Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

http://www.kappit.com/img/pics/201502_1037_aefia_sm.png

Well then http://www.stereogum.com/1804259/kendrick-lamar-performed-at-sasquatch-and-only-did-one-song-from-to-pimp-a-butterfly/news/

I'll be bummed if that's true at Bonnaroo -- I'll be happy to hear some GKMC tracks, but what I really want is the new stuff. Especially since he played Bonnaroo on the actual GKMC tour. A rehash would be kinda lame for a headlining slot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/nyregion/kendrick-lamar-rapper-who-inspired-a-teacher-visits-a-high-school-that-embraces-his-work.htm

The Bonnaroo set was sort of odd. He was good, the songs individually were good, but the sequencing was bad and he kept killing his own vibe. First two-thirds was all GKMC stuff, plus "Fuckin' Problems." This was fine, but people were obviously waiting for the new stuff. He did "m.A.A.d. city" twice in a row, which as far as I could tell no one in the crowd was asking for. By the time he hit "Sing About Me," which slowed everything to a crawl for five minutes, a lot of people gave up on hearing new material and started streaming out. So when he actually got to the new stuff, he'd lost about a third of the audience. The new stuff was all good -- "i," "These Walls," "King Kunta" and "Alright," back to back. I just don't think he should've taken 50 minutes or so to get to it.

One thing that struck me is that he's still relatively new to working stages that big, and he doesn't quite have the showman chops yet to really build momentum and sustain it. He was friendly and wanted to work the crowd, but he kept letting the energy dissipate.

On the other hand, when he and Chance did cameos an hour later during Earth, Wind and Fire's set, they were both on fire.

literally?

a serpentine fire

It was the baptismal boogie fire of EWF.

(Who definitely do know how to work a big stage.)

He kept killing his own vibe

Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe (I'll Do it Myself)

it really is weird how slow he's been to add TPAB songs to his set. he did so many shows in support of GKMC that by the end of the album cycle it kind of became a joke how many times he did the same basic set in the same markets, you'd think he'd be chomping at the bit to change things up. almost makes me wonder if he has issues with memorizing new lyrics.

I heard he wants to do the new stuff properly with a full band. Makes sense. I don't know what set-up he's using now but if it's still just him and a DJ I can see why he feels it's not worth going in hard on the new album.

He had a full band at Bonnaroo. But yeah, it may be that they're just learning the new material a song at a time. They're up to four.

*takes long drag off vape pen*

used to be ILM would be all over it when a music video from a potential album of the year dropped

no-one's even revived the bigbang thread in the past two days

tbh i can't think of many times a video generated a lot of discussion on ilm, even a video that was generating discussion elsewhere

i think there have been times they've generated a lot of posts

from the nine seconds of it i saw a coworker watch it's not like it's a huge extension to kendrick's ~brand~ u kno

great video

*sigh*

http://pitchfork.com/news/60227-kendrick-lamar-to-fox-news-how-can-you-take-a-song-thats-about-hope-and-turn-it-into-hatred/

I like the video. I especially like the flashed grin at the end. Like, "Really -- we'll be alright!" The politics are offset by the goofiness. But they're also stark. Very much a 2015 time capsule video.

i find something about kendrick lamar a bit, i dunno, too melodic or song-based for me generally, at least on the first album. i ignored tpab until now, possibly cos like the same people who kept telling me to listen to frank ocean were telling me about this, even though i'd already listened to frank ocean at that time. like my old boss or someone. lol pitchfork i suppose.

anyway i heard "alright" via watching the video this week and think it's absolutely amazing, got goosebumps listening to it. still can't really get into the rest of the record though.

have a nice weekend everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTYgq4EoRo

Yeah "Alright" is my favorite song this year

album keeps on giving for me.

The first 5 tracks live up to the hype and then it starts to meander a bit. The record could do with some edits here and there.

✖✖✖

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkeNd1Ni4Uw

Nah, i think the mid section run from 6-10 is the highlight: u, alright, for sale, momma, hood politics. Unassailable. New video is gold.

"For Sale?" sounds amazing in the sun

'These Walls' too

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

wow

holy shit

also at a protest I was at, a couple people were carrying "EVERY NIGGA IS A STAR" signs

Whats the song they break into at the very end?

sounded like a more trad chant of "ain't no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people don't stop" to me

i think i was telling rev this recently but the first time i heard "Alright" in the wild was in May when a DJ dropped it the night the curfew was lifted in Baltimore, one of my favorite musical memories of the last few months

Good Slate piece on Alright as the perfect 2015 protest song.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/08/black_lives_matter_protesters_chant_kendrick_lamar_s_alright_what_makes.html

i will prob read that but my first instinct is that i don't need to read it, it is not like a text that needs decoding.

"How much a dollar cost" is a true modern classic of soul music

why did this album have to have such a stupid ending/final track

it's at the end, you can skip it

I guess I dont 100% understand this complaint...?

I feel like the listener makes it all the way through this complex and knotty and pretty dense music and instead of capping it off with a proper closing track - something with some breathing room, or a sense of closure or release - but instead we get this half-interview thing that feels clumsy and lazy

I feel like Mortal Man song was a pretty solid closing track...the 2Pac thing and the final poem aren't amazing the way most of the album is amazing but even though it fails on some levels to sum everything up the way it seems to tryto, I wouldn't call them terrible, and I do think they do offer some resolution to the threads that had running through the entire LP...

I don't mind the ending here that much, I can always skip it but it is a little annoying I guess bc I feel like I'm ending the album prematurely if I skip but whatever

I've been listening to GKMC a lot and tbh what is much more annoying than the TPAB ending is that GKMC doesn't end after "sing about me". that would've been a major fucking album closer and imo "real" and "Compton" are great but not really necessary

I don't particularly like Real but in rounding out born again narrative it's definitely necessary.

"Compton" a worse closer than "Mortal Man," imo.