Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

March 23, apparently:

http://pitchfork.com/news/58754-kendrick-lamar-announces-album-release-date/

― That shit right there is precedented. (cryptosicko), Friday, March 6, 2015 7:10 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good news!

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Friday, March 6, 2015 9:28 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, a good old-fashioned CD-capacity rap record

― Simon H., Friday, March 6, 2015 10:51 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/58808/d47a5880.jpg

― Number None, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 6:53 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

smidgen of info from Rolling Stone

Lamar also gave Rolling Stone a preview of six new songs from To Pimp a Butterfly, in addition to the two already released. The songs range from the intensely personal to the swaggeringly aggressive – like “King Kunta,” which could be the theme song from a Seventies blaxploitation flick. When Pharrell Williams first heard the track, he praised it by calling it “unapologetically black.” “It’s just him expressing how he’s feeling at the moment,” says Lamar’s longtime producer Mark “Sounwave” Spears. “And right now, he’s mad.”

Sonically, Lamar’s new album is adventurous, incorporating elements of funk, spoken-word poetry, and free-jazz, augmented by lots of live playing. (Lamar says he was listening to a lot of Miles Davis and Parliament while making it.) “It’s a unique sound,” says Sounwave. “Every producer I’ve ever met was sending me stuff, but there was a one-in-a-million chance you could send a beat that actually fit what we were doing.” Lamar’s longtime engineer, Derek "MixedByAli" Ali, says the rapper would often talk in moods: “He would say, ‘I want it to sound eerie,’ or ‘I want it to sound like you’re driving past something.’ Or he talks in colors: ‘Make it sound purple. Make it sound light green.’”

Lamar is vague about what specifically the title To Pimp a Butterfly means (“That will be taught in college courses someday,” he says). But he describes the album as “honest, fearful and unapologetic.” “You take a black kid out of Compton and put him in the limelight, and you find answers about yourself you never knew you were searching for,” he said. “There’s some stuff in there, man. It’s a roller coaster. It builds."

lol

I want it to sound like you’re driving past something.

copping that early Pollard sound, it would seem

gimme that doppler effect pedal

I haven't really been in love with this dude but this sounds interesting. I was into that song he did on Colbert awhile ago.

Kendrick is the shit IMO

Last time he talked about the Colbert song he said it was probably not going to be on the album, which seems even stranger now since it would seem to fit perfectly with the description in the RS excerpt

Really really looking forward to this

There's a tracklist on wikipedia now, not sure of its accuracy but it looks plausible.

I want it to sound like you’re driving past something.

Maybe he's going for this type of hip hop sound.

great title

My anticipation is through the roof. In my head it's the hip hop Black Messiah.

hope im dead wrong but 78 mins of this is going to be so wearying

78 minutes of anything is wearying

that cover, man.

feels like he's working at a different level rn

at the same time, i agree w/ xposts, i wish this would be under 60 mins. under 50 would be even better

lots of hip hop albums are very long, tbf.

i, for one, am looking forward to the skits

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

Is this the To Kill A Mockingbird sequel?

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

every De La Soul album, for starters

Possibly. Though I personally found Buhloone Mindstate to be one of their best albums because of its shortness.

"Prince Among Thieves"' 78 minutes is perfect imo

Wu-Tang Forever.

Moment of Truth by Gang Starr is 78 minutes. It has no skits or filler and is perfect.

can not wait for this

aquemini is like 10 sides long

awesome cover art

who's the judge they're sitting on

john boehner

if this actually incorporates a lot of actual free jazz i will eat my hat and love it

and yes great title

De La Soul is Dead is bloated imo.

Singles, "Bitties," "Millie," and the final trio aside, it's their weakest of the nineties. The one before and after are the classics imo.

fuck eating a hat

ILM will kill your least favorite thread title for money

this will definitely be one of my 3 CD purchases of the year!

2 and a half years is a while between albums for someone in his genre at his level this early in his career. i'm cool with him going whole hog on an 80-minute deal to try and justify the wait.

& honestly i can't think of a more predictable move after the success of his specific first album than doing a sprawling long ass follow up

by which i mean that i find it so unsurprising that i can't care either way

first album was pretty long in itself iirc

yeah i mean he got total adoration and became a massive star off an album he called "a short film" so..............

Full Rolling Stone interview is a good read

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

― MarkoP, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 17:25 (Yesterday) Permalink

Cuban Linx ... Could keep going I'm sure

Life after death
All eyez on me

Etcetera

Looking fwd to this obv although this quote is super douchey lol:

Lamar is vague about what specifically the title To Pimp a Butterfly means (“That will be taught in college courses someday,”)

totally into kendrick knowing about his rapping superpowers

lot of overlong, bloated rap albums. but theres also a lot that are necessarily long. eg - wu tang forever, de la soul is dead, 3 feet high, fear of a black planet. not 100% sure about the cover, its more the kind of cover id expect from idk, someone like gunplay. and while i like kendricks harder tracks a lot (maybe best), not sure i want a whole album of him doing 'angry', though im sure it wont be.

also overlong albums aren't the end of the world, esp. when you can just skip around!

wu tang vinyl was like 4 records when i was buying their stuff. at the end there. i would never listen to a whole album. too much work. but 3 songs a side or whatever made them sound nice. the skits, man, blame the cd for the skits. they should put out skitless reissues of 90's albums.

great cover

official tracklist apparently

01. Wesley's Theory
02. For Free? (Interlude)
03. King Kunta
04. Institutionalized
05. These Walls
06. U
07. Alright
08. For Sale? (Interlude)
09. Momma
10. Hood Politics
11. How Much A Dollar Cost
12. Complexion
13. The Blacker The Berry
14. You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)
15. I
16. Mortal Man

He's covering Suicidal Tendencies?

my generation got Am I Black Enough For You? which was 53 minutes and 43 seconds long. which was only about 9 minutes longer than the 1966 debut album by The Doors. (schoolly was a baby boomer and i was gen x though. so, we weren't really of the same generation...we both lived in philly at the time though and we both had awesome hair...)

illmatic is under 40 minutes. which is one reason why people never stopped playing it.

If there are only 16 tracks, two of which are interludes, then there are going to be some long fucking songs on this album. I suspect The Blacker The Berry goes on longer than the version we've heard, for one thing.

If every one is a killer then I can deal with length, it's when you get 20+ tracks on a CD that it starts to grate.

most look to be around 4 and change to 6, and the last track is 12 minutes and change according to the itunes listings, but "sing about me (i'm dying of thirst)" was that long and didn't become tedious imo

also, id like to propose a ban on using the word pimp in future rap titles. its like a title common might come up with. trying to marry some sort of maya angelou type of literary grace with idk, too short or willie d.

via Rob on the dancehall thread:

I'm glad this piece on Assassin not being credited on rap songs was written, and I hope he does get credited on that Kendrick track when it's more official: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/03/12/392541701/assassin-raps-best-kept-secret.

what was the last rap album that people here loved all the way through? like, every song. and you wanted to hear it over and over. just curious. i loved kendrick's first album but i didn't really play it a zillion times. sounded great the first week i had it though.

first thing that comes to mind was E-40's Sharp on All 4 Corners (another great example of a guy who releases a ton of material and has good quality control) but I'm sure there's been something more recent
and even on albums from artists i love there's always a few bum steers

people here really liked run the jewels. so, i'm guessing run the jewels would be one...

i'm still pretty album-oriented. i like a good album experience. it's hard for me to find a modern rap album where i love the whole thing. just cuz there is always so much. my kingdom for an illmatic-length ten song stunner.

there's a whole rap thread scott. lol

i can generally find 6-7 albums per year where i'm not really skipping around at all

this is what i'm playing this week. lots of stuff i've never heard. mostly i just want to play the best of youngbloodz cd. i've never listened to a madvillain before...

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11060270_10153771126967137_6184565302170893890_n.jpg?oh=424e6d97641e1ca8368a84766a22a633&oe=55B60774

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11037634_10153771127982137_6355487955120264057_n.jpg?oh=2b7e2c566aab9a877a223eac45e1b96c&oe=558C86D8

my krazy life, RTJ2, yeezus, old (danny brown) are prob the best non-GKMC ones. tbf a few songs on krazy life took a whiiiile to grow on me

not to derail things further from general kendrick conversation, but scott, vince staples' shyne coldchain vol. 2 is like 27 minutes, 10 tracks and pretty complete/dope as is

I love that Juvenile album.

my krazy life, RTJ2, yeezus, old (danny brown) are prob the best non-GKMC ones. tbf a few songs on krazy life took a whiiiile to grow on me

― slothroprhymes, Thursday, March 12, 2015 3:01 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not even thinking of these ... vic spencer, a-wax, back from the dead 2, the boosie tape, jacka's tape ....i forget what else i liked last year

in addition to RTJ2 and danny brown and a-wax, i would also suggest the following as complete albums released last year: Freddie Gibbs/Madlib's Pinata, Black Milk's Glitches in the Break, isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo, Gene the Southern Child's Southern Meridian, DJ Quik's Midnight Life, Rick Ross's Mastermind, Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty.

no to RTJ

all good info. kendrick can wait.

i'm enjoying the big k.r.i.t. album right now! only 4 songs in...

Open Mike Eagle's record, milo, Chance, Danny Brown, RTJ, Kanye, clipping, Heems, all relatively recent + great album experiences (not goon-approved though, sorry).

Rick Ross's Mastermind

eh i dunno that this is good front to back

i dunno that the badazz tape is good front to back either but differing opinions differ

lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'

everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'

http://knockemdeadrecords.com/shop-m-c-schmidt-batu-malablab-lp.html#f8c85872109375d05a0f02a51fc0b2ae

ah shit nevermind that

also, id like to propose a ban on using the word pimp in future rap titles. its like a title common might come up with. trying to marry some sort of maya angelou type of literary grace with idk, too short or willie d.

― StillAdvance, Thursday, March 12, 2015 2:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^this is what I meant to post

To answer Scott's question: last year's Vince Staples mixtape, Danny Brown's XXX - those are the ones that leap immediately to mind.

tbh all those track titles (if true) look a tad on the corny side

"lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'"

"everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'"

just looking for the most recent "wow, i love this whole thing and i can't stop playing it!" kinda examples.

that's all really. with so many CDs being 17+ tracks or whatever, that's not always easy. but people here find lots to love! which is cool. cuz i like to check stuff out.

not EVERY cd that is praised rewards multiple listens. they might be half great/half okay.

i dunno that the badazz tape is good front to back either but differing opinions differ

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:18 (2 hours ago) Permalink

Ur really comparing that middling ass Ross cd to...never mind

04 Institutionalized

*opens a pepsi*

Is CD-era bloat even much of a thing as far as major label rap releases go anymore? If Kendrick's album fills out a full CD, it feels like the exception if anything. Most recent big commercially-released rap albums have been 40-65 minutes. The mixtape circuit is different, sure.

yeah rap albums haven't shrunken since the '90s like rock albums have, but they've definitely gotten shorter on average.

i just like good flow. if i'm gonna listen to a cd. i feel kinda old-fashioned just for listening to a cd. they can sound really good though! that is the other thing i love about more recent albums, REALLY good sound! that is something i can get behind. there is some serious digital beauty out there. a lot of downloads kinds blow sound-wise.

deej at some point you are gonna have to get past the narcissism of small differences thing as something other than a grave affront to TRUTH in mile high blazing letters

i'm like 99% sure this is a half-assed back and forth that we've been doing for almost ten years now and it is very very boring

almost as boring as rick ross' 'mastermind' lol

via Rob on the dancehall thread:

I'm glad this piece on Assassin not being credited on rap songs was written, and I hope he does get credited on that Kendrick track when it's more official: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/03/12/392541701/assassin-raps-best-kept-secret.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, March 12, 2015 7:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, really glad this has been written - it feels really shady that assassin hasn't been credited on two major rap releases now, esp for substantial contributions in an era when every backing vocalist and producer gets a feat.

it is super shady, obviously, but to some extent i kind of appreciate the 'honesty' of its brazenly appropriational cynicism and how that more accurately reflects how dancehall is being used and consumed as an otherized texture (parts throwback 90s moodboarding, wild west outlaw, fire & brimstone social politics, foreign import luxury) in these tracks, rather than falsely suggesting a collaborative parity or even any real desire to be seen to align with a modern trendy jamaican cool the way it might have been ten and/or twenty years ago.it is a fantasy (a nice one but a fantasy nonetheless) that any of kanye or kendrick's listeners were going to run out and cop a sasco album were he only given his accreditation

assassin's anecdote there about ye's engineers being wowed reads like they were going to put out any old bs he might have come out with but wow lyrics too gosh didnt expect that

drake and popcaan vaguely have more of an intuitive kinship along pallid singjay lines but they still ought to have come into the discussion too

anyone hear that new mavado/khaled fail sampling la roux btw? lolz

Popcaan loverman dancehall appropriation feels less more natural and less tokenistic than apocalyptic preacher man dancehall appropriation - one feels like a natural fit between contemporary styles while the other is fundamentally there for drama and gravitas. NB I am a complete sucker for the latter trick and haven't stopped playing Babylon System in like two months.

yeah absolutely and i'm surprised the usual appropriation conversation hasn't happened there at all, because he's literally used like a disembodied, othered sample to lend gravitas to a western project. a real live sample!

anyone hear that new mavado/khaled fail sampling la roux btw? lolz

image is too amazing to ruin by actually listening to this

xp

lol, has anything good come out of the mavado/khaled link?

fwiw, I am glad Assassin is getting press off this, but his own take on it is very relaxed, fully aware of his human plug-in status. presumably a decade+ in the none more shady jamaican music industry puts this all in perspective. like he probably at least got paid.

King Kunta

http://www.howflyhiphop.com/2015/03/13/kendrick-lamar-king-kunta-download-mp3/

on a JB 'The Payback' vibe for sure

Sounds pretty fucking great to me.

this is v good. Feels very Battlecat/Quik late 90s west coast

def getting quik vibes ... one of the suga free tracks starts like that iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMxGdLdMNRc

that's dope.

wow that is *very* 90s west coast-sounding

cant be mad at that, i love that sound, but doesnt quite live up to the description of the production given upthread...

you gonna trust Pharrell's testimony after recent events?

Probably best of the new trax

Yeah deej thats the one, also this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1VO9TahbE4

"Every producer I’ve ever met was sending me stuff, but there was a one-in-a-million chance you could send a beat that actually fit what we were doing."

this guy's memory obv doesnt go back past 2000.

after hearing blacker the berry and kunta, is this whole album going to have kendrick doing his angry voice? i guess this album is him playing at being angry, rather than actually having turned into gunplay or MOP, but not sure thats going to make it that enjoyable to listen to. the whole 'album to be studied in colleges' thing doesnt fill me with enthusiasm either, but this might be the most politicised/aggressive mainstream rap album for a long time.

"playing at being angry"?

anyway the three songs released so far all sound p tonally and sonically distinct from one another to me

i mean, it sounds kinda affected. thats prob just the issue i have with kendrick, i dont always *feel* him as much as i admire him, but even so, yeah, its like hes decided he has to or should sound angry, so hes in that 'mode' for this song. for some reason i keep thinking of prince pauls prince among thieves lol

part of the reason I balk at that is that a) "i" doesn't fit into that at all and b) the anger in "Blacker" and "Kunta" sound very distinct from each other to me.

im still looking fwd to this, dont let corny ppl on twitter keep you from appreciating dope music

same

this one is fantastic

Don't feel like anyone talked about catch a fade here? did i miss that? anyway, that was one of the better guest bits imo that was bathed in bay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6TaZiRDqNM

it took a couple listens to get what he was trying to do with "The Blacker..." but as a pure aural experience I love this one immediately.

kendrick can do no wrong in my eyes rn idc

I'd much rather hear Suga Free on the king kunta beat though, kendrick is really boring to me.

De La Soul is Dead is bloated imo.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 11, 2015 7:29 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey i pay my taxes i shouldn't have to read this kind of shit

Ha

De La Soul Is Dead And Bloated was a little more graphic than its predecessor, i didn't care for that

matt otm

I want it to sound like you’re driving past something.

― j., Wednesday, March 11, 2015 12:09 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

https://i.imgur.com/Zjwo4h.jpg

De La Soul is Dead is bloated imo.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 11, 2015 7:29 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey i pay my taxes i shouldn't have to read this kind of shit

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, March 14, 2015 11:48 PM

you paid your taxes but not your DUES

man this is the shit

I had like 5 vhs tapes filled with yo MTV raps episodes #paidthecosttobetheboss

http://i.imgur.com/JC76P0o.png

Given the features, "These Walls" miiight be the Colbert track.

part of me was hoping "i" was just a throwaway track lol

It's track 15 on a 16 track album. It may as well be.

Bilal!

the album version of "i" is nearly 2 minutes longer than the one previously released, and considering that the outro is everyone's favorite part of the song, i could really see them making an effort to kinda redeem public opinion of the song with an extended version.

I bet the "I" in the album tracklisting is different from the "i" single that we all know of.

I might be overthinking this, but:

1. The single was lowercase. The "I" above is the capital letter, which would go along with the "U" title.
2. Usually, with iTunes, when there's a single/previously released song that corresponds with an album, the single/previously released song can be bought as a stand-alone song in the album tracklisting but with "I", no.

And yeah, different track lengths.

It's the same song, Kendrick has said as much. Likely (as sd suggested) with an extended outro.

also, it's grown on me a lot, and it's complemented/contrasted nicely by the other tracks we've heard so far.

I'm excited for the George Clinton feature, love it when growls all over a hip-hop track

for yo sorrows>>>>

it's cool that between "King Kunta" and the Clinton feature he seems to be embracing funk with this record -- if he'd done it on the last album it might've seemed kind of obvious like oh west coast rapper signs with Dre and brings back G-funk, but it seems to be happening now as a more as a personal choice he came around to organically.

Not to mention the Isleys sample on "i"

Guess that's not "funk" per se

I wouldn't look too much into the difference between "i" and "I". Could just be an iTunes thing.

the snippets on itunes and the songs are the same. "u" and "i" are both lowercase

clean version appears to be downloadable on itunes, normal version remains MIA

That is certainly one release strategy.

maybe this is the normal version and kendrick has forsaken swear words, so the explicit version just has schoolboy q intermittently yelling "fuck" over the album.

I could definitely see that happening a few more LPs down the line.

"these walls" !

Explicit is now up, apparently.

https://play.spotify.com/album/7ycBtnsMtyVbbwTfJwRjSP

the album version of "i" is nearly 2 minutes longer than the one previously released, and considering that the outro is everyone's favorite part of the song, i could really see them making an effort to kinda redeem public opinion of the song with an extended version

wait i thought everyone loved "i"

like, it won 2 grammys...?

wesley's theory is great

that sound you just heard is the entire world unchecking the second track on itunes

not so sure about the "this dick ain't free" interstitial but the vibe he's going for here is pretty wow

heh, yep.

"i" was pretty divisive with rap fans. it missed the top 10 of rap/R&B radio when his last album had three top 10s, a lot of people that loved all his other stuff vocally disliked it.

goddamn, the guy wanted to make a parliament album

vocal hooks on this album are totally my shit

"these walls" !

yup

https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/577329338946719744

hey remember when people were worried the album would be wall-to-wall hoarse, shouty Kendrick

love all the clustering harmonies

alt i truthers otm

plus also i need some kind of map for this record

So...did Interscope do this inadvertently and then own the mistake and release it on all platforms or did they really just pull the rug out from under Kendrick and his team on purpose?

Listening now. It's awesome. Glad it's out today. But...

hoarse kendrick on "u" is excellent
this album is fuckin' DENSE on first contact
looking forward to marinating

lotta outkast impact

sorry to liveblog but shit, this is really quite good! "alright", alright!

"For Sale? (Interlude)" thankfully much better than the other one

looking forward to marinating

the abundance of it - so long, so sprawling, so many change-ups in single songs -
like it will be a whole other record when i know it

it's an album, even moreso that good kid/bad city
brace yourself for a zillion thoughtpieces

even more of a movie than gkmc too

just so self-assured
really seems in full control of what he's trying to say and how he wants to say it

lol "i" sounds so fucking great at the end of this?

wow, "momma"
wow this album

i can absolutely see how "i" in context works here

oooh Killer Mike shoutout!

momma -> hood politics -> how much a dollar cost

damn

on Hood Politics: "everybody wanna talk about who this and who that / who the realest and who wack / or who white and who black / critics wanna mention mention that they miss when hip hop was rappin' / motherfucker if you did than killer mike would be platinum"
the continuing impact of raccoon tanuki

What is this "County Building Blues" track on spotify??

old GKMC bonus track iirc

bonus cut off good kid that was just put on in anticipation of the new album

wow, "how much a dollar" is just lovely

billboard people on Twitter were saying that everything was planned, idk what top dawg's tweet was about

this rapsody lady sounds good on "complexion"; anyone know her other albums?

hahaha, yeah remixed "i" as a victory lap makes perfect sense within the scheme of this album

huh, totally different "i", more explicit statement than song; still don't think i want to listen to this for fun but he earns it
dunno about the questionable etymology lesson but "mortal man" is on and i'm not worried about it

i really love the monologue that slowly builds through the middle of the record? and which certain songs seem to be specific expansions of?

yeah I'm nowhere near parsing out any of that

Who is he talking to at the end of the album?

wait til the end

just got it that he's interviewing pac in mortal man, very clever, very ballsy

Ahhhh. I misheard the very end before.

goddamn, this poem at the end is right the fuck on
and oh i c he calls out to pac at the end

this is a pretty brilliant album; i am looking forward to listening the shit out of it

So good so far, and only at These Walls.

oh awesome

billboard people on Twitter were saying that everything was planned, idk what top dawg's tweet was about

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 16, 2015 1:26 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm thinking that was about the clean version being on itunes like an hour before the explicit version and people just misinterpreted it

Yeah, that makes the most sense.

Haven't listened to this yet but can't believe knxwledge has a beat on this

Pretty cool

this album is really way too dense for me to remark upon insightfully on one listen but... that was quite a listen. i would like to say i never felt it was drifting into self-consciously arty/impenetrable tedium but that would be a lie tbh. but then so much of it is also puzzling/bizarre/thrilling/surprising in the best way? idk, end of hot take i guess. time to sleep and then prob listen again.

Definite blaxploitation 70's Parliamenty vibe - with a contemporary production. Reminds me a little so far of that Badu album from a few years ago. Long way to go yet though.

laughable album title. so corny.

- Arctic Noon Auk

shit, wrong thread

Graffiti Bridge

This went way left

On some Andy kellman core lol

I think I like it but not what I expected

first skim listen it's better than his last album

It's definitely making more bold musical choices but I'm not ready to say it's better. He's digging deeper but it's even more oblique

I think he struggles a bit as an MC, he's a bit forced and unnatural, but he's made lots of interesting musical and production choices on this album which definitely puts him far above his current peers non of whom seem able to put out an interesting album.

Album sounds so good.

this is so great. Sounds like some lost classic rap album from 1998.

oh they just put a live version of "i" on here? that's lame, biggest misstep on the album imo

Yeah, this can get it.

you sound like you bout to fuck the album man

http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Idhitit.jpg

hoping this is the album that finally sells me on Kendrick. I really really want to like him but just haven't foudn that much of what he does clicks for me yet.

This is outstanding

oh they just put a live version of "i" on here? that's lame, biggest misstep on the album imo
― some dude, Monday, March 16, 2015

totally disagree, the song is already out there and everyone's had access to it for months. it reads to me more of a conscious statement of achievement and a lack of interest in staying put; fatuous for sure but i dunno what the standard version of "i" would've done here instead. Make your own mix and insert it there if you wanna.

these walls damn

barely even noticed the Snoop Dogg bit on the previous track, nice job by kendrick, he's not a guy who usually just blends in.

sufjan sample = credibility

wtg kendrick

Live i was dope

on first lesson, HOLY SHIT

i understand putting an alternate version of "i" on the album, in principle. i just don't think the live version sounds very good and has a sore thumb quality in the context of all the great studio tracks.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6502232/update-kendrick-lamars-to-pimp-a-butterfly-gets-accidental

xp workin' on our 'It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night' moves

xp weird, the album's definitely still on spotify

well within the context of the album, the live "i" is the culmination of fame and his being a public figure / speaker; it's the interior monologue running the length of "pimp" given a public megaphone, which leads nicely into the tupac interview as young artist explicitly tries to commune with legendary martyr
but then i never liked "i" much in the first place; i might feel differently if i was looking forward to it showing up in the mix
xp "butterfly" is still on spotify for me? Dunno what that billboard article is on about?

just made it 'available offline' as if that somehow means it can't be taken away ha

I definitely have the explicit version idk

would be kinda pointless to take it down bc anyone who was gonna put it up on the leak sites/torrent networks/etc. has prob already done so, right?

so they wouldn't really be preventing much of anything

This Dicka ain't FREE!!!

This is some next level shit...Lovin it!!!

woah on spotify

It's not on iTunes anymore. Apparently the problem might be with Target, who won't carry titles released digitally before physically.

also I didn't know people hated "i" so much! I always like it but i dunno I liked the kinda quasi kufi Brand New Heavies posi vibes

Yeah "i" has always been dope

King Kunta is so goddam catchy

i gotta bone to pick!

WHERE YOU WHEN I WAS WALKIN

dam funk is being pretty pass ag about this album on twitter

that's a really cool post I never knew I would make until now

lol yeah I thought the same thing

huh

the spread of weird evocative genre stuff on this record seems really interesting, a map almost; people are mentioning funk a lot, maybe there was less funk on other rap records lately idk, but just as much of it's built around jazz, built around bilal's d'angelo-y kinda chanting, west coast synths like on the last record, jumpy modern stonesthrow rips, &c. sorta surprised to see the flylo tweet about producing the first song, just cause so much else on it sounds like him too.

the spread of weird evocative genre stuff on this record seems really interesting, a map almost; people are mentioning funk a lot, maybe there was less funk on other rap records lately idk, but just as much of it's built around jazz, built around bilal's d'angelo-y kinda chanting, west coast synths like on the last record, jumpy modern stonesthrow rips, &c. sorta surprised to see the flylo tweet about producing the first song, just cause so much else on it sounds like him too.

― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Monday, March 16, 2015 9:23 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this flylo thing is true, but prob has more to do with thundercat being on everything (that sa ra guy as well). The sound of this album is pretty much the sound of a ton of la musicians right now. It's pretty shocking to me that an artist as huge as kendrick could really blow up this stonesthrow, brainfeeder, etc. sound.

been meaning to watch the stones throw doc on netflix...

oh shit it's on netflix

I mean at this point most of the current stonesthrow sound is defined by the poppier Leaving Records artists, so "stonesthrow" as a descriptor is just a huge shorthand

This sounds like New Amerykah-era Badu.

Dam Funk thinks an artist working with Dr. Dre is ripping him off by using funk on his album?

re: all the confusion over whether it's supposed to be out or not -

"The album has been taken off iTunes, though Top Dog Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith said he's 'working on getting the iTunes link fixed smh.' It's still available on Spotify."

not a fan of the live i

Listened to this a bit earlier, caught between finding it terrific and bizarre and finding it awkwardly mannered and self-regarding in a slightly dull way

Think I'm more in the pro camp though and expect further listens to confirm this

Appreciate its ambition & sonic palette

lol at the bungled release of this - is it out or not

This sounds like New Amerykah-era Badu.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 16, 2015 11:40 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

definitely get this vibe way more than Dam Funk

also "funk pastiche artist calls out other artist's funk pastiche" lmao

man what the fuck is wrong w/ dam funk is he kidding

he's jealous he wasn't asked to collaborate on the album

Musicians shouldn't be allowed to be on Twitter. Literally all of them should be banned.

recurrence of funk as a blanket term on dam funk's twitter account is almost hypnotic
like it's like reading the verbiage of a religious sect & zoning into the weird talismanic value of Thetans or whatever
very abstract allegiance

seems like a good place to say that the one ongoing regret of my ~8 years writing about music is my review of good kid. was assigned it just hours before it was out/due, didn't give it nearly enough time to set in, gave it a 4...editor said the review read more like a 3.5. i relented. two days later, i would've given it a 4.5. it's honestly a 5.

that said...i'm on track four, and i legitimately hate this.

love dam but i don't think his thing would have really fit on this

This sounds like New Amerykah-era Badu.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 16, 2015 11:40 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes

thundercat

It's kind of like listening to a twitter bot rapped out loud. I find his rapping quite annoying to listen to. That "For Sale" song is one of the most irritating songs I've ever heard. Keeps putting on these stupid annoying voices. His lyrics, when not talking about his dick, seem to trying to say something deep and meaningful but keep coming up short and pretty hollow.

boo boo

really gotta say i have no idea how "blacker the berry" is going to fit in here

xxp a bit harsh on his rapping but i find it the least interesting part of the album.

who let you in here

raccoons find their own way in

lol @ the number of updates in the pfork news item on this

A week ahead of its scheduled release date, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly is up for sale on iTunes. For the moment, only the clean version is on offer. UPDATE: The explicit version is up on iTunes now. UPDATE 2: The album is now on Spotify. Listen here. UPDATE 3: The album has been taken off iTunes, though Top Dog Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith said he's "working on getting the iTunes link fixed smh." It's still available on Spotify. UPDATE 4: The album is back on iTunes.

kind of admire the brass neck, for when ilx feels it has carte blanche to unload its collective urge to anger on an individual it will do so - there might as well be reward posters up everywhere

still not sure it's not a troll account though

xpost
it's like a Glen Greenwald post

really gotta say i have no idea how "blacker the berry" is going to fit in here

― soyrev, Monday, March 16, 2015 1:41 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it.....doesn't.

one listen but i wonder what songs are going to end up standing out. it's a very impressive piece of work but i feel like it's distancing itself somehow.

"You Ain't Gotta Lie" is the sneaky late-album earworm.

I feel Kendrick's whole style has been perfected here already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewh8ksIVePA

i am v enthusiastic about this record

u is fucking crazy

this is a Good Album with no real precedents, feel like we're like 'check out the contours of this fingerprint' and everyone's like 'outkast has HAD fingers'

this guy loves it. and he doesn't even know how to boil water!

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/16/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-first-listen-review

lol at the bungled release of this - is it out or not

srsly wtf

this is a major release by anybody's accounting, people need to get fired over how this has been handled

after filing that i immediately came down with a fever. kendrick made me ill!

(obvvvv i haven't remotely got my head around it but the opening three are quite some way to open an album)

(i like the live "i"; i had no attachment to the original but either version would have made sense at that point in the track listing; but i like the scratchiness of the live version, less polished than the original, in the context of this)

iovine leaves & interscope falls apart smh

I don't think the original "i" would have worked as well, at least not without a remix. It's too bright and peppy; the earthier tone of the album version is a better fit.

went through the album twice last night and the first half three times this morning, holding up very very well

Are we wasting time discussing its release (yawn) b/c we're still absorbing the album?

idk about what the standouts will be at the end of the day but i'd say the most accessible/standalone tracks all came out or leaked before the full album did

not heard this yet but just looking at the tracklisting, am getting a strong sense that this album is going to be pretty corny. did not want/do not want kendrick doing a funk album. or an avant-funk album. did not actually really want him doing a political album either. hes always seemed like someone who does introspection better than anything else. feel like it might be the massacre to good kid's get rich or die trying.

you're basing all that off of a tracklisting?

correct. also thinking dr dre didnt have much of a role on this album, which is also unfortunately why its likely to be kendrick's the massacre, or the doggfather.

i had never heard of rapsody before but her contribution is great

it's...pretty focused on introspection & how that plays into political/social attitudes, not really going on rants like someone trying to be the 2nd coming of stic.man (or worse, immortal technique)

/whispers/ dre didn't have the slighest role on GKMC other than bankrolling it & rapping on two tracks

Dre does backing vocals on one track, which is probably slightly more involvement than necessary from him in 2015

I like the live version of I and it's necessary at that point in the record - its very looseness means that it feels like a colossal release of tension after a very dense and tricky album. It's a victory lap and it works.

Album is completely overwhelming, after two tracks I was all ready to make a snarky comment about him having hit all his "ambition" KPIs but it just got more and more involving. I was actively irritated when Mortal Man faded out because I'd been hoping it was going to carry on being that good for the whole twelve minutes.

based solely on the track listing I think it's likely this is Kendrick's Confusion is Sex or Bulldozer EP

Are we wasting time discussing its release (yawn) b/c we're still absorbing the album?

I brought it up because I don't have it yet! no one sends me leaks etc

seriously I think the fact that several people have listened to the albuma second time or more is proof that it isn't The Doggfather or the Massacre

Based purely on the tracklisting, I believe this album is a sentient being sent here from Mars to study rhetoric at an Ivy League school.

not heard this yet but just looking at the tracklisting, am getting a strong sense that this album is going to be pretty corny. did not want/do not want kendrick doing a funk album. or an avant-funk album. did not actually really want him doing a political album either. hes always seemed like someone who does introspection better than anything else. feel like it might be the massacre to good kid's get rich or die trying.

― StillAdvance, Monday, March 16, 2015 3:08 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eight corn emoji

it is you who are the one who is corny

Yeah I'm glad there's not much involvement from Dr Dre on this. I was always worried that Kendrick would end up rapping on top of a beat made by Alex Da Kidd, featuring a hook by Skylar Grey or the guy from Imagine Dragons.

"it is you who are the one who is corny"

ooh!

let us see. am looking forward to hearing it.

kendrick has done plenty of wack and lame collaborations he just doesn't put them on his albums

pretty sure this is still on Spotify and youtube for you guys waiting for links or whatever

the youtube clips sound so terrible. gonna wait to hear it on cd. i mean i've heard enough to know i like it.

spotify is fucking garbage I will never patronize them

youtube clips are a terrible way to hear an album

based on the tracklisting this is actually cover of KMD's Black Bastards in its entirety done with the World's Most Dangerous Band from the David Letterman Show as his backing group

based on the tracklisting i've been listening to the album and couldn't tell you the names of half the songs but it's such a dope album i can't imagine why anyone would care
you guys should read the ingredients in your hot pockets this closely, be the change u wanna see

Listening on Spotify now. Totally lives up to the promise of i and The Blacker The Berry.

I love giving snap judgments abt music so I will post a couple here rn

i like this

I'm not into the first couple tracks, these walls is wonderful, really steely dan-y, that keypboard part in the middle's a really great move, I remember seeing sonnymoon randomly at low end a couple years ago and was blown away, glad anna wise is able to do work for wider audiences

I generally love shit that's all over the place in terms of cramming multiple tracks in one, but I'm not too into it here because the quality control is all over the place for me. I don't care about how the first half of u sounds but the second's something I would want to hear over and over.

I commented on FB earlier that I half expected an uncredited D'Angelo to pop up on this LP

"These Walls" and the George Clinton opener outdo most of good kid -- that's all the hyperbole I'll allow myselfbefore the evening cocktail.

I'm assuming that's kamasi washington all over this so far, his sound's really well integrated into this

Feel like the discourse around this album is going to be an extended game of pomposity trumps so let's get the ball rolling:

RedBullMusicAcademy @RBMA · 3h 3 hours ago
The feeling when you've written yet another Great American Novel. #ToPimpAButterfly

well he subtitled good kid a "short film" so he sort of encourages it

that tweet is going to be studied in college classes in the future

lol i thought last night "ppl are gonna hella describe this album as 'novelistic'" thx redbull

these walls was a song I enjoyed that's the end of my liveblog for now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrc0KepIM3o

lol

who the fuck invented that stupid jump-cut vlogger editing style?

Jean-Luc Godard

...

'm assuming that's kamasi washington all over this so far, his sound's really well integrated into this

As far as I can tell he's on one track? Majority of the sax is Terrace Martin

It's irritating, but at least it's not obnoxious like the editting in an Anthony Fantano review.

i was wishing there were some way i could understand this album through the perspective of a pair of meet-cute upper middle class vloggers... and now there is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J4ND7oby0w

"touring with kanye, he might have gotten a little bit of influence to do all that soul stuff"
willywonka.jpeg

lol, dude gave it off the top of his head an "8.8"
WITH AUTHORITY

is that what people think music nerds look like now : /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrc0KepIM3o

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA STOP STOP STOPPLEASE STOP

Sorry for blowing up your youtube channel raccoon taunki

Nah. People probably think they look like Anthony Fantano, what with him being Internet's busiest one.

burn down youtube

anthony fantano is so busy running albums' metacritic summary pages through google translate and back again then reading the results to his culturally astute fans

there's no way that's not a really fucking smart satire? Is it? Are all americans like this?If so, it really is the greatest contry on the planet.

not heard this yet but just looking at the tracklisting, am getting a strong sense that this album is going to be pretty corny.

why would somebody post this. like I can see how you might have the thought before you went "oh, right, that's a ridiculous way of thinking" but why would one actually say it where other people can read it.

kendrick has done plenty of wack and lame collaborations he just doesn't put them on his albums

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 16, 2015 4:31 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

aw man this record is fucking great

do people ever think twice about having kendrick do guest verses on their tracks? he's definitely got that eminem steal the show ability. and i definitely listen to songs i would never listen to because he's on them. which was also true of eminem a million zillion years ago when the world was younger.

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

― some dude, Monday, March 16, 2015 8:34 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

I thought htis was a joke post

Holy shit

oh yeah, ditching that Gaga version was a decision akin to Marky Mark not taking that plane on 9/11

the gaga version is fine tbh

um, well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZHCUppGEUI

i would probably not have listened to this song a quarter as many times with gaga on it tbh

like maybe a tenth? a hundredth? it's not fine tbh

*newsflash*

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-on-his-new-album-and-the-weight-of-clarity.html

But to call “To Pimp a Butterfly” a political record “would be shortchanging it,” Mr. Lamar said. “It’s a record full of strength and courage and honesty” but also “growth and acknowledgment and denial.”

“I want you to get angry — I want you to get happy,” he said. “I want you to feel disgusted. I want you to feel uncomfortable.”

so it's a political record.

ah c'mon man one can see his point there.

the piano riff on "how much a dollar cost" reminds me of radiohead's "pyramid song" which means it's one of my favorites right off the bat

wow i never look at kanye's twitter, just see his mean mug at fashion show pictures everywhere, so this level of posi is kinda a shock

KANYE WEST ‏@kanyewest 1h1 hour ago

KENDRICK IS AN INSPIRATION. THANK YOU FOR THE VIBRATIONS AND THE SPIRIT. YOUR MEANING, MESSAGE AND EXECUTION ARE GIFTS TO THE WORLD.

kanye...otm. (maybe the first and last time i ever say that...)

c'mon guys

kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him

times piece is v astute
also really lovely thomas struth style studio portrait

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/22/arts/22LAMARJP3/22LAMARJP3-articleLarge.jpg

"kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him"

otm. he more than compensates for his curmudgeon moments.

speaking of, though, this record is a real mess. i would be surprised if i came around hard on it, but even moreso if anyone's half as positive about it by year-end season.

I will take that bet

The latter bit atleast

totes taking the over on the bet's latter half

man "blacker the berry" is still so incredible though

the funk stuff is okay but i feel like either the track or kendrick is doing something in the general spectrum of 'uninteresting' to 'regrettable' at any given time...and when that's not the case, the overall effect still feels modest. the idea of a funkadelic/badu/stankonia/funkiest of g-funk/"uptown funk" (haha sorry, only for a song or two)/edan psychedelic rap record is intriguing but if this is the result maybe he really should've called dam funk. idk

there are definitely some keeper tracks here for me -- really liking "you ain't gotta lie" rn -- but on the whole...

i'd bet that there would be people who think more positively about the album by year-end season. i was more immediately drawn to section.80 and GKMC but this album only continues to grow on me with each revisit.

i'm happy that there's a rapper like kendrick lamar--a rapper for "real" hip hop fans who like "real hip hop"--who is so darn good at using his fluctuations in tone as a propulsive element, among other things. like, that stuff was (and to an extent still is) seen as super gimmicky and a sign of weakness.

All the criticisms itt are lame AF. Which is not to say this album is beyond criticism but considering the obvious depth to this album I feel like u really gotta put 1/1000th of the effort into tackling it that he did making it, at least

@D-40 youtube's thattaway

this record rules, owns its length

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzfLwVRoOnI

Really diggin' These Walls, Alright, For Sale, and Complexion (A Zulu Love)

All the criticisms itt are lame AF.

You hear that Win Butler? The criticisms are lame!

So for the record I'm loving this album but I still think the question of whether Kendrick's novelistic, allegory prone way of constructing his albums ultimately takes something away from his art is wort discussing. On the one hand, the artful construction obviously makes his work stand apart from his peers. On the other it betrays his need to be somewhere else (in the architecture and the dramatizing of an idea) rather than fully present in the moment, in a genre largely built on presence. Also, the allegory/story arc here is in many ways very similar to the gkmc one, with tracks placed similarly: the youthful release of the early King Kunta mirroring the placing of Backseat Freestyle, the crisis points in the middle and the ending with Pac echoing the transcendence of Compton with Dre. The two albums are sonically different, but they're also very much alike - so much so that I'm wondering if this story arc/myth is what we'll have to expect even from upcoming albums. Your thoughts, please?

"why would somebody post this. like I can see how you might have the thought before you went "oh, right, that's a ridiculous way of thinking" but why would one actually say it where other people can read it."

i was just being flippant; plus sometimes its fun to make ridiculous predictions on what you see on paper/screen. but i want to listen to it - even if its not perfect, and god knows any political rap gets a much harsher reception than any other kinds of rap, so kudos to kendrick for being someone with such a high profile taking a chance to 'say something', even if how he says it might not be perfect. and if it makes people think about other more political rappers already out there, or just deem being engaged in that way is okay, then hey, good job (of course, i would love it if this were his nation of millions or whatever, but its okay if it isnt).

i find kendricks more literary approach a nice change from the usual first person POV of most rap, but at the same time, it does make it seem a bit distancing. i suppose thats why i was drawing parallels with prince among thieves - its sometimes like hes playing a role rather than really putting himself fully into the song, which can make it hard for you to really identify with it. but should prob wait to hear the album first lol.

xpost next album will be Tales from the Topographic Compton

lol

Listening on shuffle on the bus today helped a few more tracks stand out, and also emphasized the little intros/outros I'd love to hear expanded on (eg the "Momma" outro and whichever song has that Bill Withers-y instrumental opening). I like his sung hooks eg "You Ain't Gotta Lie" - he has an unusually good sense of what he can and can't pull off effectively as a vocalist imo

I sort of love how this entire album sounds like the buried backend of some other 78 minute album I couldn't make it through.

u really gotta put 1/1000th of the effort into tackling it that he did making it, at least

IAWTC which is why people publishing reviews of it less than 24 hours after they've heard it seems so genuinely stupid to me

like, this is clearly a complex work, nobody gives a shit about another "here's how I felt the first time I heard it!" reading, save that shit for music nobody's playing a year later. (threads on music boards are not what I'm talking abt btw, these & social media seem like good spaces for parsing real-time reactions, but "first look!" reviews...so pointless and gross imo)

what's that sample on "How Much a Dollar Cost?" it's totally David Axelrod right? I feel like I've heard it before but I can't place it

A lot of people have compared it to Radiohead's Pyramid Song.

xp wikipedia does not list any samples on that track

hmmm i swear that's axelrod but maybe i'm wrong

also who's does the dancehall hook on blacker the berry? no one is listed on the spotify tracklist

ok i guess i could fuckin google some guy named Assassin

also who's does the dancehall hook on blacker the berry? no one is listed on the spotify tracklist

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, March 17, 2015 3:03 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

assassin - http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/03/12/392541701/assassin-raps-best-kept-secret

thx for the link lex

don't really dig the michael jackson child abuse apologist line :/

:/

kendrick has done plenty of wack and lame collaborations he just doesn't put them on his albums

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 16, 2015 4:31 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

― some dude, Monday, March 16, 2015 8:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol the interview i did with him in 2012 is like 30% about lady gaga :-/ http://pitchfork.com/features/update/8966-kendrick-lamar/

what's the Jackson line?

Is it Jackie, is it Jesse, oh I know, it's Michael Jackson, oh / ... / That nigga gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids? / When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

answer: no

granted i don't know, but i'd bet that's more him asking a question than it is him giving dap to an alleged pederast

"you say he touched those kids" reads defensive

so does citing a song as justification for "shit hit(ting) the fan"

this is obviously heartfelt, but i think it also illustrates the perils of writing about something after listening for a day:

http://themuse.jezebel.com/the-overwhelming-blackness-of-kendrick-lamars-butterfly-1691770606

"I don't know what all this means yet, so I'd rather not make this neat, like I usually do."

like the "that n---a gave us billie jean" line seems like a question asked in a voice that isn't his own and i thought might be intended to rep. the black community at large. re: the second part, i dunno, kendrick doesn't seem like the guy for whom that line means, "obvs we gotta stand by our massively culturally significant dude even if he did this shit"

granted i don't know, but i'd bet that's more him asking a question than it is him giving dap to an alleged pederast

― slothroprhymes, Tuesday, March 17, 2015

I haven't listened to the album enough, but that's how it sounds to me?

piece on the artwork if its not been posted -
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/11/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-album-cover

"That apprehension is overruled, as usual, by a nagging desire to drain the brain of its thick thoughts. It's a force that compels you to at least attempt to analyze—and ultimately judge—a wholeness that's impossible to capture."

can't help but think it might be easier to capture if you listened to the album for three days!

"This is a special album, and that won't change. But I already need a break from it. I gotta get away from it. Its blackness is way too vast."

one day was one day too long!

The NRA just released a statement guys: “In the wake of this tragic early album release, now is not the time for hot takes by vloggers or assignments of canonical status by twitics. It's time for the families and communities to groove.”

aww opening with a Boris Gardiner sample! sold on this already

can't help but think it might be easier to capture if you listened to the album for three days!
― scott seward

as someone that works in editorial can i just say that the gulf between what people SAY they want and appreciate and what they actually click on in practice makes the grand canyon look like a pothole

boobs

*6 former child actors who now look like roadkill* kinda hard to pass up...

i heard the michael jackson line as flipping of the chorus. are you still a fan even when the shit hits the fan in a way that makes the object of your fandom a genuine monster? you can read it either way you want, depending on how you feel about the allegations, depending on whose truth you want to rep for, who you're a fan of

i have to say i never thought i'd be digging "jazzy" hip hop in 2015 but this album is immense

*6 former child actors who now look like roadkill* kinda hard to pass up...

― scott seward, Tuesday, March 17, 2015 12:00 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*scribbles in notepad* hey scott is it cool if i use that?

the system has turned against writers who want to sit and think about things, clover getting out what she did considering the constraints on everyone is actually an accomplishment

Agreed.

and good luck trying to pitch a piece on this in 4-5 months' time after it's actually had time to sink in

interested in longneck's post upthread, too ill for my brain to respond but would you mind expanding on this?

On the other it betrays his need to be somewhere else (in the architecture and the dramatizing of an idea) rather than fully present in the moment, in a genre largely built on presence.

bc i think i see what you mean in one sense but disagree that kendrick actually sounds detached from the moment...

"and good luck trying to pitch a piece on this in 4-5 months' time after it's actually had time to sink in"

how about a week? to actually live with the thing and let it sink in a bit...

what is this beat on institutionalized it's like it doesn't even have a tempo lol

I kinda hate that stupid fucking poem.

There are definitely things here that probably sound like they'd fit on that Common album everyone hated

which one

last common album was dope fuiud

It's all a remake of The Wall, right?

Electric Circus?

yes

the musicianship here is a lot more thorough IMO

I never heard Electric Circus but I would assume there's spoken word poetry involved

man this whole thing *really* feels like a Quik vibe, surprised he's not on here tbh

it's been forever since i listened to electric circus but iirc it mostly fails bc common is the weakest link in it?

the last common album was dope yes

That's heaven to me

holy shit re: Complexion

What an amazing record. I don't have anything else insightful to say about it right now, except it feels like a record with dealing with imagination and politics in a way that would have seemed impossible in 2015. It also sounds great.

incidentally this record doesn't feel like a mess to me at all. every element of it seems very considered, it's just long and occasionally mercurial

the only song I'm eh on is "u."

that song is key to the whole shit

This album has so many peaks that any song is key.

everyone except any debbie downer otm

WHAT'S THE YAMS?!

The lyrics on How Much Does a Dollar Cost are so so bad, but the beat is one of the best on the record. But I'm out on the whole concept thing with this, I don't find it profound at all.

haven't had a chance to listen to this yet so i'm gonna play the whole album on my radio show tonight, fuck it

we won't tell

such an excellent thing to do imo

oh wow

(this is good)

ok first impresh ~ 30 mins in

- someone had to say it: not as good as GKMC
- ...but it's good... really good
- production a smidge too cluttered
- don't wanna be a downer though... it bangs
- 'king kunta' the standout so far, 'for sale? (interlude)' another highlight

It's better.

It took a few full-album listens for me to fully appreciate what a killer opener "Wesley's Theory" is

lol "it's better" cmon now

I like GKMC a lot too, but I immediately liked this more. Taste, what can ya do?

Man, EVERY TIME "For Free?" starts with those low sax notes I think my phone is ringing on vibrate.

It's better.

― warm winds and clear skies, Tuesday, March 17, 2015 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

man talking about music with people is the pits

It's better.

Mods, close this thread for a week.

no one talking about how bad his rapping is

i'm not anti this album or anything, just surprised everyone skipping over the rapping part of the rap albm

the start of "for free?" kinda hits a sour note...it's like a mean-spirited parody of "lookin' ass" or something. not sure whether the amazing music/twist at the end outweigh it

If he knew how to write a hook/have even mildly insightful something to say other than pussy/money/his dick/ maybe his rapping skills could be put to some use. Usually his production is solid enough. The Art of Peer Pressure was pretty good, more focused. But he doesn't have enough verbal dexterity or technique to pull off his cliched lyrics.

― Raccoon Tanuki, Wednesday, September 24, 2014 3:52 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

more insight on Kendrick from Rac's On Rac's On Rac's

I think "better" or "worse" are sort of bad terms in this discussion, I think at this point we should agree that Kendrick is a significant album artist and this section 80 and good kid are all interesting entries in his career, they all bring different themes & vibes & musicality to the table but that's why I think people perceive him as maybe a cut above a lot of rappers now

^

I agree that he's a significant artist, and so far I like this better than GKMC -- but with the caveat that I never really got on board with that one, despite repeat efforts. I hate to be That Guy, but ... I wish he was more fun. I wish he had more fun.

That said -- I like the first track, "King Kunta," "u," "Alright," "Hood Politics" and "i" all plenty -- and they are hardly joyless.

this dick ain't FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Right, more of that basically.

heh i didn't even notice the radiohead beat on my first listen thru since theres so much else going on

The K.Dot part of that song was like slam poetry/50s speakeasy whoa, I'm still not sure if I admire it or am amused by it

(basically it'll be late summer before i know how I feel about this album really)

I love this album so much. I think I've listened to it 10x now. Favourite part is the rap-crying bit in 'u', I thought it was a bit silly at first, but love it now.

this is really insanely good. trying to remember the last time I was so bowled over by a rap record this dense, rich etc. it's been awhile

This album's longer than my first bad mushroom trip.

(It's significantly more enjoyable however.)

it is very trippy.

still really looking forward to a black hippy album. hope it happens someday.

what does that mean exactly

he hopes that they do a black hippy album w/the crew?

Black Hippy is the rap collective that Kendrick came up as part of

oh!

i am trying to imagine what you thought that might mean

I thought he was describing a sound or something, which is why I was confused.

Too bad he's the only one of them making music worth a damn.

yeah he outshines the rest by so far I would think such an enterprise would be fraught with battling egos, concessions, etc.

i prefer this to good kid but i was always more impressed with good kid than i actually loved it

I've been slow to warm to him - didn't like Section 80 at all and maybe heard Good Kid like twice before forgetting about it but this one has definitely grabbed me

I cherrypicked with GKMC but I let this one run the whole way

Too bad he's the only one of them making music worth a damn.

― longneck, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 12:39 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

schoolboy Q's habits & contradictions and oxymoron are both good and occasionally excellent imo but a lot of ppl were very disappointed by oxymoron

as for the other guys, ab-soul and jay rock are only ever good as feature rappers (and sometimes soul especially is meh), the isaiah rashad album was solid but i need to hear more from him before making an informed qualitative judgment

i like absoul's work quite a lot. Schoolboy prior to oxymoron is great and even oxy is pretty good. Rashad's first feature was excellent. jay has never clicked for me.

This album is exhausting.

Part of why I never jumped in on Lamar is that my feeling was (and still remains, mostly) that the other Black Hippy guys were more interesting/better

This is shifting somewhat because Ab Soul and Schoolboy Q have fallen off in the past 12 months

Rashad and KL seem to have the most potential to be great out of the BH crew. KL's already demonstrated that. Really looking forward to a proper Isaiah Rashad album.

Jay Rock's 'Follow Me Home' is really good.

I liked Cilvia Demo a lot last year but have grown to love it in the last couple weeks.

no one talking about how bad his rapping is

― Arctic Noon Auk, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 1:02 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bc no one agrees with you

All of Q's albums have really great moments but are inconsistent.

Ab-Soul's Control System is totally on par with Section.80, if maybe not the last two Kendrick albums, but the album he put out last year was dook bootie.

Jay Rock's been killing everything he touches but just can't get it together to release his own project, which I would highly anticipate. Follow Me Home was pretty good but that was years ago.

Jay Rock has improved a lot since his first album

what Rev' said

rev otm

no one talking about how bad his rapping is

― Arctic Noon Auk, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 1:02 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also no one talking about how this is a Bluegrass album

no one is talking about how many garbage cans racoons knock over

meanwhile, in the fucking drake thread

late to this, best of the year so far.

― Arctic Noon Auk, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 8:20 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looooooool

yes, but you see, Drake is deep

this is good but its not a drake mixtape

All of Q's albums have really great moments but are inconsistent.

Ab-Soul's Control System is totally on par with Section.80, if maybe not the last two Kendrick albums, but the album he put out last year was dook bootie.

Jay Rock's been killing everything he touches but just can't get it together to release his own project, which I would highly anticipate. Follow Me Home was pretty good but that was years ago.

― raih dednelb (The Reverend), Wednesday, March 18, 2015 1:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

word, I check itunes for new Jay Rock stuff at least monthly

great q&a with rapsody about her guest verse:

http://www.mtv.com/news/2106673/rapsody-kendrick-lamar-complexion-a-zulu-love-to-pimp-a-butterfly/

i really liked the last schoolboy q album!

TPAB things I don't like :

Musically some beats are kinda slight compared to the rest of the album (for sale, complexion, you ain't gotta lie)
live version of I
"the ghost of mandela"/ ridiculous tupac interview.

http://rapmusichysteria.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-conclusion-to-pimp-butterfly-is-very.html

the beats dont bother me; some of the vocals do. fauntleroy sounds amazing of course

by vocals i obviously dont mean kendrick who kills it

That leads me to wonder, what is the rap music Hysteria ?

it's not NOT a rap album

(xps)