Originally Posted by Mankycaaant

Welcome to Music Banter J Zilla. Yeah, I think you're probably on the money there. Hip-hop more so than any other genre has always been a competition.
We all like to sound-off on who our favourite MC's are, who's the top 5, the GOAT, etc. You don't really see that with prog rock or jazz fans, etc.
It's an environment in which every rapper believes he is top 5 material and every rapper has the belief that they are the alpha male.

Kendrick's lines aren't any more far fetched than when Nas and Jay-Z decided to battle one another over who held the unofficial 'King of New York' title for example. It's just we haven't had a rapper (maybe with the exception of Kanye) who's come out in some time and said look, I'm the best, prove me wrong.
I think that's only going to enhance the scene as a whole, which has been really good in the last few years. It's the old cliché about tougher competition increasing every individuals efforts as they all vie for attention, for the limelight, for the right to be a Top 5 MC.
Kendrick is undoubtedly the hottest act in the hip-hop scene at the moment and if anyone had the right to say they were the best at the current time, it's him. I hope for diss tracks to ensue out the back of this, I know this isn't a diss per se, but you know what rappers are like they'll take personal shots at one another over less than this and for us sitting in the sidelines watching, that can only be a good thing.