Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

lots of hip hop albums are very long, tbf.

i, for one, am looking forward to the skits

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

Is this the To Kill A Mockingbird sequel?

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

every De La Soul album, for starters

Possibly. Though I personally found Buhloone Mindstate to be one of their best albums because of its shortness.

"Prince Among Thieves"' 78 minutes is perfect imo

Wu-Tang Forever.

Moment of Truth by Gang Starr is 78 minutes. It has no skits or filler and is perfect.

can not wait for this

aquemini is like 10 sides long

awesome cover art

who's the judge they're sitting on

john boehner

if this actually incorporates a lot of actual free jazz i will eat my hat and love it

and yes great title

De La Soul is Dead is bloated imo.

Singles, "Bitties," "Millie," and the final trio aside, it's their weakest of the nineties. The one before and after are the classics imo.

fuck eating a hat

ILM will kill your least favorite thread title for money

this will definitely be one of my 3 CD purchases of the year!

2 and a half years is a while between albums for someone in his genre at his level this early in his career. i'm cool with him going whole hog on an 80-minute deal to try and justify the wait.

& honestly i can't think of a more predictable move after the success of his specific first album than doing a sprawling long ass follow up

by which i mean that i find it so unsurprising that i can't care either way

first album was pretty long in itself iirc

yeah i mean he got total adoration and became a massive star off an album he called "a short film" so..............

Full Rolling Stone interview is a good read

But are there any long hip hop albums that actually justify their length and don't feel bloated?

― MarkoP, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 17:25 (Yesterday) Permalink

Cuban Linx ... Could keep going I'm sure

Life after death
All eyez on me

Etcetera

Looking fwd to this obv although this quote is super douchey lol:

Lamar is vague about what specifically the title To Pimp a Butterfly means (“That will be taught in college courses someday,”)

totally into kendrick knowing about his rapping superpowers

lot of overlong, bloated rap albums. but theres also a lot that are necessarily long. eg - wu tang forever, de la soul is dead, 3 feet high, fear of a black planet. not 100% sure about the cover, its more the kind of cover id expect from idk, someone like gunplay. and while i like kendricks harder tracks a lot (maybe best), not sure i want a whole album of him doing 'angry', though im sure it wont be.

also overlong albums aren't the end of the world, esp. when you can just skip around!

wu tang vinyl was like 4 records when i was buying their stuff. at the end there. i would never listen to a whole album. too much work. but 3 songs a side or whatever made them sound nice. the skits, man, blame the cd for the skits. they should put out skitless reissues of 90's albums.

great cover

official tracklist apparently

01. Wesley's Theory
02. For Free? (Interlude)
03. King Kunta
04. Institutionalized
05. These Walls
06. U
07. Alright
08. For Sale? (Interlude)
09. Momma
10. Hood Politics
11. How Much A Dollar Cost
12. Complexion
13. The Blacker The Berry
14. You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)
15. I
16. Mortal Man

He's covering Suicidal Tendencies?

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...)

illmatic is under 40 minutes. which is one reason why people never stopped playing it.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 recent
and even on albums from artists i love there's always a few bum steers

people here really liked run the jewels. so, i'm guessing run the jewels would be one...

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.

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

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

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

yeah, that's there too.
i like hearing cee-lo's voice on something i enjoy that was released in 2016

https://twitter.com/Yoonginese/status/708464990022463488?s=09

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/10/magazine/25-songs-that-tell-us-where-music-is-going.html?_r=1#/kendrick-lamar-the-blacker-the-berry

best thing i've read about "The Blacker The Berry"

Best writer in the world

Wow that piece is outstanding

yeah

Brief History of Seven Killings is the best book I've read in years

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

http://www.thefader.com/2017/03/23/kendrick-lamar-a-cryptic-iv-on-instagram

It would be cool if whatever he does next made him into more of a pop presence, beyond showing up for guest verses on certain hits.

Not necessary for his music to be great, just think it'd be a cool extra

Kendrick never seems content to do the same thing twice, so I imagine album four—out April 7, if his insinuations are to be trusted—won't sound like either GKMC or TPAB. As someone who enjoyed the former more than the latter, I would welcome a poppier album. But I'm sure it will be good either way.

That new song, though! Too many Drake disses to count! Unlike Drake (except on "Back to Back" and "Charged Up"), Kendrick doesn't hide behind subliminals; the only way he could've been more direct is if he called out Drake by name. My favorite aspect is how he interpolates Drake lines—a common move by the 6 God—into song, like "Tables turned, lesson learned" and "This is in forever." As far as promo for album four, it can't get much better.

The best part is that Drake will be physically unable to sit on his hands. He's probably already preparing something.

the only way he could've been more direct is if he called out Drake by name

Or he could have stopped dissing Big Sean and dissed Drake instead

I'm not expecting an album that soon Buti would love to be wrong

Or he could have stopped dissing Big Sean and dissed Drake instead

The Big Sean disses are just as plentiful, too, I just focused on Drake because there's more history, has a bigger profile, and you know he'll feel the need to respond.

I was trawling through discography info to clarify which releases were considered albums and which were considered mixtapes and stumbled across the factoid that every Kendrick album since Good Kid, m.A.A.d City has appeared on Billboard's year-end album list every year since its release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI

banger

maybe we should start a thread for the new record

Definitely.

WE GET TURNT UP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsucJR9pk6A

I'm not goon enough to start a new thread but someone really should

Kendrick Lamar - 2017 Album (Rumored for April 7th)

just wanted to note that the original single version of "i" fucking rules really hard

Still kind of bummed that the live version ended up on the album.

the single version was a little too incongruously sunny for the album but I know what you mean

Yes! So damn good

Man, this album is so fucking good

yeah, it's evergreen

any word on his new album? seemed some talk that it was coming out in 2020 but haven't seen much lately

so fucking great

This went way left

On some Andy kellman core lol

I think I like it but not what I expected

― deej loaf (D-40), Monday, March 16, 2015 4:10 AM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

What's that? #latepass

This album is easily top ten of the last decade for me, so stacked with good songs that it's remarkably easy to sleep on some of them. I don't know how many listens it took me to realize that "Complexion" was actually great, even if it's only like the tenth best song on the album

DAMN hasn't held up as well, but I still eagerly await the next album

Jesus christ, what a transcendental work. I casually threw this on for the first time in a while but couldn't stay casual for long.
Hope he'll have something to share with us soon. Every couple months he trends on twitter and I get my hopes up that he dropped something but it's always just people using his name for clout. Curious to hear how fatherhood has influenced him.