KENDRICK Lamar has released his new album and not only does it live up to the
sky-high standard set by his last record, To Pimp A Butterfly, it might just eclipse it in terms of carefree creativity and ambitious artistry – even though it is in some respects a 'part two'.
Lamar has decided to keep all track names on the record – including the albums's actual name – unstated.
The album is referred to as Untitled Unmastered and each song simply gets labelled Untitled 01, 02 and so on, along with a date stamp of the time period it was
conceived and recorded.
The album ranges from deep dark hip hop to breezy jazz R&B, but somehow Lamar manages to make the collection of cuts work as a whole with a strong underlying flavour ever-present from Untitled 01 right through to Untitled 08.
The aforementioned last track is my personal favourite and certainly stands out on the first few listens. Reminiscent of De La Soul in terms of structure and Q-Tip in terms of delivery, Untitled 08 is a relentless groove that will have you nodding your head uncontrollably for four minutes.
The album in many ways puts a full stop on its predecessor To Pimp A Butterfly – many of the songs were born from the Butterfly sessions and perhaps weren't quite cooked enough to find their way onto that record – and, of course, there simply wasn't space to
accommodate the half-hour's worth on offer with this new release.
The idea to put out a double album at the time must have been tempting, but Lamar's patience has totally paid off with these 'new' songs receiving the extra affection and attention they deserved before being sent out into the world.
Other tracks worth a mention are Untitled 03, a jazzy upbeat jam of which A Tribe Called Quest would have been immensely proud, and the disturbing eight-minute epic Untitled
07 (parental advisory lyrical content) with its avant garde production and mad ranting making it sound somewhere in between an experience and an ordeal.
Whatever the origins of Untitled Unmastered and whether or not Kendrick Lamar
sees it as the next telling chapter in his hip hop takeover story or simply a stop-gap while he writes the next one is somewhat immaterial since the album is quality throughout.
By the time you read this the record will probably have scored him his second number one album, which will completely reinforce his position as hip hop's 'here-and-now' artist.
