Kendrick Lamar - 2017 Album - DAMN

Sit down, be humble

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsucJR9pk6A

Great song
Was thinking that Black Hippy might be the strongest crew of rappers overall since the Juice Crew

Wu-Tang

he cares way more about drake than he should, and manage to make tracks caring about drake sounds really really good.

*whispers* this new song is not that good

what does he have against Bismack Biyombo

Video is excellent

New song seems a real step backwards

i wouldn't say so. not what i expected from him, but i like it.

This video is great, but I can't imagine ever listening to the song.

song is great. classic bay mobb beat >>>>

I like it. Obviously I would love another album of live band jazz weirdness, but this reminds me he sounds great over a str8-up banger. And it's only three minutes! Really succeeds at hyping me up for the new album.

Kendrick is in at least three of this decade's ten best music videos.

he cares way more about drake than he should, and manage to make tracks caring about drake sounds really really good.

"The Heart Pt. 4" was definitely aimed (at least partly) at Drake, but I think this song is aimed more at Kendrick's competition as a whole. Though Drake will probably take it as a singularly personal affront...

The line "Watch my soul speak, you let the meds talk" could be directed at a number of rappers (Future?), but not Drake. Anyways, this video's been on repeat for me; favorite thing he's done since GKMC.

I like this. I don't love it.

The video is awesome tho

Wu-Tang

― Οὖτις, Thursday, March 30, 2017 7:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was excluding groups like NWA, Wu-Tang, Goodie Mob because I guess I feel like they are groups not crews

(even tho marley did the juice crew all stars album but i don't feel like that counts, the Juice Crew were perceived as solo artists first and foremost)

rad video, bland song

song is great. classic bay mobb beat >>>>

― Lebro v. Wade (Spottie), Friday, March 31, 2017 2:41 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah love the beat, was thinking it could be an E-40 beat

humble def feels aimed at the rap market more than anything he's done since gkmc

UMS otm. Great video too

people who like this otm

The line "Watch my soul speak, you let the meds talk" could be directed at a number of rappers (Future?), but not Drake. Anyways, this video's been on repeat for me; favorite thing he's done since GKMC.

― Handsome Bookor, Friday, March 31, 2017 7:54 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Idk about this like but some of this is directed at big Sean. He even parodied one of his videos w the weird camera effects at the end

*idk about this *line**

Anyway I like this song.

What's his beef with Big Sean? He seems like a guy who can be safely ignored (by Kendrick, but also by me)

I like the song, wonder if it's a little bit of a headfake in the vein of "i" -- leading with a straightforward track and following with a more complex album.

Yeah, I like this but I'm not bowled over by it.

i think its liable to take off as a club record which means ppl will come around on it a lot

what does he have against Bismack Biyombo

― lettered and hapful (symsymsym), Friday, March 31, 2017 1:52 AM (sixteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't un-hear

deej otm

Yeah, deej is right. Kendrick doesn't really do club songs but when thevibe is right, Allright will tear down any venue. This tries to do something with that same energy. I haven't heard it out yet but I predict it could be huge.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/album/id1223585496

I guess he's making up for Butterfly coming out a week early by making this one come out a week late.

Track 1: K. Duckworth, D. Tannenbaum & Anthony Tiffith
Track 2: K. Duckworth & M. Williams II
Track 3: K. Duckworth, M. Spears, D. Natche & Anthony Tiffith
Track 4: K. Duckworth, M. Spears, J. Blake & R Riera
Track 5: K. Duckworth & M. Spears
Track 6: K. Duckworth, D. Natche, M. Spears, Anthony Tiffith & T. Martin
Track 7: K. Duckworth, S. Lacy, A. Wise & Anthony Tiffith
Humble: K. Duckworth & M. Williams II
Track 9: K. Duckworth, D. Natche, M. Spears, C. Hansen, A. Sowinski, M Tavares & L. Whitty
Track 10: K. Duckworth, Z. Pacaldo, T. Walton, M. Spears, G. Kurstin & Anthony Tiffith
Track 11: K. Duckworth, M. Williams II, D. Natche, M. Spears, Anthony Tiffith, P. Hewson, D. Evans, A. Clayton & L. Mullen
Track 12: K. Duckworth & D. Maman
Track 13: K. Duckworth, R Riera, M. Spears, D. Natche, D. Tannenbaum, Anthony Tiffith & R. LaTour
Track 14: K. Duckworth & P. Douthit

I'm out

lol

I'm hoping it's something off Zooropa that's been sampled, rather than The Joshua Tree ...

"My Mami" feat Anna Wise

The U2 thing is apparently not a sample, but a track he sat down and co-wrote with them. Urgh.

That's a really, really bad sign for this record.

Or is it? Another news article says it's a sample. Hmmm.

Settle down everyone it's gonna be ok

I don't like "Humble" much – some of the rhymes sound second-tier to me and his flow awkward.

Remember how Elton John ruined that ATCQ album?

maybe it will be like a U2 album because it will be in my iTunes as soon as it comes out

I hope it's a five minute interlude of bono dissing big sean

god forbid a rapper samples/collaborates with somebody uncool

what a game-changer that would be

"humble" is great imo

i dig it a lot

was telling my wife the other night that career-wise, I think Kendrick Lamar needs a huge hit with his next record. Guessing the U2 collab is efforts towards that. Somehow.

I would have guessed the G. Kurstin credit on track ten would be his effort towards a huge hit.

he just sold 277K of untitled, unmastered which is more than a lot of rappers with hit singles sell and that's just an odds and sods comp

not really meaning in terms of sales alone, but breaking through into the next level of pop stardom a la Kanye, Adele, superbowl halftime, popular culture awareness stuff. ie the level at which my mom can hum a Kendrick Lamar tune from memory

don't think the Hot 100 is set up to allow a hip hop guy that kind of cultural ubiquity anymore

can your mom hum a Drake tune?

did hotline bling get to that point?

my mom only listens to her Pandora Eagles station

what if the u2 joint is good

xp
maybe, I haven't asked her

not really meaning in terms of sales alone, but breaking through into the next level of pop stardom a la Kanye, Adele, superbowl halftime, popular culture awareness stuff. ie the level at which my mom can hum a Kendrick Lamar tune from memory

― Dominique, Friday, April 7, 2017 2:53 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hope this never happens.

Like, seriously, Kendrick Lamar is above all that kinda shit, IMO.

the only way to get to that level is to suck on some level imo

"Swimming Pool" only peaked in the top 20 but was pretty inescapable that fall

Tribe + Elton was somehow great so one never knows

"Bennie & the Jets" was a hit on R&B radio in the early '70s, which helps.

U2 had a few tunes in the 80's iirc

but yes, reasonable point. U2 has not yet done a live collab with eminem tho so i call a draw.

‘Cause we need a little controversy
‘Cause it feels so empty with or without you

i guess i don't feel like anything is inescapable anymore

of course it isn't we're all gonna die before 2020

but hopefully not before we get to hear this album

I like the song, wonder if it's a little bit of a headfake in the vein of "i" -- leading with a straightforward track and following with a more complex album.

Yeah, that's kinda my feeling, that To Pimp a Butterfly was such a burst of creativity that I'd be very surprised if he followed it up with something more "complex" (for want of a better term) ... I'm very interested in where he goes from here, of course, but I'll be very surprised if the new record goes above and beyond what he's done so far.

(I am expecting it to be good, though)

so weird to read ppl write about kendrick like hes some underground star instead of a mega celebrity

what if the u2 joint is good
― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Friday, 7 April 2017 15:07 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/UP5GqgW.jpg

lmao

more Ezra pics plz

Lamar launches at No. 2 on the Hot 100 with "Humble.," marking his fourth top 10 and first in a lead role. (He's tallied one No. 1: as featured on Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" in 2015.) "Humble." blasts in at No. 1 on Streaming Songs (49.8 million), the audio subscription services-based On-Demand Streaming Songs chart (33.2 million on-demand U.S. streams) and Digital Song Sales (111,000). The track is Lamar's first No. 1 on the two streaming tallies and second on the sales chart (following "Bad Blood").

Impressively, "Humble." is the first rap song to debut as high as No. 2 on the Hot 100 in nearly seven years, since Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie," featuring Rihanna, also bowed at No. 2, on July 10, 2010.

those stats are meaningless

most chart stats are. in short the single is catching on and fairly quickly (tho surprise surprise, radio is going to lag far behind)

It's not that they're meaningless - more that meaning is changing. The fact that Kodak Black has had the most streamed song after Ed Sheeran for two weeks only to be replaced by Kendrick surely tells us something about the new market. It's more that we'll probably see a new record set every week, more or less, as the new chart era consolidates itself.

yeah this is why i hate billboard chart 'records' that are almost never evaluated in the context of how the data is (and used to be) compiled wrt major market shifts that have occurred. sadly tho that kind of trivia has been a fixture of the culture surrounding chartwatching since like the 80s afaict? and it's the kinda shit that gets lots of rts/shares on social media now so billboard will prob keep churning those factoids out.

i came around on humble over the weekend

I forgot he was on Bad Blood.

So did he.

http://pitchfork.com/news/72459-kendrick-lamar-enlists-rihanna-and-u2-for-new-album-damn/

hmmmmmm

rihanna and u2 for new album damn

The new Jacko album has both Paul McCartney *and* Eddie Van Halen on it. Guys, it's over, this is officially going to be a disaster.

this is gonna bang, everybody sit down

Few phrases instill such deep dread in me like "featuring u2"

"featuring Iggy Azalea"

"produced by Calvin Harris"

"written by Ryan Tedder"

basically it can always get worse

oh there is much worse than all these : "by David Guetta"

"Yeah I just want you guys as my backing band."

"Sure thing, we're all on board."

"Wait, what do I do?"

"You take a well-deserved break, Bono."

"But I'm not tired!"

"Ha ha, yes you are."

Thanks Dan for making me see some light at the end of the tunnel.

"featuring Matt Healy"

"based on an original poem by Cocorosie"

These are all the remixes to this, aren't they?

Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever

"contains an interpolation of 'Agadoo' by Black Lace"

mash-up : Kendrick Astley

did he write a song about tammy duckworth

He did it pro bono.

not sure how i feel about the album artwork

"DAMN" in times new roman idk man

I'm guessing he deliberately went out of his way to make the artwork that naff.

DAMN.

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

hyped

Hell yeah.

I'm going to line up at midnight outside a building where a Tower Records used to be

Stay up all night waitin' on that pre-order to download.

well the u2 part did ruin an incredible song otherwise.

I get the sense this leaked somewhere.

LOL @ all the one word titles

yeah so this is amazing so far

lol at the cable news anchors at the beginning

U2 didn't ruin the song imo. Amazing album.

yeah i didn't even notice them

i don't like it as much as to pimp a butterfly but it's great

ELEMENT. is fiiiiiaaaaahhhhhhh

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Logo_Paul.png/220px-Logo_Paul.png

LOVE.

damn

this is good

"What happens on Earth stays on Earth"

yea this is p good

"feel" is where it kinda clicked in for me

guy's got talent

I'm halfway through and this is really good. "Feel" is a great track and "Pride" has this dreamy Prince vibe

Really? After three listens this sounds like at best a mixed bag. The album runs aground on "Pride," "Lust, and "Love." I don't want slow from Kendrick Lamar.

I love "Pride."

The version on Spotify has some noticeable differences from the leaked version.

The Zacari one is the first track I'm not keen on

Rihanna track is fire tbh

unsurprisingly this sounds great

not even Bono can ruin XXX

I liked that one. first impression is that is kind of a "smoke break" record for Kendrick, like the exhale before his next BIG project

I liked that one. first impression is that is kind of a "smoke break" record for Kendrick, like the exhale before his next BIG project

My brother texted me this morning and said there's rumors of another album on Easter (the M in DAMN on the cover makes devil horns, next cover would include an O I guess and act as a halo).

This is great!

First passthrough, DNA is my favorite. Kung Fu Kenny breathing fire.

DAMN

i am loving this

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/14/15300170/kendrick-lamar-new-album-damn-sunday-more-music-conspiracy

DNA also the standout for me first time through, but that could be just because of its placement on the album. as with his other albums, I think it's gonna take me a few listens before it really sinks in but it had that quality that makes me want to go back to it

My brother texted me this morning and said there's rumors of another album on Easter (the M in DAMN on the cover makes devil horns, next cover would include an O I guess and act as a halo).

next record will be called DANIEL!

why are we speculating about another album so much? we have a new one today and it is excellent

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/kendrick-lamar-double-album.html

dumbasses on the internet are gonna be disappointed that we didn't get TWO new Kendrick albums

Wasn't U2's last album supposed to be 2 parts too?

wait a minute...
U2 is on the album.
U2 has the number 2 in this name.
Kendrick dropped 1 album today

WHERE'S NUMBER 2???

*its name, not this name

yea it is just so dumb. if he drops another that would be dope but people have immediately moved on to anticipating the next thing when the fucking album dropped TODAY

currently on LUST. and am digging this a lot

although, surprisingly, I'm not sure I'm digging it enough to knock Drab Majesty out of its current "must play once a day" spot in my routine

(Of course, what this means is by the end of the day I will be proclaiming this the best album ever recorded and listing every track as my favorite.)

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm holy shit @ XXX (I have not gotten to the Bono part yet)

Yeah, I'm still into it even after Bono's entrance, ppl like hating I guess

Bono's appearance is pretty good! His persona has subsumed his music for so long that people forget that he actually has a really cool sounding voice. It helps that he's the most subdued he's been in decades.

this is a fine record, looking forward to ignoring all the whig history people will be spouting over the next few weeks, Bono kinda doesn't even sound like Bono good work tick tick tick

i didn't even notice Bono when I listened to this last night

yeah me neither. success!

I'll spare you the track-by-track review my 12-year-son and I posted on FB, but here's the sum-up:

Dad: If GKMC was the launch and TPAB the triple backflip with a twist, DAMN. is the well-stuck landing. With a few logy exceptions, it’s terse, focused and fierce. He’s as good as he thinks he is, and where he has weaknesses, he knows those, too. 8/10

Zoller: A good album it has its weak points yes but when the good tracks come in you are in for a treat. If you could get past the weak tracks, I would recommend the album for you. 8/10

(Tracks we both awarded 8/10 or better: DNA, ELEMENT, FEEL, PRIDE, HUMBLE, LOVE)

U2 lay back and did what they had to do, not really worth talking about tbh

this is a really good spring for new music

http://www.spin.com/2017/04/kendrick-lamar-fans-are-already-spinning-conspiracy-theories-about-a-second-new-album/

Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about this album.

It bangs. I am falling in love with it. I want to play DNA. 800 times in a row.

http://www.spin.com/2017/04/kendrick-lamar-fans-are-such-ungrateful-dorks-that-they-already-forgot-about-this-dope-album-released-today-and-are-being-corny-as-fuck-spinning-conspiracy-theories-about-a-second-new-album/

lol the same thing happened with Radiohead last year

Yah, Feel, LOYALTY. Lust, Love, so many highs on this and I haven't even made it to the end!

HEY YOU KNOW WHAT BE EVEN COOLER THAN A NEW KENDRICK LAMAR ALBUM??? TWO ALBUMS!!!! HAAA!!! A MORPHEUS MEME!!!

The beat in the middle section of XXX is amazing. Holy shit. The only bad thing about the U2 collaboration is that it interrupts this beat and that's a minor miracle. Good Friday, indeed.

Fear/God/Duckworth is some of Kendrick's best storytelling.

DNA.

DNA.

― ||||||||, Friday, April 14, 2017 3:00 PM

Duckworth is definitely a highlight and a crazy story if true (which it prob isn't)

i love the sound of the sexy line on ELEMENT.

I'd love to see a rundown of all the Drake jabs on this album.

I'm on my third listen already and it's getting better with each listen. Also, marcos OTM, people have been waiting quite a while for this album to come out, so I'd rather see discussion about it without it being hijacked by some idiot hipster Pitchforkian psuedo-Radiohead-fanboy conspiracy theory rumour mill bullshit.

This album rules.

yea this is really good

those keyboards on GOD

DNA.

― ||||||||, Friday, April 14, 2017 3:00 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DNA.

― ||||||||, Friday, April 14, 2017 3:00 PM

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, April 14, 2017 3:21 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even the cover art is growing on me a lot

I'd love to see a rundown of all the Drake jabs on this album.

someone will have to point these out to me, since I remain blissfully oblivious to the nuances of Drake's output

cover art suits the album. no frills just good rap

Slate has an article that Damn is "Finally available" today. Yes, this album we found out about a few weeks ago by an artist with two releases in the past two years is probably the new Chinese Democracy.

In a world...where Future drops two albums in two weeks...

PRIDE, foks

lol Geraldo

http://pitchfork.com/news/72880-geraldo-rivera-responds-to-kendrick-doubles-down-on-rap-criticism/

my friend over gchat today: "Lighting ones head on fire is the only reasonable response to this beat"

cant remember if that was about DNA or HUMBLE but either way it was in praise of mike will made it, and it is correct

Slate has an article that Damn is "Finally available" today. Yes, this album we found out about a few weeks ago by an artist with two releases in the past two years is probably the new Chinese Democracy.

― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Friday, April 14, 2017 4:25 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

slate is bad

this album is great

i enjoy listening to it more than TPAB i would not necessarily say that means "better" but w/e

I know it's a lyrically dark album, but some of these beats ("Feel," "Pride," "Duckworth" "God," the end of "XXX") give me such a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's like he stretched out "Momma" from TPAB and made it into a whole album.

Obviously, on the flipside, he's got beats like DNA, Humble, Element, that are impossibly hard.

I'm gonna enjoy living inside this album for the next few days.

I love that this album is tighter and seemingly simpler but still has a solid conceptual framework. best of both worlds.

Album is spectacular. Also, I like Humble about 300x more than I originally did, and I liked it initially anyway.

Not as obviously dazzling as TPAB, but I appreciate the stripped down beats and greater focus on his raps.

Agreed. And Humble makes so much more sense to me, both sonical and the lyrics, in the context of the album. Booming album. Couldn't have wished for more tbh.

(xp but not xp)

Kendrick totally neutralizes Annoying Bono, and makes it work. No small feat.

seriously. I will never doubt k-dot again

HE IS SO CORNY!!! Yeah, I know all of you hear it but somehow go pass it. TPAB was so impressive I couldn't front but this is just a regular album.

YOU'RE corny

Hi racoon tanuki

lmao

Yup, sharp album. And if Bono can only sing like that from now and only in guest roles I might actually like him again.

I hope that doesn't happen because "Ned will never like Bono again"
is my critical review ideal space

i am listening to the kendrick lamar album "damn." and i am enjoying the experience. some of the beats are a little slight, but he's rapping at a very high level of proficiency.

LOYALTY. and HUMBLE. the only weak songs IMO

Really impressed with dude's career post-GKMC

Kinda Yeezus-y really, albeit more traditional

Loyalty may be the best song, you nincompoop.

he's rapping at a very high level of proficiency

otm. This has been true of him all along obv, but I think he's gotten sharper and more inventive. I love the way he sets up the framework for a verse and then keeps tweaking it, changing up the flow and emphasis and voice, improvising within the structure.

well, the album's got several of his best performances and a couple slips into one of his more annoying tendencies, i.e. cramming so many lines into a song that the damn thing doesn't breathe; it's the rapping equivalent of Steve Vai.

One of my friends said it's the first Kendrick album since Section.80 that doesn't feel like a term paper.

it's the rapping equivalent of Steve Vai.

Yeah, the virtuosity can be exhausting. That's why ELEMENT is so great, it's the force of his voice with lots of space around it.

One of my friends said it's the first Kendrick album since Section.80 that doesn't feel like a term paper.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Saturday, April 15, 2017 12:36 PM (nineteen minutes ago)

Yeah tbh I'm glad that this is just a collection of songs

enhh there's definitely still some overarching conceptual stuff but it's less pronounced and also y'know not as long

I kinda lost interest after section80 so I had no particular hopes for this but so far I find it pretty good.
I still need to listen to it more but it catches me much more than his previous work (especially the two latest).
I like the grooves more.
Otm the comments about it sounding less like a pensum/conceptual work and more like a... cool hip-hop album !

"nincompoop," lol

Like pull up pop off make it look sexy

If LOVE isn't the next single, somebody's not doing their job.

Love and Loyalty are really the only possible choices

love the vibes on the chorus of PRIDE

re: virtuosity, to me the rap equivalent of Steve Vai would be the last few Em records, pure technicality with no worthwhile vision. Kendrick is technically a great MC of course but he's also just versatile as a vocalist generally and knows not to go full-bore syllable-crunching all the time. not to mention his actual lyrics are not shit. and he is very canny about using his voice - his sung hooks are rarely if ever embarrassing and he blends nicely with his collaborators. he sounds very natural trading bars and singing along with Rihanna for example (which is also in part because she's a seasoned collaborator as well).

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/

Steve Vai isn't that bad imo

I don't think Kendrick ever comes close to abusing his chops, he's just really good at rapping which I know can be a Scarlett Letter in these days of schmoodlebob, but yeah this isn't like recent Em or fuckin Chino XL or Canibus or some shit like that

Steve Vai isn't that bad imo

New board description?

We're through the lookin' glass, people

Steve Vai has some jams. (Originally wrote "hams" which I am going to assume is also true.)

yo where's the second album!?

Wait another thousand years

So it looks like Humble is the official NBA Playoffs theme.

Steve Vai played a big role in Eat Em and Smile by David Lee Roth which is great

Steve Vai's right hand tapping just went viral

And PiL. Careers have exceptions built into them.

Steve Vai doesn't really even play that fast Alfred you should have invoked Yngwie or the Great Kat instead imo

upper mississippi otm, people who hate on Kendrick mainly do so because he can rap at all, weird shades of old school indie rock distrust of technical proficiency in that whole dynamic but w/e

Steve Vai has a song with horse whinnies in it YAH

Jesus didn't die for a Kendrick Lamar thread to be defaced by Steve Vai smdh

Yeah dude's flow is great IMO. Way more dexterous/smooth than a certain other megastar rapper who allegedly makes more "fun" music

ELEMENT. and XXX. endings are album highlights too gotta say, calm after intensity. the latter doesn't even sound particularly U2-ish although maybe it's comparable to a certain era of 'em I'm not familiar with

XXX to me sounds like maybe Larry Jr. is doing some drums and then all of them are doing some vocals and basically did whatever Kendrick told them to do. They can't write stuff like that.

First listen here, it's fucking amazing. Peak of his game surely, long may it sustain. I'm on holiday in Kyoto and it's pelting with rain but FEEL. transforms it into magic.

upper mississippi otm, people who hate on Kendrick mainly do so because he can rap at all, weird shades of old school indie rock distrust of technical proficiency in that whole dynamic but w/e

uh no nobody here hates him. Mentioning how cluttered a few of those tracks are has nothing to do w/old school indie and distrust of proficiency.

Confused at how anybody could think this is anything less than brilliant - like, working out which of this and TPAB is better will take some actual thought imo

It's very good and sometimes excellent.

Alfred you played the Vai card, don't be surprised when Satch shows up to boogie

no longer vai-able

DAMN Good.

trigger warning: pinch harmonics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YADEU3FG5ZQ

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/kendrick-lamar-debuts-damn-songs-kills-the-coachella-stage.html

it'll get yanked since it's just a rip of the coachella livestream, but kendrick's entire set from the weekend is on a few sites for the minute

it's good :)

People who hate on Kendrick mainly do so because he has a very peculiar voice and he goes all self-righteous with it and it sounds awkward af. He sounds like a parody imo.

no u

did you confuse him with j cole on the self-righteous part

sorry sorry trying to delete comment

Sorry, will remove bookmark.

I'm hounding everyone off ILX this week. Sorry, didn't mean to offend. Don't go. Your interpretation is valid

kinda nice to see some slander itt tbf.

altho the steve vai derail was better

Element sounds like Drakes back 2 back to me

guys guys let's not criticize the dude with a song that contains the line "let me put the head in" multiple times

that's one of my faves on the album so far, even if that's the most awkward repeated lyric since whatever j cole last did

i'm really angry about j cole existing again this week, sorry

has my enthusiastic support for this album triggered a backlash

yes, as usual everything is a reaction to you

Second half is better than first. And also, Blood is bullshit, and it's now second album in a row the devil is a woman, and after Sherane it's his third album in a row where the narrative thread revolves around a deceitful woman. And compared to How Much a Dollar Cost, why was the homeless man God, while the homeless woman is the Devil?

Just wondering Gospodin, if he sounds like a parody to you, what is it a parody of?

i'm really angry about j cole existing again this week, sorry

― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Monday, April 17, 2017

bitch be humble!

surprised u can't recognise a parody of self righteousness ;)

That a dig, or...?

oh, reply to NA!

wait no let me exercise my new found power. get out lbi, i hath commanded it ^_^

xp He goes for the prophet vibe which makes him sound like a 2Pac tryhard (and Pac was already a tryhard himself). Also, a major source of frustration for me is that he has a very similar voice to James Brown but he is definitely not a James Brown. Even when he gets to work on something worthy like King Kunta he mucks it up with some corny shit like annie are you ok and baby woo woo. It comes down to yabish being probably my least favorite piece of slang ever. Like, just the way it sounds is awkward af to me. So I'm basically completely at odds with Kendrick's cadence.

Failing to be James Brown seems like a high bar

I can kinda hear it but that comparison would never have occurred to me

Mystikal sounded like Brown too but with him it seemed like a virtue.

It kind of sounds like you've only heard King Kunta

I've listened to everything he's done sans mixtapes. Whatever he tries to do with his voice it always sounds corny to me hence parody. It might be partially due to being from Eastern Europe where the "ish" sound (as in yabish) is very common and has a clear infantile ring to it. Basically Kendrick sounds like a toddler to me.

how do you feel about skee-lo?

wish he was a little bit taller tbh

Love Skee-Lo!

Dude upthread is right about that part of the LUST hook being not-so-great, although imo a certain lyric on the falsetto part is worse. Rest of the song is cool tho.

Possibly just subject matter dude comes across awkward with for whatever reason, I've read people make that observation before

wait I like the vocal hook on LUST, reminds me of George Clinton
but I agree Kendrick sounds like a secret virgin when he raps about sex

wtf happened to this thread

It got all Vaiied out

Yes the "bag of sand" observation about Kendrick has been made before

Kendrick has no conception of cadence. He's as bad as Macklemore. Just jam as many words in a song as you can with no regard for meter or cadence. Ive tried twice with the new album and it's just not clicking.

so kendrick lamar has 1) a bad/weird voice and 2) doesn't know how to rap

good thread

p much ready to bully everyone off ilx

Kendrick's cadences are amazing. urs,a cadence fan

damn you, difference in taste!

this is more important than taste

I've no doubt Kendrick is smart, hugely talented and doing great work - it's just not really my cup of tea. But it's not uncommon at all for a distinctive, trendsetting stylist to be divisive.

It's not really my cup of tea either, but saying that Kendrick has no conception of cadence is weird. If that's the case, then 'cadence' doesn't meant what I think the word means.

Kendrick has no conception of cadence. He's as bad as Macklemore. Just jam as many words in a song as you can with no regard for meter or cadence.

This is 100% wrong. Also, for all the problems Macklemore has (and there are a lot), "no sense of cadence" isn't among them.

It has nothing to do with "taste", it has to do with understanding what the words you're using mean.

1.
a modulation or inflection of the voice.
"the measured cadences that he employed in the Senate"
synonyms: intonation, modulation, lilt, accent, inflection;

2.
MUSIC
a sequence of notes or chords comprising the close of a musical phrase.
"the final cadences of the Prelude"

Honestly, hiphop could do with more cadences. And cadenzas, for that matter.

lol just wanna point out I was not the one arguing "kendrick has no conception of cadence" (a nonsensical statement)

Oh I know.

If you want to take down every dumb statement on this thread you'll be here a while.

I had a hip-hop credenza once. It was fabolous.

I am so mad at you right now

mission accomplished!

EZ that was glorious

a post that needed to be made, for sure

If Fabolous is the Credenza of Hip Hop, Is Drake the Costanza?
(just helping out headline writers)

EZ recovered this thread from the car wreck it was turning out to be.

I like that in the same thread Kendrick has been knocked for his virtuosity (like he's Steve Vai) and that he has no sense of cadence. Like wut

"Humble" is something I'm not sure Kendrick has ever really had: a beat that people are gonna use for freestyles

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/ak-be-humble-freestyle-new-song.1973711.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmzg4lY24ak

(the 1st one is ak of underachivers pretty good, next one is youtube dork)

xp He goes for the prophet vibe which makes him sound like a 2Pac tryhard (and Pac was already a tryhard himself). Also, a major source of frustration for me is that he has a very similar voice to James Brown but he is definitely not a James Brown. Even when he gets to work on something worthy like King Kunta he mucks it up with some corny shit like annie are you ok and baby woo woo. It comes down to yabish being probably my least favorite piece of slang ever. Like, just the way it sounds is awkward af to me. So I'm basically completely at odds with Kendrick's cadence.

― gospodin simmel, Monday, April 17, 2017 3:51 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

celebrating 15 years of batshit ilx hip hop posts

:)

what's on yr ipod

back to our regularly scheduled programming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRYQMLDW4

nice

wtf these dorks on about kendrick's voice and how he raps to much or some shit gtfo

this is definitely the point in his career where screaming OVERRATED is the maximum au courant challop/clickbait opinion

kendrick if you could not be such a good rapper and be more accessible to me that would be great,thanks !

smh

Dorky is another good word for his voice actually.

DNA is indeed a banger

DNA.
― ||||||||, Friday, 14 April 2017 19:00 (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://youtu.be/NLZRYQMLDW4

Kendrick is a long way away from James Brown. He doesn't dance, he isn't a born showman, he isn't a ruthless bandleader, and he's not crazy afaik. He's kind of a beta-male superstar with something to say, and his most endearing "voice" communicates vulnerability, not braggadocio (even when he's bragging). For me, this record is a slight letdown in the sense of its of production ambition and album-concept from what came before, but performance-wise, he's at the top of his game. IMO he doesn't actually need to produce "bangers" to have huge hits, he could do that with social commentary and love songs/raps. (guess I'm saying either Loyalty or Love should be a single)

this album is great!

so so great

both the video and the album, just f'in' great great stuff

no..... kendrick is definitely like james brown...

wait there's a video for humble too! gah where have i been

It might be partially due to being from Eastern Europe

https://i.giphy.com/VFYJXIuuFl6pO.gif

the posts itt are so off the wall dumb im agreeing w/ joan crawford and ulysses in an ilx rap thread

or kendrick is that good, however you want to spin it

m8 you're agreeing with me

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/review-kendrick-lamar-damn-album-w477376

BITCH I DID THAT

fantastic whiney

He's kind of a beta-male superstar with something to say, and his most endearing "voice" communicates vulnerability, not braggadocio (even when he's bragging

wth

smashingly good, cw

Good read yeah.

tunesmithery :D

http://i.imgur.com/GUhGgyZ.jpg

Whiney that is a fucking superb review

in tune with that classicism vibe I keep thinking of DAMN. related to Illmatic, the steady bang-bang-bang directness of both albums' flow

I've seen several comments about the blind lady in the opening story being Lady Liberty, which makes a ton of sense and fits his previous allegories.

or justice, which would make a lot more sense, no?

nice job wgw

Excellent review Whiney. The part about 'xxx' feeling like Rodney King-era revenge fantasies like Geto Boys etc so otm, too.

can we ban the phrase "beta male"

I'm sorry, I meant Lady Justice

xp we certainly can, and it doesn't even really apply to Kendrick, who can command a crowd of tens of thousands of people to his will. "He's short and has a high voice, so therefore he's less of a man." Just dumb.

The bag of sand quality of his sex raps is what makes him beta.

jesus christ

dude gtfo already , you aren't adding anything here xp

Yeah, true. Just being an asshole at this point.

BUT maybe don't get so defensive that even a (well meaning, in Whiney's article) "slight" like beta needs to get reconstructed as to not apply to Kendrick.

is what makes him beta.

― gospodin simmel, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 10:37 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

automatic FP for that shit, gtfo & go to reddit you dork

The harshest part of Whiney's review was my realization that my enjoyment of the Kendrick and ATCQ albums vs my indifference/lack of comprehension of lots of new hip hop artists is a clear indication that I'm an old fart pining for the 90s.

Commanding crowds of tens of thousands is a standard thing for pop stars, plenty of them betas. I can understand having an issue with the concept itself but I still find it useful. Specifically when describing how artists tackle sex. It's not "bad" to be beta in that sense but it is different from alpha.

god please eat shit with this "alpha" and "beta" garbage

seriously

just a harmless objective label, let's be cool

Like, it's a difference between Thom Yorke and Greg Dulli. We need words for that. But ok, I get "beta" and "alpha" have toxic connotations. Will shut up till I think of a better way of putting it.

no i'm ok with you just shutting up itt .

or if you're trying to say "great" and "good", maybe say "great" and "good"

I'm hounding everyone off ILX this week. Sorry, didn't mean to offend. Don't go. Your interpretation is valid

― imago, Monday, 17 April 2017 19:25 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i rescind this post

Beta male:2010s::f*g:1990s. Shorthand homophobic cipher for a male who doesn't live up to code, right? FFS.

Can we go back to talking about this excellent album? I have listened to Duckworth maybe 1000 times in the last day. It is my challopsy opinion that it is the best track.

oh it might be

Still feel tainted by that reddit comment. I'm just a sjw snowflake annoyed with Kendrick's voice, nothing sinister to it. Have fun people, sorry for the bullshit.

I'm just a sjw snowflake

from trrrrrrransexual
Transyl-vaniaaaaaa

wrt to whiney's review i tweeted when tpab came out that kendrick basically got the world to embrace a 96 freestyle fellowship album

there's a lot of tradition of west coast lyrical/boho rap that kinda gets forgotten among the conventional telling of the west coast as the tale of gangsta rap and NWA

freestyle fellowship, aceyalone, rass kass, saafir, heiro, pharcyde, abstract rude etc, i think that stuff def informs kendrick

the good life cafe too

project blowed

With regards to the "bag of sand" stuff, Kendrick is like Henry Miller when you compare him to, say, J. Cole.

being in that scene at the time i totally relate that to Kendrick xp

having a funny voices and off center cadence was a badge of honor

I remember when you was conflicted

being in that scene at the time i totally relate that to Kendrick xp

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, April 19, 2017 10:20 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

damn u saw a lot of amazing stuff i bet

yes! we saw all of those guys on the regular . It was a pretty close knit community, good times.

there's a lot of tradition of west coast lyrical/boho rap that kinda gets forgotten among the conventional telling of the west coast as the tale of gangsta rap and NWA

I don't really think tpab sounds *that* much like FF but this is otm

Odd Future draws (drew? no one talks about them anymore lol) from that well too

xpost - i was kinda exaggerating about the FF comparison but the whole loose neo soul vibe and messiness of it does remind me of FF

odd future iirc was more big eminem stans when they were kids

yeah there's that too. Was just thinking that something like the Pharcyde's "4 Better or 4 Worse" totally has that Odd Future vibe

yeah the fat lip versus on that song for sure

there's def a lineage to follow w FF yeah. was listening to Mikah Nine's album 'It's All Love' finding some connections in there
https://youtu.be/qIJxo9kIjBk

I get a little bit of phat lip on 4 Better Or 4 Worse in some of this.

― Aerosol, Saturday, October 23, 2010 10:51 PM (six years ago) Bookmark

from OF thread

great minds think alike

there's bits of FF stuff I like here and there but I feel like none of those guys ever made a 100% solid album, either solo or collectively

you could cobble together a fantastic mixtape from various releases tho

I really think that one i mentioned is fronttoback great.

But for the most part they were a mixed bag yeah

thread got good again

had hopes that AC would have put out at stellar solo after Innercity but All Balls fell kinda flat

title track from that is good tho

all balls is half classic

now you guys got me queuing up all this stuff I have listened to in a long time!

While I really love DNA, I can't get over how poorly the beat is mixed. The distortion on the beat, especially the 2nd part, really takes away some of the fire of the track for me. This is the only track on the album that does this to such a degree. Was it mixed on a pair of Beats or something? Wish I could get a hold of the stems and fix it argh

That aside, I feel this might be his strongest lyrical record to date - both in terms of sound and content. So many subtle tweaks to the vocal timbre, especially on PRIDE (is that Kendrick pitching shifting his voice subtly or software?). A number of songs reference themes from the rest of the album, making everything so interconnected that it almost feels more of a concept album than the last two.

oh and can we talk about how iconic the album art is?

While I really love DNA, I can't get over how poorly the beat is mixed. The distortion on the beat, especially the 2nd part, really takes away some of the fire of the track for me. This is the only track on the album that does this to such a degree. Was it mixed on a pair of Beats or something? Wish I could get a hold of the stems and fix it argh

I thought this at first but decided it was on purpose.

beat goes unhinged when he goes unhinged etc

all those west coast rap callouts up there are ON POINT. huge hieroglyphics and aceyalone fan. might throw blackalicious in that mix too

I thought this at first but decided it was on purpose.

beat goes unhinged when he goes unhinged etc

I can see that, but it's a shame. I feel the beat would have had more power and expressiveness if the bass was clean. I'm also mix and produce so this shit bothers me more than most people I'm sure

thx for the kind words above, guys. I was feeling kind of bummed out today and that helped :)

excellent review whiney

also, re what ppl were saying about FF/Blowed

Multiple songs on Damn have this lyrical style, where it it starts with a strict pattern ("I feel like...") and then explodes outward. Genius explains to me that this is called "anaphora."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd3r3R1ot0E

oh yeah good review cw

tfw when called a beta

http://t12.deviantart.net/71napWuGKHnkxHhvt-I3bte3yhk=/fit-in/150x150/filters:no_upscale():origin()/pre01/88ab/th/pre/f/2015/099/8/7/kendrick_pepe_by_h8nter-d8p29e7.jpg

refreshing after reading some negative responses to the album (don't know why, it's a good one obv.) respect to TSJ but i roll my eyes at their resident kendrick hater.

kinda dig the lo-fi moments on this album, they feel very very intentional and inform the songs' respective meaning imo

Yes grebt review, whiney. I like that you plucked out that bit on Lust where he gets mad about the election and then gets distracted by his daily life -- one of the most honest things I've heard anyone say about life under Trump.

Beta male:2010s::f*g:1990s. Shorthand homophobic cipher for a male who doesn't live up to code, right? FFS.

utterly no. beta male = not your typical alpha male pop star. not always bragging. not constantly telling me how great your life is. not needing to be dominant at every turn. coming off like a real, vulnerable person. I think this is the reason I respond to Kendrick Lamar, so if you're trying to pin "homophobia" on me, FFS indeed, it's clear you have no idea where I'm coming from.

that reading elides the common uses of "beta male" on the internet

ie as a pejorative w homophobic overtones

kendrick is the omega

admittedly, I am not up to speed on many common uses of terms on the internet

While I really love DNA, I can't get over how poorly the beat is mixed. The distortion on the beat, especially the 2nd part, really takes away some of the fire of the track for me. This is the only track on the album that does this to such a degree. Was it mixed on a pair of Beats or something? Wish I could get a hold of the stems and fix it argh

same reason I always skip "Fly Shit Only" on Future's EVOL. Kendrick's performance more than redeems "DNA" but nothing on "Fly Shit Only" makes up for the fact that it sounds like pure butt.

whiney, your review is excellent. i was curious about this line in the first paragraph, though:

His last album, To Pimp a Butterfly, will likely go down as the defining reflection of the America that spawned #BlackLivesMatter, in the same way Pablo Picasso's Guernica stands as the defining reflection of the Spanish Civil War.

are you just trying to set a tone and get a super epic lead-in (nothing wrong with that), or do you actually believe this? (nothing wrong with that, either)

I don't think there is another album/movie/TV show/play/book that addresses these concerns with that level of artistry and popularity. Like maybe the only competition is Lemonade, and a lot of that was subtext and readings as opposed to the more explicit politics of TPAB

Same with Get Out, really

agree with that ^^

who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity? even in studying animals there isn't one archetype for alpha behaviour

I totally lose track of the metre during the closing sections of DNA - just after Kendrick switches to triplet flow and there's a big clash with the vocal sample. I have enough faith to suspect this is deliberate but it throws me off every time.

have we determined if kendrick is a cuck tho

bitch don't email my wife

omega has actual anthropological meaning and I retract my previous comment

but yeah, at its core it's a metaphorical mapping of the studies of primate ethology to humans and isn't really relevant to humans -- the whole "alpha" thing has its connotations and people later attempted to pull "beta" in, but those doing it did so as a contrast to the "alpha" moniker. if you see "alpha male" as an unqualified good or desired state then "beta" is undesirable, and vice versa

I totally lose track of the metre during the closing sections of DNA - just after Kendrick switches to triplet flow and there's a big clash with the vocal sample. I have enough faith to suspect this is deliberate but it throws me off every time.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 1:21 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was kind of appreciating this on a long drive home last night. People will complain about him cramming his words in or it being messy, but it's more of an interplay with the beat - drifting on and off or seeming like it's slightly out of sync only to lock back in is purposeful and the vocal sample clash ramps it up

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/97/ff/9d/97ff9d8b10b96bf4c8d7cd6217ad9c2d.jpg

used to shop here as a kid

When I was a kid, I read an article in BMX Plus or something in which the author described riding his bike through the Alpha Beta doors. Until just a couple years ago, I didn't know that Alpha Beta was a supermarket chain. I had been running around calling all automatic doors "alpha beta doors".

xxxxpost

i wouldn't have minded so much a comparison to, say, "a change is gonna come"

but i feel like having kendrick lamar and pablo picasso in the same sentence sort of smacks of that peculiar need critics or intellectuals sometimes have to contextualize/legitimize hip hop. but always sort of doing the opposite and reaffirming the institutions / critical discourses that grant legitimacy, rather than highlighting asymmetrical configurations through which new music is distributed, consumed, evaluated.

you are clearly not suggesting that kendrick lamar needs to be compared to picasso in order to be considered seriously as an artist. but i do feel like there is a kind of weird undertone of "this record belongs in a museum" to that sentence. part of me thinks it's a very minor thing, but on the other hand i feel compelled to bring it up because i'm just really fucking tired of heavy-handed, euro-centric attempts to explain why hip hop is "important." (i'm not your review, to be clear.)

anyway, super stoked on "humble" -- my fav track so far, and the video is insane. i especially like the part where he's in the back of his car spreading grey poupon onto a slice of untoasted white bread

which led me to this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rappers-grey-poupon-hip-hop-lyrics_us_5800f933e4b0162c043b8009

*not talking about your review

xpost to mh, i always thought the most immediate connotation of "omega" is theological. when i read your original post i assumed you were assigning kl messianic status

if humble is the rappity rap bona fide track and DNA is the banger, Loyalty feels like the massive summer hit. has some of the same appeal and pace of bitch don't kill my vibe imo.

I feel like ELEMENT. is getting enough love. Easily my favorite hook on the album.

xxp that was my joke, yeah

"loyalty" is the most i've enjoyed rihanna in years

grr *isn't getting enough love.

I have only listened to this twice, but was getting nice summer vibes from Pride earlier. Sick album.

i feel compelled to bring it up because i'm just really fucking tired of heavy-handed, euro-centric attempts to explain why hip hop is "important." (i'm not your review, to be clear.)

― budo jeru, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 2:51 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i understand this thinking, but on the other hand LOTS of people still need it spelled out for them. And, in my defense, will be the first to admit Rolling Stone readers aren't necessarily the ones needing to see what I think Kendrick's album means in a world listening to a XXXTencion Soundcloud stream on cellphone speakers.

yeah, fair enough

Kendrick's not a "beta" as much as he's an introvert dominating an extrovert's game, much like early Nas.

maybe let's not keep using idiot poison-words in an unrelated thread, just sayin

ot motherfucking m

who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity?

literally no-one. the second anybody opts into that vocabulary is the second you can write off 100% of their opinions

Ditto pejorative use of SJW.

http://i.makeagif.com/media/2-26-2014/4daPsl.gif

fwiw there's a few songs on this album that won't budge from my head (ELEMENT, PRIDE, DUCKWORTH) but the one I really can't shake is LUST, which is already a track of the year contender maybe

who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity?

tbf I think this is a bit of harsh judgment on Dominique, who is def not an incoherent red pill type raging about his masculinity (also he is hottt iirc)

Total babe yeah

but i feel like having kendrick lamar and pablo picasso in the same sentence sort of smacks of that peculiar need critics or intellectuals sometimes have to contextualize/legitimize hip hop. but always sort of doing the opposite and reaffirming the institutions / critical discourses that grant legitimacy, rather than highlighting asymmetrical configurations through which new music is distributed, consumed, evaluated.

you are clearly not suggesting that kendrick lamar needs to be compared to picasso in order to be considered seriously as an artist. but i do feel like there is a kind of weird undertone of "this record belongs in a museum" to that sentence. part of me thinks it's a very minor thing, but on the other hand i feel compelled to bring it up because i'm just really fucking tired of heavy-handed, euro-centric attempts to explain why hip hop is "important." (i'm not your review, to be clear.)

Don Cheadle time

http://pitchfork.com/news/73004-don-cheadle-talks-kendrick-lamars-dna-video-being-the-original-kung-fu-kenny/

I completely see what you mean and I argued this point many times, though TPAB is kind of already archived at Harvard and the man himself is being compared to Gandhi. The problem I have is I feel like Lamar's greatness and virtuosity got shoved down everybody's throat to the point that sometimes it's hard to enjoy as a piece of music. Even very positive opinions somehow feel like this kind of huge relief that it didn't turn out to be a huge letdown and track with U2 didn't turn out to be complete piece of shit. Honestly, it's hard to be surprised about all those dumbass theories with second album, people simply needed more than music to satisfy their expectations, kind of same thing happened to Life of Pablo or Blonde
― piramjida, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 7:37 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This

After three listens, I'm starting to think this won't match the impossibly high standard that GKMC and TPAB set for me. It's a slight dip from perfect to very good. I get a different song stuck in my head every day - today is "Fear", which is such a perfect pairing of beat and lyrics

i didn't know about the harvard thing, it's kind of interesting:

http://hiphoparchive.org/blog/3513-harvard-recognizes-hiphop-classics

NB: Life of Pablo and Blonde are not good albums tho

Made at best above average artists too

I don't think there is another album/movie/TV show/play/book that addresses these concerns with that level of artistry and popularity. Like maybe the only competition is Lemonade, and a lot of that was subtext and readings as opposed to the more explicit politics of TPAB

― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), 19. april 2017 20:05 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think perhaps Ta-nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me will be a contender. No, not as many has read that as has heard King Kunta, but Guernica wasn't the smash hit poster of 37 either.

I phrased it as a question bc you gotta respect DL and wondered if I was missing something.

obv this is full of bars but it's the hooks I'm struck by on this, the soft subtle inflections to kendrick's voice, the measured woozy slowness. he has a good ear for voices; love the sample of RAT BOY on lust. the relative downbeatness of this suits me just fine

Picasso was kind of a rock star in his day.

He had a life

"Lamar's greatness and virtuosity got shoved down everybody's throat to the point that sometimes it's hard to enjoy as a piece of music"

you just have to ignore everything that people write about him. it's the worst. just listen to him instead.

i liked this. just listening this morning while playing resogun. it's not my favorite paranoid jesus album but it has a lot of competition for that title. some really good songs though. more good ones than bad ones. and the good ones definitely invigorating/exciting in that way that he has of invigorating/exciting.

(and the bad not really bad just not as good as the good...)

sure, but can you really do that? let's say you've never heard anything about Kendrick and you listen to DAMN - there's still a lot to enjoy musically but I feel like you'd have trouble interpreting stuff on this album if you weren't aware of the status he's gotten after To Pimp a Butterfly. it just often feels like he actually embraces what people say about him and says things that only make sense or feel important when spoken from a man in his position (i.e. who actually would give a shit about this Pride/Humble juxtaposition if it wasn't image of a man being called the best rapper alive fighting his sins). and it's obviously true and I am not going to argue otherwise - K. Dot at this point is more than a rapper but it's really suffocating when a record is being considered important more than enjoyable

Why?

By which I mean, even granting the fact that it is nigh impossible to enjoy something in a vacuum divorced from other people's opinions, particularly when it comes to one of the most popular artists currently on the scene, why should other people's opinions on a particular album's position in the Official Canon of Music(TM) inhibit you from interacting with the album on your own terms?

tbf, this is probably Kendrick's least "important" record since 2011 AND his most "enjoyable" probably ever

something about this album is making certain people think in thoughtpieces
it's just a really really good album

i kept reading too much about Get Out and then i never went and saw it. i got sick of it a little. and everyone's "take". that was my fault though. i was gonna go see it the first day and didn't. kendrick the get out of rappers! so i didn't read about the new one. just fired up the spotify on the PS4 and enjoyed the experience. and almost beat my record on resongun: demolition mode too. (21st in the world, by the way...)

yeah, it is definitely an album for simpletons like me.

though there is still a lot going on.

love that rihanna one by the way.

If the album is as timeless as everyone will claim there's nothing wrong with waiting out the avalanche of discussion & going back to it when the air has cleared

something about this album is making certain people think in thoughtpieces

lol that something is "released by Kendrick Lamar"

the new Actress album is really not good for playing Resogun though. so boring. i quickly found a Perlon mix to listen to and everything was okay again.

swerve swerve swerve swerve deeper now

"Feel"'s production, the kinda watery synth pad and the ghostly processed voice almost reminds me of a hip hop version of early Burial

If the album is as timeless as everyone will claim there's nothing wrong with waiting out the avalanche of discussion & going back to it when the air has cleared

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Thursday, April 20, 2017 12:50 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

obv nothing wrong w/ doing this even for albums that aren't "timeless"

hot take: albums can't be "timeless"

agree

except for Goldie

Harvard archive curated by 9th Wonder, everybody in my town pretty proud about that

minidiscs can be timeless

some records exist mainly as an expression of a buzz cycle at the time & others will sustain past it

i think its fair to say that fewer ppl care about i.e. shamir now than did when he first arrived and got fucking new yorker features written about him, for example.

obviously nothing is timeless—as we all die & memory of minor cultural contributions will be eventually wiped from history

your keef tweets excepted obv

keef is not timeless, he is the very essence of time

i was reading an old interview with jim from jesus & mary chain after psychocandy came out and he actually talked about how after they made the album they thought it would be one of those timeless records that people would listen to for years. and he didn't say it in a smug way. he seemed surprised that they had done that. he also couldn't imagine the band existing for another five years. that felt like an endless amount of time to him. he had no idea that his band would also be forever.

Why?

By which I mean, even granting the fact that it is nigh impossible to enjoy something in a vacuum divorced from other people's opinions, particularly when it comes to one of the most popular artists currently on the scene, why should other people's opinions on a particular album's position in the Official Canon of Music(TM) inhibit you from interacting with the album on your own terms?

a lot of stuff has this "this is Kendrick Lamar speaking" vibe attached to it

not trying to troll just trying to understand what you mean, because p much every rap album ever has a "this is XX speaking" vibe? (to me at least?)

also off-topic

On "Pride" his flow is so obviously influenced by a lot of Q-Tip's verses on the latest Tribe album

i dont see timeless as some kind of metric by which to measure the worthiness of an album or something, but obv some stuff gets slept on & some stuff gets overhyped & some stuff gets the right amt of attention

as determined by whom, kemosabe

xxxp:

I think people in general are granting special status to Kendrick almost solely because he is Kendrick. Any artist is going to have context behind their work, whether they are being held up as the top of the current field or a niche artist with a self-limiting, insular fanbase unlikely to expand into mainstream success. There's just as much context/baggage going into an ANHONI or Bjork or Justin Bieber or Miranda Lambert or Amanda Forsyth or Future Islands or anyone you can think of recording as there is going into a Kendrick recording; the main difference is that everyone has decided that that context/baggage is a major conversation point and worth engaging with and dissecting. Very few people are going to spend a ton of time going into the context behind the music of The Chainsmokers, and those who do are going to be accused of overthinking things because The Chainsmokers haven't fallen into a box where they're tagged as Important Music. People are interested in the motivations behind Important music; the million-dollar question is "what makes this music Important?" and for Kendrick, it's mostly because a lot of people said "because it is" (partially because there's no universal definition of "Important Music" and everyone is bringing slightly different criteria to the table when evaluating it; part of what's happening here IMO is that Kendrick is doing so many things that he's ticking off a lot of boxes that appear on people's personal "Important Music" checklists, giving him in aggregate the categorization).

for everyone who complains about a lot kendrick's content only being relevant if you care about kendrick or it being about his ego, i mean i find that he uses a lot of his "personal issues" content as a way to speak to wider issues that are actually relevant and important, and some critics i've read who complain about him sound a lot like people who don't want to hear about the problems of certain other people.

however i'm not necessarily saying that about anyone here.

what I'm saying is you could take Section.80 or probably also GKMC, listen to it front to back and just enjoy it as it is without needing any outside explanation of who is the guy delivering the message. I feel like same thing can't necessarily be said about Damn, here you have this image of Kendrick as some kind of messiah or martyr reaching out to human beings, you have HUMBLE, you have this thing where he responds to Geraldo Rivera and in my opinion to understand those things and why he portrays himself this way requires you to understand the context of what happened after TPAB.

Rachel Luther Queen, yeah, fully agreed

DJP otm

what I'm saying is you could take Section.80 or probably also GKMC, listen to it front to back and just enjoy it as it is without needing any outside explanation of who is the guy delivering the message. I feel like same thing can't necessarily be said about Damn, here you have this image of Kendrick as some kind of messiah or martyr reaching out to human beings, you have HUMBLE, you have this thing where he responds to Geraldo Rivera and in my opinion to understand those things and why he portrays himself this way requires you to understand the context of what happened after TPAB.

― piramjida, Thursday, April 20, 2017 2:29 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe you did enjoy GKMC or Section.80 w/out context but context helps understanding both of those projects a lot.

I feel like Kendrick was sort of like Nas in that it felt like he was tabbed as being a big deal right away

he stood out. i am a very old person and i heard one song pre-gkmc and immediately looked for every scrap of video/audio on youtube that i could find.

also, it should be noted, i hadn't read a word about him.

I first heard about him the same time Odd Future was getting a lot of initial buzz, Black Hippy being the *other* au currant LA rap collective, but I didn't like Section .80 at all and as a result didn't give GKMC a listen until way after it had already been declared a classic.

also, I'm not sure if that's Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton playing but I really love the slinky bassline & drum beat that comes in when Bono starts singing is pretty great actually

i didn't really listen to butterfly much. i thought it was impressive though. but more something i admired than something i needed to hear a lot. like a scott walker album.

Overly Dedicated is the only Kendrick release I haven't worn out. Dude speaks to me.

same. and i like overly dedicated a lot too!

is it heresy to say that tpab might have benefited from a very slight resequencing*

this album, i wouldn't want anything changed

still unsure which i prefer

*obvious low-key deep cut 'institutionalized' in a banger sandwich at the front of the album, basically. idk maybe it's a deliberate pacing check. my main point is that damn is sequenced so fucking perfectly

section 80 def has some weak points imo ... the makeup songs lol

TBAP and GKMC had some weak points too

i'm sure this will too over time.

no......this is the rap album the elders foretold....

i'm impressed by ppl who saw his potential on section 80, I didn't care for it at all at the time. should revisit

Our own J0rdan Sargent and rennavate had Section.80 on their pazz and jop ballots

Section.80 is a fun listen, like the production on that way better than the production on this

yeah the production is really good on s.80

YAH. is my fav so far

I'm obsessed with ELEMENT, DNA, LUST and XXX

i feel like the pride-humble-lust swing is where the album loses some steam for me. def picks back up at love tho.

I wasn't impressed with Section 80 when it came out. But hearing Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe on Shade 45 won me over. Still think it's one of the greatest rap songs.

Not the remix with Jay Z, the album version. Jay Z nearly ruined a perfectly great song, imo.

yea i think i've listened to the jay-z version only once or twice, why anyone would want to listen to that over the album version is beyond me

who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity?

altho I should probably let this go, it still bugs me, because I like this artist and album. *I* used it to describe an artist who seems different in ways I explained earlier, but also because I don't myself have negative connotations with the term. Didn't actually realize it was something of a trigger phrase and I guess I never attached a sexuality implication to it. And for that...well, this is why writers have editors, to at least inform them when they might be about to step into something that will obscure what they're really trying to say. Someone mentioned introversion above, and that gets at the same basic thing I was going for, and as an introvert, may very well be the reason K "speaks to me", to use DJP's phrase.

for anyone confused about why these terms have so many posters upset, here are some helpful guides that put them into context:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-alt-right-terminology-20161115-story.html
http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-guide-to-beta-cuck-dumbest-insult-internet/

I'm now blanking on which song it is but Kendrick has a line where he calls himself an extrovert who hates people, which basically made me leap to my feet and yell "MY MAN"

On DNA he calls himself "Antisocial, Extrovert"

I know this is greedy of me and 5 albums in 6 years is more than one can ask for from a Prestige album artist of Kendrick's stature, but part of me wishes he would adopt Future's mode of production where he just releases internally stylistically consistent tapes at a rapid-fire clip, bcuz i desperately want a Beast Mode style mixtape of all songs that sound like HUMBLE. the variety is cool but i want MOAR

to reiterate, wasn't accusing you of being a secret mens rights activist dominique, just didn't really understand what you were getting at with that. I'm still not sure that there's something neat about his persona(lity), that distinguishes kendrick from other rappers around atm. there are softer & more emo/introverted rappers out there. maybe you could say he was unusually ambivalent/nuanced/delicate/thoughtful in how he handles things - he does seem to have a good bit of the old negative capability - but I think most of what marks kendrick out is that he ticks a lot of boxes for certain sorts of listeners in terms of style and presentation, being a bit old fashioned in some respects, well into his lyrics, introspective and into making Great albums

"he calls himself an extrovert who hates people, which basically made me leap to my feet and yell "MY MAN"

wonder if Trump is a fan.

If he has success with the "drop a classic album every couple years" strategy I'm not sure why he'd switch to a mixtape for each season model

not comparing djp to trump by the way...just the whole extrovert/misanthrope thing reminded me of trump.

I'm obsessed with ELEMENT, DNA, LUST and XXX

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, April 20, 2017 9:14 PM (yesterday)

Hard picking a song I'm not obsessed with at this point.

too late scott, I now hate you

*makes fist, shakes it towards the west, makes it look sexy*

Trump would never admit to being a misanthrope. In fact, he is the least misanthropic person you've ever seen in your life.

i imagine one year of a hot rapper's life must be like 10 years of my life. and weed is so strong now. being really young and really stoned and having tons of money would totally make me write endless paranoid jesus albums. dmx was 28 when his first album came out. that's 196 in dog years.

If he has success with the "drop a classic album every couple years" strategy I'm not sure why he'd switch to a mixtape for each season model

To please me

http://www.factmag.com/2017/04/21/watch-kendrick-lamar-discuss-damn-new-interview/

^^ 50min interview (brb getting apple music)

didnt really love humble 1st few listens, is def a fav now

same

Section.80 was #2 or 3 on my 2011 P&J ballot, but they had some issues w/ the ballot site that year and it didn't get counted :(

i wouldn't sit here and pretend to argue it's better than anything that's come since, but it is amazing and i might actually reach for it before i'd reach for GKMC or TPAB. not sure that's true about DAMN. tho

So what's the verdict on this vs. TPAB? Is it an overcorrection (if that's the right word, sure it's just he wanted to do something different)

Relistening to TPAB and the first half at least is still really great, I don't dislike most songs in the second half but there're a couple that're less-good.

IMO the beginning & end of this > the middle, beginning being through FEEL. and end starting at XXX. FEAR is great for how spare the beat is

I struggle w some of section 80 tbh

"no make-up" is not great

for starters, yeah. the production is great obv but the lyrics are patchier than what followed

that bekon guy sure sounds kinda like justin vernon

freestyle fellowship namechecked in one of the firsts posts in this beautifully titled thread: Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

element/feel/loyalty/pride is such an awesome 1-2-3-4 punch! so cool. best songs.

I can't unhear "Biyombo" now.

keep getting DNA in my head but it usually turns into Lift Me Up by Vince Staples, wonder if anyone's going to mash them up

DNA already feels like an all-time banger, "Mama Said Knock You Out" level.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7768186/kendrick-lamar-humble-number-one-billboard-hot-100

HUMBLE. at #1, DNA. at #4; DAMN. at #1

damn.

'Lust' is amazing. Barring a few highs ('DNA,' 'Humble,' 'Feel'), the rest is merely alright. Overall, I like it less than Untitled Unmastered.

Loyalty loyalty loyalty

This album is absolutely amazing. Been p much living in it since it's out.

how did I not notice the part where he refers to "jeraldo" lol

i thought that reference was to "Gerardo" tbh

he sampled geraldo talking about hip hop to start the album

no, i got all that (and geraldo's weak-ass clap back just lately); I just thought he was dissing Geraldo as Gerardo

yeah it's all about geraldo, the pronunciation just seemed funny

forks, you know Kendrick Lamar is 29, right?

don't the kids listen to rico suave anymore?

i only know that song b/c of weird al "taco grande"

Loyalty loyalty loyalty

This album is absolutely amazing. Been p much living in it since it's out.

this. prefer it to TPAB i think. i'd been listening to it on and off, but then went to San Francisco and it was *everywhere* - out of speakers being pushed along through the park in a trolley, in restaurants, out of cars. saturated. it made so much sense in the social spaces - perhaps because the way the wrestling with identity and the personal co-exists with the political on the album, rather than say being used as metaphor or allegory, the very social consumption of it brought a sense of community out of its qualities of introspection.

i like the way the songs are put forward as states of mind and emotion - there's both progression through those elemental states, but also interrelation through the cross referencing. TPAB seemed to use this v successfully in another way, focusing on a single event of crisis as an anchor for the tracks - DAMN. seems more i guess kabbalistic almost. the way songs will drift into each other so it's not easy to identify specific sounds with each state helps with this. to that extent the overloaded contention/drift at the end of DNA. that people have mentioned feels kind of appropriate.

then going to vegas the whole album became something protective for me (i don't like vegas), something i'd listen to on headphones to carry that sense of mind into a space that is alien or destructive to it. LUST. became a repeat listen - i really love the line "way too hot to simmer down, might as well overheat" - and then with it LOVE. and XXX.

coming back to the UK also meant coming back to some emotional wreckage, which being in other places had helped anaesthetise, as soon as i plugged the headphones in again on getting back, i felt that a set of thoughts and emotions that would help me with this were stored there.

ok - listening to an album reminds you of when you first got into it, so what, but it felt more than that here.

album as repository for emotional states of mind. the point being it's an album that has the *capacity* to carry those states. maybe the way the music sits back a bit in comparison to TPAB helps with this.

and so yes now the whole album is totally vital. favourite album for a while tbh.

grand fare as ever and I agree, this is my favourite record of the year so far too. hope you're mending

i'll be right. thanks.

the way songs will drift into each other so it's not easy to identify specific sounds with each state helps with this.

^^^^^^I'm totally feeling this. It's something Whiney nailed with his review, talking about the different levels of how "humble" and "pride" are explored in the album. At first the way so many songs would jump around to totally disparate beats really annoyed me in how jarring it was but I'm starting to come around on how well that works as a vehicle for Kdot exploring themes.

I still haven't really gotten into Feel or Lust and would love to hear more about what works (or what doesn't) for people on those tracks. Part of what makes it hard for me to dive into Lust is how much I hear Andre3000 cornballism (which i generally love but for me doesn't jibe well with the material on this album) in the beat, subject matter and flow.

lust - it was the tick-tock hook and shuffling beat, and as mentioned the 'might as well overheat' line, that caught me immediately.

and playing it now it's the variation in pacing and tone that keeps me coming back to it, so the stuff below is probably irrelevant to how it 'works' for me. but the pacing is also the pattern, meaning and progression of the track so...

much of this doesn't seem to be *about* lust. the thirst seems to come from the daily routine bit that keeps getting interrupted and repeated and varied and looped and built until the strings kick in leading up to the trump inauguration, before 'reverting back to our daily programme '. as if it all builds until it reaches an insupportable level.

this seems to be a part of the overheating - but i guess we've all experienced the way things like lust co-exist with the boring daily detail of going to work. it's transformative (everything about your life is consumed by it) but doesn't interrupt. maybe that's why i find the 'might as well overheat' line keeps haunting me - it's an *option* to let it all burn you up, at least it isn't part of the loop; it would be a release. but can I do it? (and as in the rest of the album if it's a personal option that also means it's something of a political option - allow a moment to burn you up).

as in the rest the album, it's a fine line being agonised and wrestled over, viewed from the different angles of each track (who am I? what do each of these things mean to me? where does loyalty begin and end? what do i feel? etc). it's monomania on the self that isn't self indulgent.

but the bit where he wonders what he's lusting about, accompanied with that whining/siren, overheated guitar, is unclear. it might be that the looping crazy repetition-with-variation, including the most disruptive and disastrous variation, provokes lust, lust as a way out. i mean the obvious equation is of lust with the heat, but maybe the heat of the repeating days, is the thing that causes the lust. 'lately my lust been heightened' 'lately i lust over self' 'lately i lust over self' 'lately lust turned into fear' (more x-reference). this is lust as a response, allowing overheating from the simmering.

and it all focuses into quite sweet desire and restraint of just wanting to hold the person's hand.

(on the way the intensely personal has become so socially popular - i thought rebecca black got it right on twitter: "Kendrick somehow made an album that I can chill to myself at night but that I can also blast in the car to get hype with my friends")

yes that rebecca black.

Does anyone else now find themselves performing completely mundane household tasks while silently singing to themselves "when I [perform this mundane household task] I'ma make it look sexy"?

And "Feel" - what can I say - standout of the album for me in many ways. Spectral production feels like Burial and the rhyme just build layers and layers and layers. Sensational bassline too. Whoever said he has no cadence upthread made me actually scoff aloud, this track is the most beautiful extended vocal riff I've ever heard. Needs rainy weather or dusk, headphones, walk the streets, pay full attention and let it overwhelm you.

Does anyone else now find themselves performing completely mundane household tasks while silently singing to themselves "when I [perform this mundane household task] I'ma make it look sexy"?

― Matt DC, Monday, May 1, 2017 9:40 AM

Since 1995.

Yeah, FEEL. is great! again his delivery is totally appropriate to the days of information overload. love the way he builds to the point where he's just straight out righteously shouting - again transformation through intensification. also two really important lines? 'I can feel that the dream is more than process' and the 'the feeling of apocalypse happening but nothing is outward'

still can't work out why the sparse, burial style is so effective, something also, yes, about a ground of, not melancholy exactly, but dusk/rainy weather mood.

xpost lol MDC

Does anyone else now find themselves performing completely mundane household tasks while silently singing to themselves "when I [perform this mundane household task] I'ma make it look sexy"?

https://twitter.com/djperry1973/status/855147481964982277

Also, every song on the album placed on Billboard's Hot 100 chart this week, with DUCKWORTH at #63 being the lowest-charting song. He has 9 songs in the top 40.

I love this album a lot but this is ludicrous.

pretty funny to think of "Blood" as a Hot 100 single

I wonder how much of that is due to people streaming the album and, instead of resuming it when they get back from something, starting over again. So you end up with the singles being high on the list due to people seeking them out, and then everything else just charts in order of album sequence

This has happened twice in the UK this year - once with Stormzy and then again (to a frankly ridiculous degree) with Ed Sheeran, to the extent that he had maybe nine songs in the top 10.

(Short answer - yes, streaming is to blame).

I immediately thought of Ed Sheeran; didn't this happen with Drake, too?

It's interesting from the standpoint of "what songs are people obsessed with this week" but it definitely turns the Hot 100 into something besides "top singles of the past week"; maybe it hasn't been that for a while and it's only in the past few years of meme-hits and total album dominance that I've noticed.

It happened to Lemonade and Life of Pablo as well--whenever a big new album comes out, the Hot 100 gets all screwy because of 14 or so debut tracks from the huge new album.

imo the Ed Sheeran week was a hilarious self-own by the people of the UK

there's a few albums ever year -- like anything that "sells" ~350k+ in its first week? -- that place pretty much every song in the hot 100... drake definitely just did it

it usually seems like there's a people's champ pick that is higher than the rest of the album tracks... i.e. "passionfruit" or "too good" off views or "sorry" from lemonade that then becomes a single. maybe in kendrick's case "DNA" counts but they clearly already had a video filmed for that so it's not quite the same.

and then as you go down the chart there does seem to be an ordering effect

i walked into my local "Best Buy" today and purchased this on "compact disc"

bout to take the long way home from work

yeah the number of songs charting isn't unusual in this era. Beyonce and Sheeran pulled this off too.

Your horse and buggy has a CD player?

Xp

if i gotta mean mug Οὖτις i'ma make it look sexxy

It's something Whiney nailed with his review, talking about the different levels of how "humble" and "pride" are explored in the album. At first the way so many songs would jump around to totally disparate beats really annoyed me in how jarring it was but I'm starting to come around on how well that works as a vehicle for Kdot exploring themes.

I haven't yet listened to this all the way through but I'm on my second pass through the first half - think I'm gonna listen to the end this time - and "Loyalty" strikes me as a screamingly obvious second single. I don't see how it won't be a huge hit. Obviously his skills are titanic, but he just keeps getting better at making records, doesn't he?

The production on this is amazing in a way I'm not sure I've heard before. Can't pin it down ... beats you could build a house on, obviously, but also drama in the tracks that gives him a springboard without distracting from his lyrics.

I may be the only Kendrick fan on ILM who's listening to "Humble" for the first time in May, but on first pass it's easily the weakest song on the record. "First pass" emphasized - I could be totally wrong here.

nah you're probably right, but that's just because the rest of the songs are amazing

HUMBLE is okay. I didn't love it when I first heard it and it's not one of my favorites on the album.

it sounds better as part of the album flow than as a single imo

^^^ agreed

This is quickly becoming my AOTY. There are other recent albums that I was excited about, but I haven't given them much time because I keep coming back to this instead. Just flows so well, and no skipable moments.

it sounds better as part of the album flow than as a single imo

― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Monday, May 8, 2017 12:49 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ agreed

― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Monday, May 8, 2017

this.

third week at #1 y'all

The seagull sounds on Pride and the Rick James sample at the end of DNA are both such perfect touches to their beats.

I like the theory going around that the tracks should be listened to in reverse order to get different messages. I'm not sold that it was an intentional move by Kendrick but the way different themes are peppered throughout makes it work. Like how Element starts with Kid Capri introducing the "ain't nobody prayin for me" motif, but if you flip the tracklisting that announcement comes right after Feel, the song that's built around that line.

my daddy commissary made it to commas is a good line

killer verse here
https://www.audiomack.com/song/bottomfeedermusic/mask-off-rmx

was listening to this on the living room stereo the other day and started after skipping to the middle - made me realize how *slow* so much of this album is, tempo-wise.

GIMME SOME GANJA!
GIMME SOME GANJA!
GIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMME SOME GANJA!

Well, this has been out for a while now and a lot of listens and this one seems to be threatening to burn out a little faster for me than GKMC or TPAB, both of which I'm still listening to a lot, but 'DNA.', 'ELEMENT.', 'FEEL.', 'LUST.', 'XXX.', 'FEAR.' and 'DUCKWORTH.' all rule.

The only reason I don't play this album 24/7 is because I don't want my kids to pick up the cursing and the n-bombs.

If you discount the opener, that's more than half the album!

xpost

this is also a great album to listen to while hiking, especially when you're carrying a heavy bag

this is gonna be one of the best albums of the year for me (and everyone else), no problem.

Oh yeah, this is without a doubt one of my favourite albums released this year too, and yet another installment of what is turning out to be an incredible run. I don't think it's a 5-star, 10/10 album like GKMC or TPAB are, but it's incredibly close - more like a 4.999-star, 9.999/10 album. The only flaw I can really find with DAMN. is that it doesn't seem as endlessly replayable as GKMC or TPAB, but since those albums are (IMO) masterpieces, that's not really much of a flaw when it comes down to it.

this album is the best

The only flaw I can really find with DAMN. is that it doesn't seem as endlessly replayable as GKMC or TPAB

I find the album to be endlessly replay-able. More so than Butterfly (I still prefer Butterfly). Replayability one of those things I can't explain.

I've listened to this way more than the others

I can't stop listening to this record. First Kendrick record that I really got all the way into - I liked the last one but it felt like such a Big Weighty Artistic Statement that it was harder for me to find a way in (especially at my age, where I have less time to really delve into Big Weighty Artistic Statements). Maybe I'll go back and give it more time now. Damn has more straight bangers on it AFAICT, and that hooked me enough to dig more into the weighty artistic statement aspects of the album, which are also great. DNA is the first rap song I felt compelled to memorize in many years.

Also the story on and behind Duckworth is insane.

At least four or five tracks I can have on endless repeat.

DNA seems to get a lot of play on Hot 97 too, which just makes me happy that something that amazing can still be a hit.

agree w you ive played/enjoyed this 1 more than tpab

I still think To Pimp a Butterfly is better, but DAMN. is still one of the albums of the year.

Having children at an age where they parrot whatever they hear has cut down on the amount that I listen to this album but it's still my favorite of the year.

Believe me I get it. The only reason I even got to give this record a chance is that I now drive to work. And with that it was sill totally by chance that I flipped the radio one day to hot 97 and had a head explosion, pull the car over moment when the beat change in DNA happened

I've been impressed by its chart longevity too -- it hit #1 again a couple weeks ago and hasn't left the top ten.

xp the *drama* of this record is one of its biggest hooks - the gunshot cutting off BLOOD, the escalation in DNA, that bit in FEEL where he snaps and rants for a few bars, the rage in XXX. He's just at the top of his game.

So many high points on this album but that first verse in woozy-as-fuck Pride where his voice keeps subtly mutating lower and higher makes me seasick every time in just the best way. What a triumph.

I think this is his best album, hits a middle ground between the strengths of Good Kid, Maad City and To Pimp a Butterfly

It's his best album the way that Yeezus is Kanye's best album. It's not the album he'll be remembered for, but it's awesome and exciting and bold and perfect for what it is

I don't understand that comparison at all

in part because Yeezus is three quarters crap

that's a good starting point for skepticism, to be sure

Half is Yeezus is very good and half of Yeezus is intolerable bullshit. DAMN. runs the gamut from "good" to "holy shit where has this song been my whole life".

they're both lean, no-bullshit, hard-hitting, personality-driven mid-career album by an elite A-list rapper with several more "prestigious" albums already under their belt. Not really a stretch?

yeah if you think Yeezus sucks the comparison doesn't hold but thinking Yeezus sucks is a pretty bizarre position imo

That is 100% stretch considering the entire second half of Yeezus is filler.

Also, if Yeezus is mid-career Kanye album god help us all

Again, the comparison won't hold at all if you hate Yeezus for some bizarre reason.

Yeezus has a few duds in the second half but it also has Send It Up, I'm In It and Bound 2. That's still pretty good for any side of a record. DAMN. has some silly shit in its second half, too, but it doesn't dampen my love of that record much either

yeah this album gets flabby towards the end c'mon. i think it's cool that he pulled back from the sprawling ambition of TBAP w/ a record like this, i would have guessed he'd keep going down that hole. i play this one a lot and about half of it feels canonical to me but i'd still rate it as his third best tho... even as an album of bangers i still think it's less good than GKMC.

right now I want to say damn. is my favourite but I think that's just me being v immersed in it. his command of all the peculiarities of his voice feels virtuosic & agile, so many neat little hooks, phrases & flourishes. I always liked him woozy but this is comparatively breezy and I really love that about it

imo TPAB and the follow-up outtakes were where Kendrick really came into this fully-developed persona and DAMN is him going back to a more regular album format while sitting in that established position

better than GKMC, not as transcendently brilliant as TPAB

DUCKWORTH is one of my favorite songs ever, though

jOrdan otm

for a guy who does a fair amount of guest verses he rarely if ever feels like he's phoning it in, this is great (and rapsody is great too)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsehWDsoR0

Yeah, I think To Pimp a Butterfly is a better record, but this is still one of my favourite albums this year.

I don't this album can be compared to Yeezus, which has a sort of comedy value for a couple of spins before it never gets played again, and rightly so because Yeezus is fucking terrible.

I'm liking Yeezus more by the minute

you can never compare an album to another album on ilx without someone chiming in with 'but that comparison is preposterous; i like one of these records and dislike the other!'

Lol

Okay, I'll put it another way: if you think Yeezus is anywhere near in the same league as DAMN. then there's something seriously wrong with you.

one day, turrican will learn that taste is subjective, and only then will we all be beamed up

Not before you learn that while taste is subjective, there is still such a thing as objectively good and/or bad music.

"objectively" lol no, there isn't