Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

like maybe a tenth? a hundredth? it's not fine tbh

*newsflash*

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-on-his-new-album-and-the-weight-of-clarity.html

But to call “To Pimp a Butterfly” a political record “would be shortchanging it,” Mr. Lamar said. “It’s a record full of strength and courage and honesty” but also “growth and acknowledgment and denial.”

“I want you to get angry — I want you to get happy,” he said. “I want you to feel disgusted. I want you to feel uncomfortable.”

so it's a political record.

ah c'mon man one can see his point there.

the piano riff on "how much a dollar cost" reminds me of radiohead's "pyramid song" which means it's one of my favorites right off the bat

wow i never look at kanye's twitter, just see his mean mug at fashion show pictures everywhere, so this level of posi is kinda a shock

KANYE WEST ‏@kanyewest 1h1 hour ago

KENDRICK IS AN INSPIRATION. THANK YOU FOR THE VIBRATIONS AND THE SPIRIT. YOUR MEANING, MESSAGE AND EXECUTION ARE GIFTS TO THE WORLD.

kanye...otm. (maybe the first and last time i ever say that...)

c'mon guys

kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him

times piece is v astute
also really lovely thomas struth style studio portrait

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/22/arts/22LAMARJP3/22LAMARJP3-articleLarge.jpg

"kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him"

otm. he more than compensates for his curmudgeon moments.

speaking of, though, this record is a real mess. i would be surprised if i came around hard on it, but even moreso if anyone's half as positive about it by year-end season.

I will take that bet

The latter bit atleast

totes taking the over on the bet's latter half

man "blacker the berry" is still so incredible though

the funk stuff is okay but i feel like either the track or kendrick is doing something in the general spectrum of 'uninteresting' to 'regrettable' at any given time...and when that's not the case, the overall effect still feels modest. the idea of a funkadelic/badu/stankonia/funkiest of g-funk/"uptown funk" (haha sorry, only for a song or two)/edan psychedelic rap record is intriguing but if this is the result maybe he really should've called dam funk. idk

there are definitely some keeper tracks here for me -- really liking "you ain't gotta lie" rn -- but on the whole...

i'd bet that there would be people who think more positively about the album by year-end season. i was more immediately drawn to section.80 and GKMC but this album only continues to grow on me with each revisit.

i'm happy that there's a rapper like kendrick lamar--a rapper for "real" hip hop fans who like "real hip hop"--who is so darn good at using his fluctuations in tone as a propulsive element, among other things. like, that stuff was (and to an extent still is) seen as super gimmicky and a sign of weakness.

All the criticisms itt are lame AF. Which is not to say this album is beyond criticism but considering the obvious depth to this album I feel like u really gotta put 1/1000th of the effort into tackling it that he did making it, at least

@D-40 youtube's thattaway

this record rules, owns its length

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzfLwVRoOnI

Really diggin' These Walls, Alright, For Sale, and Complexion (A Zulu Love)

All the criticisms itt are lame AF.

You hear that Win Butler? The criticisms are lame!

So for the record I'm loving this album but I still think the question of whether Kendrick's novelistic, allegory prone way of constructing his albums ultimately takes something away from his art is wort discussing. On the one hand, the artful construction obviously makes his work stand apart from his peers. On the other it betrays his need to be somewhere else (in the architecture and the dramatizing of an idea) rather than fully present in the moment, in a genre largely built on presence. Also, the allegory/story arc here is in many ways very similar to the gkmc one, with tracks placed similarly: the youthful release of the early King Kunta mirroring the placing of Backseat Freestyle, the crisis points in the middle and the ending with Pac echoing the transcendence of Compton with Dre. The two albums are sonically different, but they're also very much alike - so much so that I'm wondering if this story arc/myth is what we'll have to expect even from upcoming albums. Your thoughts, please?

"why would somebody post this. like I can see how you might have the thought before you went "oh, right, that's a ridiculous way of thinking" but why would one actually say it where other people can read it."

i was just being flippant; plus sometimes its fun to make ridiculous predictions on what you see on paper/screen. but i want to listen to it - even if its not perfect, and god knows any political rap gets a much harsher reception than any other kinds of rap, so kudos to kendrick for being someone with such a high profile taking a chance to 'say something', even if how he says it might not be perfect. and if it makes people think about other more political rappers already out there, or just deem being engaged in that way is okay, then hey, good job (of course, i would love it if this were his nation of millions or whatever, but its okay if it isnt).

i find kendricks more literary approach a nice change from the usual first person POV of most rap, but at the same time, it does make it seem a bit distancing. i suppose thats why i was drawing parallels with prince among thieves - its sometimes like hes playing a role rather than really putting himself fully into the song, which can make it hard for you to really identify with it. but should prob wait to hear the album first lol.

xpost next album will be Tales from the Topographic Compton

lol

Listening on shuffle on the bus today helped a few more tracks stand out, and also emphasized the little intros/outros I'd love to hear expanded on (eg the "Momma" outro and whichever song has that Bill Withers-y instrumental opening). I like his sung hooks eg "You Ain't Gotta Lie" - he has an unusually good sense of what he can and can't pull off effectively as a vocalist imo

I sort of love how this entire album sounds like the buried backend of some other 78 minute album I couldn't make it through.

u really gotta put 1/1000th of the effort into tackling it that he did making it, at least

IAWTC which is why people publishing reviews of it less than 24 hours after they've heard it seems so genuinely stupid to me

like, this is clearly a complex work, nobody gives a shit about another "here's how I felt the first time I heard it!" reading, save that shit for music nobody's playing a year later. (threads on music boards are not what I'm talking abt btw, these & social media seem like good spaces for parsing real-time reactions, but "first look!" reviews...so pointless and gross imo)

what's that sample on "How Much a Dollar Cost?" it's totally David Axelrod right? I feel like I've heard it before but I can't place it

A lot of people have compared it to Radiohead's Pyramid Song.

xp wikipedia does not list any samples on that track

hmmm i swear that's axelrod but maybe i'm wrong

also who's does the dancehall hook on blacker the berry? no one is listed on the spotify tracklist

ok i guess i could fuckin google some guy named Assassin

also who's does the dancehall hook on blacker the berry? no one is listed on the spotify tracklist

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, March 17, 2015 3:03 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

assassin - http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/03/12/392541701/assassin-raps-best-kept-secret

thx for the link lex

don't really dig the michael jackson child abuse apologist line :/

:/

kendrick has done plenty of wack and lame collaborations he just doesn't put them on his albums

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 16, 2015 4:31 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

― some dude, Monday, March 16, 2015 8:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol the interview i did with him in 2012 is like 30% about lady gaga :-/ http://pitchfork.com/features/update/8966-kendrick-lamar/

what's the Jackson line?

Is it Jackie, is it Jesse, oh I know, it's Michael Jackson, oh / ... / That nigga gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids? / When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

answer: no

granted i don't know, but i'd bet that's more him asking a question than it is him giving dap to an alleged pederast

"you say he touched those kids" reads defensive

so does citing a song as justification for "shit hit(ting) the fan"

this is obviously heartfelt, but i think it also illustrates the perils of writing about something after listening for a day:

http://themuse.jezebel.com/the-overwhelming-blackness-of-kendrick-lamars-butterfly-1691770606

"I don't know what all this means yet, so I'd rather not make this neat, like I usually do."

like the "that n---a gave us billie jean" line seems like a question asked in a voice that isn't his own and i thought might be intended to rep. the black community at large. re: the second part, i dunno, kendrick doesn't seem like the guy for whom that line means, "obvs we gotta stand by our massively culturally significant dude even if he did this shit"

granted i don't know, but i'd bet that's more him asking a question than it is him giving dap to an alleged pederast

― slothroprhymes, Tuesday, March 17, 2015

I haven't listened to the album enough, but that's how it sounds to me?

piece on the artwork if its not been posted -
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/11/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-album-cover

"That apprehension is overruled, as usual, by a nagging desire to drain the brain of its thick thoughts. It's a force that compels you to at least attempt to analyze—and ultimately judge—a wholeness that's impossible to capture."

can't help but think it might be easier to capture if you listened to the album for three days!