Without failure, every Kendrick release gets better with every single new listen. After my first listen I thought this was slightly phoned in, and more of a victory lap post rap beef dub rather than anything of much substance. Now I'm thinking this might be his best release since TPAB (the jury's still out on if I prefer this to DAMN)... and I can't believe I'm saying that.
It's like Bay Area and LA rap had a baby with Yeezus meets 808s and Heartbreaks production with Kendrick just doing whatever the fuck he wants over it. He's doing what he accused Drake of never being able to do: lift up a new generation of rappers. I love the features, love the hooks, and find brilliance in the simplicity of things like the "GNX" beat, or the "Peekaboo" hook. "Hey Now" through "TV Off" goes crazy and "Reincarnated" may actually be more of his "Brenda's Got A Baby" than that song about "Brenda's Got A Baby".
Is it wrong that my first thought on track 1 when listening to this for the very first time was thinking it was proof positive of Gonzales' "No Beats"? Yes, it was wrong
I think if you were cynical you could say that this album was created and dropped suddenly to capitalize on the public beef between Drake and Kendrick. Instead, the album has some of Lamar's most interesting thoughts about his relationships to his peers and how he sees his place within the artform of rap.
A credible release, with some of Kendrick's best lines yet. Mustard!
Incluso un Kendrick Lamar en piloto automático se mea en el 90% de los raperos de la actualidad. No le va a cambiar la vida a nadie, y ni falta que hace. Disfrutable y con bastantes buenos momentos.
right to the action for everyone. "starting to see spaceships on rosecrantz" is up there for one of my favorite music moments in recent memories, playing off the nostalgia of jeezy.
2024 has been one helluva year for Hip-Hop in the public eye, specifically emanating from a dynamic beef between two heavyweights in this era of the genre, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, over the summer. It brought back memories of iconic beef and the tug-and-pull between fandoms, like East Coast vs. West Coast in the 90s or my generation with Eminem vs. Ja Rule / Jeezy vs. Gucci Mane in the 2000s. Since the final tracks laid waste to the musical side, the internet has lost all essence of rap beef nuances, further influencing some people to speak out in unexpected ways, like Lil Wayne and others when Kendrick Lamar was given the Super Bowl Halftime Show as the first solo Hip-Hop… More