Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

"These Walls" and the George Clinton opener outdo most of good kid -- that's all the hyperbole I'll allow myselfbefore the evening cocktail.

I'm assuming that's kamasi washington all over this so far, his sound's really well integrated into this

Feel like the discourse around this album is going to be an extended game of pomposity trumps so let's get the ball rolling:

RedBullMusicAcademy @RBMA · 3h 3 hours ago
The feeling when you've written yet another Great American Novel. #ToPimpAButterfly

well he subtitled good kid a "short film" so he sort of encourages it

that tweet is going to be studied in college classes in the future

lol i thought last night "ppl are gonna hella describe this album as 'novelistic'" thx redbull

these walls was a song I enjoyed that's the end of my liveblog for now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrc0KepIM3o

lol

who the fuck invented that stupid jump-cut vlogger editing style?

Jean-Luc Godard

...

'm assuming that's kamasi washington all over this so far, his sound's really well integrated into this

As far as I can tell he's on one track? Majority of the sax is Terrace Martin

It's irritating, but at least it's not obnoxious like the editting in an Anthony Fantano review.

i was wishing there were some way i could understand this album through the perspective of a pair of meet-cute upper middle class vloggers... and now there is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J4ND7oby0w

"touring with kanye, he might have gotten a little bit of influence to do all that soul stuff"
willywonka.jpeg

lol, dude gave it off the top of his head an "8.8"
WITH AUTHORITY

is that what people think music nerds look like now : /

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrc0KepIM3o

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA STOP STOP STOPPLEASE STOP

Sorry for blowing up your youtube channel raccoon taunki

Nah. People probably think they look like Anthony Fantano, what with him being Internet's busiest one.

burn down youtube

anthony fantano is so busy running albums' metacritic summary pages through google translate and back again then reading the results to his culturally astute fans

there's no way that's not a really fucking smart satire? Is it? Are all americans like this?If so, it really is the greatest contry on the planet.

not heard this yet but just looking at the tracklisting, am getting a strong sense that this album is going to be pretty corny.

why would somebody post this. like I can see how you might have the thought before you went "oh, right, that's a ridiculous way of thinking" but why would one actually say it where other people can read it.

kendrick has done plenty of wack and lame collaborations he just doesn't put them on his albums

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 16, 2015 4:31 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

aw man this record is fucking great

do people ever think twice about having kendrick do guest verses on their tracks? he's definitely got that eminem steal the show ability. and i definitely listen to songs i would never listen to because he's on them. which was also true of eminem a million zillion years ago when the world was younger.

scrapping the original "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" with Lady Gaga really feels like some kind of secretly massive turning point in the whole trajectory of GKMC and his career

― some dude, Monday, March 16, 2015 8:34 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

I thought htis was a joke post

Holy shit

oh yeah, ditching that Gaga version was a decision akin to Marky Mark not taking that plane on 9/11

the gaga version is fine tbh

um, well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZHCUppGEUI

i would probably not have listened to this song a quarter as many times with gaga on it tbh

like maybe a tenth? a hundredth? it's not fine tbh

*newsflash*

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-on-his-new-album-and-the-weight-of-clarity.html

But to call “To Pimp a Butterfly” a political record “would be shortchanging it,” Mr. Lamar said. “It’s a record full of strength and courage and honesty” but also “growth and acknowledgment and denial.”

“I want you to get angry — I want you to get happy,” he said. “I want you to feel disgusted. I want you to feel uncomfortable.”

so it's a political record.

ah c'mon man one can see his point there.

the piano riff on "how much a dollar cost" reminds me of radiohead's "pyramid song" which means it's one of my favorites right off the bat

wow i never look at kanye's twitter, just see his mean mug at fashion show pictures everywhere, so this level of posi is kinda a shock

KANYE WEST ‏@kanyewest 1h1 hour ago

KENDRICK IS AN INSPIRATION. THANK YOU FOR THE VIBRATIONS AND THE SPIRIT. YOUR MEANING, MESSAGE AND EXECUTION ARE GIFTS TO THE WORLD.

kanye...otm. (maybe the first and last time i ever say that...)

c'mon guys

kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him

times piece is v astute
also really lovely thomas struth style studio portrait

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/22/arts/22LAMARJP3/22LAMARJP3-articleLarge.jpg

"kanye is a great lover of music with gigantic breadth to his taste and that oughta be evident to anybody who's even given the smallest amount of att'n to his work

he's routinely very positive about music (and movies and other stuff) that moves or inspires him"

otm. he more than compensates for his curmudgeon moments.

speaking of, though, this record is a real mess. i would be surprised if i came around hard on it, but even moreso if anyone's half as positive about it by year-end season.

I will take that bet

The latter bit atleast

totes taking the over on the bet's latter half

man "blacker the berry" is still so incredible though

the funk stuff is okay but i feel like either the track or kendrick is doing something in the general spectrum of 'uninteresting' to 'regrettable' at any given time...and when that's not the case, the overall effect still feels modest. the idea of a funkadelic/badu/stankonia/funkiest of g-funk/"uptown funk" (haha sorry, only for a song or two)/edan psychedelic rap record is intriguing but if this is the result maybe he really should've called dam funk. idk

there are definitely some keeper tracks here for me -- really liking "you ain't gotta lie" rn -- but on the whole...

i'd bet that there would be people who think more positively about the album by year-end season. i was more immediately drawn to section.80 and GKMC but this album only continues to grow on me with each revisit.

i'm happy that there's a rapper like kendrick lamar--a rapper for "real" hip hop fans who like "real hip hop"--who is so darn good at using his fluctuations in tone as a propulsive element, among other things. like, that stuff was (and to an extent still is) seen as super gimmicky and a sign of weakness.

All the criticisms itt are lame AF. Which is not to say this album is beyond criticism but considering the obvious depth to this album I feel like u really gotta put 1/1000th of the effort into tackling it that he did making it, at least