New Jersey White Boy's Rap of the Week: "Control" by Kendri...I mean Big Sean featuring Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica

So, I was writing another article, and I decided put it on pause, because I got “Control” on repeat. I know what you’re saying “Eric, you hate Big Sean. How could you love one of his songs?” And to that I say, you clearly missed the part where the title said “featuring Kendrick Lamar”. Now, I was planning on skipping this song – Kdot has done features, all of which have been solid, but generally not too notable. Plus, as someone who’s not too fond of BS, as Mr. Strawman pointed out earlier, I wasn’t too excited. Yes, Jay Electronica’s on it, but I don’t really care about him. He’s just not my thing.

But then I finally sat down and heard the song.

Holy fuck I’m never ever going to sleep on a Lamar feature ever again. He could be on a Solja Boy track, and I’ll sit through it. It could be 33 chapters of incoherent, outlandish storytelling, and I’ll sit through it all, just to hear Kendrick Lamar rap at the very end of it. I’ll shoot a bootlegger, that’s how good I feel about this shit.

Kendrick Lamar owns this track. Big Sean has an okay verse, starting off good, falling off, then getting average again. Like usual. Jay Electronica puts down a solid verse, like he always does, and it’s interesting and deep, and whatever. I don’t care. No one wants to hear about this shit, and I don’t want to talk about it.

I defy you to find a single rapper who’s hungrier than Kdot on this track. He starts off gentle, calmly explaining his verse’s thesis; that rappers today suck, and he’ll (figuratively) murder you with his verses. Ironically, he murdered Big Sean and Jay Electronica with the subsequent verse, and showed just how average Big Sean is to his fans.

Then his verse starts. My god does his verse start. Kendrick comes out swinging, aggressively growling out every line, which is impressive enough, until you realize that it’s over 3 straight minutes of that. That’s the longest verse on the track, and one of the longest I’ve ever heard. And to be able to keep that aggression and stick to the lyrical theme for that long is above reproach, particularly for a non-brag rap.

But just beyond his hungry delivery, beyond the great lyrics, is the theme. The message that he’s delivering with this verse. Most obviously is the call out on modern rap music. It’s been a line that Kdot has been towing for years, trying to get mainstream rap away from the weed, the bragging, the money, clothes, cars and hos, and now the club rapping about molly. He wants rappers to stop all that bullshit and start rapping about real things. Real issues facing both them, their community, and society as a whole. There are too many 2 Chainz’s and not enough Tupac’s, and Kendrick wants to turn that around.

Which brings him to his next point – calling out the pussy ass ho niggas, and claiming he’s the best. He leads off by comparing himself to Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, and Andre 3000, saying his name should join the best rapper alive conversation. He also tells all of his contemporaries – "new niggas" like Drake, Joey Bada$$, Pusha T, etc. – to go fuck themselves if they think they can even try to enter that conversation. This is most simply stated by the Biggie influenced line, “What’s competition?” And while he may like the people he’s doing features with, he’s still going to try to beat them. Hell, he calls out Big Sean on his own track – a move that, as far as anyone can tell, is unprecedented. He also claims to not only be the King of West Coast Rap, but the King of New York too, which pissed off a lot of New York rappers. He puts out an open challenge to the entire industry, saying “come on, prove me wrong. Step up, put up 50 straight bars like I did, and do it better than me.”

Kendrick has finally arrived. This verse has stopped hip hop in its tracks, and made everyone sit back and think about this verse. Everyone is talking about it, throwing opinions out there and discussing the impact (definitely watch that link), writing and recording response tracks. As of this moment, Kendrick Lamar is at the top of the rap genre, and if you want to dethrone the King Kendrick, you can’t come at him with any weak verses. You can’t sit there and brag about the million dollar home you have, the Gucci you wear, the car you drive. You can’t talk about the drugs you do, the girls you bang, the albums you sell. You can’t even talk about the beats you get. Kendrick isn’t talking about any of that, and he doesn’t care about any of that. You want to come at him? Come at him with bars, delivery, lyrics. Come at him with substance. Elevate your game and do it better than him. And that’s his goal – to make the genre what it once was, and get that respect back. Get people to stop Instagramming and Tweeting, and starting writing and editing their lines. Make people look at rap as an art form that has substance. And I think he’ll succeed, for now at least.

“I'm tryna raise the bar high/Who tryna jump and get it?”

Best of 2012 Round-Up: good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar

Short film? I wanted music, dammit!

Kendrick Lamar was told in a dream by the ghost of Tupac to make music that would uplift the youth of Compton, and dissuade them from entering the Thug Life. I’ve ran into people that have claimed similar things. Those people are usually on heavy medication, should be on heavy medication, or did a lot of “medication” in their younger days. I would think Lamar was insane, if he wasn’t the greatest rapper of all time. That kind of talk is usually reserved for dead legends like Biggie and Tupac, or aged rappers like Jay-z and Nas. At 25 with only a mixtape and an album out, it seems like a tad early to make this claim, but I have no problem making it.

Kendrick agrees with this claim. With all the hype and praise surrounding GKMC, he’s stayed humble. He never believes that he’s as great as he’s told he is. He’s always working on his craft, improving whatever minor deficiencies in his skills he may have. And it shows. Section.80 was a fantastic album, and I thought that Lamar couldn’t get any better. Then I heard good kid, m.A.A.d. city, and couldn’t believe how much better he’s gotten.

The Hiii-power movement is created by Kendrick. It's about
rising above the lies society feeds to us. Each finger
means a different thing: Heart, Honor, and Respect.

This album is perfectly crafted; just look at this line from “Backseat Freestyle” – “Her body got that ass that a ruler couldn’t measure/and it makes me cum fast, but I never get embarrassed”. At first, you may scoff at this line; you might think it’s my favorite because I’m very familiar with premature ejaculation. It’s a line you’d hear Froggy Fresh/Kripsy Kreme or Turquoise Jeep make if they delved into anything too overt. But, given the story arc of this album, and the theme of this track, it is one of the most perfect lines in hip-hop. This is early on in the album; we know Kendrick is in high school, sometime around his sophomore year. He’s a young kid, in a car with his friends, hanging out, having fun. It’s innocent fun; yeah, it’s some gangsta shit, but he doesn’t really mean any of it. I mean, he says that he wants his dick to get as big as the Eiffel tower so he can fuck the world for 72 hours. Then, in the middle of this song about killing, drug dealing, fast cars, and hot girls, he throws in a line about how he finishes quickly. It’s a line that shouldn’t be there, but it is. Why? He’s an innocent kid, young and inexperienced. He puts up this wall of what he thinks his friends want to see, and in a moment, he accidentally tears it down, only to try to recover immediately after by claiming it doesn’t embarrass him. It’s a brilliant line that adds so much to the album.

And let’s not forget about the skits. Obviously, they’re vital to carrying the story through the album in a coherent fashion. And while some are funny (his parents’ calls at the end of “Sherane aka Master Splinter’s Daughter” and “MoneyTrees”), there are some that are subtly amazing. For instance, at the end of “The Art of Peer Pressure”, which, in context of the album is a top track, there’s an exchange between 2 of Kendrick’s friends. One asks “What’s that Jeezy song say?”, and someone from the group says “Last time I checked, I was the man of these streets”, with the group piping up for the second half of the sentence. The original speaker says “Yeah yeah, that shit right there. I’m trying to be the nigga in the streets”, with the sensible friend saying “Man, you don’t even know how the shit goes”. Beyond historical racial connotations about the term “nigger” and/or “nigga”, there’s also positive and negative connotations there. When calling someone “my nigga”, there’s a friendly sense to the term. However, you can still call someone a “nigga” and have it mean someone who’s ignorant or stupid, and acts way too hood. It’s a powerful conversation, giving subtle character and thematic elements that you’d only see in a winner of the Palme d’Or, not an album, and especially not a popular rap album.

Bow! Bow before King Kendrick Lamar!

And if my deconstruction doesn’t prove that this is a expertly crafted album, then look at the fact that I’m actually deconstructing the themes and lines of this album. You can pull out a variety of amazing lines and tracks from GKMC and analyze them to death. You can critique the song order, and whether or not “Black Boy Fly” should replace “BitchDon’t Kill My Vibe”, or whether “Compton” should have been reserved for the bonus tracks instead of the note you end the album on. You can’t, or at least shouldn’t, do this stuff when looking at 2 Chainz, or The Game, or Lil Wayne.

The album culminates in the opus, “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”. It’s a touching, moving, emotional 12 minutes of pain and honesty. Kendrick takes on the roles of 3 people – a friend and older brother of a vital character in the story, the older sister of the prostitute from “Keisha’s Song” off of Section.80, and finally, himself, talking about his own self-worth, fascination with death, and the constant threat on his life. If there was any song that could truly capture what good rap is about, this it. Lyrically, vocally, musically, it is innovative, original, and should be shown to those who hate rap as the counter to Jeezy and Chef Keef.

This is the best album you will hear all year. Normally I don’t truly mean that, but it did make it as my #1 album of last year, and some other people agree with me. It might be the best rap album you’ll hear in a few years, and for sure the best one you’ve heard since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Hell, you’ll hear it being mentioned as one of the best of all time. Until, of course, Kendrick drops his next album. Until then, support the greatest rapper around, and support the greatest music blog writers around.

Track of the Moment: Hiiipower by Kendrick Lamar

I know, I’m not supposed to do rap/hip-hop as my track of the moment. However, due to Elliott’s recent admission that rap has its merits, along with my excitement for the release of his first studio album Good Kid in a Mad City sometime this year, I think it’s time to talk about the best rapper of all time again, if only in a condensed form.

I’ve already said a lot back when I featured him a few months ago. Go read through that article if you want a fuller picture of Kendrick Lamar (or if you like doing the right thing, because I have your grandma tied up in the Writer’s Cellar, and will only set her free if you read that article). But the short version that no one has ever been as good as he is, and I can’t imagine too many more being better than him in the future. If nothing else, his lyrical density and delivery on tracks can lift songs from standard hip-hop track to something that brings you to a higher plane of existence. The best thing I can equate it to is the movie Inception – on the surface, it’s fun and exciting and anyone can enjoy it with little thought. But the way it’s presented hints at just enough intelligence and depth that its message and thoughtfulness to be absorbed, and makes you want to revisit it to get more out of it (Rambo: First Blood is Jay-z; stupid fun on the surface, but a sharp social critique hidden well below that. Soulja Boy is any Uwe Ball film. Aesop Rock is The Seventh Seal. This is fun, I have to do this more often).

To get the most out of a K. Dot, you have to listen to him multiple times, and have his lyrics up on Rap Genius. The sheer artistry, intelligence, craft, and care of his lyrics are amazing, and it’s truly stunning example of the lofty height hip-hop can reach. “Hiiipower” is part of that example. With a smooth, slow drum beat that features a lot of hi-hats and a wobbly piano-synth, it instills a certain regality to it to match Kendrick’s lyrics. And his lyrics are amazing (like usual). From the intro (“The sky is falling, the wind is calling/Stand for something or die in the morning”) to the hook talking about a different figure of the Civil Rights movement to the verses about raising up the black community out of the ghetto. As I said last time, each “i” in hiiipower stands heart, honor, and respect, and are actively reflected in this song. There’s enough braggadocio in there to keep a casual rap fan hooked, but more than enough brilliance to create an incredibly thoughtful work of art.

I don’t care if you don’t like rap. Kendrick Lamar transcends rap, and should be heard by anyone who cares about music as an artistic expression.

New Jersey White Boy's Rap of the Week: Section.80 by Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar is going to be the greatest rapper of all time. Jay-Z; fuck that. Tupac; fuck that. Biggie; fuck that. Nas; fuck that. Kanye; fuck that. And double fuck Lil Wayne in the ear. There, I said it. And you know what? I’m right.

Kendrick Lamar is the biggest rapper right now, amongst anyone who truly cares about hip-hop. He came onto the scene in 2003 at the age of 16 (he’s currently 24), and has garnered a larger and larger following since then. His first major break came late in 2010, when Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (yes, that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg) heard the song “Ignorance is Bliss” and decided to work with him. This led those two to crown Mr. Lamar as the “New King of the West Coast”, but I think he’s going to be considered the king of the rap game pretty soon.

Last year he released his first official album Section.80 to much critical acclaim, and it made many best of lists, even on websites that have a review a variety of genres, and his next album will not only be just as good, but hopefully reach everyone who even casually listens to hip-hop.

Most rappers excel at one aspect of rap – they have an amazing flow, they have deep and complex lyrics, or they have a certain intangible “realness” to them. Kendrick has all three. He has a ridiculous flow, as exampled by the track “Rigamortus” where he doesn’t breath once during either of his verses. The lyrical content is prevalent throughout all of his songs, with a sharp critique of both society and the excess bread by the Ronald Regan era (which is where he gets the title Section.80). He also has an amazing rhyming and wordplay ability that rivals the best of them, and relies heavily on literary devices usually only reserved for poetry. The most amazing example in any genre of music are the lines off of “Hol’ Up” - “Wicked as 80 reverends/In a pool of fire with devils holding hands/from a distance, don’t know which one is a Christian, damn”. Damn indeed, Mr. Lamar. Damn indeed. And then the “realness”. While people will define realness a variety of ways, Kendrick Lamar fits most of them. As an A student of the historically rough city of Compton, he’s able to mix a positive message of getting out of gang life and bettering yourself with true-life examples. These examples are given with a critical and realistic eye towards the activities he depicts, specifically the depressing “Keisha’s Song”.

Of course, he wouldn’t be anywhere without his beats. Mostly produced by his longtime producer Sounwave, his songs have this fantastic vinyl-y feel that makes you think back to the heyday of rap in the mid-to-late 90’s. His samples create this wonderful feeling of nostalgia that you just don’t get with the house and electronic influenced beats of today. And they all have this gravity to them. They are these deep, soulful beats that hang out in the mid-to-low range, and add to the seriousness of Kendrick’s lyrics.

And speaking of his lyrics, I don’t know of anyone who’s doing it better. Common used to be the king of socially conscious raps once Tupac died (pour out a little liquor for my homie), but now that title has gone to Kendrick (even though, in “Ab Souls Outro”, he says that he doesn’t want to be called a “socially aware rapper”). With his Hiiipower Movement inspiring people on how they should “carry [themselves] in the streets, and just in the world” by following each of the three i’s – hear, honor, and respect. And those sentiments come through with every track. He admits that he was inspired by Tupac, but it’s pretty clear that he’s taking what Tupac did 15 years ago and brings it to another level, far above anyone could ever dream it could go.

One thing I want in an album is cohesion. I love it when each track can be enjoyed on their own, but have tracks that are ordered in a particular manner. It gives a sense that there was a thought process behind the recording of the LP, which shows true artistic talent. Albums like Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day is one of my favorite hip-hop because it’s sectioned off (the depressing “My World” and “Solo Dolo” were in one section, the happier “Hyyerr” and “Up Up & Away” in another). Other albums, like The Mountain Goats’s All Hail West Texas, have this flow between each track where you’re not necessarily sure when one ends and another begins, and find out that you’ve heard four songs in a row and not even realized it. You rarely get either of these in rap/hip-hop, but Section.80 falls under this latter category. Each beat has a similar feel (even though they were produced by a variety of people), and they flow nicely into each other, with the occasional narrative interlude. And because K. Dot always has a message about bettering yourself and not falling into hood life, all of his songs have this amazing interplay.

And the best part of his album? It only gains with every listen. Like Elliott, I’ll take a new (or new to me) album and listen to it nonstop for days on end. I mean, if I don’t like it, I’ll stop quickly, but a fantastic album like Kanye’s Late Registration or Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm will stay on repeat, and even when I think I can’t listen to it anymore, I find myself going back to it whenever I want to listen to music (I prefer albums over singles; listening to just a single is like reading only 1 chapter of a book or 1 level in a video game). But eventually, I'll move on to something else, and the plays slow down. And you know what? 3 months after I picked up this album and have played it dozens of times, I still can’t get enough of it. Every listen brings up a new sample, or I decipher a lyric I couldn’t understand before, or a new thought and way of interpreting a song comes to mind, keeping this album fresh, interesting, and amazing every time I hear it.

I decided to let you guys listen to “Rigamortus” because it shows off Lamar’s amazing technical ability. As I mentioned earlier, he doesn’t breath once during any of the verses, and displays one of the best flows in the game, along with an amazing rhyming ability. However, every song off of Section.80 is fire, and should be heard. If you’re looking for the best of the best off the album, listen to “Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)”, “A.D.H.D”, “Poe Mans Dreams”, and “Ronald Reagan Era”. “Cartoon and Cereal” is below and shows off his complexity and willingness to experiment. It’s a leaked track off of his next album.

Listen to him, share his music, and jump on the bandwagon of one of the fastest rising stars in hip-hop.