So I’m gonna jump right into this review because I’m SO EAGER to speak my mind on this piece of work.
I’ve been a Kendrick stan since Section.80. I ate that album up right away and it was a crazy inspiration. My sister was into him even before that when he ran with K Dot. Good Kid came out and it took some warming up to, but I was soon enthralled. He was now 2/2 for amazing game changing albums. It’s not an understatement to say that I was very anxious towards the album drop. I was like Gollum sitting in the cave waiting for my ring. Basically Kendrick was my precious..
Anyways, so after his semi-Beyonce album drop surprise, you can be sure that I copped it real quick! I needed my K.Ducky fix, and it was finally here (all hail r/hiphopheads). So I’ll take you through my journey now, track by track:
Wesley’s Theory
My first thought as a non-black man was “fuck another song that’s akward to sing cause he says nigga”. The sample goes on for a bit..
then the beat drops.
My first thought was “DARK HIP-HOP FUNK??” I fell in love off the bat. My mind sort of exploded, because it was so Kendrick, so forward. Then those G Funk synths showed up and I knew that if nothing else impressed me, I’d at least have this on repeat.
Dre has his little speech and Kendrick continues to kill the song. “Pay me later, wear those gators” went to show he still keeps his flow fresh, three albums in. So moving on now-
For Free? (Interlude)
OK oK OK I hear dat jazz. Amazing horn and vocal intro that really got me into it. The excitement was maintained on track 2. Then we get into the ratchet female talking segway. Some cyatty talk about a man who don’t supply them what they need. Similar to Kanye’s workout plan with a different twist.
Then Kendrick comes in with a line I thought to be something that would stick with people: “This dick aint freee” (that my sister remarked to be slightly fabulous sounding but w.e). But he follows up that line multiple times with the CRAZIEST flows and rhyming I think I have ever heard from him. Forget ‘Rigamortus’, his rapping here had me mouth ajarred. My sister had that wide eyed look hearing this that assured me that Kendrick had not lost any sort of freshness with his rap career yet. She commented after this how “this reminds me of why I fell in love with hip-hop”. For sure.
King Kunta
So I hate to sound biased this far in, but guess what. Off the bat you know this song is about to shut shit down.
I heard this song when it leaked and fell in love. Starts off super stripped down while still keeping you intensely involved. The chorus is so catchy!! And witty too. When the guitar drops you just fall into it all over again. This far in you can tell this album is gonna have some heavy jazz, funk, and conscious themes. Don’t be surprised if hundreds of hiphop heads start asking “Bitch, where you when I was walking?” and hot females asking “what’s the yams?”
Institutionalized
Ok but can Kendrick still bring the fire?
I was feeling the beat at the beginning. During Good Kid I had to get used to Kendrick’s high pitched voice , but I started liking it eventually. I don’t think he overuses it and knows when to use his real voice.
Then THAT BEAT CHANGE! We get catapulted back into that sort of dark gangster sounding west coast rap. With some jazzy riffs, and a chorus that again says “nigga” too much (how will I sing it??), the song was great. Then SNOOP decides to come and do what he does best. Say a bunch of rhymes that aren’t crazy witty or flow heavy, but says them so fucking cool that you’re like “ok yup snoop done it again”. This is another great song and I couldn’t believe I was only four tracks in.
These Walls
We start with a snap and spoken word. So artsy Kendrick. He says these same lines in a few songs. I myself am an artsy fartsy kind of guy so when that piano hit that low chord with the woman yelling (rape? possessed? idk) I was eating it up.
Then with that nice little “sex” dialogue we get back into that funky upbeat groove. I was diggging it from the start yet again. The chorus is soo catchy. Reminded me of Real from Good Kid with the chorus/rap back and forth. But at the end we get a cool electric piano solo coupled with a beat change and a rap section that has a much more serious than earlier. Theres some nice panning going on here.
Btw this song is about a vagina. At the end it’s about a prison cell. Good ol Kendrick.
u
Ok so… I’ll start by saying I like this song. It’s definitely different from the norm. It’s dark with some high pitched yelps. Kendrick is super depresssed and wants us to know that. I can fully understand why people might not like this song. This might put a halt to the steam gained on the first few tracks for some. But there is a beat change later on with some quiet spanish speaking in the background during the beginning. The beat is amazing with some really sad and dark jazz. But Kendrick does sound like he’s crying. I could probably replace his speech with “He took my toy. Make him give it back!” and it might fit. I do like this track. But if you aren’t feeling this from the get-go then move on. The album has lots more to offer.
Alright
Have you been waiting for that trap song to show up? Guess what!! Its here, with some help from Pharrel. The jazzy riffs remind me of Hol Up maybe, but it’s amazing and soo catchy. More use of “nigga” throughout the whole song. This song is really hype and conscious at the same time. Play this with King Kunta and I promise you can get all buck while driving.
WE GON BE ALRIGHT!
For Sale? (Interlude)
So to me this track is a bit of hidden genius.
Firstly, I skipped it without going too far in cause I figured it was his weird electronic song that sounded like a Glee hip-hop record.
But then I got high (of course) and took another listen. I fucking loved it. I listened again sober, and it was still good! Yay.
This song is really good once you get into it. “Lushi” sounds like sushi which will go noticed, but its all good because Kendrick has successfully made a song that emulates Kanye, Kraftwerk, Tyler the Creator, and most of all himself. It’s also really catchy. Give this song a chance!!
Momma
So this song was the first track (besides u, which I still liked) that I wasn’t super into. The beat is good, and his rap is really good too. But nothing really caught me here, although it does really grow on you. On Drakes Too Late record he also has a momma song that sucks, and I thought of it immediately when I didn’t get into this. It sucks I had to hear it after all the tracks before it, but it’s by no means a bad song. The lyricism is really good.
Oh wait! Obligatory beat change. Kendrick you sneaky rapper. I love the ending, it’s pretty fun. Very short but I would listen to the beginning to get to this for sure.
Hood Politics
Instantly this song sounds like something Sugarhill would’ve done. But then in like 10 seconds it changes. If you haven’t gathered yet, the beat changes are on average 20 times per song. This is a good thing, because it means he kept his production non linear and I love how much time he took with the tracks.
This is another pseudo trap offering and I love it. Everytime he says “booboo” I’m ready to say it with him. Idk if he’s actually saying that but w.e that’s what I’ll say. He has a nice beat breakdown then back to the booboos. Add this to the Kunta/Alright trinity.
How Much a Dollar Cost?
This song is dripping of Section.80. It’s another sad song that you can rock to. It’s definitely a good song, but there are other tracks I like more on the record. But this is a good song and I recommend everyone to give it a listen.
And guess what? No beat change!! Weird to think THAT is something to actually point out on a track.
Complexion (Zulu love)
My first thought: Who is Zulu? Africa? What?
Second thought: Who cares!
The song is really good and might not appeal to everyone but the harp in the background is really nice. And it has a hip-hop flavor similar to Floetry if anyone listens to them. I also was really into this song because it was more about equality than black power. Not that black power is a bad thing (I’m not a racist). Kendrick’s lyrics are superb here, as usual.
Rapsody’s rap: AMAZING. She has deserved a big break for a while and finally she gets her time. For Kendrick to put her on this track means he knows he is someone who has the power to set trends and here he shows that real rappers need their place in the structure of mainstream hip-hop. A+ Kendrick.
Blacker the Berry
So after Kendrick dropped i, I’m pretty sure we all facepalmed in the anticipated music style cometh. “Omg hes selling out” “its so pop ew” “what does this mean” “lol I sort of like it” etc etc etc etc.
When this song came out I remember the universal praise for how hard he went, and this just proves that we won’t let anyone define his music except him. Let’s start off the bat with the fact that there’s a dancehall singer wiling out in the chorus. 10/10.
The BARS he drops in this song are ridiculous and were quoted off the get-go by fans. “You in love with that desert eagle”, “black as the fuckin heart of an Aryan”, and so many more. This song is an embodiment of black rage and Lauryn Hill should take some notes. I’m not black and I feel for this message. On top of that he has a fucking amazing outro that features yet another beat switch-up.
You Ain’t Got to Lie
I must say, when he says “y’all close that front door y’all let flies in this motherfucker!” I laughed because it really hit home for me. I hate when people let flies in cause how hard is it to close a door?? But anyways-
Thanks to the outro in Blacker the Berry we bleed into this relatively well. This sounds like something off of Good Kid, which is not dated at all. This is an all around catchy and feel good song. Also another chorus full of the word “nigga”.
i
Here he revamped the single in a sort of off the floor style. The original single version wasn’t bad at all. His rapping voice was a bit annoying and the track was a bit too polished, but w.e cause the lyricism was on point.
For this version he basically fixed everything. He switched out the male chorus for a female chorus which sounds 1000x better. The instruments sounds more alive. His rapping is more engaging and I like how he sings the chorus with his high pitched endings (which some may not like). A great revamp for those who thought the single version would sound out of place on this record.
Mortal Man
This is the most bland track for me. Great message, but nothing that really grabbed me. But, again, by no means a bad song.
Does anyone else think that he sounds like J. Cole on the hook?? I swear I’m not crazy…
Anyways, at the end he does something like what Kanye did on Last Call where he and a friend talk about life and whatnot behind a jazzy instrumentation. All the poetic ramblings he did to start and end the tracks come together at the end in a lovely poetic letter to Tupac. It was all very nice and poetic. And thus ended our journey with Kendrick, as he speaks to his dead idol.
ALL IN ALL
I think this album is fucking incredible for two reasons:
1. I’m biased
2. It’s very forward in hip-hop
The greatest aspect of this album is that Kendrick is proving that he can release a MAINSTREAM album that doesn’t have to be trappy, or spacing, or old school. It can add elements of funk and jazz and real topic to take a whole new direction and yes, people can still love it and buy it.
Kendrick Lamar has showed with this album that he doesn’t have to do what anyone else is doing. And that what he does is unique to him and it does make it worth listening to everything.
One of the biggest complaints of the industry is that it’s constantly formulatic and it makes hip-hop stale. Kendrick easily has paved a ground for artists to move on and do what they want until it sticks to the wall. Bruno Mars doesn’t get enough credit for this.
Don’t be surprised if funk and jazz start coming back full throttle after this. All thanks to King Kendrick/Kunta.
Ps. Does he have to say “nigga” so much?? Every song has it, which means every song I’ll have to be saying ninja at least 10 times. Oh well.. lau him.
My rating: 9/10
mizfitscollect 