Kendrick Lamar - untitled, unmastered (2016)

just wanted to give this it's own thread...previous posts from the to pimp a butterfly thread

?

https://play.spotify.com/album/5WSPnYTQ6YZ1UvBRi5quhO

― Number None, Thursday, March 3, 2016 5:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Thursday, March 3, 2016 6:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whoa what??

― dc, Thursday, March 3, 2016 6:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks lebron!

http://www.complex.com/music/2016/03/it-looks-like-a-new-kendrick-lamar-project-will-be-released-soon?utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

sounds like probably the 'untitled' TPAB outtakes that he's been performing on TV shows. pretty excited, i was starting to resign myself to the assumption that he'll never release a studio version of the track he did on Fallon.

― some dude, Thursday, March 3, 2016 7:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can we get the full version of the joint from the "Alright" video too?

― Hey (Extended Mix), Thursday, March 3, 2016 9:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i hope that's in there too

― some dude, Thursday, March 3, 2016 9:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I hope these are studio versions but the word unmastered being in the title doesn't give me hope

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 3, 2016 9:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the fallon track might be one of his GOATs imo

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 3, 2016 9:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/untitled-unmastered./id1089846273

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, March 3, 2016 10:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in a stunning development this is completely great

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 3, 2016 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feeling the vibe of this a whole bunch, cant believe swizz/keys baby boy produced 07, fucked up, gotta get my son in the studio tomorrow, im taking the day off

― get a long, little doggy (m bison), Thursday, March 3, 2016 11:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

only the jammy second half

Into this - I've been wanting him to do a more off-the-cuff/lower-stakes release for a while and this fits the bill

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, March 4, 2016 5:45 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are these all from the tpab sessions or what

― lag∞n, Friday, March 4, 2016 9:45 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm liking this. Not as purely dazzling as TPAB, but I kinda enjoy that the stakes are a bit lower

― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Friday, March 4, 2016 9:47 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa, here's a surprise

― ulysses, Friday, March 4, 2016 9:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is great

― warm winds and clear skies, Friday, March 4, 2016 11:19 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are these all from the tpab sessions or what

― lag∞n, Friday, March 4, 2016 10:45 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

all the songs are dated and only one of them says '2016' and the rest are 2013/2014 so i'm guessing that yeah this is pretty much the cutting room floor for that album.

― some dude, Friday, March 4, 2016 11:24 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fuck yes on this btw, this is excellent.

at first i was kinda sad he cut that final verse off of 8 but it sounds pretty great at the end of 2

is the new bit he did at the grammys on here

06.30.2014 is the best one.

i don't suppose there's some way to hear this without getting itunes or ripping off kendrick lamar is there

it's on streaming services

:)

if you're saying that the only way you feel comfortable hearing new music is if you can buy it on CD or vinyl then i've got some bad news

no i just don't like itunes my issue is resolved

you're having a difficult listening hour

it's also on amazon etc. can't wait to listen this weekend.

love untitled 02 - 06.23.2014, untitled 03 - 05.28.2013, & untitled 06 - 06.30.2014

i do kinda wish he had named these. it's the one jazz element i don't like.

one afx element i don't like

was gonna, refrained

track 8 appeared on concert setlists as "Blue Faces," I'm sure a lot of them had real working titles before they decided to go with the 'untitled' theme

it's not cool when RDJ does it either

recognizable names are overrated

Back story to untitled 6:
http://linearlabsmusic.com/2016/03/04/1290/

It's amazing how this is transparently a collection of TPAB offcuts that was just tossed out there as an afterthought goodwill gesture and yet it is so much better than the album that Kanye spent months and months hyping and overworking.

i dont think so. it is pretty good tho

i dont think kanye spent that long on his album either

there are songs on TPOL recorded a week before release and a year before release. i think a lot of hours were put in.

they are in different leagues now, been so even before Kendrick released Section.80 afaic

i don't know what i would give to just witness the TPAB/UU sessions

interesting that he worked with nard & b

I prefer the Kanye album to this. UU is really good though. It's more a matter of v different goals, approaches and results.

there are songs on TPOL recorded a week before release and a year before release. i think a lot of hours were put in.

― some dude

TPOL the pablo of life

mistyping the acronym for that album is my recurring subconscious expression of disrespect

I should listen to the Kanye album before I unleash the meteoric ton of vitriol I have for anyone who talks shit about this album so that I'm not talking out of my ass.

was gonna post in here yesterday that tracks 2 (w the relocated verse) and 3 really show up the clumsiness of the attempted political/personal parallax in "new slaves" but i thought i'd get in trouble for going directly to kanye

into the way the (un)production muffles + makes watery the summery vibe of 6

Kendrick is on another level from practically everyone else rapping right now except maybe Chance every now and then

yeah he's channeling

watching some Steph Curry highlights last week, i was asking myself if Kendrick was the Steph Curry of rap or if Steph was the Kendrick Lamar of bball. both these guys are blowing minds on like a weekly basis rn.

agree this like 10x better than teelop, but it does slump a bit in the middle with "for the girlfriends" & the next couple. also bey track makes me cringe.

is this actually unmastered?

oj da juiceman is the rap steph curry

Steph Curry of rap like a basketball, player

this is so good

love so much when he raps in these other weirdo character voices

is this actually unmastered?

― flopson, Sunday, March 6, 2016 8:11 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also my question, you gotta think they wouldn't put something for sale that hasn't at least been level matched, if not more

there are songs on TPOL recorded a week before release and a year before release. i think a lot of hours were put in.

― some dude

TPOL the pablo of life

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, March 5, 2016 2:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

mistyping the acronym for that album is my recurring subconscious expression of disrespect

― ODD FUTURE WOLFGANG VAN HALEN ON BASS (some dude), Saturday, March 5, 2016 3:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I should listen to the Kanye album before I unleash the meteoric ton of vitriol I have for anyone who talks shit about this album so that I'm not talking out of my ass.

― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Saturday, March 5, 2016 11:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to be very clear i was disrespecting The Life Of Pablo and not To Pimp A Butterfly

or i dunno i was probably misreading you. but i do want to read a DJP liveblog of listening to the Kanye album, i think it would be pretty entertaining.

i'll do it if you will dan

i only got as far as father stretch my hands on youtube when i wanted to understand the young metro don't trust you meme
and that's a lovely first minute for sure and then i got to kanye's bleached asshole lyric and i promptly checked out
how self sabotaging can you get

some dude, I was referring to longneck

Also, as someone who was massively down with the slow build of the poem throughout TPAB, I really wish Kendrick had spent more than five seconds coming up with a recurring motif/catch phrase for this

yeah UU is good but things like "pimp pimp hooray" make me think yeah this is definitely the judicious editing that made TPAB as great as it is

My reaction was basically:

1st time: lol that's funny
2nd time: oh god he's going to keep repeating it, nooooooo

Gotta say that I found that cringeworthy as well (haven't spent enough time with the whole thing to have an opinion on it yet).

i really wanna take some time with the lyrics? he's moving fast as hell for most of this and i need to relisten to properly parse

Definitely not talking shit about this album. It just feels like outtakes w a couple of keepers in there.

untitled 5 - i love when they stop singing "head is the future"

and the bassist comes in with this super tricky, crawling 80s jazz fusion bassline

Carl Wilson

this doesn't sound unmastered

punch gave an interview where he seemed to insinuate that "unmastered" may not refer to the actual practice of mastering a recording:

The second part of the project’s name, though, isn't just a label for the raw recordings. "Everything that we do is deliberate so if you hear something that says Unmastered, we absolutely did that on purpose,” Punch explained. “There’s more than one meaning behind that.

"We’re definitely trying to break chains musically and socially," he continues. "The whole thing to me just represents breaking the chains, whatever those chains might be, whatever chains society puts on you. We’re trying to break those and be free.”

given the subject matter of kendrick's music it wouldn't surprise me if the subtext was really the more important implication there

http://thequietus.com/articles/19852-kendrick-lamar-untitled-unmastered-review

The truth is that people project on Lamar whatever they want him to be. For many, his music provides a corrective to what they see as the vapid vulgarity of trap, a belief that persists despite his repeated references to women as "bitches". His willingness and aptitude for talking seriously and relatably about the black American experience, Lamar is forgiven for unvarnished lyrics we'd scoff at were they delivered by Lupe Fiasco, or that we'd tolerate from Talib Kweli.

......

the worst music writing thread is thattaway, man

ive not heard the new album/ep/tape/whatever yet so who knows if hes right, but kendrick doesnt seem prone to 'unvarnished' lyrics like talib is, even if he does rap about dicks and skyscrapers from time to time, but even that one seemed to fit, whereas talib often blurts out gauche lines that seem to come out of nowhere.

were you not making excuses for kanye recently on the life of problo thread

why? are you about to make excuses for kendrick?

lol sorry I am projecting my loathing of that quietus piece onto you

"relatably"

i like talib kweli! :)

so when is he gonna make another "swimming pools" plz

Maybe never?

thank god

well wait a second, "Swimming Pools" is a great song. I don't want him to do 500 iterations of it but I'm super glad he made it.

i don't know what "another swimming pools" means in this context? he's certainly done songs as catchy and immediate since then

"Alright" and "King Kunta" are as catchy imo. I mean, I'm surprised "Swimming Pool" hit the top twenty.

Neither is as brooding/moody, though, which may be the mood being sought here.

i assume "another swimming pools" means a radio hit

he could even call it "(Another) Swimming Pool"

this one's filled with white tears

i thought king kunta would be huge hit what do i know?

you had a bone to pick!

Are there official credits for this? Phys. copy is very edgy and does not have liner notes

i thought king kunta would be huge hit what do i know?

― robbie ca$hflo (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, March 11, 2016 4:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god it should have been, it's just such a massive tune and a classic video too

lol so embarrassed that I'm crying at this bullshit rn https://twitter.com/FACTmag/status/710369338318934016

Aww, that's cute. Imagine being a 14 year old kid in there when he walked in.

if i LOVE this album what else should i listen to? i heard the tracks from it on some spotify chill r&b/hip hop type playlist and i dig the low key, unfinished vibe, now i want to hear more like it.

Are you familiar with the rest of Kendrick's output? If not, I'd work backwards through that (To Pimp A Butterfly, Good Kid, mAAd city, Section.80, Overly Dedicated) then look at some of his labelmates (Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul).

or alternatively: http://miloraps.bandcamp.com/album/so-the-flies-dont-come

i listened to good kid maad city and it didn't make much of an impact on me...listening to TPAB is a no brainer though, will def listen to that and try out his labelmates

fwiw GKMC didn't do much for me either when I heard it a couple years ago; it's only after adoring TPAB that I was able to go back and appreciate it

Not rap but obv D'Angelo - Black Messiah is sort of linked with TPAB in my my mind

is Untitled 07's 2'30'' little break a famous nursery rhyme with changed lyrics? i'm trying to find out what it is.

Untitled 06 has emerged as my far-and-away favorite from this

I’m a little late to lamar but I got untitled, damn, pimp, heart 4 and black panther. Other than good kid what am I missing?

section 80

overly dedicated is worth checking out too

cool thanks

Love the voice pitch mutations on this record
Super effective and low key

I can understand why a lot of this material ended up on the cutting room floor, and it has nothing to do with quality - there's a lot of very good to great stuff on this. Rather, it's hard for me to picture exactly where in the tracklisting of To Pimp a Butterfly any of this stuff could have slotted, and I wouldn't want to bump anything from To Pimp a Butterfly to make way for anything here because it's perfect as it is and the album is already long enough as it is.

I think Untitled Unmastered works well as a standalone listen, but it's also impossible for me to see it as anything other than an extension of To Pimp a Butterfly, kinda like a P.S. to that album but also giving a broader picture of what Kendrick was up to creatively during that time period.

Yeah fair.

The hip hip hooray vocals are cloying

But there’s some seriously great low key material here. Are there any guests on this record or is that Kendrick pitch shifting himself throughout?

hip hop hooray is a great song

Jay Rock shows up on number 5, Cee-Lo on number 6

I love that Cee-Lo track, but I think (without looking at the tracklisting) that was the only one to be finished off after To Pimp a Butterfly was released?

(I thought it was "pimp pimp hooray", myself)

It’s both I think? Pimp as well

Thanks voodo