Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

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

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.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, March 12, 2015 7:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, really glad this has been written - it feels really shady that assassin hasn't been credited on two major rap releases now, esp for substantial contributions in an era when every backing vocalist and producer gets a feat.

it is super shady, obviously, but to some extent i kind of appreciate the 'honesty' of its brazenly appropriational cynicism and how that more accurately reflects how dancehall is being used and consumed as an otherized texture (parts throwback 90s moodboarding, wild west outlaw, fire & brimstone social politics, foreign import luxury) in these tracks, rather than falsely suggesting a collaborative parity or even any real desire to be seen to align with a modern trendy jamaican cool the way it might have been ten and/or twenty years ago.it is a fantasy (a nice one but a fantasy nonetheless) that any of kanye or kendrick's listeners were going to run out and cop a sasco album were he only given his accreditation

assassin's anecdote there about ye's engineers being wowed reads like they were going to put out any old bs he might have come out with but wow lyrics too gosh didnt expect that

drake and popcaan vaguely have more of an intuitive kinship along pallid singjay lines but they still ought to have come into the discussion too

anyone hear that new mavado/khaled fail sampling la roux btw? lolz

Popcaan loverman dancehall appropriation feels less more natural and less tokenistic than apocalyptic preacher man dancehall appropriation - one feels like a natural fit between contemporary styles while the other is fundamentally there for drama and gravitas. NB I am a complete sucker for the latter trick and haven't stopped playing Babylon System in like two months.

yeah absolutely and i'm surprised the usual appropriation conversation hasn't happened there at all, because he's literally used like a disembodied, othered sample to lend gravitas to a western project. a real live sample!

anyone hear that new mavado/khaled fail sampling la roux btw? lolz

image is too amazing to ruin by actually listening to this

xp

lol, has anything good come out of the mavado/khaled link?

fwiw, I am glad Assassin is getting press off this, but his own take on it is very relaxed, fully aware of his human plug-in status. presumably a decade+ in the none more shady jamaican music industry puts this all in perspective. like he probably at least got paid.

King Kunta

http://www.howflyhiphop.com/2015/03/13/kendrick-lamar-king-kunta-download-mp3/

on a JB 'The Payback' vibe for sure

Sounds pretty fucking great to me.

this is v good. Feels very Battlecat/Quik late 90s west coast

def getting quik vibes ... one of the suga free tracks starts like that iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMxGdLdMNRc

that's dope.

wow that is *very* 90s west coast-sounding

cant be mad at that, i love that sound, but doesnt quite live up to the description of the production given upthread...