00:00 - 00:02
kendrick lamar
00:04 - 00:08
oh my god i can't believe this is
happening it's so funny because everyone
00:08 - 00:11
was suspecting a surprise album drop
like 2 months ago after the elusive
00:11 - 00:15
watch the party die release and when an
album didn't come out that night or that
00:15 - 00:19
weekend or the weekend after that we all
slowly let our guards down i was ready
00:19 - 00:23
to let it go i was ready to wait until
at least february before anything else
00:23 - 00:26
happened maybe something new at the
super bowl halftime show out of nowhere
00:26 - 00:30
on an unsuspecting november 22nd kung fu
kenny emerges from the mist a quick
00:30 - 00:36
teaser video followed not even 5 minutes
later by a full album and i'm so nervous
00:36 - 00:40
i'm so nervous but with that let's begin
00:54 - 00:58
i thought kendrick was introducing
a proverbial mural but it turns out
00:58 - 01:02
someone actually defaced his commemorative
mural in his hometown of compton just
01:02 - 01:05
goes to show how there will always be
people trying to tear down their own
01:05 - 01:10
community's progress / oh why does he keep
doing that
01:47 - 01:53
whoa wait he posted it / the strings are
foreboding with an impending sense of
01:53 - 01:57
battle while let down by some of his
heroes namely lil wayne and snoop dogg
01:57 - 02:01
kendrick has the resilience to endure
it's whatever though
02:19 - 02:22
it's all love
02:45 - 02:49
earlier i panicked when he censored
himself since i'm nosy and i want to
02:49 - 02:53
know who or what he's talking about but
really you could fill in the blank with
02:53 - 02:57
anybody and the message wouldn't change
03:09 - 03:13
oh okay okay
03:23 - 03:27
yes oh i've been excited to hear this
03:27 - 03:31
track since the snippet played in the
intro of the music video for not like us
03:31 - 03:34
apparently it's common for kendrick to
tease things that never come out so i'm
03:34 - 03:37
glad this one made it out of his purgatory
03:48 - 03:53
this instrumental is so yeah
04:06 - 04:10
given the track's repetitive
structure crowd chance and west coast
04:10 - 04:13
bounce kendrick really dropped this
album right on time for us to learn the
04:13 - 04:18
material for a fresh energetic super
bowl halftime show
04:26 - 04:30
i'm so glad that we finally got
this but it was much different than what
04:30 - 04:32
i was expecting
04:40 - 04:44
after seeing tons of “rest in peace” comments i looked up luther
04:44 - 04:48
vandross since the song bears his name he
was a legendary r&b singer who passed
04:48 - 04:56
away in 2005 and this track pays homage
to his lovely musical style and spirit
05:18 - 05:23
it's so lovely to love and what a
beautiful energy glows from this song it
05:23 - 05:27
radiates warmth like sunlight the gentle
tension inviting me in i love love love
05:27 - 05:32
the way kendrick and sza's words dance
around each other supporting each other
05:39 - 05:44
this is so pretty
05:48 - 05:53
for me luther is probably top three
05:53 - 05:58
from this collection just gorgeous
06:01 - 06:04
sza's introduction on this was so perfect
oh my god i was just thinking that's
06:04 - 06:09
probably the reaction that what's his
name travis scott that's probably that's
06:09 - 06:12
probably the reaction that travis scott
wanted out of me introducing sza on
06:12 - 06:17
utopia sorry kendrick got it oh
absolutely beautiful production also
06:17 - 06:24
just all the little pretty high details
in the back oh my god
06:33 - 06:36
when i first saw the track title i took
it as a religious reference however my
06:36 - 06:40
personal religious lens might be skewed
since i doubt kendrick lamar is
06:40 - 06:44
referring to joseph smith's first vision
at the garden
06:58 - 07:02
now i look at it more like
kendrick has done a lot to take care of
07:02 - 07:06
his loved ones his community and beyond
he's tended his garden and he deserves
07:06 - 07:09
to see its beauty
07:24 - 07:29
a good gardener must often
destroy to create kendrick pulls weeds
07:29 - 07:32
to protect protect his blooms and cuts
away dead branches for new growth he
07:32 - 07:36
tends his garden with equal parts love
and violence understanding that both are
07:36 - 07:39
necessary for life to flourish
08:19 - 08:24
what is that sound / what a sinister
beat it sounds like an evil spirit
08:24 - 08:29
laughing or a leaky pipe in a concrete
cell where jigsaw's got me chained up the
08:29 - 08:31
sparse instrumental lets kendrick unleash
his pen
08:31 - 08:36
a therapeutic flow
09:00 - 09:04
the added high-pitched synthesiser lead
and airy kick drum create even more
09:04 - 09:10
hypnotic intensity like a command with
an underlying threat
09:38 - 09:42
i really loved dody's verse and voice so
i looked him up he's a seriously
09:42 - 09:46
underground rapper who had been locked
up since 2017 or 2018 yet still dropped
09:46 - 09:50
a bunch of music in the meantime now
that's dedication to the craft and i
09:50 - 09:53
think kendrick saw it in him too
09:56 - 10:01
very different production style to
what i uh listened to before oh mustard
10:01 - 10:07
tracks five and six both very
self-important i think that it's implied
10:07 - 10:11
i think that it's very obvious that
kendrick had quite the year this year
10:11 - 10:15
and quite the career in general like all
throughout his artistry very proud of
10:15 - 10:18
him i definitely think that he deserves
all of his flowers but i just can't help
10:18 - 10:23
but think like of all of the drake fans
for example just based off what they've
10:23 - 10:27
commented on my videos they're
definitely going to uh take that and
10:27 - 10:30
run with it kind of putting him down for
not being so humble about it i think
10:30 - 10:34
it's kind of not human to be humble
about it at this point after the entire
10:34 - 10:37
world has been chanting you know that
that he's one of the greatest artists of
10:37 - 10:41
all time so i don't know what can you do
what can you do does that even make
10:41 - 10:45
sense i don't know
11:04 - 11:09
much of kendrick's music explores legacy
inheritance cycles so i'm not surprised
11:09 - 11:13
to hear him discuss reincarnation i mean
i know he recently told us he hasn't
11:13 - 11:17
done ayahuasca but psychedelic culture and
spiritual seeking have clearly shaped
11:34 - 11:37
oh dude wait
11:56 - 12:04
who is he talking about
chitlin circuit yeah i've already seen
12:04 - 12:07
endless debates theorizing who's who
this alone shows me that the specifics
12:07 - 12:11
don't matter his conversation with god
frames reincarnation as punishment
12:11 - 12:17
trapping him in a loop body after body
until he can prove himself
12:39 - 12:42
nevertheless in the days that the
prophecies of isaiah shall be fulfilled
12:42 - 12:46
men shall know of assurity at the times
when they shall come to pass i'm not
12:46 - 12:52
religious anymore but yeah i'm pretty
familiar with isaiah
13:00 - 13:05
oh my goodness the storytelling in this
one that's crazy and who is he talking
13:05 - 13:09
about here i don't know i don't know enough
history i'm going to have to do a little
13:09 - 13:15
bit of research on this one but the
concept beautiful the concept beautiful
13:24 - 13:29
it's the screens those darn
screens ruining society these days
13:29 - 13:33
oh but unironically kendrick has been
very vocal about getting off the screens
13:33 - 13:37
and going out to do the work to make the
world a better place step one is to turn
14:33 - 14:37
and this is a rallying cry the song is
bursting with hype and horns and urgency
14:37 - 14:42
to engage with the world to pay your
rent with meaningful action
14:56 - 15:01
no okay i don't know where we left off whatever
15:25 - 15:31
oh my god mustard
i was thinking some of the flow in tv
15:31 - 15:35
off and then i can't remember one of the
earlier songs sounded very similar to
15:35 - 15:39
the flow in not like us i guess i can't
be mad considering that's uh one of his
15:39 - 15:43
biggest songs ever if not the biggest i
don't know
15:52 - 15:56
i don't know anything about the la
dodgers aside from the name case in
15:56 - 16:00
point i had to google which sport they
play turns out they're a major league
16:00 - 16:03
baseball team bought from brooklyn
bringing america's favorite pastime to
16:03 - 16:08
the west coast and growing into one of
the mlb's most successful franchises a
16:08 - 16:11
big source of pride in the city
16:21 - 16:26
there are so many people on this
track i only recognize sam dew and roddy
16:26 - 16:30
ricch but it's amazing to watch kendrick
celebrate so many many west coast folks
16:30 - 16:33
in this love letter to la
16:39 - 16:45
i just love how much kendrick loves
his home can't relate
17:03 - 17:07
i feel like we've been playing peekaboo
with kendrick this entire year with so
17:07 - 17:10
many unexpected and unconventional
surprise drops from him including this
17:10 - 17:14
album oh we've been so blessed
17:25 - 17:30
me trying to talk myself off
the ledge
17:45 - 17:49
the genius annotations say that this is
dody again but the official links
17:49 - 17:53
clarify it's an artist named a azchike i
guess that's a slight oversight on an
17:53 - 17:59
album with hidden features when you're
trying to promote smaller artists
17:59 - 18:05
that's going to be stuck in my head
forever heart part six
18:05 - 18:10
canon canon because it's in the album
18:10 - 18:13
and not released beforehand
18:21 - 18:26
on first listen this was an
instant favorite it's just so striking
18:26 - 18:31
nostalgic full of admiration and that title
reclaiming the heart part six this is
18:31 - 18:34
what this was all for
18:44 - 18:50
oh this is so visual so beautiful
19:14 - 19:17
i still haven't listened to the other
heart parts yet but i do know they're
19:17 - 19:20
supposed to be thematically connected to
the following body of work while a core
19:20 - 19:23
theme of gnx seems to be about
spotlighting the west coast and
19:23 - 19:28
influence i like the idea of kendrick
keeping his heart for himself safely
19:28 - 19:32
protected by the album's other songs
20:01 - 20:05
oh i had no clue all those artists he
just mentioned were meant to be with him
20:05 - 20:09
in a group called black hippy that
makes this track make so much more sense
20:09 - 20:12
damn now i'm kind of sad that it never
came together at least i kind of got to
20:12 - 20:15
hear all of them in the black panther album
20:49 - 20:56
enimigo / the final catwalk shows a few more
20:56 - 21:00
west coast artists flaunting their skills
and they all deliver i'd love to know
21:00 - 21:04
the stories of how kendrick picked each
and every feature
21:10 - 21:14
i like peysoh's voice hi
21:21 - 21:25
the reverse strings
21:26 - 21:30
i wonder why this track became
the title track i guess a big part of it
21:30 - 21:34
is the call for respect recognition and
street credit speaking of streets the
21:34 - 21:39
gnx is kendrick's coveted classic
vehicle a powerful car with street
21:39 - 21:45
dominance okay fine i had to google gnx
i know nothing about cars in fact i hate them
22:07 - 22:12
youngthreat's voice very threatening
indeed um i haven't heard of these artists
22:12 - 22:15
i wonder if they're also from compton
since in that previous song he mentioned
22:15 - 22:20
that he was bringing some of his people
from home on the scene i don't know if
22:20 - 22:25
he was referring to the the pop out or
to these artists gnx same as the album
22:25 - 22:29
title i'm going to take a wild guess
and assume it's the name of this car
22:48 - 22:52
god, re-listening to this after
knowing the twist ending makes me feel
22:52 - 22:56
so slow like duh he made it so obvious
every single line he totally had me
22:56 - 22:59
fooled into thinking that this was a
love letter to whitney i guess the
22:59 - 23:03
surprises don't stop
23:50 - 23:53
i should have known though he has a
track record of this like in wesley's
23:53 - 23:57
theory at first i did love you but now i
just want to fuck that whole song was
23:57 - 24:00
actually about the music industry or
that similar comparison between writing
24:00 - 24:04
and romance on poetic justice
24:24 - 24:29
the song also reminds me
stylistically of how much a dollar cost
24:29 - 24:32
due to the detailed storytelling how
much tension it builds up as the
24:32 - 24:36
narrative unfolds and the gut punch
reveal at the end kendrick is leaving us
24:36 - 24:40
with a reminder of just how masterful he
is in his craft
24:51 - 24:57
oh this one most reminiscent of mr
24:57 - 25:02
morale for me really nice to see the uh
the influence or the consistency
25:02 - 25:06
whatever you want to chalk that up to
happy to see sza on here again i really
25:06 - 25:11
love their chemistry i know that she
interviewed him for that uh i think it
25:11 - 25:17
was harper's bazaar magazine in general
i think that sza has a very nice aura
25:17 - 25:21
around her very interesting album a
little i think the least cohesive at
25:21 - 25:29
least upon first glance very short also
12 tracks 44 minutes very lovely though
25:29 - 25:33
very lovely i loved it i don't even know
if i have much to say none of this
25:33 - 25:37
really left me like pondering as much as
the other albums have but i'm sure
25:37 - 25:41
there's a lot of influence a lot of
reference and homage that i'm missing
25:41 - 25:44
that's just going over my head i know
that happens a lot especially with
25:44 - 25:49
kendrick and i'm sure that you will let
me know in the comments as you tend to
25:49 - 25:53
do so thank you so much for listening
with me i hope you're doing well no one
25:53 - 25:56
really knows what's coming next it'll
probably be chromakopia because i didn't
25:56 - 26:00
even have the chance to finish that
video before kendrick dropped this album
26:00 - 26:05
so until then stay tuned stay safe and
be kind
video to article