kendrick lamar - mr. morale & the big steppers (2022)

there is realism at the center of his work which makes it contemporary no matter what sounds he is working with.

it also sets him apart from many other rappers on the radio who trade in fantasy.

oh yeah i shouldn't have said 'explicitly', he's not a throwback, just still very distinct in the current landscape

what i was trying to say more is that 'if he's the only one of those left isn't that in itself something of an anachronism'

18 songs, 73 minutes, let’s do this

Quickly glanced the track list to see what kind of wild guests would be on this

And motherfucking Beth Gibbons is on the penultimate track

oh it's shorter than TPAB lol

about the same if you chop off that tupac “interview”

yeah just funny bc this is the one that's being presented as a double, just shows how meaningless the distinction can be

GFK :)

good kid was a double cd in its bonus track version, like 90 plus minutes

first two tracks sound excellent

gonna have to listen twice to actually process this. mostly just processing the decisions he made right now lol

kodak the last poet, ok, sure

hmm "auntie diaries" is well-meaning but a real fucking mess

yah there are some real o_0 moments on the album, but that’s the one that just 100% totally misses the mark for me

i can at least grant that it's well-intentioned just like... totally naive still and he'd rightfully never give some well-meaning-but-naive white person a pass for taking the same approach re: race

https://i.imgur.com/vwzCXPo.jpg

"rich spirit" instant classic

he sounds more conflicted than ever. the way it ends is brilliant. a lot to process on one listen, but it immediately hits me as his most consistently personal work. oh, it's good tho.

it’s very heavy and very busy and much too much for me to process at 1:45am lol

the beat on “silent hill” is sooooo good. and im comfortable saying that the first, penultimate, and final tracks on here are career highlights

there's a lot to take in but i'm a bit underwhelmed overall on first listen idk

those three are certainly highlights yeah

"Rich Spirit" brilliant, agreed. It's gonna take some time to dig in.

Holy fuck

Lol at “beth gibbons from portishead”

Not gonna lie a bit disappointed about the aesthetic

… misdirect on “the heart pt. 5”

oof, "Auntie Diaries" is a hard no

and the first three notes of "Mother I Sober" are irresistibly Vince Guaraldi

featuring Kodak Black is definitely a choice

argh what's the sample on "Mirror" ? I can't remember where it comes from !

"the heart part 5" is a fair bit better than anything on this

👀

« We cry together » is… something. 5.30min of love and tenderness to share in a family setting !

I know I’m shallow, but

where are the bangers?

lmao the RYM shoutbox has already been deleted

Britishes aside, don't you people sleep?!

it was the absolute worst comments section i have ever seen on rym

"we cry together" would have been bad as a minute-long skit and yet it's the second longest track here

Not sure I'll ever willingly listen to We Cry Together again.

featuring Kodak Black is definitely a choice

― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, May 13, 2022 3:04 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he’s been on every major rap album this year, so it’s a choice many have made.

there’s definitely something “uncanceling the canceled” about his prominence tho, that’s for sure

yeah it certainly feels like he's going for something like that but it also wildly clashes with "mother i sober"

I’m not surprised by the messiness, hypocrisy, and complexity of this album. Kendrick has been on this tip for awhile. The album hit me personally being a black male. So I won’t engage in the ILM snark. I think it’s great art. I will say it challenges the idea that seemingly conscious African-Americans are supposed to lead and have the answers. That’s been so ingrained in American culture that if the trope is challenged then the pitchforks come out.

I’m not surprised by the messiness, hypocrisy, and complexity of this album. Kendrick has been on this tip for awhile. The album hit me personally being a black male. So I won’t engage in the ILM snark. I think it’s great art. I will say it challenges the idea that seemingly conscious African-Americans are supposed to lead and have the answers. That’s been so ingrained in American culture that if the trope is challenged then the pitchforks come out.

Has Lamar ever mentioned is a trans male?

*his aunt

Not that I’m aware of. He seems to reveal things about them little by little in interviews.

After one listen, the best things on here are "We Cry Together," "Purple Hearts" and "Auntie Tales." The tap dancing is a really fascinating metaphor — made me think of Bamboozled.

real question: would the folks that have discrepancies with "auntie diaries" prefer he had said nothing? or rather: what did you want his view on trans acceptance to be and how did you want him to articulate that?

otherwise, lilsoulbrother fiercely otm. second listen this morning and i stand by my perfect rating.

Albums need not be perfect to be wonderful, though.

I'm cis & straight and only listened once, but the repeating slurs aspect struck me as, at the very least, an odd approach to take, and I can see why people would recoil from a straight man doing that without nec unpacking the entire song. I'm not sure what I think about that last line apart from being w(e)ary of these kinds of comparisons.

Beyond that, I don't like the binary of "say this or say nothing," but the way he mis/genders & deadnames the presumably real people he's talking about does raise questions about the representation of marginalized (an overly anodyne word) people by others...not that I have any immediate answers, but there's an idea in academic circles about the difference between speaking for and speaking with that I think is relevant here?

real question: would the folks that have discrepancies with "auntie diaries" prefer he had said nothing? or rather: what did you want his view on trans acceptance to be and how did you want him to articulate that?

my disappointment with "auntie diaries" doesn't really have anything to do with the views expressed within. it's clumsy, overly didactic, overlong, and generally lacks the sparkle of his best work.

i did like "we cry together" tho lol

I found "We Cry Together" unbearable, actually, and I queued three times to ensure the fuck-you-bitch thing hit me every time.

the alchemist snapped, though