Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBvngg87998

This has got to be the flow of the year and I figure he deserves a thread of his own like Lil B.

Wiki says Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Game crowned him the "New King of the West Coast" in August and also that Lamar has seen Tupac in a dream telling him to "Keep doing what you're doing, don't let my music die".

I'd like to see if this goes somewhere!

the fuck your ethnicity beat has been in my head for the last couple of days

yeah, i guess besides being really good it has sort of an embracing feel

i like this guy

need to finally download his album plus maybe a mixtape or two

Lamar has seen Tupac in a dream telling him to "Keep doing what you're doing, don't let my music die"

say no more

did i miss some era of pac's career when he was in freestyle fellowship or something?

kendrick is good... he def seems like a cool person, like hanging out w/ currensy & kendrick would just be really fun

"rigamortis" is really cool too, would like to see him do it w/ an actual live band

album is sneakily one of the better rap albums of the year too, certainly for a debut

Yeah, def. top 5 rap albums this year.

He has this knack for pulling off corny backpacker shit w/o coming across at all like a corny backpacker. But really, he's exactly the black hippy he claims to be.

Thing about this dude is he's not only a skilled rapper, obviously, but his beats/tracks are SO much more interesting (to me, at least) than, like, A$AP Rocky, Spaceghost, Mr. Exquire, and most of the other current, blog-buzzy hip-hop acts. And I like what Clams Casino is doing; I like the Rainforest EP. But I don't know ... I was trying to listen to that Spaceghost record the other day, and I didn't hate it, but ... just how dumb are we gonna allow the rhymes to be before we say enough is enough?

To me, this guy elevates up into the Shabazz Palaces / Serengeti realm rather than all the buzz stuff that just doesn't hold up.

(Tyler/Goblin/OFWGKTA left out of this post on purpose. Dig the beats, but overall, not for me.)

am i the only person who thinks "The Recipe" is kind of a shitty, awkward-sounding song?

yeah, i'm not really a big fan of it

it's okay, nothing really special

the part where dre raps is still just really ill fitting

I put it on my "faves of 2012" playlist without really listening to it and it really doesn't belong there

lol

the production is gorgeous enough to overcome the not-especially-memorable rapping imo

tho obv it's no "cartoon & cereal"

see it doesn't sound very gorgeous to me! drums are so clunky

hmm never noticed the clunkiness before, the strings are what i think of though

just listening to it now, Dre sounds like Kendrick's bored grandpa and Kendrick sounds like he's imitating Lupe Fiasco poorly

Man, you guys are jaded! This track doesn't fill you with joy? The stings? Kendrick's kinda weird sorta singing voice? His constant flow switch-ups? The no-hurry pacing? The shameless summeriness of it all? None of this does anything for you guys?

like I said, it's okay

and the Lupe Fiasco compare is just harsh! I mean, yeah, dude is in entertainer mode here, but the shit coming out of his mouth still makes sense

i had no concept of it being summery in any way until i listened close enough to figure out what the words in the chorus were. the flow in KL's first few bars is really really awkward imo.

I actually like how off the drums are, too. They're mixed to sound the way all drums do when you're driving really fast with the windows down and the radio turned way up

i didn't really get into it until i heard it on the radio driving down the freeway and then i decided i loved it

recipe is awesome

'drums are so clunky' this sounds like criticism for dummies type shit

recipe is one of the best songs of the year imo

i would like it way better if it just didn't have dr. dre on it

i dont see why this is the best he's sounded in years

ive said this elsewhere (or here maybe, too, i don't remember) but dre's parts on it sound 100% like kendrick karaoke, which makes sense since kendrick of course wrote the verses.

but idk i find it distracting and kinda embarrassing... not as much as "i need a doctor" but it def has the feel to me of an old baller trying to do a bunch of and 1 tricks or something

Yeah, I agree with that; the verse is not Dre's voice (in so much as Dre even has a voice these days). I give it a pass, though, just because his presence is so iconic and it's a key part of the song's Visit L.A. sales pitch

Dre's verses have always been karaoke

u sound young

he used to be better at hiding it

thats silly. ppl used to criticize his rapping all the time & they were wrong then too

xpost I dunno, 2001 was pretty much all Dre karaoke and it was awesome in part because of that (this was the beginning of his "so what if I use ghostwriter? no shame in it phase.") I think the problem is he's never had a ghostwriter with a voice as distinct as Kendrick's

i dunno, he used to seem less slavish in his imitation of his writers. i kind of put the fault on kendrick for writing dre something so obviously in his own voice tho.

eminem?

xp i don't buy that. jay-z, eminem, snoop, cube, doc?

yeah, eminem/snoop/cube were all strong voices too, obviously, but their personas heavily overlapped with Dre's in a way that Kendrick's doesn't. They all have their quirks, but there are a lot of interchangeable verses among the four of them. Kendrick is a real outlier

i kind of put the fault on kendrick for writing dre something so obviously in his own voice tho.

yeah, this is kind of true, but I give him a pass since I like the verse well enough anyway

i dont think kendrick is an outlier, its just a new voice
'forgot about dre' is super obviously a bunch of em verses in like every way, we just give it a pass cuz we heard it a bunch & its a dope song

yeah i don't know how you could consider kendrick's flow more distinctive than now "eminem" dre's verse in forgot about dre was

i dunno, maybe it's just that i didn't realize he didn't write his own raps at the time, but dre sounds way more "himself" on the chronic and 2001 to me.

totally agree; the ghost verses on "Forgot About Dre" were all angry and defensive, so they played on the popular image of Dre in a way that was believable enough

it must have been hard for eminem to channel than angry and defensive vibe dre wanted

for me it's less about the content than the rhythms

otm

some spin on the ball here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwamhuY6Yy8

i like this guy's stuff.

This guy is the new Nas

Take that as you will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6krHJGimets

i really like him. take that as you will.

Doing a track with Lady Gaga apparently

i'm actually looking fwd to that quite a lot, doesn't seem like a natural fit

i like him too. i also like nas

This guy is the new Nas

Take that as you will

― protected by viper. stand back. (D-40), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 7:34 PM Bookmark

This could mean practically anything.

ie maybe he is literally writing the songs on the new nas record

i dont see how that could mean practically anything; he holds a very specific place in hip hop

so specific, in fact, that calling anyone else "the new Nas" is utterly meaningless

well, you can take it as you will.. you must guess at D-40's own appraisal. and if you guess wrong, BAM in the dunk tank you go

lol seriously

i dont really see what's so hard to understand about that parallel

who's putting anyone in the dunk tank?

i mean, it seems evident to me Kendrick is a really talented rapper who's talent is so uncontroversial that he becomes a stand-in for 'quality rap' -- focus on skill above all, dry rap style, this kind of focus on purity of rap as a technical skill

you guys really cant figure that shit out on your own?

track in the OP = the new biddybiddybop

Section 80 was a lot weirder than that description suggests. Not too mention stuff like Cartoon & Cereal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTsKXc3Cixg

haha Nas is about 2 billion times weirder than kendrick

"Not too mention" christ

matt otm

i assumed deej's post was a comedy copy&paste due to the capital letters. guess not :/

kendrick and his pals are kinda the kinder gentler odd future in a way. your mom would like kendrick! but he's got the goods! and he is totally interesting to listen to. you want to hear what he has to say. and in that way he is nas-like definitely.

it's to the point now where it makes it hard for me to listen to nas...am i'm one of the boring ones that thinks illmatic will always be the greatest hip hop LP ever....but yeah he's got such a heavy vibe of just being fucking nuts now, he weirds me out....and it's not in this like Lil' B/Kool Keith way where their persona is being kooky (B) or insane (KK) but there are always like 25 throwaway o_O lines on any Nas album (if not more) where you're like what the fuck are you on dude?

like some dude pointed out on twitter the weird "b3stiality p0rn" reference that comes out of nowhere on the new album

haha you're overstating it a little but that creeping strangeness and oversharing is part of what imo makes post-Illmatic Nas continue to be worth listening to

yeah maybe!

i like the new one pretty much

omg google upper mississippi sh@kedown and find bestiality porn

Lol

i attribute those weird nas throwaway lines less to weirdness per se and more to a certain tone-deafness about how to say things, which is obviously an odd thing to say about a rapper, but i finished his latest album feeling vaguely sorry for him

Yeah, that's otm about Nas' tonedeafness.

My point earlier is there are so many different points of Nas' history and facets of his character that have come and gone that "the new Nas" without any other explication is pretty much a Rorschach Test.

i don't know if there's an elegant way to say women love it when you fart in your face because you are psychic

My point earlier is there are so many different points of Nas' history and facets of his character that have come and gone that "the new Nas" without any other explication is pretty much a Rorschach Test.

― Vagelis (The Reverend), Thursday, August 16, 2012 3:20 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im thinking more in critical reception & less in music although probably musical presentation

more like "the new Jay Electronica" or "the new Lupe Fiasco" -- the new Nas is just a meaningless torch to get passed around the way rock critics used to crown a new Dylan every couple years

hes certainly made better songs than either of those dudes

(which, to not contradict myself, is why people have responded to him in a way that feels closer to nas than the others)

nah his career so far is v similar to Jay Electronica, scarcity of material aside

Sort of - but if you look into it TDE and Kendrick have tons of material, more charisma, and maybe even release dates.

i don't feel very compelled to look into it since "The Recipe" and "Swimming Pools" make him seem less charismatic than Nas

this is so stupid

lupe fiasco is a much better comparison than nas

yah

i think kendrick has a lot wider fanbase than lupe ever did, in terms of music fans.

doesnt mean larger per se, although im sure hes on the way, but i hear a lot of ppl who would never have checked w/ lupe beyond 'that kick push song is cool' going all-in with kendrick as an artist

I'd say Lupe is way closer to Nas than any of them are to Kendrick.

please. stop. all of you.

ahah

Following in Lupe's footsteps (he played this a couple of years back IIRC):

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/598666_368257676586649_2045742381_n.jpg

at his show in chicago last weekend he brought lupe out (to wild cheers & chants, lol) and lupe said that kendrick would be getting the "next big thing award" and "lupe fiasco's outstanding fan awards" or some such shit

also following in Lupe's footsteps in patting himself on the back for not voting

Here's the tracklist for the album. Terrifying song title for the Drake feature

1. Sherane A.K.A Master Splinter’s Daughter
2. ***** Don’t Kill My Vibe – Featuring Lady Gaga
3. Backseat Freestyle
4. The Art Of Peer Pressure
5. Money Trees – Featuring Jay Rock
6. Poetic Justice – Featuring Drake
7. Good Kid
8. M.A.A.D City – Featuring Mc Eiht
9. Swimming Pools (Drank) (Extended)
10. Sing About Me I’m Dying Of Thirst
11. Real – Featuring Anna Wise Of Sonnymoon
12. Compton – Featuring Dr. Dre

terrifying song titles galore

and album title

no cartoons & cereal??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

also:

1. Sherane A.K.A Master Splinter’s Daughter

wut

MC Eiht on there! Nice

have a hard time believing that's real

The track-list or MC Eiht on this album?

well shucks

Kendrick Lamar ‏@kendricklamar
Nope. Wrong track list.

he doesn't say it's entirely fake though

some of that is real but it's also missing some confirmed tracks (protip" if you're gonna make a fake tracklist at least remember to put the biggest hit single on there) and just scans as pretty fake to me. also none of the big rap blogs posted it.

that drake song is real tho i think

the Drake song and "Dying of Thirst" are both real

I love Section.80 but more and more I'm thinking there's no way that this isn't gonna be a big disappointment, great as "Cartoons & Cereal" is

i don't know -- i haven't heard anything beyond the two singles but i trust kendrick to have pretty good quality control. both in talking to him and in hearing the stuff that's come out since section.80 i have a hard time believing it won't be a pretty good major label debut. i really got the sense that he makes the music he wants to make so i don't think it's gonna be far from an A&R'd shitpile, but i also think he's good enough that it's not gonna feel like a glorified mixtape a la krit's album.

he told me he did a song with damien marley so that might be on there as well tho i think that they still haven't figured out what exactly is gonna be on the record

so i don't think it's gonna be far from an A&R'd shitpile

scratch "don't" from this

'recipe' is also one of the best songs of the year so theres that

failed banger status

ya recipe is so dope

realizing that kendrick says "what more can i say?" in the chorus deepened my indifference towards that song

that J0rdan post a few posts up assuages my concerns a bit--i kinda thought "swimming pools" was underwhelming and the announcement of that Gaga collabo really had me thinking it was gonna be "an A&R'd shitpile"

still not totally on board with the recipe but i like it a lot more than when i first heard it

kendrick & gaga make total sense to me as a friendship... i get how they could just talk for hours on the phone. their personalities and how they approach music and work within their genres seem very congruous to me. i have no idea if the song is going to be good or not (tho i'm excited to hear it) but i don't think it's gonna sound like kendrick rapping over "paparazzi" or w/e

the Gaga thing seemed to be more about her being a fan and wanting to work w/ him and up his profile than a Wale kind of deal where she was roped in by some label person as a stab at helping him sell records

rap + Gaga has generally been a disaster thus far but i could see it working at some point -- maybe not on a song called "Partynauseous" but still

yeah my understanding was that she called him to say she was a fan and they kind of hit it off from there and eventually got in the studio together

well looks like i didn't look into this enough. just the title + memories of "chillin" and that christina aguilera joint t.i. did a few years ago led me to expect the worst

wanna go on record as saying i also love recipe
so there's a moment where we're on the same page deej
i'm cautiously hopeful on this album after listing .80 in the ground but the guestlist is making me nervous

turns out that tracklist was more or less accurate

in other news the art of peer pressure is pretty fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHrmr0yeSrc

its cool

but wtf, its not touching 'cartoons & cereal' or 'recipe' ... neither of which make it?

apparently "recipe" is one the deluxe edition, lol bloodsucking

i don't really mind "cartoon & cereal" not being on there, i think it kind of has its own mythology

the song w/ dre prod by just blaze has leaked, it's not anything special

http://hiphop-n-more.com/2012/10/kendrick-lamar-compton-feat-dr-dre/

end just makes me hope that quik has a beat on the album

kinda lol at a clearly kendrick-penned dre verse including dre "pass[ing] the torch"

The bi-annual West Coast torch passing ceremony - hosted by Dr. Dre.

It's crazy that Interscope is putting Just Blaze AND Dr. Dre on this album just like they did with The Documentary. Are they trying to make Kendrick the new Game?

oof

haha Interscope "putting" Dr. Dre on the album when Dre signed him to Aftermath -- obviously Dre's constant hunger to make a new West Coast superstar provides plenty of Game parallels without the EERIE PRESENCE OF JUST BLAZE

yeah, plus 50 cent, busta rhymes, kanye west and faith evans. getting kinda creepy, isn't it

first Aftermath album in two years, first non-50/Em album in SIX years

surprised they didn't change the name of the label to Aftermath By Dre

"putting" was definitely the wrong verb, lol. But someone has curated this, obviously.

vitamin water headphones, it doesn't matter anymore

why would you think someone at Interscope curated this instead of Dre himself though?

Because there are A&Rs involved and has been for some time? I doubt that Dre has been very hands on with this, even though he obviously wants to be associated with it.

And that Just Blaze beat has 2006 written all over it. I wish he had switched up his style a little.

A&Rs don't really exist anymore, they're like the music industry illuminati that people like to blame all creative decisions on

"And that Just Blaze beat has 2006 written all over it. I wish he had switched up his style a little."

to be fair, that beat has purportedly been hanging on since '09

(i'd also say a Blaze beat really isn't an example of A&Ring or curating in the first place, the dude's not really as high-profile as he once was minus a couple appearances here and there)

xpost.

True. I happen to know one of the A&R guys who has worked on the Kendrick project a little. He's level headed enough and I know for a fact that he wanted to keep this contemporary and left field. Someone made a bad decision in rounding the album out with Kendrick and Dre rapping about Compton and torch-passing over an old-sounding Just Blaze beat though. I don't know how that happened. Maybe Dre himself is to blame, but it's pretty baffling nonetheless.

"compton" is boilerplate just blaze but i like how kendrick approaches collaboration. he uses other people as props in his arrangements. he obviously wrote dre's verses on this and "the recipe" but it feels like he just wanted another voice to say his shit to bounce his own verse up against. he uses collaborators to further his own material. it feels different than typical ghostwriting

i see this in how he frames gunplay on "cartoon and cereal" (in a way that no one had considered before) and on his work with bj the chicago kid

I mean, the beat is good even though it's hardly mindblowing and also sounds a bit old. And The Recipe sounds great with Dre on it. It's just the combination of the two that doesn't work. I agree that Kendrick approaches collaboration in new ways though.

re the A&R talk

maybe i'm a sucker but when i talked to kendrick i got the sense that he was pretty in control of the project -- the fact that the lady gaga collab got left off this is probably as good an indication of that as anything. i don't know... the guy has built up a pretty good fanbase and his singles so far haven't been outrageously off-course for him and he's rocking good venues... maybe people at the label realized it would be good to leave him be. i don't know tho, i guess we'll see the production credits & final product.

i hate that beat on "compton"... it's dinner party just blaze from the 'kingdom come' era. also i still maintain that dre sounds utterly ridiculous on "the recipe" and that it's a rather poor bit of ghostwriting

i see this in how he frames gunplay on "cartoon and cereal" (in a way that no one had considered before)

this is true, tho. i mean he's done his fair share of check cashing ("power circle," that joint on the khaled album) but i think his collaborations are very well-thought out and tailored. gunplay is a perfect example of something that shocks you on paper but the song just makes total sense, he put gunplay's intensity and pain in a new context but one that really works.

re the A&R talk

maybe i'm a sucker but when i talked to kendrick i got the sense that he was pretty in control of the project -- the fact that the lady gaga collab got left off this is probably as good an indication of that as anything. i don't know... the guy has built up a pretty good fanbase and his singles so far haven't been outrageously off-course for him and he's rocking good venues... maybe people at the label realized it would be good to leave him be. i don't know tho, i guess we'll see the production credits & final product.

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 9:54 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well that's precisely why the Compton song and its placement as the last song on the regular album seems so strange and almost like a false note to me. Who is it for? I think everyone wants him to succeed right now and that everyone has accepted that he is going to do it on his own terms. But Compton just feels as if it belongs on another album than the one that has been set up so far.

it's dinner party just blaze from the 'kingdom come' era.

but all his beats on kingdom come are unstoppably huge?

Which ones? Nothing works on Kingdom Come.

Well that's precisely why the Compton song and its placement as the last song on the regular album seems so strange and almost like a false note to me. Who is it for? I think everyone wants him to succeed right now and that everyone has accepted that he is going to do it on his own terms. But Compton just feels as if it belongs on another album than the one that has been set up so far.

― longneck, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:00 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i mean it's a weird collaboration no doubt. i'm not necessarily saying that every move kendrick makes is perfect, but it's possible he just wanted to rap over a bombastic just blaze beat

yeah why on earth would the first west coast rapper in years to be groomed as a superstar want to have a song called "compton" featuring dr. dre on his major label debut, it's so strange

the songs are forgettable but 'kingdom come' (the super freak flip), 'oh my god', and 'show me what you got' are amazing instrumentals, i wish they had gone to other records.

otm

ugh i hate those beats. wayne over "show me what you got" is one of his defining moments but that beat makes me almost physically ill so i can't even listen to that anymore.

it's the same kind of big, expensive, regal rap beats that dre has pumped out for failed latter day 50 cent singles that just feels very empty and distanced. for some reason they make me think of museums.

yeah why on earth would the first west coast rapper in years to be groomed as a superstar want to have a song called "compton" featuring dr. dre on his major label debut, it's so strange

― jaz a make wardance (some dude), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 10:08 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If I were Kendrick Lamar, I'd make sure that my collaboration with Dr. Dre for my major label superstar debut, called Compton, would be far stranger than this. That's basically Kendrick's chance to redefine what Compton means to his generation while bridging the gap. Instead he chooses an east coast traditionalist beat and makes something that might have gone on a Game album, or any other major label album (Rick Ross, Drake, etc.). I don't understand why you all think I'm crazy for saying this. I get that he might want to rap over a Just Blaze banger. It just comes off as wrong/off in this instance.

ugh i hate those beats. wayne over "show me what you got" is one of his defining moments but that beat makes me almost physically ill so i can't even listen to that anymore.

it's the same kind of big, expensive, regal rap beats that dre has pumped out for failed latter day 50 cent singles that just feels very empty and distanced. for some reason they make me think of museums.

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 10:28 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

oh i don't think you're crazy. i just have a much lower opinion of kendrick's creativity than you so i'm like "oh, that figures." (xpost)

the Dre beats on Kingdom Come are limp, but the Blaze beats we're talking about are pretty animated imo. like Jordan said, they probably could've made good songs somewhere if JB at that point wasn't exclusively producing for Saigon and nadir era Jay-Z.

"kingdom come" might be one of my favorite flips ever. that's a great beat. the song's drab but that ain't the beat's fault

this album is kind of amazing

leaked?

allegedly

damn

love this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COYgGpUjz2A

yea, jay rock's verse on that is amazing

yeah album's highlight

Jesus Christ. Sorry for the skepticism, Kendrick.

after one listen it seems that the 1st half > second

i'd agree with that. i think the really long song at the end is great tho.

for some reason the Baltimore station only plays a weird mixtape version of "Swimming Pools" with Lloyd on the first minute or so of it. at least it makes the most tedious rap hit of the year more bearable, though.

why does he have to say "bish" like that? otherwise good song

this is pretty amazing guys

for some reason the Baltimore station only plays a weird mixtape version of "Swimming Pools" with Lloyd on the first minute or so of it.

this is very weird

This is awesome. The best boring album in forever.

tbf this is the same great but sometimes ass-backwards station that plays the EP version of "Adorn"

This is awesome. The best boring album in forever.

― Gelados n cream (longneck), Thursday, 18 October 2012 00:00 (49 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha i'm 2/3 through and this is exactly what i needed to read

it's very subdued, i think the vibe is dope. it's like an album for people who aren't lifestyle potheads that listen to wiz khalifa

why does he have to say "bish" like that? otherwise good song

― i dox in yellow gox dox socks (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 17, 2012 6:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

he is into weird vocal tics and pronunciations for w/e reason i.e. pronouncing "that" as "thot" on "adhd". idk, i think he can get away with it

He can get away with it, but it's kind of annoying imo

the way he overemphasizes the last letter of any word that ends with a 't' or 'p' is annoying as fuck

i dunno it's his thing, i don't it. he's a dork (in a good way), no weirder than other vocal things rappers do

Yeah his weird rapping style is the draw for me, although it was kind of wtf at first.

without investigating too far admittedly i hadnt hitherto found this dude especially engaging (even yesterday i thought he sonned himself next to wc ogs on the bet cypher tbh) but this is a great compelling persuasive proper album and what i'm not drawn into on radio / youtube / discussion / whatever i am here

likewise i really don't find "1st half > second" applies, it starts light, simmers, boils over, and finds peace and troubled redemption as intended. 'good kid' and 'maad city' are the heart of the album (somewhat obviously to say)

kinda maybe getting shades of a more expansive, feeling sitting on chrome although i guess that might just be the interludes talking

(also i havent heard s.o.c in forever so who knows what my imagination might have turned it into)

dre really did a hell of a job exec producing this

probably more than that judging by 'good kid' which i highly, highly doubt the neps came up with all by themselves

I like kendrick, I just think there needs to be standards about how rappers say bitch, perhaps a senior counsel chaired by too short could hand down rulings

dre really did a hell of a job exec producing this

― r|t|c, Thursday, October 18, 2012 6:28 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You sure it's Dre that should be getting the credit and not Kendrick himself? I mean, section.80 was all Kendrick, and that had a great flow, production choices, et cetera.

yeah ok fair point, i didnt say it to depreciate kendrick's input but i thought i heard some telling dre touches in there is all

i pray my dick get bick as the eiffel tower/so i can fuck the world for 72 hours

:|

does he say "bick" for "big" or was that a misprint?

i like that line lol

i like the idea/image of the eiffel tower fucking the world

i like that line too!

lil wayne has ruined every and all images of "fucking the world" for me

haha i was gonna say that's such a post-'08 wayne kind of pun

really though WHY is "cartoon & cereal" not on this? why?

i don't see the big deal about it being left off. i don't really get why in this era we really need songs to be on albums. we all have that song, it has its own, uh, legacy or w/e. it still exits & we can all still play it at our leisure.

even the duller songs on here... still worth it for his unpredictable flow.

I wish Cartoon & Cereal was on here in the place of Real.

i think i read somewhere that the cartoon sample in cartoon & cereal couldn't be cleared...

that would make sense

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬~ஜ۩۞۩ஜ~▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­▬
would be easy enough to just sub in a different sample though?
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬~ஜ۩۞۩ஜ~▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­▬

otm

Well it's not just one sample but many. All the little cartoon samples were too much work to clear and Kendrick didn't want to use it without them is what my guy tells me.

Do you guys think the concept/story thing lifts this or keeps it back though? I'm undecided. (Not that it matters much.)

it has a concept?

It has a story that evolves from track to track. There's this huge nerdy thing explaining it all that I could copy paste if anyone's interested.

develops i mean

Sure why not.

ok. This has been floating around. I don't know who made it but no one seems to be complaining about its accuracy:

this is the story of the album..

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City: A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar

Setting: Compton

Characters:

Kendrick Lamar (present Kendrick)
K.Dot (young Kendrick)
Sherane
Kendrick's Mother
Kendrick's Father
Dave
Dave's brother
Keisha's sister
Demetrius (Sherane's favourite cousin)
The Two Brothers (Sherane's younger brothers)
Granny (Sherane's Granny who she lives with)
Sherane's Mother (a crack addict)
Uncle Tony (Kendrick's Uncle who was killed)
Joey (either childhood friend of Kendrick or cousin)
L, Boog, Yaya, Lucky (friends/family members of Kendrick when he was 9)

The Story:

Sherane aka Master Splinter's Daughter

The story opens as a flash-forward. K.Dot has known Sherane for a number of months by this point. He met her at a party where they flirted and exchanged numbers. They kept in contact with each other over the summer and got to know each other pretty well, he talks about her family's history of gang-banging that made him wary but didn't stop him from hooking up with her.

At the end of this song K.Dot is driving to Sherane's house in his Mother's van, he has sex on the brain. But when he turns up Sherane is outside waiting with two dudes in black hoodies (possibly her two younger brothers, or her cousins, one of which could be Demetrius).

Skit #1 - as K.Dot pulls up at Sherane's house his Mother tries to call him but instead gets his voice-mail. We learn from his Mother that K.Dot said he was borrowing her van for just 15 minutes. She warns him not to mess with “them hoodrats” especially “Sherane”.

****, Don't Kill My Vibe

The content of this song doesn't actually follow the Sherane narrative. It is a song told from the perspective of Kendrick Lamar the rapper and how as he gradually gets more recognition as an artist he sees people around him changing, "I can feel the new people around me just want to be famous." He also talks about trying to maintain his credibility while becoming a more mainstream artist, "I'm trying to keep it alive and not compromise the feeling we love/You trying to keep it deprived and only co-sign what radio does."

Skit #2 – The narrative begins. K.Dot's homies pick him up in their white Toyota with a pack of blacks and a beat CD.

Backseat Freestyle

The most self-explantory song on the album. Young K.Dot cruising around town with his homies, getting high and dropping freestyles in the backseat. This is a life is good moment, living free, no troubles. The calm before the storm.

The Art of Peer Pressure

The narrative begins to build. The pressures of hanging with the homies becomes more than simply having a laugh and freestyling. The usually drug free and sober K.Dot is brought in to a world of drinking, smoking, and violence when with “the homies”. Cruising around in a white Toyota, hitting up girls, jumping dudes wearing rival colours, and bragging about what they just did.

The stakes are upped when K.Dot and his homies rob a house that they had been stalking for two months. Cops pursue them but lose them.

Skit #3 - The homies talk about dropping K.Dot off back at home, so he can take his Mother's van and go hit up Sherane – and then they can all meet back up later on the block.

Money Trees

K.Dot recaps the story so far.

He talks about robbing the house, "Home invasion was persuasive/From 9 to 5 I know its vacant."

He mentions ****ing Sherane and bragging about it to his homies, "I ****ed Sherane then went to tell my bros."

He references Backseat Freestyle when he talks about rhyming to beats, "Parked the car and then we started rhyming, ya bish/The only thing we had to free our mind."

And he talks about jumping dudes who looked like they had more money than them, "Then freeze that verse when we see dollar signs/You looking like an easy come up ya bish/A silver spoon I know you come from ya bish."

The line in the chorus "Everybody gon' respect the shooter/But the one in front of the gun lives forever." is deeply important, not just as a life motto, but in regards to the events that later take place in this story regarding Dave and his brother. It's also a reference to Kendrick's Uncle Tony, who was shot and killed at Louie's Burgers; this event is a snap back to reality from the "dreams of living life like rappers do."

Skit #4– K.Dot's Mother leaves another voice-mail. She wants her car back.

Poetic Justice

K.Dot has been dropped off back at home by his homies and is about to go see Sherane. He's probably driving on the way there in his Mother's van. He talks about her and their relationship so far - it appears they may have had some arguments, he talks about her meeting up with her girlfriends to curse him, and going out partying rather than talking with him.

Skit #5 – this is when we catch up with Sherane aka Master Splinter's Daughter. It starts where Sherane ended, and you can tell because that haunting female vocal (used in the beat to Sherane) comes back in this skit. The two dudes with Sherane approach K.Dot and ask him where he and his family are from (trying to work out what gang he is affiliated with). They force K.Dot out of the van and jump him.

Good Kid

This really sets off the theme of the second half of the album and it is all to do with - realisation.

K.Dot talks about getting jumped, "For the record I recognize that I'm easy prey/I got ate alive yesterday."

He discusses the negative effects of gang-culture, and being unable to escape the pressure of people wanting to know what gang he represents, "But what am I supposed to do/When the topic is red or blue/And you understand that I ain't/But know I'm accustomed to." Red or Blue obviously refers to the LA gangs of Bloods and Crips.

The red and the blue in the second verse become police sirens. K.Dot talks about getting no sympathy from the cops because they stereotype him as a gang-banger, making him lift up his shirt in order to look for a gang affiliated tattoo, "I heard them chatter: "He's probably young but I know that he's down"/Step on his neck as hard as your bullet proof vest."

K.Dot is trapped in a violent culture and can't get a reprieve from the gangs or the police.

M.A.A.D City

More self-awareness and realisation of the corrupt city that K.Dot lives in.

K.Dot's recent beat-down brings back early memories of similar situations, witnessing someone with their brains blown out at a burger stand back when he was 9 (I'm not sure if he is talking about his Uncle Tony again, or someone else), he thinks he knows the person who did it but he censors his name. He also talks about how his cousin was killed back in 94.

He talks about his Father telling him to get a job but he got fired after his friends pressured him in to staging a robbery. He gives his reason for why he doesn't smoke when he tells a story of smoking marijuana laced with cocaine and "foaming at the mouth."

In the final verse he tries to let the good shine through and offer respite for the youth and how they don't have to succumb to the temptations and pressures of the street. He hopes that his experience and intelligence can do good for the youth living in similar situations. "Compton, USA Made me an Angel on Angel Dust."

Skit #6 – K.Dot's homies meet back up with him later as planned. They try to boost him back up after his beat-down, and they offer him alcohol to take his mind off it.

Swimming Pools

An anti-alcohol song, that again plays in to the second half of the album's realisation about the vices previously holding Kendrick back. Kedrick talks about growing up around alcohol both within his family and group of friends.

Skit #7 – this is the big impact moment of the narrative. The plan is to take revenge on the dudes that jumped K.Dot. One of K.Dot's homies (possibly Dave) talks about maybe dropping K.Dot back off at home, but this idea is turned down, and K.Dot stays. The homies see the dudes that jumped K.Dot and a shoot-out begins. During the battle K.Dot's friend Dave gets shot. The dudes that shot Dave drive off and K.Dot is left holding Dave as he dies in his arms.

Sing About Me

Verse 1 – from the perspective of Dave's brother. He says the blood is on Kendrick's hands because the whole situation happened out of revenge for something that happened to Kendrick. But he says he appreciates that Kendrick was there for his brother and held him while he was dying. Dave's brother wonders if he will ever discover a passion like Kendrick to get him out of the hood – he says he hopes Kendrick will remember him and sing about him when he makes it big, and if he dies before the album drops...pop, pop, pop – he gets killed.

Verse 2 – from the perspective of Keisha's sister. She is mad at Kendrick for putting her sister on blast (on Section 80) without even knowing her properly. She talks about how she is living the same life as her sister, as a prostitute, and is proud of her living and what she does. She claims not to be just another woman lost in the system. She says her sister died in vein. Unlike Dave's brother she doesn't want to be sang about on the album. She feels great and says she'll never fade away....but then she does, her vocals slowly fade out in to obscurity...perhaps she died or just became another nameless "hoodrat".

Verse 3 – from Kendrick's perspective. Looking in the mirror. His fear of death. He speaks to Dave's brother, agreeing that Dave was like a brother to him. He speaks to Keisha's sister saying that Keisha's story was the one that drove him to write something that powerful and real – he didn't mean to offend. He talks of how music saved him and pulled him away from the drugs, money and guns.

Skit #8 – K.Dot's homies talking after Dave has been killed. Some of them want to go back and get revenge. K.Dot finally snaps and says he is tired of this ****.

I'm Dying of Thirst

Kendrick talks about been tired of running and gunning people down. It's just a circle of death. The perpetual struggle.

Skit #9 – K.Dot returns home, still angry and upset over Dave's death. Him or one of his homies have a gun with them that his Mother sees “That better not be what I think it is.” she says. She tells them that they are dying of thirst and that they need to take a new path and let Jesus in to their lives. She makes them prayer. From here on K.Dot begins to live a new life as Kendrick Lamar.

Real

This is Kendrick disregarding the street life and turning his back on gang-banging, drugs, alcohol, violence etc. The different meanings of being “real”. Are you real because you represent your hood and shoot people? Are you real because you try to escape that life and make something of yourself?

Verse 1 – about certain girls (but could be Sherane). She loves handbags, French Tip, bank slips. But what love got to do with it when you don't love yourself?

Verse 2 – about certain homies (but could be Dave's brother). He loves fast cars, fast women, beef, streets, ducking police, hood-life. But what love got to do with it when you don't love yourself?

Verse 3 – about Kendrick. He explains the previous two verses - “I love first verse cos your the girl I attract.” and “I love second verse cos your the homie that packed burner.” “I love what the both of you have to offer.”

He wonders if he should hate her for what happened or should he hate his homies for convincing him to seek revenge. Or should he hate the fact that none of that **** makes him real.

Skit #10 – voice-mail from his Father. He tells Kendrick not to make the same mistakes he did, and that none of this stuff makes him real and that he should get out and make something of himself. His Mother tells him that Top Dawg called and wants him in the studio – she tells him to take his music career seriously – that it is his chance to get out and tell his story to the kids of Compton so that they have hope. This is technically the end of the story in a narrative sense - the tape is ejected and then rewound.

Compton

The narrative is over. This song is after Kendrick has made it and is now giving back just like his Mother told him too. It's a positive outlook of a city that is often full of darkness and violence.

Skit #11 - the narrative starts over again when K.Dot borrows his Mother's van.

too long, didn't download

lol

Thanks, will read it later.

I don't want to push the Outkast comparisons too far but his relaxed-but-engaged intricate-but-simple storytelling does give off strong Andre3000 vibes to me. And not as in "this guy sure has been studying Andre" - more as in "finally, someone else who can do that".

i get more Tech N9ne vibes off his high concept hyper technical nonsense

Foul.

i thought he was just sharing his thoughts about his life and stuff

the middle section of the album is stunning - esp "good kid and "m.a.ad city" - but i am not here for tedious concern trolling about prostitutes or the stoners' whine of the "bitch don't kill my vibe" hook

I really how that's a wc and the m.a.a.d circle reference

Hope

how can it not be ?

Fucking love this start to finish.

the strings on 'B.D.K.M.V.' are really nice

i really dislike compton & the mary j track.

agh i'm not finding this anywhere

but i am not here for tedious concern trolling about prostitutes

his "plight of a woman" songs are really the worst, although the one on this isn't as bad as "no makeup" or "keisha's song" were on section.80. i suspect he thinks he's doing modern "brenda's got a baby" or something but it just comes off as the worst kind of lupe fiasco horseshit

i really dislike compton & the mary j track.

― sisilafami, Sunday, October 21, 2012 12:15 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed

but i am not here for tedious concern trolling about prostitutes or the stoners' whine of the "bitch don't kill my vibe" hook

― lex pretend, Sunday, 21 October 2012 10:22 (9 hours ago) Bookmark

sorry but if you ask me this is a really shallow kind of "everything is fodder for my unique brand of stand up comedy" crit. not saying dude is the most nuanced spokesperson of all time but he's not drake either, he's not glib or patronising and to an extent these songs are undercut with a degree of selfawareness of the compromises of his narratorial perspective. (his prostitute rages back at him for getting involved and misrepresenting, even explicitly throws 'brenda's got a baby' at him if we wanna play that game)

'bitch don't kill my vibe' is dull out of context sure but on this album establishes the mindset the subsequent tracks grow out of - it's not useless wallowing in the same way i dead ocean & solange et al for

likewise 'compton' p much sux on its own but has merit as a quasi-victory lap wrap up closer imo

mary j?

i get more Tech N9ne vibes off his high concept hyper technical nonsense

― some dude, Saturday, 20 October 2012 01:20 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Foul.

― Gelados n cream (longneck), Saturday, 20 October 2012 01:23 (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol this is trademark cynical gamesmanship but probably within the foul borderline

"bitch don't kill my vibe" has maybe the best beat on the album

i'm kinda on the fence as regards the question of 'cartoon and cereal' being on here (if it was it'd be in the first third, replacin'g real' makes no damn sense) - it has complicated parental/generational issues that might make the album more powerful and personal but also undoubtedly more inchoate and idk if that's a worthwhile tradeoff

I love Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe.

Compton works better in the context of the album than on its own.

Mary J kinda ruins the Mary J song though. That's the one false note on the album to me.

the mary j track is a bonus track that i dont consider part of the album proper so it doesnt really count as a down note but its worth observign

Gaga was on BDKMV but they took her off, btw.

interesting. i sorta like the singer on there now... sorta gives the track a a badu vibe

Yeah, that's Anna Wise, apparently. She came in when they decided the Gaga version didn't quite work.

Speaking of bonus tracks, this The Heart pt 3 is pretty nice. Way better than the MJB one, at least.

xxp yeah i mean dudes spend most of recent years bemoaning the death of the album and now you've got a bona fide crafted one to chew on it's all i dont like this bonus track and i wish they coulda bodged this other track in somehow. which is it to be

To me it's pretty much as perfect as it needs to be either way.

i cant even really imagine gaga on bdkmv, way unnecessary celebrity wattage

these songs are undercut with a degree of selfawareness of the compromises of his narratorial perspective. (his prostitute rages back at him for getting involved and misrepresenting, even explicitly throws 'brenda's got a baby' at him if we wanna play that game)

yeah that's why, even if it's one of the weaker songs on here, i'd still take "real" over the similar songs on his last one. it still sorta sticks out as the bum track to me though, even "compton" sounds a little better in context

what do people make of the extended "swimming pools?"

probably a little heavy in literalising what was already inherent in the normal version (then again how heavy can you be if the track lives on on radio as a crunk anthem regardless?) but a pretty neat bridge into the sherane thing and into what comes next

lots of good little callbacks throughout the album, like (first one that comes to mind) the whole "where your grandma stay huh my nigga" skit coming back screwed as the echoing despotism of 'maad city'

lol 'crunk anthem', song is almost as terrible as "bitch bad" imo

this is maybe a classic

gonna go ahead and ask if anybody can point me to where this is streaming / downloadable

do u have what

nope

should i?

i don't have any invites but yeah it's useful

check what i think is your twitter

lol, i don't ever look at my twitter! I think i just parked my shit there.
anyways, i google-fu'd it. gracias

ok

"bitch don't kill my vibe" has maybe the best beat on the album

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 21 October 2012 16:14 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah otm, & it kinda exemplifies where the album drifts tonally after.

i love the girl singing the hook on the jam w/jay rock too, idk who it is.
i deleted half of this to ensure i go buy it but i'm p sure i love it front to back also.

his "plight of a woman" songs are really the worst, although the one on this isn't as bad as "no makeup" or "keisha's song" were on section.80.

wait, do others here think "keisha's song" sucks? i'm so-so on the hook, but like the verses a lot.

nah i think that's just contrarianism on my part

sorry but if you ask me this is a really shallow kind of "everything is fodder for my unique brand of stand up comedy" crit. not saying dude is the most nuanced spokesperson of all time but he's not drake either, he's not glib or patronising and to an extent these songs are undercut with a degree of selfawareness of the compromises of his narratorial perspective. (his prostitute rages back at him for getting involved and misrepresenting, even explicitly throws 'brenda's got a baby' at him if we wanna play that game)

'bitch don't kill my vibe' is dull out of context sure but on this album establishes the mindset the subsequent tracks grow out of - it's not useless wallowing in the same way i dead ocean & solange et al for

it is shallow crit, i've only listened twice! what i specifically found skeevy about the plight-of-a-woman songs is how kendrick goes out of his way to titillate, to sexualise them at the same time as using them as a moral example. he doesn't succeed in humanising sherane, it's like he's fetishising her situation. which is the exact opposite of what pac did on "brenda's got a baby" obv.

"bitch don't kill my vibe" has a nice dreamy beat (not the best on the album though), i was just saying that kendrick's hook is pretty much unlistenable

the MJB track is terrible, yes

agree that "compton" works in this context, not that i thought it was especially awful anyway

it is shallow crit, i've only listened twice! what i specifically found skeevy about the plight-of-a-woman songs is how kendrick goes out of his way to titillate, to sexualise them at the same time as using them as a moral example. he doesn't succeed in humanising sherane, it's like he's fetishising her situation. which is the exact opposite of what pac did on "brenda's got a baby" obv.

"bitch don't kill my vibe" has a nice dreamy beat (not the best on the album though), i was just saying that kendrick's hook is pretty much unlistenable

― lex pretend, Monday, October 22, 2012 7:10 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this does not accurately describe how sherane exists on this record

yes it does

i was going to type something else but if you're not going to go beyond "no it doesn't"/"yes it does" i can't be bothered either

I was going to type "no it doesn't" too but then I repented. So please do type it out.

obviously everyone said this already, but this is great.

so i'll just say - LOOK! new song - http://soundcloud.com/topdawgent/kendrick-lamar-the-heart-pt-3

Can we change the title of this thread, y, because it is horrible

predictably, so far I've loved every song on here except for the one with Drake on it

hilariously awful thread title stays forever imo

starting the campaign now for next goon thread to be titled "rolling killing your favorite rapper for money 2013 thread"

still a little disappointed there's no BJ the Chicago Kid hook on this album, I like their collaborations so much. Did his (BJ's) album get discussed anywhere on ILX? I didn't see it on the R&B thread.

it's kinda weird/cool to me to see so many ppl repping for stuff that's so backpackerish, but i wish i liked kendrick more, or was more enthusiastic about him

the part of this new "the heart" song...the part where he lets his voice get all emo...his flow is SUPER brother ali on that part, total trademark ali flow

Was thinking the SAME thing.

still a little disappointed there's no BJ the Chicago Kid hook on this album, I like their collaborations so much. Did his (BJ's) album get discussed anywhere on ILX? I didn't see it on the R&B thread.

― boxall, Monday, October 22, 2012 9:42 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was gonna bring it up on the r&b thread. I really like the BJ album and think it warrants some discussion.

uh ok for a start sherane isnt even part of the "plight of a woman" business, she's a narrative device to get into the gang plot? even in that depiction the titillation is self-aware and foreshadowing "seventeen, with nothing but pussy stuck on my mental my motive was rather sinful", "my tactics of being thirsty probably could hurt me but fuck it i got some heart"

keisha's sister of plight fame is voiced in first person and is self-glorified is as part of her defensive hollow bravado. perhaps a little clumsy if you're being very harsh but it's in no way badminded, ambitious, and imo is enough to illustrate an difficult situation. i will agree however that "my titties bounce on the cadence of his tingling keys" is probably the one line on the entire record that deserves the accusation of prurience

going all in on one line, when it's mitigated by the whole rest of the record, (and when you yourself say it's from only a couple of listens) smacks pretty obviously of finding any excuse to grind a cartoon axe and is not a particularly good look considering the weight of the accusation being thrown

it's kinda weird/cool to me to see so many ppl repping for stuff that's so backpackerish, but i wish i liked kendrick more, or was more enthusiastic about him

― terrell sug (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 22, 2012 11:49 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

??? its not really that backpackerish imo

the heart song i was talking about it crazy backpacker! plus i think black hippy is backpackerish in general! one of them is named "Ab-Soul" that name screams "guest verse of a Blackalicious song"

Ab-Soul and Jay Rock's names have always amused me because years ago i knew a backpacker cat named Ab Rock

http://soundcloud.com/jay-soul

oh shit i forgot about this, it's even more confusing than i thought: http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/jsoul99/JROCK_Cover.jpg

the heart song i was talking about it crazy backpacker! plus i think black hippy is backpackerish in general! one of them is named "Ab-Soul" that name screams "guest verse of a Blackalicious song"

― terrell sug (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 22, 2012 12:31 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ab-Soul and Jay Rock's names have always amused me because years ago i knew a backpacker cat named Ab Rock

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Monday, October 22, 2012 12:40 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and the songs where kendrick describes watching a dude's brains get blown out, or coming up in compton, or breaking & entering?

it's way more nuanced than a simple backpacker v street rap thing

i think your "don't use the b word" stance is more absolutist than m@tt's "there are backpacker elemtns here" stance

isn't "backpacker" defined by a strict anti-mainstream stance? which is nowhere on this, i mean dr. fucking dre and lady gaga are on it...

that's not the sole defitnion or even the primary definition, no

http://www.rap-up.com/2012/10/22/new-music-kendrick-lamar-swimming-pools-black-hippy-remix/

i love the chicago kid album

yeah of course that's not the sole definition, but it's why it's used as a derogatory term, no?

m@tt wasn't using it in a derogatory way though

Just catching up with this thread now; wanted to finish my review first. Agree that the album is really great, but I don't buy into the instant classic hype. I question its replay value (I'm already a little burned out on it), and also the skits and interludes are really heavy handed. He doesn't trust the listener to follow his narrative w/o explicitly spelling it out, so as good/great as the individual songs are, those long chunks of spoken dialogue really make some of the album a chore to get through

in general the value of skits erodes over time but i think they're really immersive in this case

I don't mind a skit here or there for effect or color, but when the skits hold your hand and guide you through almost every song on an album, it gets really tiresome

that is exactly what De La Soul Is Dead does and that's one of the greatest albums ever

sorta with m@tt on this, and i really liked section 80?

listen more

I don't mind a skit here or there for effect or color, but when the skits hold your hand and guide you through almost every song on an album, it gets really tiresome

― Evan R, Monday, October 22, 2012 2:29 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i guess i sort of like that kind of ephemera that is weaved into the fabric of an album... most rap skits aren't treated that way

comparing any contemporary rap album skits to De La Is Dead is unfair. if they get in the way and don't have as much replay value as the songs College Dropout is probably more germane to bring up.

that's not the sole defitnion or even the primary definition, no

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Monday, October 22, 2012 12:58 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but what possible definition is useful in describing this album?

i will agree however that "my titties bounce on the cadence of his tingling keys" is probably the one line on the entire record that deserves the accusation of prurience

going all in on one line, when it's mitigated by the whole rest of the record, (and when you yourself say it's from only a couple of listens) smacks pretty obviously of finding any excuse to grind a cartoon axe and is not a particularly good look considering the weight of the accusation being thrown

lol it really isn't this time though, i like kendrick and i like this album, but a couple of tracks just felt genuinely skeevy to me. "fuck, suck and swallow in the parking lot" too - the language in keisha's sister's verse is so pornified that it just doesn't convince as her voice, there's too much getting off on it.

otherwise i'm with evan completely, and definitely on the over-long and heavy-handed skits. there's some amazing stuff here - "backstreet freestyle", the "good kid" thru "swimming pools" section (the latter sounds even better in this context) and i really love the corny redemptive "real"/"compton" closers, plus obv "the recipe" is amazing and "black boy fly" is secretly one of the most resonant tracks here despite being "just" a bonus track. i feel it's too uneven to be called A Classic, esp given that no one has spent a decent amount of time with it yet, but otoh its high points do a really great job of further carving out who kendrick is.

i don't think of backpacker as a derogatory thing, i like backpacker rap...i'm talking about backpacker in terms of how he rhymes, general vibe, music, etc

also i don't think that being backpacker excludes having street rap or crime elements...like i consider bootcamp click to be backpackers essentially, and DITC as a whole is backpackerish (i'm using maybe an older definition of backpacker which now i guess it basically means lame shit w.feelings -- though kendrick has a lot of feelings too)

(i think my actual favourite track is "m.a.a.d city" - the switch-up midway through is amazing

but i'm kind of amazed that people don't think that this is at least somewhat of a modern reapproachment of backpacker stuff....black hippy as a crew kinda feels like heiro or dudes like saafir etc

i got what you were saying

it feels closer to 'aquemini' than that stuff tho although very obv kendrick came out of the west coast backpacker vibe, i mean that's more or less what black hippy is although 2 of those dudes were pretty much gangsters

idk i think it sort of confounds these categorizations

listen more

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 22, 2012 7:31 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haha, yes. And listen better.

Also, I'm getting more of an ATLiens vibe than an Aquemini vibe?

i guess i always saw andre is kinda backpackerish anyway, so idk...the word's kinda loaded now but i didn't mean it in a bad way

granted my background in backpacker rap is essentially nil but i definitely immediately thought of southern rap when i first hear this

like, production-wise it reminds me a ton of g side - starshipz & rockets tbh. which itself is certainly grown out of things like aquemini. he's not terribly far off old andre as a rapper, either.

i know you didn't mean it in a bad way! i'm arguing it from a qualitative perspective

i guess if we're operating under some kinda strawman definition where backpacker rap is 100% bitching about whoever is on top of the rap charts, reciting journal entries about ex-girlfriends, and recipes for tofu stir fry it's not backpackerish

(i think my actual favourite track is "m.a.a.d city" - the switch-up midway through is amazing

― lex pretend, Monday, October 22, 2012 11:39 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah same here.

btw pharrell's beat on this album is terrible

its weird & not a standout but not distracting or anything
also i dig the roy ayers interpolation

btw pharrell's beat on this album is terrible

i love that beat and that track

Definitely not terrible.

I get get he Outkast vibe a little, but its not like majorly overt or anything.

Probably the most clear on The Art Of Peer Pressure which is like the Art of Story Telling Part 3 basically.

i guess if we're operating under some kinda strawman definition where backpacker rap is 100% bitching about whoever is on top of the rap charts, reciting journal entries about ex-girlfriends, and recipes for tofu stir fry it's not backpackerish

― terrell sug (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 22, 2012 2:49 PM (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol but yes. i mean, i think everyone here is right? there are tracks where it feels very andre, very outkast, very long-form narrative southern beats etc. and there are moments where it feels very much like...

idk Blu. you know? who i might describe as a backpacker. and like Black Hippy and Blu have that Miguel connection from back in the day. something like 'good kid' feels not too far from 'Below the Heavens'

I did not realize the three different deluxe versions of this have different bonus tracks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_kid,_m.A.A.d_city#Track_listing

welcome to the world of contemporary pop music

the CD album has fully replaced the CD single I guess

NME is on the case:
http://www.nme.com/reviews/kendrick-lamar/13799

please stop m@ttsplaining, it has been decreed that this thread is not about backpacker rap

NME is on the case:
http://www.nme.com/reviews/kendrick-lamar/13799

― O-Jah Da Lionmane (longneck), Monday, October 22, 2012 11:56 AM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha this is how it read before the edits were made:

"Chicago rapper Kendrick Lamar has, somehow, bagged guest spots from Lady Gaga, Drake and Dr Dre for his major-label debut. But like the cover art – which shows baby Lamar on the knees of his gangster uncle in Compton – ‘Good Kid, MAAd City’ is a record more about homeboys than celebrity friends. ‘Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ must be the most understated Gaga collab ever, while ‘Compton’ with Dre is all hometown swagger. ‘The Recipe’, meanwhile, is a stoner tribute to the West Coast (only available on the deluxe edition). It might lack the raw appeal of Kendrick’s 2011 mixtape ‘Section.80’, but it’s also a big-budget reminder that the 25-year-old hasn’t forgotten his roots."

god the version I've got has the titles on the wrong songs; I've been googling lyrics for the last 24 hours trying to match them to tiles.

btw pharrell's beat on this album is terrible

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 22, 2012 12:49 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

really? i think it's his best beat in ages, great walking bassline, but we can thank ayers for that i guess

god the version I've got has the titles on the wrong songs; I've been googling lyrics for the last 24 hours trying to match them to tiles.

― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, October 22, 2012 2:59 PM (22 seconds ago)

welcome to the wonderful world of rap mixtapes

every pharrell beat is the best pharrell beat in ages to someone

welcome to the wonderful world of Pharrell beats

that review is hilarious

First word is false.

this review is hilarious?

Haha

please stop m@ttsplaining, it has been decreed that this thread is not about backpacker rap

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Monday, October 22, 2012 1:57 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol @m@ttsplaining, i wish i would have started this thread so i could boss u guys around :(

Fennessey:
http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/60251/bright-lights-mad-city-kendrick-lamar-is-about-to-release-the-best-rap-album-of-the-year

Someone I know called Kendrick "the male Nicki Minaj" after hearing Backseat Freestyle and meant it derogatorily. But Fennessey kinda hits on that in a good way.

oh hey, there's a remix of The Recipe too

http://www.hiphopsince1987.com/music/kendrick-lamar-the-recipe-black-hippy-remix-ft-school-boy-q-ab-soul-x-jay-rock/

wait a minute, i didn't like section.80

man i'm getting old

Someone I know called Kendrick "the male Nicki Minaj" after hearing Backseat Freestyle and meant it derogatorily. But Fennessey kinda hits on that in a good way.

― O-Jah Da Lionmane (longneck), Monday, 22 October 2012 20:10 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

heh at some point last year yela and nicki and others briefly got me thinking about like the project blowed-ification of rap in its battles of the attention wars. kinda wanted noz to pick up the signal really

i was dreading the song "poetic justice" but that janet sample saves the day!

'good kid' is legit the (least punchable therefore) best pharrell thing in years, stop fronting

while i'm at it let the records also show i fully cosign the "failed banger status" judgement for 'the recipe'

like many have said, the recipe is kendrick karaoke, and i have no use for it

i like "good kid", the beat i wouldn't really peg as pharrell if i didn't know, so that's good...almost sounds like they sampled some old james bond song

How many rappers use their real name for artistic purposes?

while i'm at it let the records also show i fully cosign the "failed banger status" judgement for 'the recipe'

― r|t|c, Monday, October 22, 2012 3:43 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my dude

How many rappers use their real name for artistic purposes?

― Van Horn Street, Monday, October 22, 2012 2:50 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

trying to think of who was the first....gotta be someone before keith murray

Kendrick went by K-Dot for a while. Made the right choice in fairness

his song credits are to Kendrick Duckworth though, guessing that's his last name

^^

Also has anyone used 'lonny breaux tell 'em' as a display name yet?

Well yes, Talib Kweli. What a lazy question. Sorry guys. Good album, etc.

keith murray is before talib

but i think there's someone before keith, this is really bugging me

grandmaster flash?

"Mr and Mrs Flash, it's a boy!"

roxanne shanté?

Lolita Shanté Gooden on November 9, 1969

notorious BIG really was big

god i'm STUPID haha

erick sermon

lol @ me he was even in the same crew as keith

wow if you said one of lolita/roxanne is her stage name and the other is her birth name...most would not have picked correctly

this is a good album but everytime i listen to it i start to get kind of antsy and end up waiting for it to be done or changing to something else before it's over

ugh i only have 200 words to review this nooooooo

oof that would be a tough album to sum up in 200 words

yeah i lobbied for 500-600 words but newspaper industry failing and so on...

can't decide if the lyric "You hired me as a victim" is classic or a little on-the-nose corny

His Al Sh1pley is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, fwiw

i had 300 to review this and actually found it kinda freeing

dm the link to your review j0rd

it's not running until tomorrow i think

ahhh fair play

is fairplay gunplay's new name?

help I keep listening to the Drake song

I'm sure this will be all on the radio in a couple months and I'll get sick of it, but I don't even care right now.

It's the most attractive Drake's been, like, ever.

yeah it's the kind of relatable drake we don't hear as much of lately in the midst of all his "no lie"-type gangster posturing

I've never found Drake relatable for one second. But he's not embarassing here.

the drake song is the one moment on the album where i cant help but tune out kendrick for some reason

like, the meaning of the words he's saying.

I don't find many artists relatable but it's one of the few times on innumerable collaborations/duets/appearances when he sounds buoyed by the company.

anyway, great record i probably wont play that often outside 3-4 tracks

:/

I'm furious that I likely will be buying an album with Drake on it because I really, really like this

:/

― boxall, Monday, October 22, 2012 11:11 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hardly a criticism its the nature of 'album-albums' like this

Yeah didn't mean it as 'u mad' more like 'it's sad' but prob not untrue, for now I love it and that's enough.

fwiw several listens in, this is a much more coherent and appealing "album of the year" critical orgasm candidate than either My Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Fantasy or Frank Ocean's album

agreed

at the risk of being crucified what is it about drake that riles everyone so much

he's pretty terrible for one

as a personality he can be really aggravating and as a pure rapper he's pretty average but in terms of vision for his music/sound he's kind of unparalleled in contemporary rap

but what do you mean by "pretty terrible"

i dunno i am pretty much a rap dilettante but stuff like "over" and "lord knows" is pure ear candy to me :|

9.5 p4k

I don't find many artists relatable

Interesting. I'd say for me, listening to music is primarily an empathetic experience, and if I can't relate on some level I don't have any interest in listening at all.

haven't had time to spend with this yet. i love that gunplay's POWPOWPOW still appears in the background on 'money trees'.

"lord knows" is not exactly a representative drake track

I don't find many artists relatable

Interesting. I'd say for me, listening to music is primarily an empathetic experience, and if I can't relate on some level I don't have any interest in listening at all.

― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, October 23, 2012 1:36 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that in itself is interesting to hear from someone who seems to listen to a lot of instrumental or dance-oriented music (although to be fair i have brought in the katz many times in my own life).

hardly a criticism its the nature of 'album-albums' like this

― fanute da croupier (D-40), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 05:14 (6 hours ago) Bookmark

idk i could just be a little burnt out on it now but it seems to me fair comment that this album's rescreen (<- i use this word deliberately) value may be pronouncedly more limited than most (not that this detracts from its quality or that longevity should be a part of a critical toolkit)

dunno why pitchfork invented themselves an unnecessary imaginary deadline for that review, if you aint got anything insightful to say yet then maybe chill out and wait?

5/5 from fact too

The Observer review is one of the most content-free reviews I've ever read. I know this is an impossible record to capture in a capsule review but it genuinely tells you nothing.

haha, love the illuminating quotes

isnt that one of dom's special admirers iirc

saw the fact reviewer and skipped it

i know that guy probably tries his best more than most but sorry, just burn him with fire

itt non writing man bitches everyone out

obs capsule rvw word length is 100, grau is 180. it feels like a lot more

if you aint got anything insightful to say yet then maybe chill out and wait?

this week has def been pretty awful for showing up the limitations of musicjournalism2012 - makes me a bit sad that we're getting these kneejerk encomiums/judgements on lamar and swift instead of more considered appreciations after people have lived with them for a few months

for a few months? how often does that happen in the business though

u guys lost me

idk i could just be a little burnt out on it now but it seems to me fair comment that this album's rescreen (<- i use this word deliberately) value may be pronouncedly more limited than most (not that this detracts from its quality or that longevity should be a part of a critical toolkit)

― r|t|c, Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:04 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah i agree w this

eh months is a different kettle of fish, a degree of live squirming is still desirable

fortnight seems fair

so now that kendrick lamar is everyone's favorite rapper he'll kill himself for money, right?

^ like

one thing i like about this album is that there's not many guest verses, and really only one guest verse - drake - that would be seen as "marketing" type guest verse (but actually like ppl have said drake feels pretty organic to that track -- the other ones are jay rock, who's in the crew, and mc eiht and dr. dre who are kinda like west coast legacy hall of fame spots....

I love that he got Eiht for that verse.

fwiw several listens in, this is a much more coherent and appealing "album of the year" critical orgasm candidate than either My Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Fantasy or Frank Ocean's album

― The Owls of Ja Rule (DJP), Monday, October 22, 2012 10:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love Frank's album still, actually think it's quite visionary, still, but always thought that 'Ye album wasn't as good as everyone was claiming it was at the time. But I should go back to it...

it sucks, it's like the aural equivalent of a guy that gakked out of his head on coke and WON'T SHUT UP

this album is getting a lot better for me...especially when i quit trying to think about how good it is and just vibe w/ it

My Overblown Ego Fantasy is a much, much better album if you don't try to listen to the entire thing at once; I really, really like pretty much every song on it in isolation but trying to sit down and listen to the whole thing generates a huge "SHUT THE FUCK UP" phobic reaction in me

that in itself is interesting to hear from someone who seems to listen to a lot of instrumental or dance-oriented music (although to be fair i have brought in the katz many times in my own life).

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, October 23, 2012 3:43 AM Bookmark

Instrumental/dance music contains ~feelingz~ too! I mean, sometimes that feeling may be as simple as the desire to dance, but it's still there.

ehh i think you're stretching the idea of "finding the artist relatable" to its breaking point

can't wait to see what hilarious fake kanye album name you guys come up with next!!!

My Dark Beautiful Sarcastic Messageboard Post

KANYE WEST / BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO

I'm hearing more than 200k in first week sales.

wow

oh definitely, at a minimum

ok so i'll actually listen to this since it'd be silly to keep posting on the thread w/o doing so

this album starts on track 10 huh. not that i've ever heard a song from his that sounds like a 'track 2'.

the way this guy raps in triplet flows the same way over every kind of beat is kind of annoying and eyerolling imo, he's like a teenaged guitarist who just learned a couple eddie van halen tricks and crams them into every song they play. learn some different tricks if you're gonna show off, dude!

this album feels much more like Late Registration that ATLiens to me. that's not a knock, though, i'm a bigger fan of the former than the latter.

ok so i'll actually listen to this since it'd be silly to keep posting on the thread w/o doing so

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 20:15 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

disappointed in you man

nah i'm not about to morb it up over here

fantastic review deej

this album feels much more like Late Registration that ATLiens to me. that's not a knock, though, i'm a bigger fan of the former than the latter.

― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, October 23, 2012 2:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he actually quotes from "we major" on it

xp thnx!

Agreed. Excellent review.

great review & the building it around "back in the day" by ahmad made me smile :)

yeah it's great

and because everyone here seems averse to actually linking things when they praise them

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/10/kendrick-lamar-good-kid-maad-city-review

yeah the Ahmad thing was a really good connection to make, as soon as i saw it i was like ahhh yes of course

damn deej -- that's terrific. Even the pullquote was well chosen.

how old is kendrick?

like some of the best rap albums this leaves me feeling slightly ashamed of my past (and current tbh) immaturity

i've listening to the album for hours now. so much better than section 80

He's 25.

ok that makes me feel a bit better

(not much tho)

well this is lovely

the skit/interludes are definitely immersive and scene-setting, if the dialogue is written/'staged' it works so much better than the usual rap skit m.o. of having dudes awkwardly recite lines in studio vocal booths

Heard a few tracks, is endearing

backseat freestyle is VERY kanye; i'm hearing a lot more college dropout than outkast on first listen too

xxp yeah definitely, i couldnt at all get my head around evan's beef about the skits being too heavyhanded handholdy

great review deej, your best work imo

o shit the janet sample

oh shit there's drake
ugh

wow preciate that rtc

Just read it, awesome work, nailed it, etc.

yeah definitely, i couldnt at all get my head around evan's beef about the skits being too heavyhanded handholdy

I'll be interested to see what people think of the skits once they've lived with the album for a couple of weeks. I think they gum the pacing of an already pretty slow album and seriously cut into the record's replay value

i just wish they were separate tracks so i could remove them instead of having to reach into my pocket every time

how long are the individual skits at most? 30 seconds? they feel pretty short and unobtrusive

There's a stretch of three songs in a row that each end with about a minute of dialogue (mostly leading into the next track). It gets overbearing.

no skits on this are as obtrusive as the biggie dick sucking / fucking skits on certified classic 'ready to die'

they're not obtrusive they're just not preferable to actual music

I ended up skipping them on my second play. Sue me.

it's really not a huge deal

i'll listen to good skits anyway some of the time

they're not that bad, and if it's really killing you there are edits floating around online with the skits cut off into separate tracks for easier rapp access

(excellent review by the way deej, one of the few really substantive pieces i've seen on this album so far)

Are there any reviews yet that discuss the religious motifs that run throughout the album? It's pretty upfront for a rap album.

These are some of the least obtrusive skits ever, they fit the atmosphere and flow of the album perfectly, so even though I've stopped paying much attention to the content I haven't once felt impelled to skip them.

Great job on the review Deej.

I love on the first skit that his dad is "where's my motherfucking dominos at?" then when informed that he's got kendrick's voicemail and not kendrick himself he's "oh..where's my fucking dominoes at?".

I really like this so far. I've spent all week respinning other recent-ish Black Hippy stuff and decided that Section.80 was my least favourite but I think I can come to love this once I really give it some time. The skits seem really quite immersive imo, esp. how they are murkily lost in the sound like you tend to get when rap/r&b albums do the tape machine thing (mjb's debut and hard to earn come to mind but this is spread out in small doses whereas they are one offs) and not totally in yr face like most rap skits.

so hey is there any meaning behind how the title is stylized or is 'm.A.A.d city' just an eyerolling affectation

http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2012/10/the-meaning-of-good-kid-m-a-a-d-city-as-explained-by-kendrick-lamar

so, both

OK, this drives me nuts:

Next up, all we need is Kendrick or a literary genius to fully explain Sherene, the van and the storyline of the album.

Do these things really need MORE explaining? Do rap listeners really need Cliffs Notes for everything?

"I really love what Kendrick's going for, but if only he made some effort to explain the album's storyline, because I am totally lost!" - the dumbest human being ever, who I refuse to believe exists

Rap Genius is still working at furiously decoding The Who's Tommy

what is this "spinball lizard"

"How can there be a Sgt. Pepper without a Col. Salt?"

xxp that dumb person doesnt exist, it was just a tossed off magaziney closing zing chill out

tbh I think Kendrick Lamar thinks this person exists. He strikes me as a super smart dude who doesn't think much of his audience, the way he walks them through every self-explanatory plot point

whatever man

concepts are for suckers

i didnt even need the skits to tell me what was going on, it was all there in the smart marketing campaign

"I really love what Kendrick's going for, but if only he made some effort to explain the album's storyline, because I am totally lost!" - the dumbest human being ever, who I refuse to believe exists

― Evan R, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:59 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

complex did do a gallery where he essentially explains every song

NOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUUUUUCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ash Doy @SmokeyDouglas
@neilyoung From the new generation of bands coming through at the moment, who do you rate? #askneil
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Neil Young
@neilyoung
.@SmokeyDouglas foster the people #askneil

oops hey guys that wasn't meant for the kendrick lamar thread

wrong thread and yet the perfect thread

fans overanalysing lyrics and What Songs Mean is hardly a new or surprising phenomenon

though swift and lamar are tied together in this regard as well as leak and release dates

though swift and lamar are tied together in this regard as well as leak and release dates

― lex pretend, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 2:43 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink #askneil

Salon:

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/the_great_american_rap_album_has_arrived/

ok fuck that headline

it's a quote from another review

but matt think of how american is slacking behind all those other rap countries, like switzerland and uganda and uzbeckistan

i thought wilco made the great american rap album

didn't you mean Beck?

Lupe Fiasco @LupeFiasco
Reminds me of "Kid A"...yeah like a rap version of RadioHead's "Kid A"...

Shyne chiming in

http://www.egotripland.com/shyne-kendrick-lamar-twitter/

ladies and gentlemen, the gangsta yankee hotel foxtro--

there it is

you mean the backpacker hotel foxtrot

huge lols @ shyne having the balls to say someone else's major label debut did not deliver on the hype

"collect calls" is absolutely stunning

lol at terrace martin on the making of 'real'

“It was kind of a special night, and we had cheap wine — like $2 bottles of wine and a bunch of girls that looked horrible and Brazilian music going on, but it worked out. It was Compton Brazilian music. Then we came back to L.A. and Dr. Dre mixed the hell out of the record. God, it was so loud."

in lamar's nardwuar interview, nard drops a wc and the maad circle album on him and lamar is appreciative and familiar; gotta assume he knows the connection

lol at terrace martin on the making of 'real'

“It was kind of a special night, and we had cheap wine — like $2 bottles of wine and a bunch of girls that looked horrible and Brazilian music going on, but it worked out. It was Compton Brazilian music. Then we came back to L.A. and Dr. Dre mixed the hell out of the record. God, it was so loud."

― r|t|c, Thursday, October 25, 2012 7:09 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dying

first verse on "maad city" is http://www.esreality.com/files/placeimages/2010/75958-headbang.gif

yup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gO0cFx0fVo

BDKMV

holy shit that was fantastic

nice

here's the studio version that was actually sampled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut5D6FXE2dM

Yeah, I just prefer the live version.

realize this is probably too soon or too corny but just going to throw this out there & see if anyone else is willing to take the bait: this is the best rap album in years

i'd put it right up w/ take care, flockaveli & book of david for best of the decade so far

yeah, to me it's distinctly better than "take care," but that's also the most easily comparable of those three; doesnt really make much sense to compare it to something as monolithic as flockavelli. 2 me this takes a lot the things that blew me away about tc (lush production, bummed out introspective vibe, as youve noted the entire aesthetic package) but much more in step with rap tradition esp west coast rap albums, it reminds me of reasons that i love rap, some that i havenèt thought about or felt in years. whereas tc was more a rejection of a lot of these traditions

prefer blaqkout (of /recent/ records) but this is still p.good

i think you could make analogies to both take care (sonically, point of view) & flockaveli (vision, singularity)

lol take care

i don't think this is anywhere near as singular as flockaveli. the miracle of the flock imo is that it's 70 minutes of relentlessly aggressive and repetitive music & yet is a total pleasure to listen to all the way thru the millionth time, good kid mad city is so cinematic

realize this is probably too soon or too corny but just going to throw this out there & see if anyone else is willing to take the bait: this is the best rap album in years

I will absolutely take that bait

so will I. This and The Book of David (my favorite album of 2011) easily in my top whatever.

the voice is still a huge roadblock for me, dude sounds like Kirko Bangz

It's been driving me nuts who he sounds like sometimes and it just hit me: beldar the weedsmoking alien from that devin the dude song

lol

fucking dammit, i was waiting to post that for three days >:(

i'm still on my honeymoon technically, so I'm not posting about how Kendrick sounds like Zeldar even though I've been sitting on that comment for three days now so

omg

Haha yeah that's probably the biggest issue for me too at the moment, love everything else about this album.

i'm cool with his voice honestly. he's fluent and interesting.
course, i love zeldar. and he shops at wal mart.

yeah, I love Kendrick's voice but the Zeldar thing is so on-point.

Ha ha sorry I almost feel bad now, sorry whiney, congrats btw...but it's perfect in some way that you were sitting in that

That was gonna be my big comeback post u_u

Christ this record is great

writers all like it bc he thinks like a writer

this Boom Clap Bachelors album is pretty dope tbh

in spite of their terrible name

Yeah, the VOICE. And the chameleon thing he has going on, they throw me. He had a verse on Schoolboy's last album and his voice was so scabrous and scratchy that I wanted to reach into the album and hand the guy a bag of Ricola

As a consequence I dunno if I can take the whole album in one shot - bought "Swimming Pools" on iTunes tonight. Also a Trae tha Truth song about being from Texas which is awesome.

writers all like it bc he thinks like a writer
― fanute da croupier (D-40), Monday, October 29, 2012

Human beings like him because he thinks like a human being too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6glR0bSb_4

Human beings like him because he thinks like a human being too.

― O-Jah Da Lionmane (longneck), Monday, October 29, 2012 1:46 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but that applies to lots of rappers

Lol

Yeah, and I don't disagree with your assessment. But it's rare to see the almost universal support this album is getting. And I think what Noz wrote about it being easier to admire than to enjoy is factually wrong. From what I can tell, this is getting a lot of play from a lot of people who do actually enjoy it and enjoy it a lot. To me, it's one of those rare albums that I can put on at almost any time. It even works after the Sunday brunch with the wife and kids.

Is it cool if I mentally append "...ya bish!" to the end of every post itt?

And I think what Noz wrote about it being easier to admire than to enjoy is factually wrong

i don't think this is the sort of statement that can be factually wrong? where did noz write this?

i'm deeply suspicious of the rapturous 5/5 encomiums it's getting based on less than a week of listening but the across-the-board praise isn't surprising, it'd be very hard to argue that this is a bad album in any way - even the dissenters from the 5/5 praise (and there are some, thankfully) just think it's flawed or uneven.

i'd put it right up w/ take care

right up there! lol.

blaqkout >>>>> any of the albums you were mentioning

i don't think this is even the best rap album of THIS year

True. "Factually wrong" was overstating it.

Noz:

It's a completely exhausting listen, one that might prove easier to admire than enjoy. But at the very least, it's never anything less than fascinating. A master craftsman should be entitled to some degree of self-indulgence.

http://www.spin.com/reviews/kendrick-lamar-good-kid-maad-city-interscopeaftermath

I do think, however, that the writerly concept-album approach is something that allows this album to become really emotional and affecting without being too in your face/sincere. The epic distance that the storyline creates is liberating and in some paradoxical way makes this album more direct and, yes, lovable, than the no-filter approach of Section.80 could accomplish.

The epic distance that the storyline creates is liberating and in some paradoxical way makes this album more direct and, yes, lovable, than the no-filter approach of Section.80 could accomplish.

the paradox of craft. deej otm

i don't think this is even the best rap album of THIS year

― lex pretend, Monday, October 29, 2012 1:38 AM Bookmark

I'm not sure this is the best Kendrick Lamar album.

haven't heard the whole Meek Mill album yet but i like Caramanica's take on MM vs. Kendrick:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-and-meek-mill-rappers-with-debut-albums.html?ref=arts&pagewanted=all

good piece

wouldve been more impressed by a kendrick/taylor swift comparison but yeah

idk i guess i'll need to sit myself through dreams & nightmares again. i wanted a meekaveli though

Do you guys get paid everytime you mention taylor swift or something?

seriously

True. "Factually wrong" was overstating it.

Noz:

It's a completely exhausting listen, one that might prove easier to admire than enjoy. But at the very least, it's never anything less than fascinating. A master craftsman should be entitled to some degree of self-indulgence.

http://www.spin.com/reviews/kendrick-lamar-good-kid-maad-city-interscopeaftermath

I do think, however, that the writerly concept-album approach is something that allows this album to become really emotional and affecting without being too in your face/sincere. The epic distance that the storyline creates is liberating and in some paradoxical way makes this album more direct and, yes, lovable, than the no-filter approach of Section.80 could accomplish.

― O-Jah Da Lionmane (longneck), Monday, October 29, 2012 4:50 AM (5 hours ago)

i think there's some truth to the "easier to admire than to enjoy" line, it's a criticism that's pulled out sometimes for "important albums" like this - it's actually reminiscent of some of the criticism i heard of MBDTF, i actually could have sworn i remember noz writing that exact same thing about that album, but maybe it was someone else - but really WRT this line kanye's record is the reverse - MBDTF had some cool sounds and a good single or two, but the more you were exposed to it or really thought about it, the more you just rolled your eyes.

nah its bs standard rap blogger posturing

tedious statler & waldorf routine would've worked better if i actually was an avowed taylorette. unlucky guys

there ought to be more leeway in admire/love than the phrase traditionally invokes. i might not ever cherish this album but admiration can still be positive and meaningful

nah there's no routine more tedious than "bring up taylor swift out of the blue on non-country thread," was kind of appalled you went for it

there are plenty of albums i consider more of a creative or technical achievement than a joy to listen to and still value highly. at the end of the day i'm not sure how much of an achievement "drake album w/ street cred and better rapping" really is though.

noz only said that bc he wants to distance himself from (inevitably embarrassing) hype around the album, otherwise it`s either an empty statement or a snide dismissal in the vein of "i admire your technical expertise"

noz isn't actually being dismissive of the album at all though

ya i know that's why i said it's bs

he's trying to position himself above the fray of hype, but using a tired binary

man ships what is this whiney wannabe day you're having, shit is sad

haha let's just say we're disappointed in each other and be done w/ it

i haven't heard a song off the new album that i like as much as his older songs, but i haven't heard the whole thing yet. will buy it this week if the cd store doesn't float away. gonna buy my 3 cds for the year. might be converge, kendrick, and fiona.

like the piece contrasting meek/kendrick w/illmatic

got me thinking, in retrospect was illmatic the first album to really do the "let's get individual tracks from a bunch of top producers" template that later became dominant?

we def had a convo about that on some rap thread in the last couple years but i can't remember whether people generally agreed w/ that or suggested some precursors

i can't really think of anything too obvious....nas also was one of the first rappers i remember who had a huge buzz in advance of his album coming out, i mean not that some ppl didn't have a pre release buzz but the whole album was kind of constructed like it was a "big event" in advance, where all these producers were brought together because nas was already going to be assumed to be a big deal...with i guess his verse of live at the bbq taking the place of what today would be a huge mixtape....

yeah it's kind of a bummer that a single guest verse so rarely has that kind of impact on a career anymore. now if anything it's about how many guest verses you can do.

does anyone but me and number none think "maad city" is the best song on this or is it too much of an outlier for everyone else? sorta wish he'd rap like that all the time

It's close. I still can't shake the impression "Sherane" left on me though.

"good kid" and "maad city" are the best songs on this imo and it's really not close

Maad City for me too.

"Real" is the only one that annoys me.

whole thing is still all too deliriously good 2 me, can't pick moments yet

hate every song on this

oh shit real talk just stepped in the thread

i would love it if j0rdan wasn't joking

wouldve been more impressed by a kendrick/taylor swift comparison but yeah

http://superworse.com/post/33895017645/arbitrary-pairings-kendrick-lamar-and-taylor-swift

easier to admire than enjoy didn't really do it for me either too imprecise

i greatly enjoy admiring this album, i dont think it will get tons of replay but that doesn't necessarily mean it wont be more meaningful to me than records i do play a lot

i spent more time *thinking* about it than i do most albums, and not bc i had to write about it or something, but bc it really resonates imo

i'm not even as high on it as others but i'm finding it pretty listenable and repeatable - it does keep on giving, lots of things you don't pick up on at first

i don't really like this album all that much and i feel like an asshole

same here but those 2 thoughts aren't related for me

Obviously dude has rhymes for days and immeasurable skill and is a gifted storyteller but

*deep breath*

the beats are butter-soft and its seriously like the most overproduced "rap" album since The Love Below, and most of the runtime is eaten up by choruses and bridges that go on forever, forever ever, forever ever; not to mention dude has literally the worst voice in rap history this side of reh dogg (it's Zeldar-meets-Cudi); not to mention that if anyone this side of Lupe dropped a 69-minute "short film" they'd be laughed off ilx; not to mention that there's Beach House samples and a 12-minute song with a Deep Puddle Dynamics title; not to mention that he's completely tuneless KENDRICK HAVE A DRREEAM when he's trying to be Tupac or Kanye or Eminem or whatever.

I dunno, I love the Black Hippy stuff cause it's just rapping and dude can rap \o_O/

The comma splice in the 12-minute song hurt you too eh

i don't think i've ever thought about outkast listening to his stuff. or the roots. stop mentioning outkast. the length thing can definitely be problematic. pretty much no album on earth should be over 45 minutes.

yeah i only forgive albums for being longer than vinyl-length when they're huge major label investments and it's like well hey you recorded all that stuff, get your money's worth

illmatic is under 40 minutes long. even the first outkast album is over an hour long. i blame them for everything.

does he ever find the dominoes

mid-'90s was really the point when everything got compact disc bloat, for a few years it was only occasional bold types going much past the 50-minute park

don't forget that 1998 region where 8Ball and Master P and E-40 and Biggie were doing DOUBLE DISC EVERYTHING

haha the 8Ball is actually a triple disc, they tacked a Suave House comp onto it. the whole thing is pretty solid!

biggie wasn't doing much in 1998

trying to remember the last rapper that got away w/ a big double album -- Lupe TRIED to this year but the label talked him into splitting it up and dropping the other half next year

I love the 8 Ball but I never listened to the third disc

trying to remember the last rapper that got away w/ a big double album

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 2:44 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

stop mentioning outkast.

― scott seward, Monday, October 29, 2012 2:27 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

UGK 4 Life probably the last major label rap double disc? can't believe Kanye hasn't done one yet

btw whiney did you have the good fortune to honeymoon outside hurricane territory?

haha the 8Ball is actually a triple disc, they tacked a Suave House comp onto it. the whole thing is pretty solid!

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 11:42 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I have this up in my cube cos that 96 Impala is still my dream car. Great stuff.

E-40's were kinda double albums in effect

yeah but they were independent distro cult hero things, i was talking about big unit-shifting major label releases

outkast didn't get away w/that double alb

yeah, only made out with 3 Grammys and 5 million units sold

aw man <3<3<3 to have whiney back w/deep puddle dynamics and reh dogg references

underground kingz

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/472/seriouscatcover.jpg?1260046843

i honeymooned in Cape Cod. We did a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and I saw a whale and I bought the Kendrick album

oh shit... were meek and ross with wale?

underground kingz

― fanute da croupier (D-40), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:06 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha er yeah got the titles confused

j0rdan what the hell was that post

the dadmaster disapproves

i smiled at it

also, j0rd, thanks for RTing my emoji pumpkin, dogg. Your tweet inspired it.

yeah it's kind of a bummer that a single guest verse so rarely has that kind of impact on a career anymore. now if anything it's about how many guest verses you can do.

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 9:42 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know she was already established by this point, but Nikki's "Monster" verse sort of had a similar impact... I'm sure she would've still exploded without it, of course, but it was a defining guest verse early in her career.

yeah i almost brought that up, but i think that being the best recent example illustrates how much things have changed, in the sense that she was already pretty famous before that verse and got way more famous since then for other songs.

the recent one that sticks out to me is lupe on "touch the sky" but man that was a while back

also, j0rd, thanks for RTing my emoji pumpkin, dogg. Your tweet inspired it.

― croup the color of mayonnaise (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:20 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

ha, my boyfriend & i were dying at emoji pumpkin

j0rdan what the hell was that post

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:14 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

admittedly could've phrased the joke better

the recent one that sticks out to me is lupe on "touch the sky" but man that was a while back

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 29, 2012 4:28 PM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, considering that was a lot of people's first-ever exposure to lupe, good call

yeah, but in retrospect it's not even a particularly good lupe verse

actually in retrospect might've been a top percentile lupe verse

maybe going back past "monster", i think nicki's "can't stop, won't stop" freestyle on 'drought 3'

not quite the same but that was really big (and good) look for her before she was famous/fully-formed as an artist... i think a lot of the 'beam me up' buzz came off that exposure