![]() The last seven minutes of “ Mortal Man” is literally just a conversation between Kendrick and Tupac Shakur (created with audio of a rare interview) about hip hop and Black rage as a catalyst for social change. “ How Much a Dollar Cost” puts a lecture on cycles of poverty to the tune of a laid back R&B beat. The late track “ The Blacker The Berry” is an aggressive-and sobering-look the problems facing the Black community in the 21st century, between police brutality and gang violence (“So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? / When gang bangin’ make me kill a n***** blacker than me?”). “For Free?” finds him emulating a smoother-than-smooth jive cat beat poet.īut when he drops the characters, the metaphors, and the drama, it goes off. Most notable is the Black Lives Matter anthem “ Alright,” where he slips into the exaggerated Southern drawl of a man sixty years his elder. It almost feels a bit like a rap opera, each voice representing a different character that emerges, delivers a soliloquy, and makes his exeunt. The sexy, slinking “ These Walls” feels like a pretty standard bedroom song, but then he turns to the not-so-sexy things the walls have seen-nervous breakdowns, rent hikes, abuse…Īs if that weren’t dense enough, Kendrick has the tendency to adopt different voices. “ King Kunta” is a similar analogy, offering an attack on America’s fetishization of Black culture disguised as an “I’m famous now” middle-fingered diss track. Perhaps the most obtuse is the interlude “ For Free?” wherein a woman threatens to cut off her deadbeat boyfriend, who then rebuts that “this dick ain’t free.” As it goes on, it becomes evident that the girlfriend is the United States and the boyfriend is the Black Man, having broken his back to build the country only to be met with broken promises (“I want forty acres and a mule, not a forty ounce and a pit bull”). References to slavery, disenfranchisement, police brutality, and more social ills are hidden in metaphors several layers thick. It was too tied to the Black experience for a white kid from the suburbs to be able to relate (listening to it in the car gives me definite Michael-Bolton-in-Office-Space feels). It was an objectively excellent record, but it didn’t feel like it was for me. It stayed on Spotify’s front page for like, two years.Īnd so of course, unable to escape the hype, I gave it a listen. It was a fixture on every record blog’s photo roll. When this record came out, it was impossible to ignore. But a few weeks ago, I decided to dive into it, and I can’t escape its grasp. ![]() I’ve even got my own unfinished Jay-Z mashup album.īut when Kendrick Lamar came on the scene, I completely lost track of what was going on in the world of hip hop.Ī lot of that disorientation came from this record, an eighty-minute monster filled with the densest verses around. I know every word of “Rapper’s Delight.” I have a huge appreciation for old school acts like Public Enemy and Naughty By Nature. I was a pretty big fan of Kanye West until he went off the rails. I (Extended Version) - Kendrick Lamar (5.Like many a white suburban kid, I’ve had a passing fascination with hip hop. You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said) - Kendrick Lamar (4.01)ġ5. James Fauntleroy & Ronald Isley) - Kendrick Lamar (4.21)ġ2. For Sale? (Interlude) - Kendrick Lamar (4.51)ġ0. Bilal, Anna Wise & Thundercat) - Kendrick Lamar (5.00)Ĩ. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg) - Kendrick Lamar (4.31)ĥ. For Free? (Interlude) - Kendrick Lamar (2.10)Ĥ. George Clinton & Thundercat) - Kendrick Lamar (4.47)Ģ. Featuring the singles 'i', 'King Kunta' and 'The Blacker the Berry' featuring Assassin, the album debuted at #1 in the UK Albums Chart.ġ. ![]() Third studio album by the American rapper. ![]()
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