Yes, quite good. Really, really very good.

Honestly I think my previous attempts to compare Kendrick to Bob Dylan were not that far off point. That's the direction he seems to be choosing, and that's fine. It just means his focus is likely always going to be lyrical. Style, genre, sonics, everything else will be secondary.

But we need rappers like this.

y'know what's a band I love that I feel doesn't seem to get the praise (I think) they deserve? The Violent Femmes. I've been super into that band since high school. At the time lumped them with say The Pixies as this sort of 80's starting band that was way ahead of their time. But over the years I feel like nobody really talks about them or anything. I feel like their legacy is forgotten. Maybe relegated to just "Blister In The Sun" I guess. But it's strange to me. That band was really weird, interesting and unique. I don't know. Just me?

Nevermind. Been listening to Ween the past hour and rather talk about them. A much bigger obsession for me. OMG I love ween.

Yes your comparsion was on point. I can see Kendrick winning a Nobel prize in decades to come. He's just that good.

Does HUMBLE satirize and mock the average mainstream rapper? Wondering how it'll come together within the context of the album.

"My next album, the whole industry on a ice pack".

I think they reached peak maturity on Hallowed Ground, their second album. That's an unheralded classic, for sure. I'm not sure I'd call them "ahead of their time," because their whole shtick is kind of built on perennial adolescence. And sonically, they really just used the tropes of punk, country, new wave and to some extent goth, to make a weird concoction across genres. The Pixies definitely did the same though, on their first two albums. And Young Marble Giants tread similar territory on Colossal Youth. Flaming Lips did the immature country goth thing several times in the '80s, between Hear it Is and Priest Driven Ambulance. But yeah, the Violent Femmes' first two albums are classics of the weirdo '80s "Left of the dial" era. And Hallowed Ground would be on the list of my favorite albums of the decade.

After that they pretty much went to shit, slowly, over a decade and a half. I remember seeing them pop up on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and wondering what the fuck was going on. They had possibly the worst '90s/2000s out of any of the '80s alt bands, even Dinosaur Jr. put them to shame, and they were basically just a Mascis solo project until '07.

Ween is a better band, and more inventive and influential. But I'd probably pick Hallwoed Ground over any single Ween album.

That's what I have to say about that, my friend.

Probably. I mean, why wouldn't it? Kinda seems like that's been part of Kendrick's approach for some time now. Remember that line from "Untitled 2," ... "I could put a rapper on life support / I guarantee that's something none of you want?" That seemed to be a pretty direct (and frankly chilling) mission statement for dealing with the competition.

But this is not very "Dylan-like" of him. Maybe he's going into battle-rap mode for at least a while. I'm not sure he could effectively take on Drake on the pop culture level. Not in the age of Trump. Not when Drake is the passive listening of choice for all the world's music non-fans.

See Gibbs is a rapper I like, and normally I would be interested, but knowing that we're getting a new Kendrick album in less than a week, I just can't be bothered about anything else.

Yeah I listened to TPAB today. "Mortal Man" is still my jam on that album. Holy fuck.

Yeah, TPAB and that song in particular have made me tear up a few times.

HUMBLE. debuts at #3 on the Billboard HOT 100 chart. The hype is real, friends.

Yeah, I don't think I ever teared up over a Kendrick song until Trump won.

I found my lip quivering during "The Blacker the Berry" the other day, and "Mortal Man" too.

I can't believe Kendrick directly called out Trump AND Vladimir Putin. What balls, for a major hip-hop figure to do that. Yowza. I mean, Kanye took on Gerorge Bush back in the day, but he's obviously not interested in that kind of thing anymore ( :( ) ... but no a lot of major players are willing to go there.

Wow @ the #3 debut! Maybe he can take on Drake after all.

I played "Humble" in my car today, blasted with the bass up n' stuff, and I now really, really like the song. It took the car to make "FACTS" sound dope too.

I'm glad the song doesn't have the "Mike Will MADE IT!!!" shout out on it. I'm so sick of hearing that stupid thing.

Am I alone in feeling a bit... Underwhelmed by the new Kendrick single? I mean, it's not bad, and the video is great, but it's no King Kunta...

Not sure if you read the post leading up to this, but I was pretty underwhelmed by it on first listen (and second listen, and third). It honestly wasn't until yesterday when I blasted it in my car simply because I couldn't think of what to listen to that I heared it... it's just a no-frills all-out banger.

No disrespect to louder, but I don't really think it's even comparable to "King Kunta" (though it's more comparable to that song than it is to "The Blacker the Berry," which was my original point of comparison), because "King Kunta" was still a pretty lushly produced track with a lot of moving parts.

"HUMBLE" is just a bang-yer-dead bullet track man. It doesn't have his best rapping or his best lyrics, and it certainly doesn't feature anything close to the production of his best songs, but blast it in your car and I'm pretty sure your head will bob and your windows will vibrate. There aren't a lot of tracks like this in hip-hop anymore. It's just an assault. I dig it, even though I still think MikeWillMadeIt is an overrated, overused and generally boring producer.

So here I am, waiting for the Kendrick album with no clue what's going on.

Yep. I made sure I stayed up until after midnight so I could check iTunes. Did so. Saw nothing.

Got up at 6 this morning and went right for the iTunes Store. What's this? OMG it's something new! Click, Severian, Click! Buy!!!

But nope. Just a pre-order for an April 14 release that's apparently just called "ALBUM." and has all black cover art and no track names.

I'm hoping this is just place-holder information. Call me shallow, but I really hope the album has an actual name cover. I would be way more on board with the idea of doing a nameless/faceless thing if he hadn't JUST done EXACTLY that with untitled, unmastered. To do pretty much the same thing for what's supposed to be a next-gen project that he did last year for his coda project for 2015's album... it feels way too much like he's repeating himself.

I'm sure it will be dope even if it's called "ALBUM" and has an all black cover (cuz there aren't enough "Black Albums" in the world with Prince, Metallica, and Jay Z), but I'd rather it have a bit more to it.

God dammit I was really excited to wake up to a new Kendrick album. Now I have, like, no reason to feel happy today. Guess it's gonna be a "hit-the-bar-alone-after-work-and-watch-the-Mariners-probably-lose" kind of day. :(

Kdot's fourth album has an official title (and thankfully it's not "ALBUM."), tracklistinf and cover art.

Kendrick Lamar - DAMN., (April 14, Aftermath/Interscope/TDE)

Front:


Back:

Looks good! I can see a storyline where God condemns Kendrick to go to Hell or something along these lines. Can't wait.

damn
dam/
verb
1.
(in Christian belief) be condemned by God to suffer eternal punishment in hell.
"be forever damned with Lucifer"