Odd Future draws (drew? no one talks about them anymore lol) from that well too
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
xpost - i was kinda exaggerating about the FF comparison but the whole loose neo soul vibe and messiness of it does remind me of FF
odd future iirc was more big eminem stans when they were kids
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 15:58 (seven years ago) link
yeah there's that too. Was just thinking that something like the Pharcyde's "4 Better or 4 Worse" totally has that Odd Future vibe
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:01 (seven years ago) link
yeah the fat lip versus on that song for sure
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:06 (seven years ago) link
there's def a lineage to follow w FF yeah. was listening to Mikah Nine's album 'It's All Love' finding some connections in therehttps://youtu.be/qIJxo9kIjBk
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
I get a little bit of phat lip on 4 Better Or 4 Worse in some of this.
― Aerosol, Saturday, October 23, 2010 10:51 PM (six years ago) Bookmark
from OF thread
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
great minds think alike
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
there's bits of FF stuff I like here and there but I feel like none of those guys ever made a 100% solid album, either solo or collectively
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
you could cobble together a fantastic mixtape from various releases tho
I really think that one i mentioned is fronttoback great.
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
But for the most part they were a mixed bag yeah
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:20 (seven years ago) link
thread got good again
― Brexterminate all the brutes (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
had hopes that AC would have put out at stellar solo after Innercity but All Balls fell kinda flat
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:24 (seven years ago) link
title track from that is good tho
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
all balls is half classic
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:26 (seven years ago) link
now you guys got me queuing up all this stuff I have listened to in a long time!
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:29 (seven years ago) link
While I really love DNA, I can't get over how poorly the beat is mixed. The distortion on the beat, especially the 2nd part, really takes away some of the fire of the track for me. This is the only track on the album that does this to such a degree. Was it mixed on a pair of Beats or something? Wish I could get a hold of the stems and fix it argh
That aside, I feel this might be his strongest lyrical record to date - both in terms of sound and content. So many subtle tweaks to the vocal timbre, especially on PRIDE (is that Kendrick pitching shifting his voice subtly or software?). A number of songs reference themes from the rest of the album, making everything so interconnected that it almost feels more of a concept album than the last two.
oh and can we talk about how iconic the album art is?
― octobeard, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
I thought this at first but decided it was on purpose.
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:33 (seven years ago) link
beat goes unhinged when he goes unhinged etc
all those west coast rap callouts up there are ON POINT. huge hieroglyphics and aceyalone fan. might throw blackalicious in that mix too
― octobeard, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
I can see that, but it's a shame. I feel the beat would have had more power and expressiveness if the bass was clean. I'm also mix and produce so this shit bothers me more than most people I'm sure
― octobeard, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:42 (seven years ago) link
thx for the kind words above, guys. I was feeling kind of bummed out today and that helped :)
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:46 (seven years ago) link
excellent review whiney
― nomar, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:48 (seven years ago) link
also, re what ppl were saying about FF/Blowed
Multiple songs on Damn have this lyrical style, where it it starts with a strict pattern ("I feel like...") and then explodes outward. Genius explains to me that this is called "anaphora."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd3r3R1ot0E
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
oh yeah good review cw
― Spottie, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 16:54 (seven years ago) link
tfw when called a beta
http://t12.deviantart.net/71napWuGKHnkxHhvt-I3bte3yhk=/fit-in/150x150/filters:no_upscale():origin()/pre01/88ab/th/pre/f/2015/099/8/7/kendrick_pepe_by_h8nter-d8p29e7.jpg
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:04 (seven years ago) link
refreshing after reading some negative responses to the album (don't know why, it's a good one obv.) respect to TSJ but i roll my eyes at their resident kendrick hater.
― nomar, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
kinda dig the lo-fi moments on this album, they feel very very intentional and inform the songs' respective meaning imo
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:27 (seven years ago) link
Yes grebt review, whiney. I like that you plucked out that bit on Lust where he gets mad about the election and then gets distracted by his daily life -- one of the most honest things I've heard anyone say about life under Trump.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link
Beta male:2010s::f*g:1990s. Shorthand homophobic cipher for a male who doesn't live up to code, right? FFS.
utterly no. beta male = not your typical alpha male pop star. not always bragging. not constantly telling me how great your life is. not needing to be dominant at every turn. coming off like a real, vulnerable person. I think this is the reason I respond to Kendrick Lamar, so if you're trying to pin "homophobia" on me, FFS indeed, it's clear you have no idea where I'm coming from.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:46 (seven years ago) link
that reading elides the common uses of "beta male" on the internet
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
ie as a pejorative w homophobic overtones
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
kendrick is the omega
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
admittedly, I am not up to speed on many common uses of terms on the internet
― Dominique, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:51 (seven years ago) link
same reason I always skip "Fly Shit Only" on Future's EVOL. Kendrick's performance more than redeems "DNA" but nothing on "Fly Shit Only" makes up for the fact that it sounds like pure butt.
― evol j, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:57 (seven years ago) link
whiney, your review is excellent. i was curious about this line in the first paragraph, though:
His last album, To Pimp a Butterfly, will likely go down as the defining reflection of the America that spawned #BlackLivesMatter, in the same way Pablo Picasso's Guernica stands as the defining reflection of the Spanish Civil War.
are you just trying to set a tone and get a super epic lead-in (nothing wrong with that), or do you actually believe this? (nothing wrong with that, either)
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:58 (seven years ago) link
I don't think there is another album/movie/TV show/play/book that addresses these concerns with that level of artistry and popularity. Like maybe the only competition is Lemonade, and a lot of that was subtext and readings as opposed to the more explicit politics of TPAB
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
Same with Get Out, really
agree with that ^^
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:09 (seven years ago) link
who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity? even in studying animals there isn't one archetype for alpha behaviour
― ogmor, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:11 (seven years ago) link
I totally lose track of the metre during the closing sections of DNA - just after Kendrick switches to triplet flow and there's a big clash with the vocal sample. I have enough faith to suspect this is deliberate but it throws me off every time.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:21 (seven years ago) link
have we determined if kendrick is a cuck tho
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:21 (seven years ago) link
bitch don't email my wife
omega has actual anthropological meaning and I retract my previous comment
but yeah, at its core it's a metaphorical mapping of the studies of primate ethology to humans and isn't really relevant to humans -- the whole "alpha" thing has its connotations and people later attempted to pull "beta" in, but those doing it did so as a contrast to the "alpha" moniker. if you see "alpha male" as an unqualified good or desired state then "beta" is undesirable, and vice versa
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
― Matt DC, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 1:21 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I was kind of appreciating this on a long drive home last night. People will complain about him cramming his words in or it being messy, but it's more of an interplay with the beat - drifting on and off or seeming like it's slightly out of sync only to lock back in is purposeful and the vocal sample clash ramps it up
― a landlocked exclave (mh 😏), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/97/ff/9d/97ff9d8b10b96bf4c8d7cd6217ad9c2d.jpg
used to shop here as a kid
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
When I was a kid, I read an article in BMX Plus or something in which the author described riding his bike through the Alpha Beta doors. Until just a couple years ago, I didn't know that Alpha Beta was a supermarket chain. I had been running around calling all automatic doors "alpha beta doors".
― how's life, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
xxxxpost
i wouldn't have minded so much a comparison to, say, "a change is gonna come"
but i feel like having kendrick lamar and pablo picasso in the same sentence sort of smacks of that peculiar need critics or intellectuals sometimes have to contextualize/legitimize hip hop. but always sort of doing the opposite and reaffirming the institutions / critical discourses that grant legitimacy, rather than highlighting asymmetrical configurations through which new music is distributed, consumed, evaluated.
you are clearly not suggesting that kendrick lamar needs to be compared to picasso in order to be considered seriously as an artist. but i do feel like there is a kind of weird undertone of "this record belongs in a museum" to that sentence. part of me thinks it's a very minor thing, but on the other hand i feel compelled to bring it up because i'm just really fucking tired of heavy-handed, euro-centric attempts to explain why hip hop is "important." (i'm not your review, to be clear.)
anyway, super stoked on "humble" -- my fav track so far, and the video is insane. i especially like the part where he's in the back of his car spreading grey poupon onto a slice of untoasted white bread
which led me to this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rappers-grey-poupon-hip-hop-lyrics_us_5800f933e4b0162c043b8009
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:51 (seven years ago) link
*not talking about your review
xpost to mh, i always thought the most immediate connotation of "omega" is theological. when i read your original post i assumed you were assigning kl messianic status
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:55 (seven years ago) link
if humble is the rappity rap bona fide track and DNA is the banger, Loyalty feels like the massive summer hit. has some of the same appeal and pace of bitch don't kill my vibe imo.
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link