Kendrick Lamar is one of those rare, peerless artists working in hip-hop today. Oftentimes, you can hear rappers attempt to sound like Future, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Drake, or J. Cole. But Kendrick is so distinct and off-kilter creatively that it’s difficult to try to emulate. Those who try often end up sounding like cheap imitations of the genuine article.
However, there was one rapper that West Coast legend Kurupt argued carried a lot of the same energy. In an interview with POW Magazine, he recalled marveling at the late Drakeo The Ruler and his ascent in the LA rap scene. The Dogg Pound MC felt like Drakeo shared the same art for rhyming as Lamar.
“Drakeo reminded me of Kendrick Lamar in that they both understand the essence of what hip-hop is all about, which is to be original with your s**t lyrically. Drakeo was one of those guys!” Kurupt said. “He didn’t give a f**k what you thought; he was gonna give it to you raw. He was real creative with the words.”
Additionally, Kurupt felt like Drakeo really captured what was new and fresh about LA. Every young person he knew in LA adored records like Cold Devil.
Kurupt Cosigns the Late Drakeo The Ruler and Compares Him to Kendrick Lamar
“I like to go outside and hear what the young people are playing in the streets, right? I didn’t really understand it in the beginning,” Kurupt admitted. “But then I saw every other person in LA having a good time and partying to Drakeo the Ruler’s songs. Now I’ve got deeper and deeper into his music and I realized he was great.”
Kurupt isn’t the only one who saw the commonalities between Drakeo the Ruler and Kendrick Lamar. Drakeo’s dad also claimed that Lamar knowingly stole his son’s style back in August 2025. When he heard one of Kendrick’s records, which he didn’t specify, he thought he was hearing his son Drakeo’s unreleased songs.
“The rhyme pattern, the syncopation, all of that was the same; the flow, everything was the same. Now, as far as him giving him the props, maybe it was a politics thing,” Drakeo’s dad said of Kendrick Lamar. “You know what I’m saying? ‘I can’t be trying to go on that bandwagon right now with what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to make this positive movement, you know, right now with these rappers and this rap stuff. And if I, you know, shout out Drakeo, you know, and just let people know I’m using this flow, that might be bad for what I’m trying to do.’ So, I can understand it on that level, but at some point, you got to keep it real.”
(Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
The post This West Coast Legend Shares the Rapper He Thinks Resembles Kendrick Lamar the Closest in Hip-Hop Today appeared first on VICE.
