Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

[Urinal Cake]

I don't 'get' Kendrick Lamar's music. There's something about his tone and flow that I find monotonaus. Though I'm happy that he has been deemed the 'future' rather than Tyler the Creator and his posse or Kanye. That being said Lamar's music videos are always good and thought provoking.

[Repeater]

Oh here it is! The U2 guest sounds like fuckin Bon Iver, it's brilliant. The album is unreal.

[Repeater]

Yak yak yak yak.

Surprised there's no thread about this. This album is incredible. It's so deep, there's a remarkable level of storytelling throughout the songs, and moreso throughout the album. There are theories about it, the overall storyline and trackorder and meaning, which I want to get into, but on the first listen it's powerful. Everything in the first half is just power punching. BLOOD. into DNA. is unreal, HUMBLE. is just so fucking ignorant... Ah, it's unreal. For me though, the whole thing made my jaw draw when I started paying attention and read the lyrics & theories.

Anyway, talk at me about Kung Fu Kenny.

[phantom_power]

I have had a proper listen to this now and really like it. It is a lot simpler in terms of production that GKMC and what i have hard of TPAB but that is no bad thing. It is almost Tyler The Creator-esque in places in terms of instrumentation.

It works a lot better when heard as a whole rather than individual tracks as well. It has that thing where a few of the tracks have several different sections so you don't know where one track ends and the next begins

[Repeater]

Few things: Humble. could be a Tyler song, it's pretty much Yonkers meets The Bridge is Over. So ignorant. Love it. TPAB... what's going on there? I find it better in theory than practice, even Kendrick takes a shot at it. I dunno, listening to gKMc and now DAMN. puts it in the shade. It's probably my least favorite of his. Finally, I agree re. the choppy nature of the songs, keeps it sounding, I dunno, vital?

[Plastic Person]

I've been seriously enjoying this, and keep revisiting it, but I feel the final third is a little weak and that, by the end, it's oddly unsatisfying. Hugely dig Lust though, it's my Song Of The Summer, no doubt.

[Repeater]

The final third has FLEX ON SWOLE LIKE UUUHHH HUHHH on it though... and the amazing DUCKWORTH.

So I've been thinking about this too, and I can't stop listening to it. I'm gonna have to, it's coloring everything.

Right, first off DNA. - BLOOD. - So, these FOX / CNN guys whatever are saying "hip hip" is worse for the black community than police brutality and racism. How the fuck doesn't that constantly infuriate people, especially rap artists? Fuck me, it's sickening. I equate it to nazis who say those who oppose their right to be racist are The Real Nazis. That hypocritical bullshit. Fuck.

Ok, what else.... oh yeah, the chorus to PRIDE. How the fuck do you come up with that? Seriously. The first wee line, sung by someone else, is that a sample? It's such an infectious vocal melody. Then the second line it appears Kung-fu Kenny is aping the original singer, he does a great job. Then there's the lovely "maybe I wasn't there" part. LUSH.

There's a few lines at the end of PRIDE. that blew my mind when I first consciously listened to the words. "None of us married, to his proposal, make us feel cheap" obviously influenced by Trump's anti LGBT+ policies. Then there's this - "Bet they agree, parade the streets with your voice proudly, Time passin', things change, Revertin' back to our daily programs, stuck in our ways; Drones" Parade, proudly, programs, drones. All very relatable to the current US scene. I know by the way that there is a version of this song that ends with "Lust" but drones sounds better for me, especially with the distorted note following... Brilliant.

Finally... DUCKWORTH. This LACKS a little, as a song on its own but it's reminiscent of Eminem at his best (Stan, obviously, or anything from the first couple albums). The way everything is subtly laid out. Then revealed. I love the way it ends - best rapper alive (this is a claim to end your record on!) come from Coincidence. Now, does he mean a place literally called Coincidence, or just the abstract concept? Anyone know?