Album Rating: 5.0

Yes because people think that Kendrick does little no wrong and that he's some celestial being sent from the stars to grace us with his average lyrics and music.



I'm saying that the album itself and commenting on it the way you guys do is pretentious.



Also, I don't see why and don't agree I would appreciate if you helped me understand thx

How exactly was/is this album important?

Album Rating: 5.0

Thats what I'm wondering yeah

Album Rating: 5.0

Oh I didn't even see your message source lol. It's not a 2, it's just horribly overrated. This used to be the hardest of 5s for me but it's aged poorly as I've gotten older. Simply entry level hip hop.

Album Rating: 5.0

THIS isn't average at all. In any way. Like it or hate it. You only call it pretentious because it's on a platform, as an album, to be speculated about and judged. And it might be. To a degree, a lot of art/music can be called pretentious. Would it be pretentious if some dude was just sitting down and hanging out, explaining his thoughts? I dunno. I think people are allowed to make concept records if they want. I think the difference is in the sincerity of the place the statement comes from.



It's also not like I can only talk about good orchestral music in musical terms and I'm not allowed to do the same thing with a rap record. I'd argue about Jane Doe or some other record I love the same way.



All that being said, I don't think Kendrick is perfect AT ALL. lol Damn definitely had some bad attempts at pop songs on it tbh. And I don't really care for a lot of the features and collabs he's been doing after that album.

Gotta do your part to help lower the average Drifter

Album Rating: 5.0

"Would it be pretentious if some dude was just sitting down and hanging out, explaining his thoughts?"



It depends on how they do it, the words they choose, the way they say it. Kendrick does this terribly on here.



Also not to mention the fucking obvious biting on this album





Also how was this album important?

Album Rating: 5.0

Why did he do it terribly?



What did he obviously bite on this? Tons of influences all across the board sure, but what did he just bite with no originality?



It's just a beautiful love letter to blackness and black music, and it's those things expressed in a way that no one else has QUITE done before. In the 2010's how many popular rappers even cared to discuss the subject matter before this album's release?



Edit: How many other records even sound like this?

Album Rating: 5.0

Try nearly and Suga Free song. He copies him completely, even using the same type of adlibs just changing the words on King Kunta.

Album Rating: 5.0

By terrible I'm saying he did it in a cringey way



I don't see how that makes this an important album. I could name you plenty of albums I like and dislike that don't sound like anything else but that doesn't make it important.



"It's just a beautiful love letter to blackness and black music, and it's those things expressed in a way that no one else has QUITE done before."



But like how?

Album Rating: 5.0

I've heard Suga Free and dude bangs, but if you think Kendrick is ripping him off and not just tributing G Funk as a whole I don't know what to tell you. Pretty different production styles too.



Also if an album doesn't sound like anything else and people like it, that's EXACTLY what can make something important. Not the only thing, but it's a valid way to be important among others.



The time frame that it came out in makes it important too. I repeat, NO rappers as big as Kendrick in the 2010's were even attempting shit like this. Still really aren't tbh. Soul, funk, jazz and old school r&b are all but abandoned in the soundcloud era. The only people doing anything close are already old. Not saying those influences have to be present either, times change. But that they're absent in the mainstream is the truth.



And the lyrical and sonic concepts are just unique enough to be original. The journey of the songs, the poem that links them together. Of course other greats/students of the old school like Outkast and The Roots do loosely similar things, but not in the same way. Lots of race politics going on in 2015 that are still going on that make this topical too, when someone like say Drake wouldn't dare even speak on it.

Album Rating: 5.0

A sweeping, grandiose message of pride, solidarity, and love to black people from a black artist who is simultaneously paying homage to older genres of music that were predominantly black, released in the midst of perhaps the most tense period of U.S. racial relations since the 1960s...



...that seems like a pretty strong case for this album's importance to me.

Album Rating: 2.0

that could describe like 50% of underground hip hop tho

Album Rating: 2.0

"Also if an album doesn't sound like anything else and people like it, that's EXACTLY what can make something important."



rap with jazz doesn't sound like anything else?



"Soul, funk, jazz and old school r&b are all but abandoned in the soundcloud era."



this is insultingly wrong



"And the lyrical and sonic concepts are just unique enough to be original."



lmao

Album Rating: 5.0

"that could describe like 50% of underground hip hop tho"



I mean if we're arguing about importance here than surely a mainstream album has an enormous leg up over "underground" hip hop records because of how many more people it affects...and again, the timing of this album is key as well

Album Rating: 5.0

!!^^ Plus it's just GOOD. lol Like Institutionalized has one of my favorite jazz rap beats, with one of Snoop's best performances in years. It's got sad, contemplative, soulful balladry like U and NYC-style hardcore cuts like Blacker the Berry. For Free? is Kendrick's take on some Gil Scott Heron type shit and it's fire. The saxes sexily noodling on like every track? C'mon. Fire hooks. No 808's. Kendrick can obviously rap better than most of his peers and demonstrates it on plenty of these songs. dude etc etc

Album Rating: 5.0

"rap with jazz doesn't sound like anything else?"



lol "rap with jazz" is the biggest understatement. Plus, there's more than one way to mix two genres. It's not like every jazz rap record sounds the same or is created equal, or that this is just jazz rap in the first place.



"this is insultingly wrong"



Who's a soundcloud/trap rapper that's big right now that uses those influences a lot? Enlighten me please.



"lmao"



LMAO Wow, a non-argument.

Album Rating: 5.0

"with one of Snoop's best performances in years."



I highly highly doubt you've listened to all of his material the past few years. Although I will agree it is superb.



I hope you realize how big the underground scene really is. It may be called underground just cus its not necessarily on the radio but there's still a big audience for it. Also, this IS jazz rap and can be boiled down to that. The fact that he goes between different sub genres is nothing new. Also, just because this doesn't sound like other things doesn't make it super significant. In fact, nothing on here is really new he's just doing it layer than artists from years ago did.



Snoop's got a song that could've fit on here smoothly if it just had different rapping/lyrics called "Fresh Pair of Panties", 2004



Political rapper Paris has a song called 44 Wayz that could fit in here with it's jazziness and thats from 1997



Like I said stuff he's done on here has been done before, he just happens to be a superstar doing it.





And the melding of funk, rnb, soul, and rap has again been dome plenty of times

Album Rating: 5.0

'It's not like every jazz rap record sounds the same or is created equal, or that this is just jazz rap in the first place.'



Yes it is

Album Rating: 5.0

Kendrick may be doing a tribute to Suga Free, but as a HUGE fan of Free, it makes that song just unlistenable and if you really do know him idk how you can't feel the same when it's just a very weak impression. Completely copies the flow, adlibs, cadence, just everything it's so hard to listen to.