I cringed pretty hard when i watched a video of 200 black people

All it is is Kendrick parroting back all his influences, but there’s no synthesis.
He’s excessively complicating sub-genres that worked before — songs that felt vital because of their simplicity and directness.
And for an artist who has staked his claim to the throne as the best rapper alive, Kendrick spends a curious amount of time noodling around with half-baked harmonies. For all the genre-liquefying freakouts of Aquemini, Andre and Big Boi’s message was built into searing raps and coherent narratives.
The closest thing to a lucid narrative on To Pimp a Butterfly is a conversation with a homeless guy who turns out to be Jesus.

The sequencing kills momentum. This dick might be costly, but the “Cab Calloway goes to the Lyricist Lounge” razzmatazz ramrods the natural pacing. The intro to “For Sale” opens like a college acapella crew who just learned what G-Funk was. Then for no reason at all, Kendrick deploys Nas’ “Who Killed It“ voice. At other times, it sounds like he’s been trapped in coach on a Delta flight listening to Eminem. By employing all these thinly-sketched characters, he obscures the most powerful parts of his best work–his own thoughts, his own voice.

Filling an album with timely ideas and righteous fury isn’t enough when the songwriting is weak. Kendrick’s shielded himself from criticism under the cover of “experimentation” and ambition. If you don’t “get it,” there’s an easy refuge in saying the album is avant-garde even if that’s not entirely true. Ultimately, it has more in common with the meandering songwriting of Nas’ Untitled or Lupe after he turned into Whoopi Goldberg, than a socially conscious masterpiece like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On. Big ideas don’t excuse flawed songwriting. Kendrick went bigger, but he didn’t go deeper. Complexity doesn’t absolve you from providing answers.

tl;dr babby's first "intellectual" stimulation for illiterate retards

yeah but GKMC is really good, its like a movie

>>70079291
It's 7/10 at best

>>70079183
>Filling an album with timely ideas and righteous fury isn’t enough when the songwriting is weak. Kendrick’s shielded himself from criticism under the cover of “experimentation” and ambition. If you don’t “get it,” there’s an easy refuge in saying the album is avant-garde even if that’s not entirely true. Ultimately, it has more in common with the meandering songwriting of Nas’ Untitled or Lupe after he turned into Whoopi Goldberg, than a socially conscious masterpiece like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On. Big ideas don’t excuse flawed songwriting. Kendrick went bigger, but he didn’t go deeper. Complexity doesn’t absolve you from providing answers.

Damn that's spot on

all i know is fuck blm

That's really well thought out criticism, I didn't expect that from a tpab thread desu. Kinda makes me want to relisten and rethink on it

>>70079860
Dude suck my ass

>>70079904
fuck you racist

>>70079909
i can't tell if youre joking or not.

you can be black and not like blm

>>70079183
I don't think he shields himself from criticism intentionally tho, as the album contains a LOT of self criticism, both on a personal level with actions that he has taken, as well as criticizing the black community as a whole

>>70079206
grr! don't disrespect my man KDOT :(((

>>70079169

He's not really heralded as "the end all source for intellectual stimulation for an entire culture". He's only heralded as a good musician. No one puts him on the same pedestal people like for example Marx stood on. I honestly don't know where you got that hyperbole. The only thing I have seen is that people praised him as an advocate for anti-racist sentiments. Concerning the "changing the face of music"-thing. Sites like pitchfork use phrases like this regularly and delete the reviews once they end up on the "wrong" side of music history. Besides that, the platitude of "changing the face of music" doesn't mean anything to begin with.

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>mfw interesting thread and have stuff to say but don't know how to articulate myself well

>>70081432
Just say it, buddy. We're all friends here

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>>70079169
>>70081457
What I wanted to say is that you can already see that to pimp a butterfly is influenceing artists like Anderson paak and all that new neo soul kind of stuff that's out there, also he influenced Bowie on blackstar but that's irrelevant.
The point is that he's not changing the idea of music like beefheart or something but he is changing the stuff people currently make.
Also I don't think people see his as a genius philosopher or something but his ideas represent what the protests were talking about and it's also a catchy hook, I can't imagine 400 people screaming a 200 page thesis about the human condition

>>70079169
>>70079183
What the hell are you on about? Shit go sign up for an internship with Scaruffi, you're good at using both fancy buzzwords and blatant misinformation.

>>70081559
>I can't imagine 400 people screaming a 200 page thesis about the human condition
lmao I like the thought of this

When it comes to intellectual stimulation, Kendrick is to music what the Matrix is to movies.

I mean, they're good spectacles, but everything they talk about is basic, surface-level stuff with the one or two incredibly obvious metaphors thrown in there.

>>70082792
(cont.) Just to be clear, that doesn't mean that they're bad; it just means I'm not gonna take you seriously if you go off on one about how deep and meaningful it is.

>>70079169
Go to bed Dean

>>70079183
this is fucking stupid. it is criticises the acclaim more than it does the actual music, because it's points are completely baseless other than "critics saying it's complex is wrong"

The songwriting of songs like These Walls, Alright, Momma, How Much A Dollar Cost, Complexion, i are all of great quality.

There is no complexity in the way that you see it. If you made the argument of ambition and it not meeting the standards of other albums then I wouldn't have laughed at such shitty criticism

>>70079169
>saying this album has no progress in arts
>anime

You think black people are gonna stop being annoying?

I mean, A Seat at the Table came out and I was just *facepalm. Sheeeeeesh......

>>70083207
Yep. Most of the criticism I see for TPAB is just muh p4k loved it and it touches on race issues so i have to say it's fucking terrible!!

scaruffi ironically had one of the best criticisms for this album that i've seen

>>70083253
what was your 5 favourite albums of the year?

>>70079959
you can be black and racist too

Can some people like >>70079169 start a new music website that directly addresses these kinds of things? Like unaffiliated from /mu/ obviously, but p4k shit has such a monopoly going right now that it isn't even fair.

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>>70083253
>*facepalm. Sheeeeeesh......

>>70083274
pitchfork reviews reviews 2

it's actually funny because this album does a lot that a LOT of other artists, critics and contemporaries don't do: approach this topic through a dialectal perspective.

it does so while the ego is still pertained and a personal narrative is still maintained. it's intellectual value is not from kendrick being clever analysing everything properly, but by having an significant amount of self-awareness

this is something that most people on this thread probably looked over. it's part of why a lot of the criticism (and also praise to some extent) feels dense or undeveloped, because it does not take the correct approach, which is essentially taking an approach set in stone at all.

this album (at the very least in terms of substance) is a masterpiece

>>70079169
>>70079183
>contemporary social issues are reflecting those of the past
>KENDRICK NEEDS TO INVENT NEW SOCIAL ISSUES THAT AREN'T RELEVANT TO HIM OTHERWISE HE'S JUST PARROTING

>>70083369
This

>>70081559
>400 people screaming a 200 page thesis about the human condition
That'd be pretty nice

>>70083369
Exactly. The people who make it to be some white person hating shit are far from understanding what the album's take actually is...

>>70083369
>approach this topic through a dialectal perspective.
I'd find this fine if it wasn't for the fact that most people already do this on a daily basis. Just because most other artists aren't doing it, doesn't make him good for doing it; it just makes them behind the times. It's an issue I've had with the whole "hip-hop as a cultural movement" thing for years now.

His self-awareness, while appreciated, is nothing new.

Basically he does a decent job musically while decently tackling these social issues; but that's far from making it a masterpiece imo.

>>70083507
if you ask me he does a great job, but it's even more impressive for such a laa rge contemporary artist to do so.

it's rare that you'll find a successful album that acknowledges the struggle of the black man and women in America, without an (in my opinion, justified) intense anger attached to it.

Even the anarchistic music of artists like dead prez, the coup, public enemy sole and to a smaller extent lupe fiasco do not approach this as well.

that being said, i don't think kendrick is the best rapper, and the artists i mentioned are probably better rappers than kendrick. but he really hit something special on tpab

>>70079169
>>70079183
>>70080366
>>70081559
>>70082792
>>70083207
>>70083369
>>70083507
>>70083606
This is some actual great discussion

>>70083669
>2 (You)s
Aww thanks man :^)

>>70079622
that's still really good unless you're a /v/-tard

>>70083606
forget Jurassic 5

>>70083606
Yeah, in comparison to the other major artists in his sphere he's miles ahead don't get me wrong. He is to mainstream hip-hop what Daft Punk was to mainstream electronic music.

I guess my issue is that I feel his approach to the culture of hip-hop should be the norm/bar, and not the exception.

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This album is just a mess
>"Your my first gf :)"
>Hate America/women
>Hate their own race
>cuck stories
>Pedo
>victimize
>narcissistic?

Jesus Christ, this album is r9k-core af

>>70079169
That picture makes me want to kill myself

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>>70079169
>>70079183
lmao how stupid can you people be? People can't take and use the music however they please, that shouldn't take away from the original work.

Don't let your dissapointment in a lot of the retardation and mis information from BLM effect this album.

A lot of those people don't even get the album, hell when the blacker the berry came out they all flip on kendrick after understanding just one of it's many meanings.

>>70083334
I don't know what you're talking about but either way they suck

dean blunt agreed with you

>>70083369
agree with this. fucking hate how every aspect of tpab is ignored because kendrick decided to include political and social aspects as well. TPAB is a seriously well made album. He didn't reinvent the wheel, but he didn't aspire to do that anyways.

>>70081559
>He influenced bowie on blackstar
Are you retarded

>>70083274
>waaaah make my opinions for me
You're a child. Get off this website

>>70085823
no i'm stating facts

>>70085823
Bowie said so, maybe you know better?

>>70079183
I've seen this in a blog post before, the For Sale? being G-funk thing I remember well, because that's idiotic and incorrect, said by someone who does not know G-funk, obviously.
Anyways, this album is about being a leader and a lot of Kendrick's personal struggles and survivor's guilt, not all about race issues which people ALWAYS talk about when they talk about this album, a shame really.

>>70087275
http://www.passionweiss.com/2015/03/20/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-review/

here it is

Is Lemonade the female version of TPAB?

>>70087434
only in a very shallow sense

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>>70087434
tpab is a male version of the archandroid