official tracklist apparently
01. Wesley's Theory02. For Free? (Interlude) 03. King Kunta04. Institutionalized05. These Walls06. U07. Alright08. For Sale? (Interlude)09. Momma10. Hood Politics11. How Much A Dollar Cost12. Complexion13. The Blacker The Berry14. You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)15. I16. Mortal Man
― Number None, Thursday, 12 March 2015 18:26 (nine years ago) link
He's covering Suicidal Tendencies?
― MarkoP, Thursday, 12 March 2015 18:56 (nine years ago) link
my generation got Am I Black Enough For You? which was 53 minutes and 43 seconds long. which was only about 9 minutes longer than the 1966 debut album by The Doors. (schoolly was a baby boomer and i was gen x though. so, we weren't really of the same generation...we both lived in philly at the time though and we both had awesome hair...)
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 18:57 (nine years ago) link
illmatic is under 40 minutes. which is one reason why people never stopped playing it.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 18:59 (nine years ago) link
If there are only 16 tracks, two of which are interludes, then there are going to be some long fucking songs on this album. I suspect The Blacker The Berry goes on longer than the version we've heard, for one thing.
If every one is a killer then I can deal with length, it's when you get 20+ tracks on a CD that it starts to grate.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:11 (nine years ago) link
most look to be around 4 and change to 6, and the last track is 12 minutes and change according to the itunes listings, but "sing about me (i'm dying of thirst)" was that long and didn't become tedious imo
― slothroprhymes, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link
also, id like to propose a ban on using the word pimp in future rap titles. its like a title common might come up with. trying to marry some sort of maya angelou type of literary grace with idk, too short or willie d.
― StillAdvance, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:24 (nine years ago) link
via Rob on the dancehall thread:
I'm glad this piece on Assassin not being credited on rap songs was written, and I hope he does get credited on that Kendrick track when it's more official: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/03/12/392541701/assassin-raps-best-kept-secret.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
what was the last rap album that people here loved all the way through? like, every song. and you wanted to hear it over and over. just curious. i loved kendrick's first album but i didn't really play it a zillion times. sounded great the first week i had it though.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:44 (nine years ago) link
first thing that comes to mind was E-40's Sharp on All 4 Corners (another great example of a guy who releases a ton of material and has good quality control) but I'm sure there's been something more recentand even on albums from artists i love there's always a few bum steers
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:46 (nine years ago) link
people here really liked run the jewels. so, i'm guessing run the jewels would be one...
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:56 (nine years ago) link
i'm still pretty album-oriented. i like a good album experience. it's hard for me to find a modern rap album where i love the whole thing. just cuz there is always so much. my kingdom for an illmatic-length ten song stunner.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:58 (nine years ago) link
there's a whole rap thread scott. lol
i can generally find 6-7 albums per year where i'm not really skipping around at all
― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:00 (nine years ago) link
this is what i'm playing this week. lots of stuff i've never heard. mostly i just want to play the best of youngbloodz cd. i've never listened to a madvillain before...
https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11060270_10153771126967137_6184565302170893890_n.jpg?oh=424e6d97641e1ca8368a84766a22a633&oe=55B60774
https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11037634_10153771127982137_6355487955120264057_n.jpg?oh=2b7e2c566aab9a877a223eac45e1b96c&oe=558C86D8
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:01 (nine years ago) link
my krazy life, RTJ2, yeezus, old (danny brown) are prob the best non-GKMC ones. tbf a few songs on krazy life took a whiiiile to grow on me
― slothroprhymes, Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:01 (nine years ago) link
not to derail things further from general kendrick conversation, but scott, vince staples' shyne coldchain vol. 2 is like 27 minutes, 10 tracks and pretty complete/dope as is
― slothroprhymes, Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
I love that Juvenile album.
― Steph def def (Spottie), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
― slothroprhymes, Thursday, March 12, 2015 3:01 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i'm not even thinking of these ... vic spencer, a-wax, back from the dead 2, the boosie tape, jacka's tape ....i forget what else i liked last year
― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link
in addition to RTJ2 and danny brown and a-wax, i would also suggest the following as complete albums released last year: Freddie Gibbs/Madlib's Pinata, Black Milk's Glitches in the Break, isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo, Gene the Southern Child's Southern Meridian, DJ Quik's Midnight Life, Rick Ross's Mastermind, Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty.
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
no to RTJ
― example (crüt), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:21 (nine years ago) link
all good info. kendrick can wait.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:42 (nine years ago) link
i'm enjoying the big k.r.i.t. album right now! only 4 songs in...
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:45 (nine years ago) link
Open Mike Eagle's record, milo, Chance, Danny Brown, RTJ, Kanye, clipping, Heems, all relatively recent + great album experiences (not goon-approved though, sorry).
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 12 March 2015 20:57 (nine years ago) link
Rick Ross's Mastermind
eh i dunno that this is good front to back
― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:06 (nine years ago) link
i dunno that the badazz tape is good front to back either but differing opinions differ
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:18 (nine years ago) link
lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'
everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'
― j., Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:22 (nine years ago) link
http://knockemdeadrecords.com/shop-m-c-schmidt-batu-malablab-lp.html#f8c85872109375d05a0f02a51fc0b2ae
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:51 (nine years ago) link
ah shit nevermind that
― StillAdvance, Thursday, March 12, 2015 2:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^^this is what I meant to post
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
To answer Scott's question: last year's Vince Staples mixtape, Danny Brown's XXX - those are the ones that leap immediately to mind.
tbh all those track titles (if true) look a tad on the corny side
― StillAdvance, Thursday, 12 March 2015 23:09 (nine years ago) link
"lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'"
"everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'"
just looking for the most recent "wow, i love this whole thing and i can't stop playing it!" kinda examples.
that's all really. with so many CDs being 17+ tracks or whatever, that's not always easy. but people here find lots to love! which is cool. cuz i like to check stuff out.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 23:22 (nine years ago) link
not EVERY cd that is praised rewards multiple listens. they might be half great/half okay.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 March 2015 23:23 (nine years ago) link
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:18 (2 hours ago) Permalink
Ur really comparing that middling ass Ross cd to...never mind
― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, 12 March 2015 23:41 (nine years ago) link
04 Institutionalized
*opens a pepsi*
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Friday, 13 March 2015 01:06 (nine years ago) link
Is CD-era bloat even much of a thing as far as major label rap releases go anymore? If Kendrick's album fills out a full CD, it feels like the exception if anything. Most recent big commercially-released rap albums have been 40-65 minutes. The mixtape circuit is different, sure.
― raih dednelb (The Reverend), Friday, 13 March 2015 01:16 (nine years ago) link
yeah rap albums haven't shrunken since the '90s like rock albums have, but they've definitely gotten shorter on average.
― some dude, Friday, 13 March 2015 01:44 (nine years ago) link
i just like good flow. if i'm gonna listen to a cd. i feel kinda old-fashioned just for listening to a cd. they can sound really good though! that is the other thing i love about more recent albums, REALLY good sound! that is something i can get behind. there is some serious digital beauty out there. a lot of downloads kinds blow sound-wise.
― scott seward, Friday, 13 March 2015 03:13 (nine years ago) link
deej at some point you are gonna have to get past the narcissism of small differences thing as something other than a grave affront to TRUTH in mile high blazing letters
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 March 2015 04:58 (nine years ago) link
i'm like 99% sure this is a half-assed back and forth that we've been doing for almost ten years now and it is very very boring
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 March 2015 04:59 (nine years ago) link
almost as boring as rick ross' 'mastermind' lol
― deej loaf (D-40), Friday, 13 March 2015 05:51 (nine years ago) link
― curmudgeon, Thursday, March 12, 2015 7:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah, really glad this has been written - it feels really shady that assassin hasn't been credited on two major rap releases now, esp for substantial contributions in an era when every backing vocalist and producer gets a feat.
― lex pretend, Friday, 13 March 2015 08:33 (nine years ago) link
it is super shady, obviously, but to some extent i kind of appreciate the 'honesty' of its brazenly appropriational cynicism and how that more accurately reflects how dancehall is being used and consumed as an otherized texture (parts throwback 90s moodboarding, wild west outlaw, fire & brimstone social politics, foreign import luxury) in these tracks, rather than falsely suggesting a collaborative parity or even any real desire to be seen to align with a modern trendy jamaican cool the way it might have been ten and/or twenty years ago.it is a fantasy (a nice one but a fantasy nonetheless) that any of kanye or kendrick's listeners were going to run out and cop a sasco album were he only given his accreditation
assassin's anecdote there about ye's engineers being wowed reads like they were going to put out any old bs he might have come out with but wow lyrics too gosh didnt expect that
drake and popcaan vaguely have more of an intuitive kinship along pallid singjay lines but they still ought to have come into the discussion too
― r|t|c, Friday, 13 March 2015 10:37 (nine years ago) link
anyone hear that new mavado/khaled fail sampling la roux btw? lolz
― r|t|c, Friday, 13 March 2015 10:40 (nine years ago) link
Popcaan loverman dancehall appropriation feels less more natural and less tokenistic than apocalyptic preacher man dancehall appropriation - one feels like a natural fit between contemporary styles while the other is fundamentally there for drama and gravitas. NB I am a complete sucker for the latter trick and haven't stopped playing Babylon System in like two months.
― Matt DC, Friday, 13 March 2015 10:49 (nine years ago) link
yeah absolutely and i'm surprised the usual appropriation conversation hasn't happened there at all, because he's literally used like a disembodied, othered sample to lend gravitas to a western project. a real live sample!
image is too amazing to ruin by actually listening to this
xp
― lex pretend, Friday, 13 March 2015 10:52 (nine years ago) link
lol, has anything good come out of the mavado/khaled link?
fwiw, I am glad Assassin is getting press off this, but his own take on it is very relaxed, fully aware of his human plug-in status. presumably a decade+ in the none more shady jamaican music industry puts this all in perspective. like he probably at least got paid.
― rob, Friday, 13 March 2015 12:16 (nine years ago) link
King Kunta
http://www.howflyhiphop.com/2015/03/13/kendrick-lamar-king-kunta-download-mp3/
― Number None, Friday, 13 March 2015 21:37 (nine years ago) link
on a JB 'The Payback' vibe for sure
― lil urbane (Jordan), Friday, 13 March 2015 21:47 (nine years ago) link
Sounds pretty fucking great to me.
― Simon H., Friday, 13 March 2015 21:50 (nine years ago) link