Kendrick Lamar has just dropped brand new album out of the blue called untitled unmastered, the unexpected follow-up to last year’s best album To Pimp a Butterfly. It’s available to stream in full via Apple Music and purchase via iTunes – that’s right, no Tidal subscription required. Eat it, Kanye.
The project’s big secret was prematurely leaked by Spotify on Thursday: eight untitled tracks are dated with a specific day, month, and year – 2013, 2014, and 2016. The date of their creation, we presume. The project features studio versions of the untitled songs Kendrick performed on The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the most recent performance at the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards show.
Whatever the case, from the moment the sexual penetration intro gives way to Kendrick’s breathless spitfire rhymes it’s very clear that we’re dealing with a different kind of animal than TPAB. It’s a sonically schizophrenic musical journey. Get upon it.
Editor’s notes in iTunes:
Every element of Kendrick Lamar’s unedited unmastered tells you something about the Compton MC’s provocative, multi-layered genius. Take the contrast of the collection’s ultra-generic title and its attention-grabbing out-of-left-field release. Take the retro-futuristic, Funkadelic-inspired grooves that simmer under tracks like “untitled 02” or “untitled 06.” These are only the beginning of Lamar’s hypnotic, nuanced nod to hip-hop’s deep roots and unstoppable political and expressive currency. Songs like “untitled 03” and “untitled 05”—with layered references, wild-eyed jazz solos, and cutting insight—continue the brilliant reign of King Kendrick.
To diehard fans, the surprise drop isn’t that surprising. In addition to a long-anticipated collaboration album with J Cole, Lamar told Pitchfork in an interview earlier this month that he has a “chamber” of unreleased material “where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album.”
untitled unmastered. Tracklist:
01. untitled 01 08.19.2014
02. untitled 02 06.23.2014
03. untitled 03 05.28.2013
04. untitled 04 08.14.2014
05. untitled 05 09.21.2014
06. untitled 06 06.30.2014
07. untitled 07 2014 – 2016
08. untitled 08 09.06.2014
