Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

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