Kendrick Lamar has been in the public eye for the past five years and has undergone a meteoric rise in popularity in the last three. In his breakout studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city, Lamar paid his respects to multiple west coast icons including Dr. Dre. Years later, Lamar holds notoriety that rivals that of Dre’s considerable clout in the rap industry.
Lamar’s first release to gain public attention was his fourth mixtape, Overly Dedicated, which he soon followed up with his debut underground hit, Section.80. good kid, m.A.A.d city followed soon after in 2012 and the album gained great acclaim for its nostalgic callbacks to the past of west coast hip-hop, as well as its autobiographical features.
Now, a year out from his other critically-acclaimed album To Pimp A Butterfly, Lamar has released a compilation of tracks from his recording sessions for To Pimp a Butterfly. This compilation/extended play is titled untitled unmastered.
good kid, m.A.A.d was such a neatly wrapped love letter to hip-hop that many doubted that Kendrick’s subsequent release could even touch the quality of the LP.
In late 2014 he began To Pimp A Butterfly’s rollout with the divisive lead single “i” and in March 2015, he assuaged all thoughts of disappointment with one of the biggest and most socially-conscious albums of 2015.
After the silence surrounding what Kendrick would be doing next, he released untitled unmastered. this past Friday. Its connections to To Pimp A Butterfly are blaring and intentional. Perhaps the most obvious connection is the recurring vignettes that open tracks. In To Pimp A Butterfly, this took the form of a poem from Kendrick to deceased rapper Tupac Shakur and here it takes the form of a quasi-sarcastic celebration: “Pimp, pimp! Hooray!” The celebration seems to be on the prophetic success of To Pimp A Butterfly (as this EP was recorded prior to the album’s release).
untitled unmastered. also features a large contribution from frequent Kendrick collaborator Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner. Thundercat brings his signature bass-lines and influential touch to the tracks that he runs through.
The EP opens with a smooth bass-line over a spoken word verse, similar to the way To Pimp A Butterfly began. A minute and a half in the bassline is subbed out for a quick moving beat and Lamar spitting a verse.
This intro track sets the tone for the release and shows that almost every song has two faces. What may start out as a quick-paced track with hard-hitting punchlines could become a soul-felt verse over distant trumpets by the song’s conclusion. “untitled 01” ends with a bridge that leads directly to the next track, which is one of the strongest.
“Get God on the phone!” shouts Kendrick on one of the EP’s standout tracks, “untitled 02.” The track was recorded in 2014, prior to the release of To Pimp A Butterfly but still manages to accurately predict that album’s great success.
The track feels like the fulfillment of the common braggadocio, world-beater commentary that usually filters out during the initial singles for an album. It’s interesting to see this usually shallow talk backed up to such a level.
On “untitled 02,” Lamar draws a clear parallel to an infamous quote from Fannie Lou Hamer, a prominent civil rights activist.
“I’m sick and tired of being tired,” Lamar raps.
The same social, political and economic strife that Kendrick has become known to criticize is still here. This particular repurposing of a famous civil rights leader’s lines works itself well into an earworm of a song.
“untitled 03” feels similar to “King Kunta,” with singer Bilal featuring heavily.
Another point that is interesting about the release is the aggression that Kendrick brings to some of the tracks. The way that his flow and cadence switches makes some of the song reminiscent of the dual accents of Detroit rapper Danny Brown.
“I got one hundred on my dash, got 200 in my bunk!” Lamar raps on “untitled 05”, a track that he partially premiered during his controversial Grammys performance in February. Later on in the track Top Dawg Entertainment affiliate Punch hopped on the track with a strong verse that is the EP’s strongest feature. Kendrick also welcomes Anna Wise back as she sings the song’s hook.
“Untitled 06” has a surprising feature in CeeLo Green of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley, considering Green’s recent notoriety for his sexual assault court cases as well as his comments in the wake of the case. Green gives new flavor and possibly breathes new life into his career with this track. The end result of Lamar and Green together is a smooth rap and R&B mix that will get your head nodding and arms moving.
“Untitled 07” is the EP’s penultimate track and features a production with clear southern rap influences. The track has a hard-hitting verse from Kendrick and a catchy hook/ad-lib that pulls listeners into the song.
Halfway through the song, the beat switches and eventually fades out before becoming a politically fueled acoustic ballad by Kendrick. The track quality is fairly lo-fi, but that adds to the appeal that these tracks have in Kendrick’s catalog, only released due to the demand for his music.
Untitled, unmastered also features the social commentary and funk mix that pulled together Butterfly, and this is most apparent on “untitled 08.” The song, which initially premiered on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, features the P-funk stylings and the boogie-tempting bassline that made the dance-able songs on Butterfly so poignant.
The EP comes to a close with that same echoing vignette that begins a number of tracks. “Pimp pimp, hooray” rings out in a celebratory tone and silence follows. With this release, anyone should be excited for what rap’s current heavy-hitter has coming up for the near future.
Untitled unmastered isn’t just a great statement for Kendrick; It stands as a strong statement for the entire Top Dawg Entertainment family (which includes rappers like Schoolboy Q and Isaiah Rashad). This EP exists as a companion piece to Butterfly and while it doesn’t hit as hard as its sister project, anyone who considers himself a fan of hip-hop or Kendrick should definitely give this release a spin.
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