So I was excited when I just tweeted the editor of Rap – About telling him that the new Kendrick Lamar was a classic on the same night the album day viewed. His response was like: “damn, already”.
This threw me off on how soon I was crowning this album, did I believe the hype? Or do I just have a good ear for good hiphop?
Yes I believe I have a good ear for good hiphop. However most people do. The true test is if the people that made good reviews or at least review albums by the same standard as me, agree or disagree.
Later that day I saw that plenty did. And this leads me to believe on how my hiphop flow is nowadays. Thanks to getting more people online, I jump from blog to youtube channel keeping connected to what is hot.
Ironically radio, and music channels is something I don’t know specially living outside of the mecca of hiphop. (although that has changed as well)
Getting back on the train of thought of this album, the things that I feel is that I have been impressed with the passion of the rhymes. This is some 93 Wu-Tang shit. Having the emcee rhyme with an attitude is something that has chip away from modern hiphop, even raw groups like the Wu don’t rhyme like they were mad anymore. Even their anti-racism track, you want them to be on a more “I can’t go to sleep” mood.
And this is exactly what KDot do. Kendrick, takes a lot of attitude into a surprisingly very well thought scheme of an album. From the titles, to the theme, the sentiment of expressing himself through art, not just rap, but poetry to imagery is what makes the listener get truthfully inspire.
Everything from the cover, to the track list name, to the way they are ordered, and even to the intro to every song, the album is layout down like a book. And even more, it is also inspired like a book, from track titles like “The blacker the berry”, “How to kill a Mockingjay”, this is something that are not so obscure that the listener would never catch.
I think Kendrick better himself with this album and I most say his rhymes are witty enough to earn emceen points and the production with the blend of funk and reggea are definitely welcomed. If there is something that I most nag, is that Kendrick doesn’t seem to adjust to once style, so he doesn’t really have a sound. Like Immortal Technique, Talib Kweli, his sound is very diverse, something more like a Mos Def.
I don’t know if Kendrick is the new Nas, or if this album can be compared to Illmatic, definetly have the elements, the imagery but I would still hold my judgment on the bars.
Ideas, thoughts and Free Software 