by anonomous » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:43 pm
Such a funky, jazzy album. Can't find anything that I don't like about this album.
Production: Very solid and tight production, lots of layers upon each other and different sounds happening in the background yet they don't clash with each other. This is one of those albums you just have to listen from beginning to the end to understand exactly the theme/concept that Kendrick is trying to convey. This is most probably the most cohesive album I've ever heard in a while.
Lyrically: Very strong, deep and self conscious lyrics that talk about self realisation, depression, his rise to fame, how he handles fame, self-love, caterpillars, butterflies and ultimately racial issues. One of my favourite things about Kendrick is his spoken word poetry. He really knows how to deliver a story to the listener yet grab your emotions. Listening to his conversation with Tupac is truly interesting and a good outro to the album.
Fav Songs:
These walls - The first beat drop just sets the mood for the whole song and gives an overall 'feel good' jizz is what I loved about it.
Wesley's theory - Such a good intro to the album.
Alright - Very chill beat with amazing flow, delivery and lyrics.
Hood Politics - The intro to the beat is just so catchy. Did you guys hear the shout out to killer mike?
The Blacker the Berry - Very upbeat and the drums 'bang' very hard. Kendrick's delivery and flow on this song is really good. I love that there has been this recent rise of hip hop artists having Assassin feature in their songs. (e.g. I'm in it - Kanye)
i - I kind of prefer the album version to the radio version as it feels more cohesive in the album and feels more raw than what the radio version can offer.
In conclusion, I find it very interesting that he would use funk/jazz as the main sound of this album because if you put it together with his lyrical content, it is essentially very deeply rooted into the african american culture/music. This album is very different sounding compared to what he has done in the past so I don't think I should be comparing this album against things he has released in the past. In some ways this album is very polarising but i love it. People expecting bangers and upbeat hip hop beats will come in and leave disappointed for sure. But most importantly, will this album stand the test of time like GKMC did? We shall know.