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Up until a week ago I never heard kendrick lamar. You probably don't believe me, but if I don't listen to the radio, watch TV or read music mags or blogs, how would I have?
Maybe I saw the DNA video. But it didn't stick with me. And maybe "I," but I'm so sick of that Isley bros sample it too went past me.
But I've been spending time with good kid, MADD city. I can't say my mind was blown away at once. It's been track by track, a slow appreciation.
I think "Money Trees" was the one that really pulled me in. I'm not sure how many songs about the street I've heard, but this might be the first where I actually FELT the sheer humanity of living in urban poverty. "Oh, real people live there." It's a very emotional song and I find it painful to listen to.
The saddest lines are by Jay Rock: "Bitches sellin' pussy, niggas sellin' drugs
But it's all good"
How it is "all good?" How awful must life get for that to be all good?
Does everyone get that "The one in front of the gun lives forever" is super Christian? If Edmund Spencer or John Milton were in the game, they'd write lines like this.
Lamar's a moralist! How refreshing. "Swimming Pools" takes the party song and flips it on its head.
In fact, is he considered gangster rap? I like to think of him as pushing the sub-genre to a new place, or maybe just flipping expectations. Or maybe he actually turns it into the "reality rap" so many practitioners have claimed it was all along (but wasn't really--too cartoony).
All I know is I hear gangster rap's language, environment and situations, but in a whole new context, re-molded for Lamar's moralistic (in the best sense) purposes.
And I haven't mentioned the music, which is epic and minimalist at the same time.
I'm sure I sound really naive. Fuck you. It's new to me. Exciting stuff. I have Pimp and Untitled as well but haven't really dived in. I can't guess where this fellow's going.
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