at the end of the year, and like To Pimp a Butterfly, this project’s shape will shift and change with the times.No other rapper has taken up so much real estate in the past 12 months while releasing so little music and sharing as little about themselves as Kendrick. I suspect we’ll still be talking about untitled unmastered. It’s telling, then, that even when Kendrick isn’t trying to be at the top of his game, that he’s still at the top of his class and one of the best rappers out there.
#KENDRICK LAMAR UNTITLED UNMASTERED TRACKS UPDATE#
It’s a thought, a brief letter, a social media update from Kendrick letting us know he’s still around and he’s got more to say.
#KENDRICK LAMAR UNTITLED UNMASTERED TRACKS FULL#
It’s dark and it’s often thought-provoking, but this isn’t a full statement.
But if it wasn’t clear before, it’s made absolutely clear here: this record isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. As he strums a few chords, he spends a little bit of time noodling and making jokes, much to the joy of the others in the room.
There’s a moment on untitled 7 where Kendrick says the track is “15 minutes long” before picking up an acoustic guitar and nodding. It’s a reflection of our social media times, maybe, but it’s also a reflection of the way music recording and distribution is changing. Untitled feels like Kendrick is playing with the act of releasing an album as an experiment, acknowledging that it’s coming out with warts and all. It’s clear that untitled isn’t meant to follow up Butterfly, and that a full follow-up will come later, but then how do we evaluate untitled? If it’s not an album, and it’s not a mixtape, what is it? raises a lot more questions than it answers. The album’s marketing is deceiving.Īs a result, untitled unmastered. They’re not throw-aways, and they’re thematically complete and socially relevant. Like the rest of Kendrick’s tracks, these beg repeated listening. They sound more recent, and reference many of TPAB’s accolades, so it’s not likely that they’re B-sides. It’s hard to say if the album is a bunch of leftover tracks from TPAB, as Lamar suggests on Twitter. Jazz solos and twiddling positively abound here, and if ever there was a record where we could compare Kendrick to old-school Roots, this is probably it. Some moments are pure jazz, and some feel like old-school Kendrick. Musically too, the album is less concerned with the thematic rigidity that accompanies a 60-minute-plus tour-de-force like To Pimp a Butterfly and takes more time to explore. Lyrically, Kendrick is still at the top of the game. Untitled 3 also sees him exploring the expectations of people around him, particularly noting that the “white man” wants more success before it will reward him, going so far as to argue that they’d rather have him compromise and make more money for them than keep his artistic integrity. Kendrick struggles with his faith in God and in America, but also continues to struggle to rectify his experiences in Africa with the “first-world” problems of North America. Untitled 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 are all stunning, and they have enough depth that I suspect we’ll be talking about them for the rest to come. That’s not to say the album is a mixed bag: when Kendrick is on fire, he’s on fire. Untitled 3 and untitled 8, already performed on late-night TV, differ from their televised versions in significant ways, but also lose much of their urgency and immediacy on record. Untitled 7 feels like four songs instead of one. It’s also riskier, often more flawed, clearly unsure even of its own edits. It’s jazzier than TPAB, and more free-form with its ideas too. The messaging is clear: this album is Kendrick giving us something new while avoiding the weight that comes with an “official” new record.Īnd it’s pretty clearly a project, not a record, something Kendrick has just experimented with. Each track is simply called “untitled” and given a date, which often don’t coincide with events Lamar will specifically mention in the songs, rendering them totally meaningless. Who saw this coming? Kendrick’s latest record doesn’t feel like a follow-up to To Pimp a Butterfly, nor does it feel like a collection of B-sides.
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