Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

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