šŸŽµ How Good Are They Really šŸŽµ Kendrick Lamar

I think his knack for smuggling his weightiness into undeniable smash hits is pretty astonishing really. DAMN is probably the biggest example of that innit.

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Really enjoy these threads when I donā€™t have much of an interest in the artist and can read everyoneā€™s takes and analysis with no bias.

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an easy 5, the best artist of the decade, potentially even of a generation. mentioned how Sing About Me Iā€™m Dying of Thirst is one of the best tracks of the decade, so letā€™s go with his amazing turn here as itā€™s not been posted yet:

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If I was trying to demonstrate how special he is, I would go for King Kunta or Blacker the Berry. Bitch Donā€™t Kill My Vibe and Backseat Freestyle are probably the weakest tracks on GKMC, so avoid those.

Also, Money Trees - the way the track is built around Beach House sample might be my favourite bit of production in hip-hop. Excepting some of MBDTF, that is.

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Backstreet Freestyle and ā€œiā€ are masterpieces of subversion to and explorations of the value of music and context too.

Both were taken example of by fans who claimed heā€™d sold out, and were quickly reappraised as examples of his genius after the albums were released. The music hadnā€™t changed (OK, ā€œiā€ was re-recorded and roughed up for effect) but the context and therefore, critically, the worth of the music had changed.

I canā€™t think of any other artist who managed to pull off that trick once, let alone twice.

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Yeah. Absolutely bang on.

Itā€™s why I consider the albums so crucial as part of his appeal.

Backseat Freestyle, in isolation is just a really ignorant (but technically brilliant) bit of braggadocio. I can fully imagine someone listening to it and being unable to see what people find so special about him. Frame it in the albumā€™s context though and itā€™s something completely different.

The same applies to Humble as well IMO.

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Iā€™LL CRACK THE EGG IN YOUR BASKET, YOU BASTARD

is a fun thing to say sometimes imo

hope he headlines Glastonbury, think heā€™s the best festival headliner Iā€™ve ever seen

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(he is and itā€™s very very very exciting)

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Easy peasy 5. GK,MC and TPAB are transportative, youā€™re in another place listening to em. Canā€™t believe the same fella made both

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Itā€™s a lift from this isnā€™t it? Surprised itā€™s not credited!

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Unbelievable guy. When I saw him live it struck me that artists who can write like he can rarely deliver so well (an almost Tom Waitsian command of voices, flow, etc). And the ones that can do all that rarely navigate the music itself so skilfully - and to take all that AND be a crazy good live performer/curate these thematic albums and remain seemingly a decent guy as well is just impressive.

I get the people putting Damn down next to GKMC and TPAB - but as someone said upthread - heā€™d earned his victory lap, and frankly I wanted to hear him just unhook his skills on some contemporary production. Thereā€™s no point having talent to burn unless you actually burn it from time to time.

Five.

Edit to add: has a great line in funny bullshit - one that always gets me is ā€˜Imma make it look sexyā€™

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:100: is from that song, that podcast which goes through every song in TPaB talks quite a lot about it, and why that song is used.

Also, man has three DJ Quik records in his top 25 albums of all time

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Never realised that! Good spot.

Still think we should go back to having these on the Social board. If only because we seem to have lost contributors without really gaining any.

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Choosing between TPAB and Good Kid as best album is incredibly difficult. I would always have thought To Pimp a Butterfly was completely peerless, but listening to Good Kid a lot recently itā€™s just completely amazing. Incredible for a single artist to release consecutive albums of such brilliance, scope and ambition.

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Contro but i think collectorā€™s edition is better than the original DAMN.

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Donā€™t think I ever made it though a listen of TPAB. Totally respect what it is for sure, but I donā€™t think hip-hop needs all the Thundercat stuff to be genius.

I think Damn is a 5/5 though and relative to that GKMC is aboutā€¦ a 7/5

Still very impressed with myself for not spending $40 or whatever it was on the vinyl of an album I already own just in reverse order.

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Dunno, seem to be annoying everyone down there with my posting frequency atm.