Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

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

not to derail things further from general kendrick conversation, but scott, vince staples' shyne coldchain vol. 2 is like 27 minutes, 10 tracks and pretty complete/dope as is

I love that Juvenile album.

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

― slothroprhymes, Thursday, March 12, 2015 3:01 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not even thinking of these ... vic spencer, a-wax, back from the dead 2, the boosie tape, jacka's tape ....i forget what else i liked last year

in addition to RTJ2 and danny brown and a-wax, i would also suggest the following as complete albums released last year: Freddie Gibbs/Madlib's Pinata, Black Milk's Glitches in the Break, isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo, Gene the Southern Child's Southern Meridian, DJ Quik's Midnight Life, Rick Ross's Mastermind, Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty.

no to RTJ

all good info. kendrick can wait.

i'm enjoying the big k.r.i.t. album right now! only 4 songs in...

Open Mike Eagle's record, milo, Chance, Danny Brown, RTJ, Kanye, clipping, Heems, all relatively recent + great album experiences (not goon-approved though, sorry).

Rick Ross's Mastermind

eh i dunno that this is good front to back

i dunno that the badazz tape is good front to back either but differing opinions differ

lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'

everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'

http://knockemdeadrecords.com/shop-m-c-schmidt-batu-malablab-lp.html#f8c85872109375d05a0f02a51fc0b2ae

ah shit nevermind that

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.

― StillAdvance, Thursday, March 12, 2015 2:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^this is what I meant to post

To answer Scott's question: last year's Vince Staples mixtape, Danny Brown's XXX - those are the ones that leap immediately to mind.

tbh all those track titles (if true) look a tad on the corny side

"lol scott 'are there really any good front-to-back rap albums like the utter total classics of the genre'"

"everyone 'have you listened to all of the records that anyone has praised since then'"

just looking for the most recent "wow, i love this whole thing and i can't stop playing it!" kinda examples.

that's all really. with so many CDs being 17+ tracks or whatever, that's not always easy. but people here find lots to love! which is cool. cuz i like to check stuff out.

not EVERY cd that is praised rewards multiple listens. they might be half great/half okay.

i dunno that the badazz tape is good front to back either but differing opinions differ

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 12 March 2015 21:18 (2 hours ago) Permalink

Ur really comparing that middling ass Ross cd to...never mind

04 Institutionalized

*opens a pepsi*

Is CD-era bloat even much of a thing as far as major label rap releases go anymore? If Kendrick's album fills out a full CD, it feels like the exception if anything. Most recent big commercially-released rap albums have been 40-65 minutes. The mixtape circuit is different, sure.

yeah rap albums haven't shrunken since the '90s like rock albums have, but they've definitely gotten shorter on average.

i just like good flow. if i'm gonna listen to a cd. i feel kinda old-fashioned just for listening to a cd. they can sound really good though! that is the other thing i love about more recent albums, REALLY good sound! that is something i can get behind. there is some serious digital beauty out there. a lot of downloads kinds blow sound-wise.

deej at some point you are gonna have to get past the narcissism of small differences thing as something other than a grave affront to TRUTH in mile high blazing letters

i'm like 99% sure this is a half-assed back and forth that we've been doing for almost ten years now and it is very very boring

almost as boring as rick ross' 'mastermind' lol

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.