“Pimp pimp hooray!”
Kendrick Lamar has released yet another album, untitled unmastered. This album is a collection of songs that were left off of To Pimp A Butterfly for one reason or another. He performed a snippet of the album during his Grammy performance. He also performed “untitled 3” on The Colbert Report and “untitled 8” on Jimmy Fallon.
In “untitled 02” he manipulates his voice throughout the first couple verses of the song and the third verse, minus the adlibs. The song goes between getting “God on the phone” and “Get Top on the phone,” Top meaning Top Dawg Entertainment (and founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith), the record label he’s affiliated with. Kendrick is calling out for both his bosses. He goes in on the last verse saying “ I could put a rapper on life support, guaranteed that’s something none of you want.”
Kendrick shows his love for jazz throughout this album. Lamar’s versatility in his music is what keeps his fans wanting more. On the track “Untitled 03” Kendrick goes back and forth to what the different races are telling him about the music industry, stereotypes in race and history. When it comes to the white man he says, “ Telling me that he sellin’ me just for $10.99, if I go platinum from rappin’ I’d to the company fine…he put a price on my talent I hit the bank and withdraw.”
Kendrick has continually talked about what society has done to the black community. He took the opportunity at the Grammys to perform “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” to shine the spotlight on current racial issues. Kendrick’s platform for youth has taken him all the way to the White House to speak with Obama himself on the importance of mentoring the youth.
An interesting fact about Untitled is that Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s 5-year-old son, Egypt Daoud Dean, helped produce “untitled 07|2014-2016.” Egypt was completely on his own when producing the beat for Kendrick. Egypt is probably the only five-year-old to be a producer on an album. Swizz had a “proud dad moment” showing his son making the beat. The video can be seen on Swizz Beatz’s Instagram page.
King Kendrick speaks on the government, police and most of all God on this collection of songs. The album is 8 tracks and can be heard on TIDAL, Spotify and Apple music.
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