Crowning the Best Kendrick Lamar Song of All Time on the ‘Last Song Standing’ Finale

Welcome to this week’s episode of Last Song Standing, a show from The Ringer and Dissect built on a simple premise: two hosts figuring out an artist’s greatest song by debating their way through every album in the artist’s discography. Season 1 has focused on one of the most significant artists working today: Kendrick Lamar.

Each week, Cole Cuchna (host of Dissect and Key Notes) and Charles Holmes (from The Ringer Music Show and The Midnight Boys on the Ringer-Verse feed) tackled a different Kendrick project, nominating three tracks and ultimately picking one apiece, with the goal of crowning the Last Song Standing.

On this week’s episode, we’ve arrived at the end of our journey. It’s time for the season finale battle royal, where Cole and Charles will go head-to-head to crown a champion. Each has eight picks going into the episode, but as a wrinkle, they’ve added the top two vote-getters in a fan poll to the fight: “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” and “Money Trees.” Let’s recap where we’re at:

After agreeing on the pick for good kid, m.A.A.d city, Cole and Charles diverged for the rest of the season. A trend emerged: Cole frequently went with the more introspective tracks, while Charles went with the bangers: “Mother I Sober” vs. “Father Time,” “u” vs. “Wesley’s Theory,” “FEAR.” vs. “DNA.”

The dichotomy shows off Kendrick’s versatility as an artist, but ultimately, only one song can emerge. Will it be one of those more sentimental tracks, or a turn-up anthem? Will it be the one song they agreed on, “m.A.A.d. city”? Or will it be one of the two fan picks?

Tune in to the season finale of Last Song Standing to find out. Be sure to check out the companion playlist, and if you disagree with the results, hit us at @ringer and @dissectpodcast to let us know.

Hosts: Cole Cuchna and Charles Holmes
Producer: Justin Sayles
Production: Kevin Pooler
Theme Music: Devon Renaldo