video review: 'DAMN.' by kendrick lamar

Well, this turned out pretty damn awesome, have to say. Not quite at the level of his greats, but eh, that happens, to follow To Pimp A Butterfly would have been crazy...

Anyway, next up... oh god, stay tuned for this one...

album review: 'DAMN.' by kendrick lamar

I've talked a little before about a 'review-proof' album. The record that you know that everyone is going to buy and talk about and thus have a firmly established opinion on well-before you have time to really state yours. I think it's even more a truism today, in the age of reaction videos where more than a dozen people will have uploaded something before I even get that chance to hear it. And that's not counting the critics who will rush to have something up to get the page views of being the first one out and not take the necessary time to digest the record. And sure, I myself can be guilty of that last one, but if there's one thing I've felt increasingly sure about with Patreon, it's that my audience will generally be remarkably accommodating to me taking my time to talk about it when it's done.

But hell, I wanted to hear this: it's Kendrick. The Compton rapper who despite a string of radio guest verses I found utterly forgettable was known for insanely strong albums. I don't think it's hyperbole when I say that good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp A Butterfly are some of the best records of the decade - hell, even a collection of b-sides on untitled, unmastered. were better than the majority of projects people dropped last year. Did I have concerns going into this record? Well, sure, but that was more because he's the sort of rapper where it's not a question of when he'd slip, but if - and that's not something you'd say about a lot of people.

That said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned. 'HUMBLE.' was good, sure, but I didn't love it as much as some hardcore fans did, and it seemed to reflect a simplification of flow and style that Kendrick didn't need. I had hoped it might just be a momentary thing - it's not like 'i' was reflective of To Pimp A Butterfly - but there was also the timing to consider. I get striking while the iron is hot with buzz in the mainstream, but I'm not going to deny I was concerned that the time hadn't been taken to refine a sharper project. But again, that wasn't going to stop me from listening to DAMN., and I think I've wasted just about enough of your time, so how did it go?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 22, 2017 (VIDEO)

Oh wow, this week took a lot out of me... lot to say, and a fair bit of controversy too (because of course there was).

Beyond that... fuck, you know what's coming. Enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 22, 2017

I'm honestly not sure where to even start with this week - mostly because it seems overshadowed by the biggest story here, being the huge top ten debut that seems like the first serious threat that our top spot has faced in some time. But there's other stories about this week that deserve some consideration, including major shakeups in country and other disruptive singles. Also, Kodak Black happened for some ungodly reason, but we'll get to that.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 15, 2017 (VIDEO)

Yes, I know this is up early. That's because it's a short week and I wanted to get this done and crash early, I need my sleep.

Anyway, Freddie Gibbs and maybe (just maybe) someone else tomorrow too, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 15, 2017

So this is the sort of week on the charts that I like. Not just that it's a cooldown week and we got a pretty small list of new arrivals, but also because it's the sort of delayed reaction to a big smash that will often tell you a lot more about what songs actually have momentum. Plus, the majority of this week was watching Drake songs lose, and I can't say that's entirely a bad thing either!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 17, 2016 (VIDEO)

Well, this took entirely too long to finish editing... go figure, but man, so many songs that'll be gone in a day or two...

But anyway, next up is, well, it surprised me. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - december 17, 2016

I called it last week, and now here it is. Folks, this is the week of The Weeknd, because of at this moment, every single song from his album Starboy either entered, re-entered, or rose up the Hot 100 this week. That's a total of eighteen songs - and what's all the more crazy is that he didn't encompass every debut this week, thank you so very much Disney. And what concerns me more than anything is overexposure - that's one of the biggest factors that lies at the roots of how much I turned on Drake throughout this last year... so let's hope this doesn't hit The Weeknd as badly as I might expect.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 29, 2016 (VIDEO)

So this was way too much fun. No joke, I had more fun editing the 'meme' segment of this review than any other time I've edited a video - it was weird and zany and fun, I dug it! Might see more of it if more memes chart, I could do this Fantano homage pretty regularly (and yes, he did give me permission).

Next up, JoJo, and then Blackberry Smoke, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 29, 2016

So this week was weird. I'm not going to say it was a bad week - it definitely wasn't, there's enough quality coming up new that I'm not going to call this precisely bad - but there are both shifts and new arrivals that extend all the way to the top ten that deserve some investigation, so this episode might run long, for as strange as things are...

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 24, 2016 (VIDEO)

Well, this happened - I can imagine people might be a little surprised that I'd actually brand a Kendrick verse as subpar... but yeah, it happens, he hasn't quite mastered the tactic of coasting on pop guest verses yet like Lil Wayne (in his prime) or Ludacris could do effortlessly. The king does have weaknesses, folks.

Beyond that... I think I'm about ready to talk about Nick Cave. Brace yourselves, folks: this one gets heavy. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - september 24, 2016

Do you ever have those weeks where you were expecting a lot to happen... only for very little to actually materialize? I was expecting Lady Gaga to debut, for Travis Scott's album to make a major splash, for some pretty significant shakeups... and yet I didn't really see that, as we otherwise had a pretty quiet week, with a sparse number of debuts, a few returning entries, and overall very little to complain about. 

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 20, 2016 (VIDEO)

Bit of an odd, unstable week here. Guarantee it's going to be rough in upcoming weeks - I have that odd feeling we're on the precipice of a major shift, just watch.

Anyway, next up is Dinosaur Jr., so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - august 20, 2016

So I can't be the only one who thinks that the charts are a little unstable right now, am I? Now that the summer lull has faded for good, we might not have gotten many new songs this week but it doesn't shake the feeling it's only a matter of time before everything is thrown into chaos. Keep in mind that we still have a solid fourteen weeks left - there are songs that could debut in the next few weeks that'll make the year end list, and if they debut higher they'll need even less time.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 14, 2016 (VIDEO)

So yeah, this week was awesome... and yet given that Drake is probably going to smash most of this way next week, it's all too brief. Eh, it happens.

And also on a downer note, I've got the next review dropping tonight, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 14, 2016

So remember when I said last week the turbulence wasn't going away any time soon? Yeah, this week proved that in spades, because not only did Beyonce's Lemonade hit like a ship from Heaven, Prince's tracks only picked up more traction on the Hot 100 and holy shit, somehow the charts got kind of amazing this week! And I mean that beyond just the new arrivals: this sort of shakeup I suspect will have longer lasting impacts than many might think.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 26, 2016 (VIDEO)

It was better, but Lord only know that when Ariana comes in next week where the charts will take us - there's too much instability at the top to hold for long.

Regardless, Flatbush Zombies coming tonight, then probably going to finally cover that Mount Moriah or Denzel Curry... and then coming up this weekend is one of my most anticipated projects of this year, so definitely stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 26, 2016

So I get the feeling that the universe saw the charts last week, wondered how the hell they could let that much concentrated awful pile up, and sprung into action to correct it. And as a result... okay, it wasn't amazing, but definitely a major improvement. And while I knew Kendrick was going to land a few songs - thankfully enough to compensate for Meghan Trainor - I didn't expect that we'd also get hits from Jake Owen and Shakira, two of the most naturally charismatic performers in the past fifteen years, so we're bound to get an upswing, right?

video review: 'untitled unmastered' by kendrick lamar

Well, this turned out better than expected. Then again, it's Kendrick, so go figure.

Next up, I think I need to talk about some black metal, so stay tuned!

album review: 'untitled unmastered.' by kendrick lamar

Let's talk a little bit about performance art, and Kendrick Lamar specifically.

Now I don't think anyone can deny, even if you're not a Kendrick Lamar fan, that he hasn't made a considerable impact in modern hip-hop, and not just on record. Indeed, one thing that has always stood out for me is how strong a live performer he is, bringing the same sort of visceral energy he has on record into some pretty potent songs with impressive stagecraft. To put it another way, very few artists would ever dare to perform a song as visceral as 'The Blacker The Berry' at the Grammys. You could easily make the argument that Kendrick takes his live performances as opportunities to craft unique and incendiary artistic statements outside of just the music, showing a rare gift for theater that I really appreciate.

And nowhere is that more apparent than the 'untitled' series. For those of you who aren't aware, through a series of live shows Kendrick has been slipping in tracks that nobody recognized from any album. They had no name or recorded version, the only time you could hear them was if you found a live video - in other words, the definition of modern performance art. And while I doubted they were free-form pieces that Kendrick was coming up with off the top of his head mid-performance, they were very much unique in their presentation, to the point where it might have been inevitable for them to be bundled and sold eventually, I almost didn't want it. There's something intangible in the live spontaneity of the performance that felt truly special, and to put it on wax... well, would the energy be the same, would they have the same magic?

Well, now it's time to test that theory, because out of nowhere Kendrick released a surprise record called untitled unmastered containing eight of these mysterious unnamed tracks, and because it's Kendrick Lamar, everyone online lost their minds. To me, I had significantly lower expectations - not just that these might not capture the spark of performance, but might just end up being a collection of glorified b-sides not good enough to land on To Pimp A Butterfly or good kid, MAAD city. Was I right?