Surprise! It's a miracle, just like I predicted in my The Life Of Pablo review. It's almost been an entire year since the release of the phenomenal To Pimp A Butterfly, and to celebrate, it seems Top Dawg Entertainment and Kendrick Lamar have decided to make a release out of eight songs that didn't quite make it onto TPAB. Each track is simply labelled 'untitled 01-08' and time-stamped with the date of recording; no track has a real title here. As this is a compilation of leftovers, this is not to be considered as his follow-up to TPAB in the way that album was his follow-up to GKMC - this isn't the conceptually masterful Kendrick we've come accustomed to. Rather, it's a deeper look into the recording studio where his music is created, and a glimpse at some of the things TPAB could have been instead.
Not all of these songs are brand new to the public, as Kendrick has made very popular live performances out of three of the songs on this album. 'untitled 03’ was originally performed live back in 2014, and ‘untitled 08’ was performed live earlier this year, then known as ‘Untitled 2’ which got lots of attention on social media for being a powerful performance, and for Kendrick’s impressive lyrics. Lastly, the first verse of ‘untitled 05’ was first seen during his incredibly daring Grammy performance. They’re definitely in the same flavour as their father album, influenced more by jazz instrumentation than typical hip-hop. The Thundercat contributions are obvious, and the opening bass on ‘untitled 05’ would be right at home on Golden Age Of Apocalypse, just as ‘untitled 01’, ‘03’, and ‘06’ do as well. These songs are great songs, for the same reasons the songs on TPAB are great songs. Kendrick and Saxophones were a match made in heaven, there really isn’t much more to it. However, there are two brightly glaring musical flaws on untitled unmastered. ‘untitled 02’ and ‘untitled 07’ both contain the unfortunate appearance of trap-music beats. Now, trap music in itself isn’t a bad thing – when done well, and artistically, it can be good – but these songs sound like Future songs, with a few Sax riffs every so often. All that’s left is the snare drum, and that incessantly-present hi-hat that never, ever stops. Future’s EVOL was about forty minutes of this. Kendrick seems to play into the regular traits of trap as well, and the majority of his lyrics are repeated, relentlessly attempting to dig its way into your head and be stuck there for hours. Which is a shame. It’s out of character for Kendrick – granted, this entire album is – but if these were leftovers of TPAB, that means they had a chance of getting on the album on the first place, and that’s worrisome. These songs could have killed the album in its tracks entirely (no pun intended). ‘untitled 02’ is the least bearable of the two trap songs, as Kendrick distorts his own voice in a very strange and unnerving way, and croons on about jigaboos and Styrofoams. ‘untitled 07’ is better by default, as only the first third of the 8:16 track has a trap beat, and Kendrick’s voice isn’t as weird, and I can’t deny the catchiness of “levitate, levitate, levitate, levitate”. After the first third of the album, the beat changes, and this is beat is incredibly interesting. Number one, it was produced by the five year old son of Swizz Beats, and number two, it’s actually one of the best beats on the whole album. There’s no Brainfeeder influence, making it more like a good kid, m.A.A.d city beat, and it’s a slow beat, with the drum being its main driving point, but it’s undeniably good. It reminds me of early RZA, which is a seriously good comparison to earn for a five year old. We need more beats from Egypt. The other third of the song is a long-winded outtake from the studio, where Kendrick sings just for fun, and you can hear his friends all laughing in the background, similar to the end of Pinata, but the joke wears off quicker and overstays its welcome. It’s a bit boring by the end of it. The album does finish nicely though, with ‘untitled 08’ which as mentioned earlier is the studio version of what we knew as ‘Untitled 2’. The jazz returns, there are some really nice background vocals added into the mix too. Kendrick’s rapping about the usual – his hood come up, and money being an unavoidable vice in life. There’s clever wordplay in the hook as well, referring to “blue faces” in the terms of being sad, and being money. It’s a song that would fit seamlessly into To Pimp A Butterfly. Don’t take these songs in that regard, however. You’ll be disappointed. They’re not his next good kid, they aren’t his next Butterfly – they’re simply his 2016 Relapse: Refill. In this case though, the new songs are actually good. If these humble leftovers are managing to score over 80 on Metacritic, that must be a testament to the true power of Top Dawg’s dominance in hip-hop, and the sheer might of King Kendrick himself. I myself have a few reservations on the album, mostly because of the trap sounds Kendrick used, but overall these are definitely a solid handful of tracks. 7.0/10 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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