u/MathGecko

Common is arguably the most well known conscious rapper out of the 90s. The socially conscious poet who was reflective on his songs.

J Cole took to that conscious, reflective lane and became a much bigger artist and more commercially successful than Common. Multi-platinum albums, tens of millions of streams, every album going to #1, just really successful all around. Reaching places Common could never reach while making socially conscious songs that Common was critically known and respected for.

Is it fair to say J Cole is the evolution of Common?

Background info:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphop101/s/eEQCC3Rllr

The 3rd Verse podcast made an interesting observation. As they were discussing the recent Lupe statements on Kendrick, they stated that some rappers are evolutions of other artists. By evolution, they took the vision that artist had further and became much more successful.

Claim being made:

Kendrick is the evolution of Lupe Fiasco.

J Cole is the evolution of Common.

And they didn’t say this, but following this logic, Drake would be the evolution of Kanye. Drake took the elements Kanye made mainstream - breaking away from gangster rap and taking it to a more vulnerable, emotional direction, which Drake took much farther.

What are your thoughts on this concept? And do you agree with the comparisons between these artists?