Album Review : Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered. (2016)

Order UNTITLED UNMASTERED. here

There is a meme being shared on social media nowadays that simply says: Kendrick Lamar is doing what Kanye West thinks he's doing. I don't know what Kanye thinks he's been doing lately, but the two hip-hop artists are growing more different from one another with every album and I think what the meme means is that Kendrick has been putting his money where his mouth is and has been sending a generally more cohesive message to his always growing audience. The release of his album untitled unmastered. was a pleasant surprise for music lovers and it's as challenging and unpredictable as Kendrick's ever been.

I usually spin a record three or four times before writing a review, but I've listened to Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered. seven times now and I'm still afraid to mislead you about the nature of the album. Sure, it's a complication of unreleased tracks recorded between 2013 and 2016, but it's also a sneak peak into his creative process. These eight songs are a present from Kendrick to his fanbase, presumably because they didn't fit anywhere on the record he was working on. untitled unmastered. are songs he wrote organically. They are sounds HE is interested in on a personal level.

The tracks on untitled unmastered. are all, well...untitled. Of course, it's by design but it comes with its own set of challenges. My best guess is that Kendrick wanted it to be a complete, boundless listening experience and it's what makes untitled unmastered. so complicated to judge. These songs are so radically different and experimental. Kendrick toys a lot with free jazz on that record and while it's an idiosyncratic pet peeve of mine, it's a musical boner killer to me. Untitled 02 is the biggest culprit in that regard and it's not necessarily a bad song. It's fractured tempo and loose, tumbling brass section are disorienting as hell, but they grow on you after a couple spins.

Kendrick Lamar is so badass, he gives concerts in moving vans.

What I liked best on untitled unmastered. was the originality and aggressiveness of Kendrick Lamar's lyrics. It's most apparent on Untitled 01, which was my favorite song of the record, where Kendrick created this vivid apocalyptic vision of America which puts his literary talent in full display. He also discussed in Untitled 03 and Untitled 04 his Utopian ideas and his path to a better world for black people. That's what makes Kendrick so interesting to me. He's clearly a product of old school gangsta rap, but he's a thinker, a philosopher looking to usher the movement into the future and to use it to improve the social condition of his people. He might not be the hero we need, but he is the hero we deserve, if I can use this Batman parable.

untitled unmastered. was an unexpected and disorienting musical experience that would've been a disaster if handled by anybody else than Kendrick Lamar. It is lyrically as good, if not better than anything he's ever made, but it's a bit of a choppy listening experience nonetheless. It's going to be an unpopular opinion, but I slightly preferred Kanye West's The Life of Pablo overall, although Kanye cannot hold a candle to Kendrick, lyrically. untitled unmastered. is undoubtedly a meaningful album, but it's raw, unfiltered and chaotic. I understand it's by design, but it looks pale against the brilliance of To Pimp a Butterfly, which was released only a year ago. Good record. Worth a spin for Kendrick's lyrical brilliance, but the experimental side is heavy on the ears if it's not your thing. And it sure isn't mine.