kendrick lamar
-
President Obama's Favorite Song Choice of 2015 Is The Blackest Thing We've Ever Heard This Week
Look, I know that Obama is a rap fan. But listening to Jay-Z just makes you American. Jay transcended with “New York” to the point where he’s less part of the hip-hop community and more part of the global community. Hip-hop doesn’t own Jay anymore. He’s on loan from the Smithsonian and shit. Kendrick Lamar,…
-
Kendrick, Trap Queens, and Tamar! Let's Talk About These Grammy Nominations!
If you know like I know, then you woke up to an alert on your phone telling you that the Grammy nominations came out today. It informed me that Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar led the field. Now, let’s be real, I have no idea why they even lumped them into THAT same sentence. Kendrick…
-
The Game's "The Documentary 2" Is The Album I Wish Kendrick Lamar Would Have Released
I know that sounds absurd. But follow me. Kendrick Lamar dropped a seminal work in To Pimp A Butterfly, a work so full of Blackness and filled with so many musical styles and elements that even if you don’t love it you have to appreciate and respect his ability to articulate his worldview in his…
-
Is There A Support Group For Smart Black People Who Read And Shit…And Still Prefer A$AP's Album To Kendrick Lamar's?
There are two things you need to know about A$AP Rocky and I before we continue: 1. I hate typing his name. Partially because I think it’s a stupid fucking name. But mainly because I hate having to remember to type $ instead of S when spelling it. It’s a knat in a moving car, a tiny…
-
Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, And Lena Dunham Unite To Troll The Fuck Out Of Literally Everyone
Certain collaborations seem so counterintuitive — at least initially — that they almost can’t help but be successful off the sheer ingenuity and ridiculousness of someone attempting to put those two things together. Fried chicken and waffles, for instance. (Also, Big Sean and public speaking.) The risk in doing this, of course, is in looking wasteful and…
-
R.I.P. To The Album Release Date. You Will Not Be Missed
The digital age hit music like a freight train. Napster, Pirate Bay and Limewire created me and my especially frugal generation of music listeners with notably high standards. The music industry was not ready for the “Hey, shoot me that link” generation that will ONLY buy your average ass album if they know you –…
-
10 Thoughts On Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly
Like the seemingly millions of folks who were waiting to see what Kendrick would bring to the table – and he essentially brought the whole table to the table – as soon I saw that the album was available I went straight to my computer to pay for the album and to upload it on…
-
Kendrick Lamar, And The Beauty Of Black Rage
Yesterday, Kendrick Lamar dropped “The Blacker The Berry” — one of the most beautifully angry rap songs we’ve ever heard. He’s furious, and it’s fantastic, and we needed to talk about it. 1. This song is an exercise in compelling writing. Not just song writing. Writing period. I wanted to READ the lyrics while listening…
-
Kendrick Lamar Said Something Dumb. Looks Like Rappers Are People, Too.
In a recent cover story for Billboard magazine, hip-hop wunderkind Kendrick Lamar spoke on Ferguson in comments that lit up the Blackosphere and caught the ire of self-imposed musical Civil Rights leader and idiot savant, Azealia Banks: “I wish somebody would look in our neighborhood knowing that it’s already a situation, mentally, where it’s f—-ked…
-
Logic, Kendrick Lamar, and the Frustration of Derivative Artistry
At first listen, Logic’s major label debut album Under Pressure is brilliant. It’s listenable. It’s well-produced. He’s a very, very gifted lyricist. He even managed to weave his album together with a voice over reminiscent of one of my favorite albums of all time, A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders. But while I listened to…