The 11 Grammy nominations for hip-hop prophet Kendrick Lamar hope to ease the pain of diehard fans that cringe over the blind-eye given to the rapper during his previous award run.

Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is being hailed as a modern classic, not only in the genre of rap, but also music as a whole.
Still fresh in the minds of K-Dot’s fans (including myself) is the rappers 2013 Grammy snub at the hands of flash-in-the-pan Macklemore and Ryan Lewis—who infamously edged Lamar for Best New Artist and Best Rap Album for their album The Heist that beat out Lamar’s Good Kid, m.A.A.d City.There is an almost universal agreement that Lamar needs to be recognized for the unmatched lyricism and meaning being put into his music—but the bandwagon hopping following this album’s release has many longtime fans uncertain how to feel.

Self-proclaimed Day One Kendrick fan Andrew Bailey explains why the rappers early fans are upset over Lamar receiving this praise later rather than sooner.

“I love To Pimp a Butterfly and Good Kid, m.A.A.d City,” Bailey said. “Though it’s weird for me because I thought he deserved the Grammy in 2013; but regardless, I’m always going to support Kendrick.”

On the positive side we can still look at the present—Lamar’s eleven nominations for To Pimp a Butterfly are the most since Michael Jackson’s twelve nominations for Thriller.

To Pimp a Butterfly was also notably named Rolling Stone’s “Best Album of the Year” and Kendrick is being hailed by XXL as “The Chosen One.” Kendrick even found himself at No. 9 on Billboards list of “The Top 10 MC’s of All-Time.”

K-Dot has already taken the rap game by storm and is prepared for his signature moment on Feb. 15 where a Grammy win would solidify his title as the voice of a generation.