Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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Setherex
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Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

[imgsize 500x500]http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/c ... ransparent[/imgsize]

"untitled unmastered."
Kendrick Lamar
March 4, 2016

01. "untitled 01 08.19.2014."
02. "untitled 02 06.23.2014."
03. "untitled 03 05.28.2013."
04. "untitled 04 08.14.2014."
05. "untitled 05 09.21.2014."
06. "untitled 06 06.30.2014."
07. "untitled 07 2014 - 2016."
08. "untitled 08 09.06.2014."

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GucciLittlePiggy
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

Experimental Kendrick???!?!?!???!
I just wanted to be one of those ghosts
You thought that you could forget
And then I haunt you via the rear view mirror
On a long drive from the back seat...
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

The album is now available on Apple Music.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

It is now also available on Spotify, playlist embedded above.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by babydoll »

So is this an official album or a mixtape?
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

babydoll wrote:So is this an official album or a mixtape?
It's for sale on iTunes, so it's not a mixtape.

Two of the eight songs are songs he previously performed on both "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and "The Colbert Report." Whether it's an album or an EP I think is up to your own definition - but most seem to be considering it a studio album currently.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by babydoll »

Wow... So Kendrick went the Beyoncé route. Hmm, that seems to be very popular these days...
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by PlasticRam »

Setherex wrote:
babydoll wrote:So is this an official album or a mixtape?
It's for sale on iTunes, so it's not a mixtape.

Two of the eight songs are songs he previously performed on both "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and "The Colbert Report." Whether it's an album or an EP I think is up to your own definition - but most seem to be considering it a studio album currently.
RYM considers it an EP.
I feel like that
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

PlasticRam wrote:
Setherex wrote:
babydoll wrote:So is this an official album or a mixtape?
It's for sale on iTunes, so it's not a mixtape.

Two of the eight songs are songs he previously performed on both "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and "The Colbert Report." Whether it's an album or an EP I think is up to your own definition - but most seem to be considering it a studio album currently.
RYM considers it an EP.
Right now, RYM also considers it the best Kendrick Lamar album. ;)

I'm sure there will be an internal discussion there and a general discussion as to whether or not to consider it a studio album. I can see it as either at this point.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Nassim »

On first listen it's much more welcoming and easy to get into than TPaB. I think TPaB lovers will hear it as a very good but still lesser bonus, but for someone like me who didn't really get into TPaB, it sounded like a pretty great, and strangely cohesive, short collection of songs ; less of an artistic achievement, more of a simple pleasure. Don't really picture people considering it better than good kid, m.a.a.d city or TPaB though.

Anyway, the way the album dropped is pretty much the complete opposite of a Kanye West album release ; we won't have to go through tracklist changes, songs editing, unreleasing or assfingering tweets.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by TimmyWing »

How modest is this man?! See Kanye - this is how you release an album without annoying your fans.
So fudging excited.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Listyguy »

I too immediately thought of the contrast between Kendrick and Kanye. I'll probably listen to this album later today, while I'm going to put off Life of Pablo for months. Plus there's no gimmick with this just being on Tidal or some bullshit like that.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by bootsy »

TimmyWing wrote:How modest is this man?! See Kanye - this is how you release an album without annoying your fans.
So fudging excited.
Nassim wrote: Anyway, the way the album dropped is pretty much the complete opposite of a Kanye West album release ; we won't have to go through tracklist changes, songs editing, unreleasing or assfingering tweets.
Listyguy wrote:I too immediately thought of the contrast between Kendrick and Kanye. I'll probably listen to this album later today, while I'm going to put off Life of Pablo for months. Plus there's no gimmick with this just being on Tidal or some bullshit like that.

Coming to the defense of Kanye. Kanye doesn't do things the way you/we want him too. He released the album and it turned out to be good so get off Ye. Congrats to Kendrick he released a surprise album in a method that's already been done before. It doesn't make it better because Kendrick did it this way. Please.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

bootsy wrote:Coming to the defense of Kanye. Kanye doesn't do things the way you/we want him too. He released the album and it turned out to be good so get off Ye. Congrats to Kendrick he released a surprise album in a method that's already been done before. It doesn't make it better because Kendrick did it this way. Please.
I don't think anyone you quoted is necessarily saying that Kanye's album was bad, haha. It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.

They're all just making the point that Kendrick caused us all a lot less trouble, stress and worry than Kanye did in the last month - which is objectively true.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by babydoll »

Setherex wrote:
bootsy wrote:Coming to the defense of Kanye. Kanye doesn't do things the way you/we want him too. He released the album and it turned out to be good so get off Ye. Congrats to Kendrick he released a surprise album in a method that's already been done before. It doesn't make it better because Kendrick did it this way. Please.
I don't think anyone you quoted is necessarily saying that Kanye's album was bad, haha. It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.

They're all just making the point that Kendrick caused us all a lot less trouble, stress and worry than Kanye did in the last month - which is objectively true.
Okay, I haven't heard TLOP yet. Just a few songs he was kind to let the people listen to without a $20 price tag. Therefore I cannot say whether it's good or not. Nonetheless, I do like Kanye. I'm a huge fan of MBDTF and Yeezus; "Monster" and "Power" are amongst my all-time favorite songs.

The thing about Kendrick's recent album release is that he made it official and rewarded his fans well without, again, the $20 price tag, and gave us a final track list once. Kanye's inability to not do so was his biggest mistake. Kendrick didn't make that mistake. That's all we are saying. Quality between the two never entered this conservation.

P.S. I think I like the De La Soul avatar better than the Eric B. & Rakim one. :music-rockon:
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by notbrianeno »

PlasticRam wrote: RYM considers it an EP.
As of today it's been upgraded to an album, and if the current rating trends continue, his fourth bolded on in a row on the site.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by bootsy »

Setherex wrote:
bootsy wrote:Coming to the defense of Kanye. Kanye doesn't do things the way you/we want him too. He released the album and it turned out to be good so get off Ye. Congrats to Kendrick he released a surprise album in a method that's already been done before. It doesn't make it better because Kendrick did it this way. Please.
I don't think anyone you quoted is necessarily saying that Kanye's album was bad, haha. It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.

They're all just making the point that Kendrick caused us all a lot less trouble, stress and worry than Kanye did in the last month - which is objectively true.
Well I know they aren't saying it's bad but I was making the point that even though we had to wait a little longer than expected it was worth it. I know the point they are trying to make. The point I'm trying to make is what Kendrick did isn't something new or necessarily better.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Romain »

Setherex wrote: It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.
I don't know... this website is the only place where I saw "The life of Pablo" exist.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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I'm not saying TLOP is a bad album (although upon first listen, this record seems to be much more rewarding). But TLOP's hype was built up so much - on top of the hype that inherently comes with a Kanye album being released - that the questionable creative decisions seemed all the more disappointing.

It may be a coincidence that Kendrick decided not to give the album a title, but I think it could be a veiled criticism of Kanye's constantly changing his album title and his tracklist (and notifying us whenever changes were made - making no bones of the fact that production was chaotic). While Kanye, whether accidentally or not, puts focus on the marketing and the labeling of his output, Kendrick strips all of that away (and does away with any pre-release promotion) and puts the focus on the music.

I'm also commending K. Dot for just making his music available. Kanye making his album a Tidal-exclusive was a huge misstep, even if I'm a fan of the program. I still don't have the money to renew my subscription (I don't pay for Spotify either), and if a physical copy of TLOP never arises, the majority of people just aren't going to listen to it. Songs like Waves sound like they could be smash radio hits if circumstances were different. I know that stubborn Kanye will only do what he wants, but...as a fan of his, I just wish he wouldn't alienate his audience so much...
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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TimmyWing wrote:I'm not saying TLOP is a bad album (although upon first listen, this record seems to be much more rewarding). But TLOP's hype was built up so much - on top of the hype that inherently comes with a Kanye album being released - that the questionable creative decisions seemed all the more disappointing.

It may be a coincidence that Kendrick decided not to give the album a title, but I think it could be a veiled criticism of Kanye's constantly changing his album title and his tracklist (and notifying us whenever changes were made - making no bones of the fact that production was chaotic). While Kanye, whether accidentally or not, puts focus on the marketing and the labeling of his output, Kendrick strips all of that away (and does away with any pre-release promotion) and puts the focus on the music.

I'm also commending K. Dot for just making his music available. Kanye making his album a Tidal-exclusive was a huge misstep, even if I'm a fan of the program. I still don't have the money to renew my subscription (I don't pay for Spotify either), and if a physical copy of TLOP never arises, the majority of people just aren't going to listen to it. Songs like Waves sound like they could be smash radio hits if circumstances were different. I know that stubborn Kanye will only do what he wants, but...as a fan of his, I just wish he wouldn't alienate his audience so much...
I think you are reading too much into it in the sense that I'm sure Kendrick isn't being reactionary to Kanye. Let's just say Kendrick has handled the release of TPAB and the release of this album very well, whereas Kanye has been quite messy.
I feel like that
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by TimmyWing »

You're right, I'm sure it wasn't meant like that. It's just fitting I suppose.

BUT YES! Let's bring this back to Kendrick. I'm in love with so many things on this record. As a musician myself, I find the second half of Track 7 mesmerising, to hear Kendrick's musical ideas just coming out naturally.
It's a very welcoming, relaxed album. And it puts you right in the room with him. A sweet dessert after the feast of TPAB.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Nick »

Just gave it a listen. It's a nice, good album, but it's easily his weakest effort thus far. Easily.

But that's sort of the point. It's clear that the album is meant to be a collection of throwaways. And as an album of throwaways, it's pretty good. But make no mistake, this isn't some "Amnesiac" level body of work. "Untitled Unmastered" is a disjointed collection of songs that lack the incredible energy of Kendrick's best work, and it never really coalesce in any meaningful way.

That being said, it's still nice to get studio versions of those untitled tracks he's been debuting on late night television.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by luney6 »

Romain wrote:
Setherex wrote: It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.
I don't know... this website is the only place where I saw "The life of Pablo" exist.
I agree. I feel the same way.
"God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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Romain wrote:
Setherex wrote: It's very clear that "The Life of Pablo," like it or not, was a widespread cultural event that we all took part in, and it seems like most of us enjoyed the album to varying degrees too.
I don't know... this website is the only place where I saw "The life of Pablo" exist.
This makes no sense the album was anticipated and promoted just about everywhere. Any music sites or entertainment sites, his performance on SNL, his show at MSG, his and others twitter account waiting for the album and talking about it after it was release. Give me a break at 'this website is the only place where I saw "The life of Pablo" exist.' Yeah you definitely don't/didn't know.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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notbrianeno wrote:Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
Imagine making up something that doesn't exist or accusing someone of something that they aren't actually doing like accusing someone of berating others. Stating that it doesn't make sense that the album didn't exist outside of this site when it actual does ISN'T BERATING SOMEONE but I don't expect you to figure that out(now this is me actually berating someone you, notbrianeno). And non-western markets? Are those markets shut off and don't have access to internet sites and news except for acclaimed music, OK :?

What a life to just throw out false accusations.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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I think the main point I was trying to make is that Kanye the celebrity is a self absorbed douche. Kanye the musician is great, but I don't see why people want to defend him like we're attacking your character. So many of the artists we revere on this site are/were assholes. I'm not going to take it personally if you tell me Bob Dylan's a prick.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by BleuPanda »

bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote:Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
Imagine making up something that doesn't exist or accusing someone of something that they aren't actually doing like accusing someone of berating others. Stating that it doesn't make sense that the album didn't exist outside of this site when it actual does ISN'T BERATING SOMEONE but I don't expect you to figure that out(now this is me actually berating someone you, notbrianeno). And non-western markets? Are those markets shut off and don't have access to internet sites and news except for acclaimed music, OK :?

What a life to just throw out false accusations.

Like, you do realize the outside world has a different culture, right? A large portion of this site's users live in countries where English isn't the dominant language, and a genre like hip hop that's largely dependent on language isn't going to spread as easily in those places. Add in the fact that most classic rap albums deal with themes explicitly based around elements of American culture, and they aren't going to resonate as much with those who don't have that experience. I'm sure there are plenty of artists from France that Romain is disappointed aren't known here in America, but I don't see him actively attacking us for not keeping our eyes on French culture. How many Indian music sites do you regularly visit?
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by bootsy »

BleuPanda wrote:
bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote:Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
Imagine making up something that doesn't exist or accusing someone of something that they aren't actually doing like accusing someone of berating others. Stating that it doesn't make sense that the album didn't exist outside of this site when it actual does ISN'T BERATING SOMEONE but I don't expect you to figure that out(now this is me actually berating someone you, notbrianeno). And non-western markets? Are those markets shut off and don't have access to internet sites and news except for acclaimed music, OK :?

What a life to just throw out false accusations.

Like, you do realize the outside world has a different culture, right? A large portion of this site's users live in countries where English isn't the dominant language, and a genre like hip hop that's largely dependent on language isn't going to spread as easily in those places. Add in the fact that most classic rap albums deal with themes explicitly based around elements of American culture, and they aren't going to resonate as much with those who don't have that experience. I'm sure there are plenty of artists from France that Romain is disappointed aren't known here in America, but I don't see him actively attacking us for not keeping our eyes on French culture. How many Indian music sites do you regularly visit?
No I don't realize the outside world has different culture. I only see people state that they are from different countries, post foreign language lists like all the time. WTF of course I do. :angry-banghead: Does that mean they don't have access to anything except acclaimedmusic.net? The album was talked about all over the place so please stop with the excuses that other cultures are unaware of what is going on with music. How else do people find a site like this? I guess they got lucky. Using the lame excuse that I didn't know about the album or any album, movie, or any form of news/entertaiment/sports/whatever outside of this site is indeed lame and then to add because they are from a different country. I have friends from all over the world that knew about this album.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

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Listyguy wrote:I think the main point I was trying to make is that Kanye the celebrity is a self absorbed douche. Kanye the musician is great, but I don't see why people want to defend him like we're attacking your character. So many of the artists we revere on this site are/were assholes. I'm not going to take it personally if you tell me Bob Dylan's a prick.
I didn't take anything personally. So not sure what you are getting at there. Don't care what you call him. But I do care when people put Kendrick on some level of innovation because he released a surprise album when it's been done before and then comparing it to how Kanye released his as if it was some crime and inconvenience to you. If you don't like how he does things it's simple stop listening to his music or stop paying attention to him or whatever. People want to defend him because there are people that actually like him and not everyone thinks he is a self-absorbed douche like you do.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Romain »

bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote:Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
Imagine making up something that doesn't exist or accusing someone of something that they aren't actually doing like accusing someone of berating others. Stating that it doesn't make sense that the album didn't exist outside of this site when it actual does ISN'T BERATING SOMEONE but I don't expect you to figure that out(now this is me actually berating someone you, notbrianeno). And non-western markets? Are those markets shut off and don't have access to internet sites and news except for acclaimed music, OK :?

What a life to just throw out false accusations.
Hey, I don't want to argue anything more than what I say. Nothing is important here, it's music and only music.

I just answer to Setherex who say it's a "widespread cultural event" , with my own words, and I'm sorry if they were bad, "no, not particulary". I have not seen any information on the TV, radio or newspaper I watch/listen/read about this album. I have no idear what is SNL, MSG and don't have tweeter, facebook or another social network.

I don't say this album is bad or this artist is bad, I don't know who is he and what he sing really, I just say, in my point of view, the Setherex phrase seemed a bit exaggerated. That's all.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Setherex »

Romain wrote:Hey, I don't want to argue anything more than what I say. Nothing is important here, it's music and only music.

I just answer to Setherex who say it's a "widespread cultural event" , with my own words, and I'm sorry if they were bad, "no, not particulary". I have not seen any information on the TV, radio or newspaper I watch/listen/read about this album. I have no idear what is SNL, MSG and don't have tweeter, facebook or another social network.

I don't say this album is bad or this artist is bad, I don't know who is he and what he sing really, I just say, in my point of view, the Setherex phrase seemed a bit exaggerated. That's all.
Which - just to air out the tension in the room - is a perfectly fine frame of mind to have, haha. :D

From my point of view, a very frequent entertainment-junkie on the western United States coast, it seemed like a widespread scale event, something in the nature that Kanye's name was appearing in the news constantly, his events were gathering a lot of attention, and most people I knew were aware in some capacity that he was releasing a new album. But of course, without those American touchstones to reference, and without social media, I can very much see how the release didn't receive large-scale awareness to many on your side of the pond, Romain.

I feel that it's very easy and very obvious to compare Kendrick to Kanye with this release, which again is a fine thing to do, but I don't think a debate (or 'berate,' if you will) of the specifics on how others experienced or didn't experience a release other than this one is helping the topic much. Conveniently, there is another topic devoted entirely to "Pablo" over yonder :greetings-waveyellow:
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Romain »

BleuPanda wrote: I'm sure there are plenty of artists from France that Romain is disappointed aren't known here in America, but I don't see him actively attacking us...
Hahaaaa, one day, I will spam you with Johnny Hallyday an entire month until your ears bleed and that you beg me to close them with two baguettes ! :mrgreen:

P.S. : thanks setherex for the answer, you are welcome.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Nassim »

Romain wrote:
bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote:Imagine caring enough about an artist that you actively berate others for not being aware of an upcoming release, especially in non-western markets. What a life.
Imagine making up something that doesn't exist or accusing someone of something that they aren't actually doing like accusing someone of berating others. Stating that it doesn't make sense that the album didn't exist outside of this site when it actual does ISN'T BERATING SOMEONE but I don't expect you to figure that out(now this is me actually berating someone you, notbrianeno). And non-western markets? Are those markets shut off and don't have access to internet sites and news except for acclaimed music, OK :?

What a life to just throw out false accusations.
Hey, I don't want to argue anything more than what I say. Nothing is important here, it's music and only music.

I just answer to Setherex who say it's a "widespread cultural event" , with my own words, and I'm sorry if they were bad, "no, not particulary". I have not seen any information on the TV, radio or newspaper I watch/listen/read about this album. I have no idear what is SNL, MSG and don't have tweeter, facebook or another social network.

I don't say this album is bad or this artist is bad, I don't know who is he and what he sing really, I just say, in my point of view, the Setherex phrase seemed a bit exaggerated. That's all.
I can't fully agree with you Romain. Sure there probably haven't been mentions about it on our main tv channels news or on "serious" newspapers but really, it's not like there are much music news in there besides big French mainstays (Johnny, Téléphone...) or death of rock legends, so it'd be hard to judge anything by that.
If you look at "younger" newspapers like 20 minutes, or culture oriented websites like Les Inrockuptibles (a quick search gives me 20 articles about him on the last 2 months), there have been a lot of cover of Kanye West gimmicks (and it continues, there was an article about Kanye's probable illegal downloads this week). Heck I even found a few articles on Télérama, Libération and Le Monde... I'm not saying it was as huge in there as in, say, AM, Stereogum or Pitchfork, but it still existed... and really, for Libé or Le Monde to do 5 articles over 2 months on a rap artist, he has to be a fairly big cultural phenomenon.
I don't know what you read, but besides some music magazines that will refuse to talk about anything but classic rock (hello Rock 'n' folk), it's hard to find a publication that tackles culture where The Life of Pablo has been completely inexistant.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by prosecutorgodot »

Dang, this thread turned into a "Is Kanye a douche?" discussion. Not my type of thing to get involved in. Anyways, this thread is about the new album (or what I would consider a compilation of unreleased tracks) from Kendrick Lamar! Let's talk about the music, and not so much the BS surrounding the music, ok?

I think the second half is a bit stronger than the first half. Also, I thought all the features were amazing, just like on TPAB, especially the singing from SZA and Anna Wise. I saw resemblance between the first track and Sherane, with that descending guitar lick or whatever. I would actually consider this a soul/funk album more than a hip-hop album.
I thought that outro to the 7th track was very cute, like the "I Love Kanye" track from TLOP. But I understand people hating on it.

My problem with the album is that there isn't much to dive into after the first initial listens. It is extremely pleasant music, but I'm not going to get more out of each additional listen.

In TND rating system, I'd give strong 7, light 8.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by PlasticRam »

Just one more thing about Kanye. I think if you really try to avoid him in the US, I think you can, meaning you go to music sites that are focused on rock or just don't appreciate Kanye, they just review his album whenever he drops. That would be like five times easier to do in France. So I do believe Romain that he prolly has followed a couple or more French publications and hasn't heard of Kanye much. The Finnish magazine Soundi does more stories about Axl Rose than Kanye.

Also I think Kanye is a nice person, not a douche.
I feel like that
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by luney6 »

Honestly, outside of the people following critical consensus, Kanye West isn't really considered a serious artist. It's wrong, I know, because many people who say this haven't heard his best albums, but it is true. He is better known for his marriage to Kim Kardashian, and for his tweets than for his music. At most, people say he has one or two good tracks. Kendrick Lamar, on the other hand, seems to universally be well respected.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by PlasticRam »

luney6 wrote:Honestly, outside of the people following critical consensus, Kanye West isn't really considered a serious artist. It's wrong, I know, because many people who say this haven't heard his best albums, but it is true.
Many people who say that haven't heard ANY of his albums. I didn't really consider him a serious artist before I discovered AM and started listening to his albums.
I feel like that
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Harold »

PlasticRam wrote:
luney6 wrote:Honestly, outside of the people following critical consensus, Kanye West isn't really considered a serious artist. It's wrong, I know, because many people who say this haven't heard his best albums, but it is true.
Many people who say that haven't heard ANY of his albums. I didn't really consider him a serious artist before I discovered AM and started listening to his albums.
I remember when Entertainment Weekly placed MBDTF at #8 on its all-time 100 greatest albums list in 2013; they got a lot of comments from readers along the lines of "KANYE WEST?!? REALLY?!?!?!?!? LOLOL - so much for any chance of this list being taken seriously!" Which, of course, is completely ridiculous. We're talking about an artist who has had four #1 albums on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll - each year, hundreds of critics are polled for an aggregated list of the year's best albums, and between 2004 and 2013 Kanye West had the #1 album on that poll four times. Of course, as the posts above indicate, most of the public doesn't pay attention to critics (for another example, look at the general reaction to Arcade Fire winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2011), so it's unfortunately true that far too many people won't listen to West's music because they find his public persona and celebrity so off-putting. Their loss.

Side note: This thread has gone completely off-topic.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by luney6 »

Harold wrote:
PlasticRam wrote:
luney6 wrote:Honestly, outside of the people following critical consensus, Kanye West isn't really considered a serious artist. It's wrong, I know, because many people who say this haven't heard his best albums, but it is true.
Many people who say that haven't heard ANY of his albums. I didn't really consider him a serious artist before I discovered AM and started listening to his albums.
I remember when Entertainment Weekly placed MBDTF at #8 on its all-time 100 greatest albums list in 2013; they got a lot of comments from readers along the lines of "KANYE WEST?!? REALLY?!?!?!?!? LOLOL - so much for any chance of this list being taken seriously!" Which, of course, is completely ridiculous. We're talking about an artist who has had four #1 albums on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll - each year, hundreds of critics are polled for an aggregated list of the year's best albums, and between 2004 and 2013 Kanye West had the #1 album on that poll four times. Of course, as the posts above indicate, most of the public doesn't pay attention to critics (for another example, look at the general reaction to Arcade Fire winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2011), so it's unfortunately true that far too many people won't listen to West's music because they find his public persona and celebrity so off-putting. Their loss.

Side note: This thread has gone completely off-topic.
So it has. Sorry. Maybe we should have side threads within threads. ;)
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Listyguy »

So I've listened to the album twice a nd listened to a few tracks extra times, and I think "untitled 08" is my early favorite. What do you all think? I've heard "untitled 02" is pretty well liked, it didn't really strike me as anything that special though.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Honorio »

bootsy wrote:If you don't like how he does things it's simple stop listening to his music or stop paying attention to him or whatever.
Exactly. That's what I've decided to do from now on. With tweets as arrogant as "so happy to be finished with the best album of all time" I think it's the best option. At least for me.
Romain wrote:I have no idear what is SNL, MSG and don't have tweeter, facebook or another social network.
Romain, I don't know what is SNL or MSG too. Saturday Night Live maybe?
Anyway, and going back to Kendrick Lamar, as I just said I'm not going to listen to TLOP but I'll surely give a chance to UU, despite preferring MBDTF and TCD to both TPAB and GKMC. In fact MDBTF is my second favourite hip hop album, after 3FHAR but before TMMLP, S/TLB or ITANOMTHUB. By the way my favourite album ever is TRAFOZSATSFM and my favourite song is LARS.
Only joking of course but when I see whole threads filled by acronyms the only thing that comes to my mind is another acronym: WTF?
BleuPanda wrote:Like, you do realize the outside world has a different culture, right? A large portion of this site's users live in countries where English isn't the dominant language, and a genre like hip hop that's largely dependent on language isn't going to spread as easily in those places. Add in the fact that most classic rap albums deal with themes explicitly based around elements of American culture, and they aren't going to resonate as much with those who don't have that experience. I'm sure there are plenty of artists from France that Romain is disappointed aren't known here in America, but I don't see him actively attacking us for not keeping our eyes on French culture. How many Indian music sites do you regularly visit?
Amen to that, brother! You nailed it. Many many many thanks BleuPanda for your words, especially coming from a "Young American" (quoting Bowie). Lately the Forum is getting crowded by young Americans, while middle-aged Europeans like me were majority some years ago. And while this rejuvenation of the Forum is fantastic, especially if they show the levels of understanding you just showed, sometimes some cultural clashes surfaces.
Now I admit that I got some difficulties to connect with some Hip Hop songs/albums because of the language barrier. To properly enjoy it I usually use webpages like genius.com like I did it for instance with "To Pimp a Butterlfly" (sorry, sorry, I meant TPAB) but this is too time-consuming and I got little spare time. And moreover this led me to realise that there is also a second barrier, the cultural barrier, like you just pointed out. Don't get me wrong, I really like many Hip Hop acts but on a purely music level I honestly enjoy more other genres. And there should be nothing wrong with it, there's no need to berate anyone for having different tastes.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Listyguy »

By the way, SNL does in fact stand for Saturday Night Live. I don't watch the show, and the only recent bit of the show I've heard anything about was the "Day Beyonce Turned Black" bit. I had no idea Kanye had been on the show. In fact, when I hear Kanye and SNL, I think of a skit they run occasionally that mocks Kim and Kanye. I can't find any clips of it on YouTube, unfortunately.

MSG stands for Madison Square Garden. It's a venue in Manhattan, New York city where the New York basketball team (the Knicks) and hockey team (the Rangers) play their home games. It is also been the location of a number of famous concerts, including the Song Remains the Same concert, Concert of Bangladesh, Concert for New York City (following 9/11). Billy Joel has been holding monthly concerts there for a few years now as well.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by irreduciblekoan »

Let's just be glad that we live in a world where two hip hop artists as fascinating and wildly different as Kanye and Kendrick actually exist, to give us, in 2016, the two best rap albums of the year so far, which are also wildly different from one another. I love both albums, but here's the thing: I don't really consider either of them 2016's final statements from those artists, which motivates me to not get so deeply invested into the two releases. The Life of Pablo is, I'm pretty certain at this point, a work in progress. I have a feeling that, somewhere down the line, Kanye is going to release it on more traditional formats (ie. CD), and I think that version will be different from the Life of Pablo we already have. So I have stopped listening to it, patiently waiting for what Kanye does with it next.

And Kendrick... it's my understanding that he has a more official album that's coming out later this year. untitled unmastered was just to tide us over with some extra music. On its own, it's an excellent release. But I consider it just a small collection of trinkets, and I'm still patiently awaiting Kendrick's true album of 2016.
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by spiritualized »

My 2p :
I'm with Romain, but then I guess I am out of the loop with regards to music news. I trawl daily through this site, Allmusic and RYM to get my kicks. However, Kanye West is far from a popular icon in France.
I just really Wonder what the fuss is about - and I DO listen to hip-hop, a fair amount of it. I totally agree tho that today's biggest hip hop stars speak a societal, US driven language which doesn't resonate with me at all. (and for that matter, neither does Johnny Halliday :))
We get to hear far more about KW's antics than his actual music. Which is why the only three records I have listened to were: The College Dropout (quite good), Watch the Throne (average) and Late Orchestration, which I hated.

But I like to see all sorts of opinions in this thread, quite interesting :)
Anyway, and going back to Kendrick Lamar, as I just said I'm not going to listen to TLOP but I'll surely give a chance to UU, despite preferring MBDTF and TCD to both TPAB and GKMC. In fact MDBTF is my second favourite hip hop album, after 3FHAR but before TMMLP, S/TLB or ITANOMTHUB. By the way my favourite album ever is TRAFOZSATSFM and my favourite song is LARS.
Only joking of course but when I see whole threads filled by acronyms the only thing that comes to my mind is another acronym: WTF?
This made me laugh out loud in the office, thank you Honorio, nailed it too !!!!
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by luney6 »

spiritualized wrote:My 2p :
I'm with Romain, but then I guess I am out of the loop with regards to music news. I trawl daily through this site, Allmusic and RYM to get my kicks. However, Kanye West is far from a popular icon in France.
I just really Wonder what the fuss is about - and I DO listen to hip-hop, a fair amount of it. I totally agree tho that today's biggest hip hop stars speak a societal, US driven language which doesn't resonate with me at all. (and for that matter, neither does Johnny Halliday :))
We get to hear far more about KW's antics than his actual music. Which is why the only three records I have listened to were: The College Dropout (quite good), Watch the Throne (average) and Late Orchestration, which I hated.
Very very similar to my thoughts. BTW, what's Late Orchestration?
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Nassim »

luney6 wrote:
spiritualized wrote:My 2p :
I'm with Romain, but then I guess I am out of the loop with regards to music news. I trawl daily through this site, Allmusic and RYM to get my kicks. However, Kanye West is far from a popular icon in France.
I just really Wonder what the fuss is about - and I DO listen to hip-hop, a fair amount of it. I totally agree tho that today's biggest hip hop stars speak a societal, US driven language which doesn't resonate with me at all. (and for that matter, neither does Johnny Halliday :))
We get to hear far more about KW's antics than his actual music. Which is why the only three records I have listened to were: The College Dropout (quite good), Watch the Throne (average) and Late Orchestration, which I hated.
Very very similar to my thoughts. BTW, what's Late Orchestration?
It's a live album of songs from his first 2, backed up with a string orchestra. The version of Gone is Worth listening, the rest not that much. Congrats spiritualized for picking the only non AM Kanye West release and the one ranked the lowest ;)
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by spiritualized »

Nassim wrote: Congrats spiritualized for picking the only non AM Kanye West release and the one ranked the lowest ;)
LOL, it just shows why I don't "get" Kanye.
My listening habits are very regimented and I insist on listening the top 200 albums of every year on the EOY spreadsheets, whilst using my own Library, listening to automatic recommendations from RYM, Allmusic and Last.fm and finally the new releases page on RYM...
I am currently running VERY late as I am at about 130 in reverse order of....2013. Yeezus is top of that year, so at some point I will listen to it... :)

Wish me luck. :music-listening:
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Re: Kendrick Lamar's "untitled unmastered."

Post by Jirin »

I like this album. Has the things I like about previous KL albums without as much as the jarring profanity.

One thing that annoys me about some KL tracks is that there are singers who vocally act out the song in exaggerated ways that can be aestechically jarring. This has some of that but toned down a bit.

When Kanye West recently went on Saturday Night Live, there was an incident where his stage was reflecting the ceiling lights in an awkward way, so they removed the reflective floor and he threw a tantrum which got recorded. He repeated 'DON'T FUCK WITH ME' and went on to say he was the most influential living human and '50% more influential than Kubick, Picasso, etc'. He threatened to walk off the show until Lorne Michaels talked him down.
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