If you don't know how big of a Kendrick Lamar fan I am by now, then you haven't been following this blog very long. (Catch up here and here. No excuses now.) So when I get a TIDAL notification on March 4th at 1:24 a.m. saying, "New music from Kendrick Lamar. Listen now," my immediate reaction was, "Wait a minute...is this another instance where I'm the last to know about something?!?! How come no one told me of this momentous occasion until this very moment?!?!" Then I thought, "'Listen now'??? Uhhhh duhhhhh...of course I'm gonna listen now! What else would I be doing at 1:24 in the morning except playing Madden, watching Knight Rider reruns or, I don't know, actually sleeping?!?!" So after seeing a few Facebook posts from people who were baited into doing the same thing, I listened to what were clearly the songs that didn't make Lamar's critically-acclaimed, Grammy-award-winning album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) and guess what? I didn't eeeeeem care. This was still new music to me and, more important, new Kendrick Lamar music. So it wouldn't be true to my integrity as an avid music lover if I let a week go by without sharing my two cents about untitled unmastered. in this "2-for-1 Tuesday Special"--giving you all an "In Heavy Rotation" special edition as well as my "Rave & Favorite Five" post for the week. (I know...I'm so generous...I shouldn't have.) Let's get at it, kiddies...
(What the White man say?) A piece of mine's/That's what the White man wanted when I rhyme/Telling me that he selling me just for $10.99/If I go platinum from rapping, I do the company fine/What if I compromise? He said it don't even matter/You make a million or more, you living better than average/You losing your core following, gaining it all/He put a price on my talent, I hit the bank and withdraw/Hit the bank and withdraw, hit the bank and withdraw/Put myself in the rocket ship and I shot for the stars/Look at what you accomplished and what he said to the boy/I'ma make you some promises that you just can't ignore/Your profession anonymous as an artist if I don't target your market/If you ain't signing your signature when I throw you my wallet/A lot of rappers are giving their demo, all in the toilet/You work toward your master's, mortgage, I need a piece...I mean, what recording or performing artist can't relate to that interaction alone? You work exceptionally hard at building the right brand and working feverishly on a project while trying to maintain some semblance of integrity only for someone to tell you, "If you want to go the next level, then you have to do it this way and we want dibs on everything." Just another example of Kendrick's remarkable candor...
#4 "untitled 02 | 06.23.2014." In a 2013 CNN interview, Grammy-nominated writer and producer Benny Blanco said the following about hit records: "Everything needs to be catchy because the listener is either going to stay with the song or lose interest in the first five seconds." Although I'm sure that Kendrick doesn't intend for this Yung Exclusive and Cardo-produced song to be a hit, this was one of those songs that had to defy that logic in order for me to appreciate it. Thank goodness for the bounce. On subject matter alone, this song could've made the final TPAB cut as he speaks freely as he often does about the tug-of-war between everything that comes with being a hip-hop star and being well aware of the continuing violence and incarceration plaguing his community. As his flow strengthens towards the song's end, this is what stands out every time I listen:I can put a rapper on life support/Guarantee that's something none of you want/Ten homies down and they all serving life/Water's like $2500 a month/What if I empty my bank out and stunt?/What if I certified all of these ones?/B---- I get buck, I'm as real as they come/Sh-- is amazing, I'm feeding my cravings/You know that you want me, come here now, lil' baby/I'm f-----, I'm crazy/Serving it like I belong in the basement/Or live at the Days Inn/Yan Yan my relative, black cherry soda/Pistol and poverty, come get to know us...When you come from a certain environment and have ingratiated yourself with it, it's hard to both separate yourself from it completely and gracefully perform the balancing act to perfection. That applies to everyone from rappers to retired criminals to the lawyers who used to and/or still defend them. Oh yeah...and did I mention how much the beat bangs?!?! Moving on...
The murderous capital, avenues lookin' like evil dead zombies/With batteries to the head/The flattery of watching my stock rise/The salary, the compensation tripled my cock size/I run through these stop signs with no brake fluid, premium gas, do it for dolo/Crash markets and prejudiced tags, look at my photo/Black excellence, pessimists died countin' my coin/Hope it's evident that I inspired a thousand emcees to do better/I blew cheddar on youth centers, building and Bimmers and blue leather/Forecasting my future, this is the future/The mastermind, until my next album, more power to ya...
Although I enjoyed the playful practice take of "untitled 04 | 08.14.2014" as the final part of "untitled 07 | 2014 - 2016", he could've ended the song right there on the gunshot effect and it would've been even more perfect. Regardless, it's one of the album's best efforts.
#2 "untitled 01 | 08.19.2014." When I first listened to the album and heard the beat drop, it gave me life...like RZA circa 1993 life. Unlike more of the free jazz-inspired music that made the cut on TPAB, Hit-Boy and DJ Spinz kept their production a little simpler. That perhaps allowed Kendrick's vocals to breathe a bit more and that was absolutely paramount to why I rank this track as highly as I do. On lyrical content alone, this might just be my favorite song on the album as it is Kendrick shedding light on the pitfalls of reckless humanity in a very apocalyptic manner. Among so many brilliant moments, this series of bars grabbed me the most:
Now I consider myself a lyricist or, at the very least, a lover of lyrics who believes that no matter how many dope lines you spit in a verse, your opening and your closing must be strong to seal the deal. Kendrick masterfully executed that concept to perfection with that parting gift, and you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who can truthfully admit that the last line alone didn't resonate with them. Now as much as I love the lyricism, production and content of "untitled 01 | 08.19.2014", it's bested by the sum of all parts of...
#2 "untitled 01 | 08.19.2014." When I first listened to the album and heard the beat drop, it gave me life...like RZA circa 1993 life. Unlike more of the free jazz-inspired music that made the cut on TPAB, Hit-Boy and DJ Spinz kept their production a little simpler. That perhaps allowed Kendrick's vocals to breathe a bit more and that was absolutely paramount to why I rank this track as highly as I do. On lyrical content alone, this might just be my favorite song on the album as it is Kendrick shedding light on the pitfalls of reckless humanity in a very apocalyptic manner. Among so many brilliant moments, this series of bars grabbed me the most:
Crucifix, tell me can you fix, anytime I need/I'ma start jotting everything in my diary/Never would you lie to me, always camaraderie/I can see our days been numbered/Revelation greatest as we hearing the last trumpet/All man, child, woman, life completely went in reverse/I guess I'm running in place trying to make it to church...
Now I consider myself a lyricist or, at the very least, a lover of lyrics who believes that no matter how many dope lines you spit in a verse, your opening and your closing must be strong to seal the deal. Kendrick masterfully executed that concept to perfection with that parting gift, and you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who can truthfully admit that the last line alone didn't resonate with them. Now as much as I love the lyricism, production and content of "untitled 01 | 08.19.2014", it's bested by the sum of all parts of...
I got 100 on my dash, got 200 in my trunk/Name in the grab bags, put my Bible in the trunk/Taaka vodka on the top of my binocular, I'm drunk/How can I can make them popular, pop 'em when I want/See I'm livin' with anxiety, duckin' the sobriety/F----- up the system, I ain't f----- with society/Justice ain't free, therefore justice ain't me/So I justify his name on obituary/Why you wanna see a good man with a broken heart?/Once upon a time, I used to go to church and talk to God/Now I'm thinkin' to myself, hollow tips is all I got/Now I'm drinkin' by myself, at the intersection, parked/Watched you when you walk inside your house, you threw your briefcase all on the couch/I planned on creeping through your f----- door and blowin' out/Every piece of your brain 'til your son jumped in your arm/Cut on the engine, then sped off in the rain, I'm gone...What a picture Kendrick paints with these bars, manifesting the difficulty for many Black men and other minorities in battling between losing your religion, losing your mind and possibly losing freedom for a distorted sense of justice while taking someone's else freedom to live. I rewound this verse at least three or four times just to pick up as much of what he was putting down as possible and I still feel like I need to listen to it again.
Now I understand that everybody won't join me and countless others in the untitled unmastered. love fest and that's fine. Even dating back to last year with TPAB, I've heard every kind of dissenting opinion from some folks saying that Kendrick Lamar isn't as lyrical as advertised to placing him in the same category as J. Cole, i.e., his music selection is essentially drinking chamomile tea after taking a melatonin pill. (One of my Facebook friends referred to his production as "Terence Blanchard a** beats". I can't front, I found that comment to be pretty hilarious.) With that said, can I gush over untitled unmastered. in the same way that I did with good kid, m.A.A.d city or To Pimp a Butterfly? Not necessarily because I am fully aware that it's not a brand new project, it's only eight songs with a running time barely over 34 minutes and it definitely left me wanting more. Granted, any Kendrick Lamar album leaves me wanting more, but this project made me want at least five more songs. Nevertheless, here are two final takes: 1) much like Nas' The Lost Tapes, Kendrick's compilation of throwaways is still brilliant enough to murder quite a few rappers' entire catalogs as even the songs that I didn't mention were quality; and 2) this will tide the Kendrick Lamar fan in me over until he shows his faithful following where he plans on taking hip-hop next. Pimp, pimp...hooray.
If you enjoyed untitled unmastered. as much as I did, then please join the conversation and comment with your favorite song(s). Please come back next week for a new "Rave & Favorite Five" post and on March 29th for my official "In Heavy Rotation" post for March!
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