I can pin it on a rapper I don't like. As well as also remind people he's a deadbeat dad while also collaborating with a guy who's his baby mama is tweeting once again about how he's a deadbeat dad.

And look, the fact that this is a discussion I am having with you right now at this point in time is proof that I have been, at least on some level understanding and forgiving of Kendrick on this issue because we could have gone into this discussion in light of that really weird XXXTentacion support tweet from way back when.

We could have gone into this discussion, again, around that Kodak Black feature, which I tried to see the validity in the point he was making around that, which I did. And with this cut, I think Kodak pretty much becomes a poster child for the point that Kendrick is trying to make here on this LP for personal progression.

And I think he knowingly puts his audience in a bit of an awkward spot by presenting Kodak in this way, knowing that some people may be pushed to at least give him the benefit of the doubt in some way, maybe believe in his ability to change and his ability to come to grips with his past and his present in the way Kendrick has on this record, too. Kendrick even goes as far as to say on the song, "Xavier", that he sees himself in.

Now, do I think Kendrick's idea here is perfectly reasoned? Absolutely not. But it's certainly closer to making sense than, let's say, for recent comparison, Kanye's inclusion of Marilyn Manson in the recent Donda album cycles.

We also could have gone into this discussion around the many crossovers that Kendrick has done with Dr. Dre. I've also seen comments saying that Kendrick's willingness to collaborate with more problematic artists such as Carti tracks with comments that he's made in song around systematic factors and trauma, which, on some level, I get. Cycles of abuse are a real thing, and that is what the Mr. Morale album narrative is about in many ways.

But simultaneously, and I don't know if you guys need a refresher on this, but the point of the album wasn't people do bad stuff because bad stuff happened to them, and that's just how it is. Oh, well. The narrative of the record is aspirational in terms of, yes, we are acknowledging and understanding things like cycles of abuse and trauma in order to become self-aware of them and not just simply allow them to dictate our behaviors.

So again, if your takeaway from Mr. Morale is, Kendrick is essentially allowed to do any crappy thing he wants, and he's just beyond criticism because he told you he wasn't perfect, I'm sorry, you got to listen to the album again. Because looking for someone's words to be backed up by their actions, again, is not like savior levels of expectations.

And I don't think I need to point out in these Carti collabs, there's no element of redemption here narratively. He's literally referring to the guy as his evil twin. The evil twin lyric doesn't just feel like an acknowledgment of Carti's toxic behavior, but also a celebration of it, which, again, is not what Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was about.

To the extent that album did depict and acknowledge behavior that came from traumatic backgrounds and experiences, the whole point of the record was to contextualize that trauma, try to understand the root cause of it, and through that, seek to change and break the cycle.

Going to leave it there. Let me know what you think down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, Kendrick Lamar, forever.