*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
I feel like ELEMENT. is getting enough love. Easily my favorite hook on the album.
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:04 (seven years ago) link
xxp that was my joke, yeah
― a landlocked exclave (mh đ), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
"loyalty" is the most i've enjoyed rihanna in years
― marcos, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
grr *isn't getting enough love.
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:07 (seven years ago) link
I have only listened to this twice, but was getting nice summer vibes from Pride earlier. Sick album.
― calzino, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:08 (seven years ago) link
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.)â budo jeru, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 2:51 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
â budo jeru, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 2:51 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i understand this thinking, but on the other hand LOTS of people still need it spelled out for them. And, in my defense, will be the first to admit Rolling Stone readers aren't necessarily the ones needing to see what I think Kendrick's album means in a world listening to a XXXTencion Soundcloud stream on cellphone speakers.
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:25 (seven years ago) link
yeah, fair enough
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:34 (seven years ago) link
Kendrick's not a "beta" as much as he's an introvert dominating an extrovert's game, much like early Nas.
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 21:36 (seven years ago) link
maybe let's not keep using idiot poison-words in an unrelated thread, just sayin
― Brexterminate all the brutes (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 21:42 (seven years ago) link
ot motherfucking m
― a landlocked exclave (mh đ), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 21:44 (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?
literally no-one. the second anybody opts into that vocabulary is the second you can write off 100% of their opinions
― People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:32 (seven years ago) link
Ditto pejorative use of SJW.
― rb (soda), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:35 (seven years ago) link
http://i.makeagif.com/media/2-26-2014/4daPsl.gif
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:35 (seven years ago) link
fwiw there's a few songs on this album that won't budge from my head (ELEMENT, PRIDE, DUCKWORTH) but the one I really can't shake is LUST, which is already a track of the year contender maybe
― imago, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:49 (seven years ago) link
tbf I think this is a bit of harsh judgment on Dominique, who is def not an incoherent red pill type raging about his masculinity (also he is hottt iirc)
― ÎáŊĪΚĪ, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:53 (seven years ago) link
Total babe yeah
― (âĸĖĒâ) (carne asada), Thursday, 20 April 2017 00:15 (seven years ago) link
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.)
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.)
― piramjida, Thursday, 20 April 2017 00:37 (seven years ago) link
Don Cheadle time
http://pitchfork.com/news/73004-don-cheadle-talks-kendrick-lamars-dna-video-being-the-original-kung-fu-kenny/
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:05 (seven years ago) link
I completely see what you mean and I argued this point many times, though TPAB is kind of already archived at Harvard and the man himself is being compared to Gandhi. The problem I have is I feel like Lamar's greatness and virtuosity got shoved down everybody's throat to the point that sometimes it's hard to enjoy as a piece of music. Even very positive opinions somehow feel like this kind of huge relief that it didn't turn out to be a huge letdown and track with U2 didn't turn out to be complete piece of shit. Honestly, it's hard to be surprised about all those dumbass theories with second album, people simply needed more than music to satisfy their expectations, kind of same thing happened to Life of Pablo or Blondeâ piramjida, Wednesday, April 19, 2017 7:37 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:06 (seven years ago) link
After three listens, I'm starting to think this won't match the impossibly high standard that GKMC and TPAB set for me. It's a slight dip from perfect to very good. I get a different song stuck in my head every day - today is "Fear", which is such a perfect pairing of beat and lyrics
― Vinnie, Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:29 (seven years ago) link
i didn't know about the harvard thing, it's kind of interesting:
http://hiphoparchive.org/blog/3513-harvard-recognizes-hiphop-classics
― budo jeru, Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:43 (seven years ago) link
NB: Life of Pablo and Blonde are not good albums tho
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:59 (seven years ago) link
Made at best above average artists too
― albvivertine, Thursday, 20 April 2017 03:05 (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
â SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), 19. april 2017 20:05 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think perhaps Ta-nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me will be a contender. No, not as many has read that as has heard King Kunta, but Guernica wasn't the smash hit poster of 37 either.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 20 April 2017 07:54 (seven years ago) link
I phrased it as a question bc you gotta respect DL and wondered if I was missing something.
obv this is full of bars but it's the hooks I'm struck by on this, the soft subtle inflections to kendrick's voice, the measured woozy slowness. he has a good ear for voices; love the sample of RAT BOY on lust. the relative downbeatness of this suits me just fine
― ogmor, Thursday, 20 April 2017 09:45 (seven years ago) link
Picasso was kind of a rock star in his day.
― octobeard, Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
He had a life
― imago, Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:41 (seven years ago) link
"Lamar's greatness and virtuosity got shoved down everybody's throat to the point that sometimes it's hard to enjoy as a piece of music"
you just have to ignore everything that people write about him. it's the worst. just listen to him instead.
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:42 (seven years ago) link
i liked this. just listening this morning while playing resogun. it's not my favorite paranoid jesus album but it has a lot of competition for that title. some really good songs though. more good ones than bad ones. and the good ones definitely invigorating/exciting in that way that he has of invigorating/exciting.
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:14 (seven years ago) link
(and the bad not really bad just not as good as the good...)
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
sure, but can you really do that? let's say you've never heard anything about Kendrick and you listen to DAMN - there's still a lot to enjoy musically but I feel like you'd have trouble interpreting stuff on this album if you weren't aware of the status he's gotten after To Pimp a Butterfly. it just often feels like he actually embraces what people say about him and says things that only make sense or feel important when spoken from a man in his position (i.e. who actually would give a shit about this Pride/Humble juxtaposition if it wasn't image of a man being called the best rapper alive fighting his sins). and it's obviously true and I am not going to argue otherwise - K. Dot at this point is more than a rapper but it's really suffocating when a record is being considered important more than enjoyable
― piramjida, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
Why?
By which I mean, even granting the fact that it is nigh impossible to enjoy something in a vacuum divorced from other people's opinions, particularly when it comes to one of the most popular artists currently on the scene, why should other people's opinions on a particular album's position in the Official Canon of Music(TM) inhibit you from interacting with the album on your own terms?
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:27 (seven years ago) link
tbf, this is probably Kendrick's least "important" record since 2011 AND his most "enjoyable" probably ever
― SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
something about this album is making certain people think in thoughtpiecesit's just a really really good album
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
i kept reading too much about Get Out and then i never went and saw it. i got sick of it a little. and everyone's "take". that was my fault though. i was gonna go see it the first day and didn't. kendrick the get out of rappers! so i didn't read about the new one. just fired up the spotify on the PS4 and enjoyed the experience. and almost beat my record on resongun: demolition mode too. (21st in the world, by the way...)
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
yeah, it is definitely an album for simpletons like me.
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
though there is still a lot going on.
love that rihanna one by the way.
If the album is as timeless as everyone will claim there's nothing wrong with waiting out the avalanche of discussion & going back to it when the air has cleared
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:50 (seven years ago) link
something about this album is making certain people think in thoughtpieces
lol that something is "released by Kendrick Lamar"
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
the new Actress album is really not good for playing Resogun though. so boring. i quickly found a Perlon mix to listen to and everything was okay again.
― scott seward, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:58 (seven years ago) link
swerve swerve swerve swerve deeper now
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:58 (seven years ago) link
"Feel"'s production, the kinda watery synth pad and the ghostly processed voice almost reminds me of a hip hop version of early Burial
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:01 (seven years ago) link
â Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Thursday, April 20, 2017 12:50 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
obv nothing wrong w/ doing this even for albums that aren't "timeless"
― marcos, Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link
hot take: albums can't be "timeless"
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
agree
― marcos, Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
except for Goldie
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
Harvard archive curated by 9th Wonder, everybody in my town pretty proud about that
― People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link