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kendrick lamar
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oh my god i can't believe this is
happening it's so funny because everyone
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was suspecting a surprise album drop
like 2 months ago after the elusive
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watch the party die release and when an
album didn't come out that night or that
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weekend or the weekend after that we all
slowly let our guards down i was ready
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to let it go i was ready to wait until
at least february before anything else
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happened maybe something new at the
super bowl halftime show out of nowhere
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on an unsuspecting november 22nd kung fu
kenny emerges from the mist a quick
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teaser video followed not even 5 minutes
later by a full album and i'm so nervous
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i'm so nervous but with that let's begin
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i thought kendrick was introducing
a proverbial mural but it turns out
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someone actually defaced his commemorative
mural in his hometown of compton just
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goes to show how there will always be
people trying to tear down their own
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community's progress / oh why does he keep
doing that
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whoa wait he posted it / the strings are
foreboding with an impending sense of
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battle while let down by some of his
heroes namely lil wayne and snoop dogg
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kendrick has the resilience to endure
it's whatever though
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it's all love
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earlier i panicked when he censored
himself since i'm nosy and i want to
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know who or what he's talking about but
really you could fill in the blank with
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anybody and the message wouldn't change
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oh okay okay
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yes oh i've been excited to hear this
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track since the snippet played in the
intro of the music video for not like us
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apparently it's common for kendrick to
tease things that never come out so i'm
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glad this one made it out of his purgatory
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this instrumental is so yeah
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given the track's repetitive
structure crowd chance and west coast
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bounce kendrick really dropped this
album right on time for us to learn the
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material for a fresh energetic super
bowl halftime show
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i'm so glad that we finally got
this but it was much different than what
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i was expecting
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after seeing tons of “rest in peace” comments i looked up luther
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vandross since the song bears his name he
was a legendary r&b singer who passed
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away in 2005 and this track pays homage
to his lovely musical style and spirit
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it's so lovely to love and what a
beautiful energy glows from this song it
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radiates warmth like sunlight the gentle
tension inviting me in i love love love
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the way kendrick and sza's words dance
around each other supporting each other
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this is so pretty
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for me luther is probably top three
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from this collection just gorgeous
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sza's introduction on this was so perfect
oh my god i was just thinking that's
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probably the reaction that what's his
name travis scott that's probably that's
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probably the reaction that travis scott
wanted out of me introducing sza on
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utopia sorry kendrick got it oh
absolutely beautiful production also
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just all the little pretty high details
in the back oh my god
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when i first saw the track title i took
it as a religious reference however my
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personal religious lens might be skewed
since i doubt kendrick lamar is
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referring to joseph smith's first vision
at the garden
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now i look at it more like
kendrick has done a lot to take care of
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his loved ones his community and beyond
he's tended his garden and he deserves
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to see its beauty
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a good gardener must often
destroy to create kendrick pulls weeds
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to protect protect his blooms and cuts
away dead branches for new growth he
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tends his garden with equal parts love
and violence understanding that both are
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necessary for life to flourish
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what is that sound / what a sinister
beat it sounds like an evil spirit
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laughing or a leaky pipe in a concrete
cell where jigsaw's got me chained up the
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sparse instrumental lets kendrick unleash
his pen
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a therapeutic flow
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the added high-pitched synthesiser lead
and airy kick drum create even more
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hypnotic intensity like a command with
an underlying threat
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i really loved dody's verse and voice so
i looked him up he's a seriously
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underground rapper who had been locked
up since 2017 or 2018 yet still dropped
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a bunch of music in the meantime now
that's dedication to the craft and i
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think kendrick saw it in him too
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very different production style to
what i uh listened to before oh mustard
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tracks five and six both very
self-important i think that it's implied
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i think that it's very obvious that
kendrick had quite the year this year
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and quite the career in general like all
throughout his artistry very proud of
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him i definitely think that he deserves
all of his flowers but i just can't help
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but think like of all of the drake fans
for example just based off what they've
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commented on my videos they're
definitely going to uh take that and
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run with it kind of putting him down for
not being so humble about it i think
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it's kind of not human to be humble
about it at this point after the entire
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world has been chanting you know that
that he's one of the greatest artists of
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all time so i don't know what can you do
what can you do does that even make
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sense i don't know
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much of kendrick's music explores legacy
inheritance cycles so i'm not surprised
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to hear him discuss reincarnation i mean
i know he recently told us he hasn't
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done ayahuasca but psychedelic culture and
spiritual seeking have clearly shaped
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oh dude wait
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who is he talking about
chitlin circuit yeah i've already seen
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endless debates theorizing who's who
this alone shows me that the specifics
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don't matter his conversation with god
frames reincarnation as punishment
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trapping him in a loop body after body
until he can prove himself
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nevertheless in the days that the
prophecies of isaiah shall be fulfilled
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men shall know of assurity at the times
when they shall come to pass i'm not
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religious anymore but yeah i'm pretty
familiar with isaiah
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oh my goodness the storytelling in this
one that's crazy and who is he talking
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about here i don't know i don't know enough
history i'm going to have to do a little
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bit of research on this one but the
concept beautiful the concept beautiful
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it's the screens those darn
screens ruining society these days
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oh but unironically kendrick has been
very vocal about getting off the screens
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and going out to do the work to make the
world a better place step one is to turn
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and this is a rallying cry the song is
bursting with hype and horns and urgency
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to engage with the world to pay your
rent with meaningful action
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no okay i don't know where we left off whatever
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oh my god mustard
i was thinking some of the flow in tv
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off and then i can't remember one of the
earlier songs sounded very similar to
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the flow in not like us i guess i can't
be mad considering that's uh one of his
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biggest songs ever if not the biggest i
don't know
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i don't know anything about the la
dodgers aside from the name case in
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point i had to google which sport they
play turns out they're a major league
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baseball team bought from brooklyn
bringing america's favorite pastime to
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the west coast and growing into one of
the mlb's most successful franchises a
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big source of pride in the city
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there are so many people on this
track i only recognize sam dew and roddy
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ricch but it's amazing to watch kendrick
celebrate so many many west coast folks
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in this love letter to la
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i just love how much kendrick loves
his home can't relate
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i feel like we've been playing peekaboo
with kendrick this entire year with so
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many unexpected and unconventional
surprise drops from him including this
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album oh we've been so blessed
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me trying to talk myself off
the ledge
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the genius annotations say that this is
dody again but the official links
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clarify it's an artist named a azchike i
guess that's a slight oversight on an
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album with hidden features when you're
trying to promote smaller artists
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that's going to be stuck in my head
forever heart part six
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canon canon because it's in the album
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and not released beforehand
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on first listen this was an
instant favorite it's just so striking
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nostalgic full of admiration and that title
reclaiming the heart part six this is
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what this was all for
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oh this is so visual so beautiful
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i still haven't listened to the other
heart parts yet but i do know they're
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supposed to be thematically connected to
the following body of work while a core
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theme of gnx seems to be about
spotlighting the west coast and
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influence i like the idea of kendrick
keeping his heart for himself safely
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protected by the album's other songs
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oh i had no clue all those artists he
just mentioned were meant to be with him
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in a group called black hippy that
makes this track make so much more sense
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damn now i'm kind of sad that it never
came together at least i kind of got to
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hear all of them in the black panther album
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enimigo / the final catwalk shows a few more
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west coast artists flaunting their skills
and they all deliver i'd love to know
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the stories of how kendrick picked each
and every feature
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i like peysoh's voice hi
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the reverse strings
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i wonder why this track became
the title track i guess a big part of it
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is the call for respect recognition and
street credit speaking of streets the
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gnx is kendrick's coveted classic
vehicle a powerful car with street
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dominance okay fine i had to google gnx
i know nothing about cars in fact i hate them
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youngthreat's voice very threatening
indeed um i haven't heard of these artists
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i wonder if they're also from compton
since in that previous song he mentioned
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that he was bringing some of his people
from home on the scene i don't know if
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he was referring to the the pop out or
to these artists gnx same as the album
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title i'm going to take a wild guess
and assume it's the name of this car
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god, re-listening to this after
knowing the twist ending makes me feel
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so slow like duh he made it so obvious
every single line he totally had me
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fooled into thinking that this was a
love letter to whitney i guess the
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surprises don't stop
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i should have known though he has a
track record of this like in wesley's
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theory at first i did love you but now i
just want to fuck that whole song was
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actually about the music industry or
that similar comparison between writing
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and romance on poetic justice
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the song also reminds me
stylistically of how much a dollar cost
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due to the detailed storytelling how
much tension it builds up as the
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narrative unfolds and the gut punch
reveal at the end kendrick is leaving us
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with a reminder of just how masterful he
is in his craft
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oh this one most reminiscent of mr
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morale for me really nice to see the uh
the influence or the consistency
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whatever you want to chalk that up to
happy to see sza on here again i really
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love their chemistry i know that she
interviewed him for that uh i think it
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was harper's bazaar magazine in general
i think that sza has a very nice aura
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around her very interesting album a
little i think the least cohesive at
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least upon first glance very short also
12 tracks 44 minutes very lovely though
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very lovely i loved it i don't even know
if i have much to say none of this
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really left me like pondering as much as
the other albums have but i'm sure
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there's a lot of influence a lot of
reference and homage that i'm missing
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that's just going over my head i know
that happens a lot especially with
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kendrick and i'm sure that you will let
me know in the comments as you tend to
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do so thank you so much for listening
with me i hope you're doing well no one
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really knows what's coming next it'll
probably be chromakopia because i didn't
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even have the chance to finish that
video before kendrick dropped this album
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so until then stay tuned stay safe and
be kind