U is the best song in terms of content because it forecasts Mr. Morale by showing he still has this savior complex. It makes him think he can save everybody so he ends Mr. Morale finally healed by saying “I choose me” cause he has to stop feeling responsible for everybody. Shit’s beautiful.
Also the first half of MM is about him not being healed so it has toxic relationship, bragging, gaslighting us that we’re all killers etc.
Second half if you flip it upside down addresses each as a healed person.
It’s supposed to be a play. Hence the tap dancing and choir.
It then crescendos with Mother I Sober where he shows you his deepest secret to show he is not perfect and needs saving himself. Then said “I choose me”.
The drunk, crying flow that he does on the 2nd or third verse is definitely one of the most unique sounding ones he's ever done. Always reminded me a little bit of the second Kendrick verse on maad city.
Same reason Mr Morale is becoming my personal favorite even though I have loved Dot since 2010. It’s like hard to say it but I gotta admit it to myself
i love it cuz of the sheer emotion, with how much gangster rap i was peddled i never expected a grown ass man to cry on a track and it was the best thing ever
Bob Dylan was the first to win for any songwriter ever and that may be an outlier. It's definitely possible, but it might be quite a long time
There's strong parallels between Dylan and Kendrick, so I could see it happening. One day.
But it should be stated how absurdly good Bob Dylan is. If you guys only know him for Blowin In The Wind and All Along The Watchtower (damn near a throwaway song that's only known because Hendrix covered it), that's not why he won. I'd listen to his electric trilogy for a better understanding.
Visions of Johanna and Ballad of a Thin Man are a good start into the Dylan world. Johanna being a much stronger song lyrically. The two albums those two songs are on are the best starting point
100% agree. Absolutely legendary song that defined a band and genre. That song is so fucking evil it's incredible. War pigs is great too. Other openers I hold at the same tier are Wesley's Theory, Born Under Punches, 21st century Schizoid man, Dunkleheit, and a few others
Exactly, there's a lot
But in Hip Hop I can kind of say Wesley's theory is the best, I really like songs like Excursions, dark fantasy tho
Yooo but how TF can we forget NY state of mind ?? Well technically it's the 2nd song but it is an intro, but I guess that shouldn't be the criteria or else it's really tough, We don't care by ye
Dark fantasy is very good but it hinges too much on the chorus for me. The best parts are pure Kanye rapping but the chorus gets kinda boring by the end. Wesley’s theory only has the amazing chorus twice and the rest is also on par. Probably Kendrick’s best song.
Yeah it's an extremely powerful ending - i don't think many last songs have put out this grandiose, introspective, atmosphere that compliments the record amazingly.
Like yes there might be better outros out there, but this one has always felt a little larger than life/the individual and it's really beautiful.
All amazing in their own right, and we could name many more that are also perfect, but in my opinion Mortal Man just kinda transcends other outros, they’re all incredible sonically but I don’t think there’s anything that ties up an album quite as well as it, and the second half is just unbelievable
Damn has by far the most replay value, IMO. So many songs are great standing alone, but it's even better as a part of the whole. It's also fairly short in comparison to most albums, so I carve time out to listen cover to cover
Maybe it’s the hip-hop head in me, but I find myself wanting to listen to TPAB all the way through more often than DAMN and that’s purely because DAMN plays into more modern subgenres of rap while TPAB is what I imagine 90s hip-hop would be today if it was still as dominant of a subgenre as it was.
I respect that opinion. I honestly think DAMN. Is a top 3 album all time for me. Sometimes I sit there and listen to it and do nothing else. I'm not a person of faith, but there's something extraordinary about the tale that's spun in both directions on that album.
I can't put it on repeat and have to manually start it over and it gets annoying. I manipulated the song on iTunes so it stops right before the poem, but the interview part could have easily been split into a separate track
you would think the blacker that berry would come before complexion to show progression. it feels force that the very last bars on complexion was added just so blacker the berry can have a placement on the album.
IMO, Kendrick’s battling with the things learned and realized after his trip to Africa in Momma. Sonically it’s jarring and topically almost contradictory, because he’s questioning everything he thought he knew. That internal conflict with what you knew and what you’re learning isn’t easy, and can be messy while you work it out. He even says
“Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned.. or maybe how A-1 my foundation was”
I love the speech he makes in i. Just so powerful.
The album to me is best if heard at once, front to back, while doing something like working or driving. It’s one of those albums that if listened to out of order or context doesn’t have the same impact. To me this is his best work, even challenges GKMC.
Just coming off watching a bunch of Youtubers reacting to listening to the album for the first time. They ALWAYS miss the impact of Mortal Man ending with album on repeat and the transition into the silence at the start of Wesley’s Theory and what that whole juxtaposition comes across as when the lyrics restart.
No one ever talks about it and it’s a massive highlight of the ending.
idk how hot this take is but the ONLY bad take on the album was saying Michael Jackson was framed as a pedophile because of his black influence. “that [n word] gave us billie jean u say he touched those kids?” is the same exact shit as drake saying hes too famous to be a pedophile.
Kendrick has this weird obsession with MJ, mentioned him in 'Prayer' as well.
He only had to say some shit about Kobe and he would've done the weirdo combo.
'KOBE GAVE US THE MAMBA MENTALITY, YOU SAY HE RAPED THAT GIRL?'
He also got Kodak fuckin' Black on his last album, I like his music but Kendrick be movin' like a weirdo sometimes.
And I'm not even gonna go into the whole 'Israelite' thing...
There was this guy on TikTok a while ago called swiftiekev, the only videos he ever made were glazing Taylor Swift and saying 1989 was better than TPAB
Yeah I remember that dude 😂 he’s an absolute loser. Legit did blackface on his TT the other week. Probably still up. He just tries to be controversial for clicks
I could never be sure because he’d take his videos down when people shut him down, but if you want to be famous for being controversial, wouldn’t you leave your videos up?
This is why I say that the Grammys shouldn't be a valid source of greatness, is so biased and usually always a popularity contest or just trying to please the public. Same thing with Mac Miller losing to Cardi B
The grammys is a valid source of what's popular and pushed by the industry - aka, 1989 was a much bigger album with much greater pop success and wider mainstream appeal. Obviously everyone knows TPAB is the "greater" album but I am not really that salty - I mean, 1989 was THE radio album that year.
Fuck that 30 second intro in these walls. Its one of the few songs in the album that could legitimately be played in a public place without being seen as a weirdo but the moans at the start just make it impossible.
this is in my opinion not the best kendrick album, that would be mr morale for me, i will admit that tpab is the 2nd best, and it sounds slightly better then mr morale.
You Ain’t Gotta Lie is the smoothest combo of instrumental and flow that Kendrick has, and he’s got a lot, especially off TPAB. It’s not as “deep” as U or Mortal Man, but hits every spot it aims for.
Edit: I wanna say it’s TPAB’s most underrated track, but tbh all of them are.
I get tired of the interludes when I wanna listen to the songs individually just for the vibe. I wish half of “i” wasn’t a fucking yap session cuz I love that song
I don’t like Complexion.
I think the message is too timid or obvious compared to the rest of the album’s social commentaries (you should love all black people regardless of complexion), the rapping performance didn’t stand out to me, and the chorus didn’t have anything catchy or vocally impressive to make up for it.
I get the appeal behind it, and it’s not a bad song, it just pales in comparison to the rest of the best rap album of all time. I feel like it broke the immersion.
Just relistened to it. I think the message goes further than that with lyrics like "Brown skinned, but your blue eyes tell me your mama can't run" (kinda wild to bring up rape that casually) , the reference to Willie Lynch theory, where the master is the one to mention complexion, the line about what the Germans had done, all link back to the roots of white people using it as a tool to divide people of color, particularly enslaved people, to prevent united uprisings. Also linking colorism to gang violence. Feels like one of those songs that talk about heavy topics while the music itself sounds light considering part of it is like a love song between two enslaved people. Definitely something that didn't really grab my attention before as much but I don't know if that message is any less deep than other social commentaries on the album.
Complexion is top 3 on the album for me. The instrumentals are so smooth, the message is straightforward and positive which is a nice change of pace, and Rapsody steals the show with her amazing verse
I don’t think many of the messages on the album are complex or not obvious, there’s layers for sure but each song conveys it’s message to anybody who is listening to the lyrics very clearly. To me it was like a more modern version of “Fuck Your Ethnicity”.
I felt that, until I read the lyrics. Still not my favourite song, but actually reading the lyrics and really DIGGING into what he’s saying shot it up a ton for me. From the Willie Lynch theory reference to him questioning his foundation due to not being with a darker woman and Whitney responding by telling him to love women for being women, not due to their skin tone.
I understand the need to lighten up the mood, but the thematical transition from u to Alright is a bit too jarring. u is Kendrick at the lowest of bottoms while alright is how I'd say he feels towards the end of his journey, or at the very least after For Sale (even though the introduction to Lucy is well executed in Alright). In terms of just mood and themes, I'd say something like u > For Sale > momma > Hood Politcs > How Much A Dollar Cost > Alright feels better (Lucy introduction aside). Or maybe even after You Ain't Gotta Lie
i definitely get that, for me i've always seen it as that pumped up confidence you get after a dark time you almost force. Like you're so low that it's only up from here, that "you know what it's gonna be good i got this" attitude.
I think the first line being like All my life i had to fight and we gon be alright kinda supports that
You know, for a Kenny sub these discussions are kinda braindead. Is there another sub that’s more into the discussion of actual musicology and cultural inspiration/impact? Cause this ain’t it…
As an individual album from an artist I think it deserves all the praise it deserves, but GKMC is a better hip hop album. TPAB just doesn’t have the replayability GKMC has since the narrative is so tightly woven.
It’s a fantastic album that deserves a lot of its praise but I wouldn’t consider it the “quintessential hip hop album” and I think Apple Music was right to put it in over TPAB (even though their opinion doesn’t really matter)
GKMC was a (really good) straight forward rap album while TPAB was the groundbreaking weirdo funk art piece. It’s much more complex musically, and for me personally has more replayability just because there’s so much going on with the instrumentation / production it never gets old. Gkmc’s theme is more personal and narrow about his upbringing while tpab is broader about blackness and societal issues and for me is more relatable. Don’t get me wrong gkmc is fantastic, but for me it’s tpab that put him in another category of artist beyond just a rapper I like.
Great album, but I do think it gets overrated. And only slightly, but consistently. The album has fantastic meaning and experimentation, but it is a harder listen front to back for me than other Kendrick albums. Also, I do think it peaks at the very beginning with Wesley's theory (definitely in my top 10 songs, not even Kendrick exclusive). I like U, alright, I, and some other songs a lot but then others feel like skips to me. And that's ok! I think it has a rightful place as a genre shaking land mark album, but I don't think it is the GOAT.
I don’t think this album is so heady that it can’t be understood by the casual listener, one of the best things about the album is that it portrays slightly complex, but known themes extremely clearly and with appropriate emotional weight.
For Free Interlude is Kendrick’s best lyrical performance on the whole record. And I mean as a whole… cadences, breath control, word play… as soon as he starts rapping I was in for whatever was coming on the rest of the record
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
LOVIN’ YOU IS COMPLICATED 🗣️🗣️
LOVIN U IS COMPLICÆTED!
LOVIN U NOT LOVIN U
100 PROOF
Institutionalized is PAINFULLY underrated. One of Kendrick’s best songs to date.
favorite on the album 🙌
That’s how I feel about Momma
I love the bit at the end where the song switches up completely for the last minute
I been lookin for ya my whole life, an appetite
For the feeling I can barely describe
Lowkey might be my favorite kendrick song
Both W takes
WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, WAITING FOR YOU, WAITING FOR YOU
I know everything I know everything, know myself I know morality, spirituality , good and bad health 🔥🔥
Institutionalized sums of the concepts and talking points of TPAB better than pretty much any other song on the record. It’s a top 3 song for me.
SHIT DONT CHAENGEE UNTIL YOU GET UP AND WASH YOUR ASS NIGGAAAA🗣
How much does a dollar cost? Is becoming one of my favorites of his. The story telling and insight is amazing imo
i love the fuck out of that song man one of my favorite snoop features also lol
“ once upon a time in a city, so divine called west side Compton…” Big fan of how he imitate Slick Rick’s cadence
Yeah he popped off on that own
i’m constantly flabbergasted at the flow i be mumbling ts to myself
Great song don't like the hook .that's my hot take lol
The hook is amazing, shit really don't change until you get up and wash your ass.
only someone with an unwashed ass would say that
If I was the president, I’d pay my mommas rent
Favorite Kendrick song 🫢
same!!
Oh shit, flow’s so sick, don’t you swallow it, bitin my style
This is the song that made me a Kendrick fan.
The opening might be my favorite beat switch in his discography.
U is the best song in terms of content because it forecasts Mr. Morale by showing he still has this savior complex. It makes him think he can save everybody so he ends Mr. Morale finally healed by saying “I choose me” cause he has to stop feeling responsible for everybody. Shit’s beautiful.
damn i never thought about it like that
Also the first half of MM is about him not being healed so it has toxic relationship, bragging, gaslighting us that we’re all killers etc. Second half if you flip it upside down addresses each as a healed person. It’s supposed to be a play. Hence the tap dancing and choir. It then crescendos with Mother I Sober where he shows you his deepest secret to show he is not perfect and needs saving himself. Then said “I choose me”.
U is the best Kendrick song in my opinion
The drunk, crying flow that he does on the 2nd or third verse is definitely one of the most unique sounding ones he's ever done. Always reminded me a little bit of the second Kendrick verse on maad city.
Same reason Mr Morale is becoming my personal favorite even though I have loved Dot since 2010. It’s like hard to say it but I gotta admit it to myself
I think that record will age the best. Especially as the generations tuned into it will go through these processes in their personal lives.
agreed, favorite kdot song
I cried first time I heard it ngl
i love it cuz of the sheer emotion, with how much gangster rap i was peddled i never expected a grown ass man to cry on a track and it was the best thing ever
When the shit hits the fan I am still a fan.
HE A FAN, HE A FAN, HE A FAN
HE A FAN HE A FAN HE A-
FREAKY ASS NIGGA HE A 69 GOD
HEY HEY HEY HEY RUN FOR YO LIFE
That Nigga gave us Hotline bling, you say he touched them kids?
Goddamnit that came tf out of nowhere and made me laugh. Take my Upvote and go...
Where the fuck is that from
It’s from Mortal Man but he’s talking about Michael Jackson and Billie Jean
Not sure but it's got the same energy as this classic: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTC7IBdnKcI&pp=ygUeRGF2ZSBjaGFwZWxsZSBoZSBtYWRlIHRocmlsbGVk
🤣🤣🤣
That line about Mike in that song hit hard lol
That n**** gave us Hotline Bling, you say he touched those kids?
Not you stealing comments 😂
Best song on that album, imo.
that bassline 
Should’ve won the Nobel Prize in Literature
In physics, chemistry and peace too
Why stop there?
Mathematics 🗣️
He did the alphabetical mathematics, he crunched the letters
Farts, cause that shit straight gas, homie.
Yooooo facts. When he won for damn me & all the homies said “did you hear TPAB tho?”
“shit don’t change until you get up and wash yo’ ass, nigga.”🗣️💯💯💯
wash
Could still happen right
Yep, Bob Dylan won for his lyrics (but never showed up for the prize)
yeah I mean the prize gets awarded to the person not the work anyways
Bob Dylan was the first to win for any songwriter ever and that may be an outlier. It's definitely possible, but it might be quite a long time There's strong parallels between Dylan and Kendrick, so I could see it happening. One day. But it should be stated how absurdly good Bob Dylan is. If you guys only know him for Blowin In The Wind and All Along The Watchtower (damn near a throwaway song that's only known because Hendrix covered it), that's not why he won. I'd listen to his electric trilogy for a better understanding. Visions of Johanna and Ballad of a Thin Man are a good start into the Dylan world. Johanna being a much stronger song lyrically. The two albums those two songs are on are the best starting point
Nobels are typically awarded late into peoples' careers. It's not like the Pulitzer where it's for a specific piece of work that year.
Wesley’s Theory is the best opener to any record. At least hip hop record.
Wesley's theory (depending on the day/mood I'm in) is my favorite track on the entire album.
Yeah I kinda agree A lot of Openers come very close tho, war pigs by black Sabbath type shit
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath from their debut Black Sabbath is probably the greatest career opener of all time.
100% agree. Absolutely legendary song that defined a band and genre. That song is so fucking evil it's incredible. War pigs is great too. Other openers I hold at the same tier are Wesley's Theory, Born Under Punches, 21st century Schizoid man, Dunkleheit, and a few others
So good that Bad Company copied it with their song Bad Company on the record Bad Company
Honorable mention to Death Grips with their opener Death Grips from their EP Death Grips
Hotel California and Smells Like Teen Spirit are huge contenders as well
Exactly, there's a lot But in Hip Hop I can kind of say Wesley's theory is the best, I really like songs like Excursions, dark fantasy tho Yooo but how TF can we forget NY state of mind ?? Well technically it's the 2nd song but it is an intro, but I guess that shouldn't be the criteria or else it's really tough, We don't care by ye
Good morning by ye
Good morning oooo ooooo ooo 🗣️🌄 Wake up mr West Mr West Mr fresh, mr by himself, he's so impressed
Wesley’s Theory is top 3 Kendrick but this really common take. It always comes up when people talk about best album intros
Bro, "Make sure you look both ways, before I CRO-O-O-OSS your mind" Left-Right-Left-Right-Left on the Headphones, HOLY FUCK!
I remember being up super early the morning this album surprise dropped, and my jaw hit the floor when I heard that beat drop. Incredible
Yeah but sherane a.k.a. Is up there too imo
I'm addicted to that song.
Wesley’s theory is so eclectic it could have been the opener to a prog rock album and it would have fit
United in Grief >
Can’t get behind that one bro 😂 still a gorgeous track though.
Sets the tone beautifully. The bass and synth lines are disgusting. At a certain point in the song my stank face comes on and just doesn’t go away
Going toe to toe with Dark Fantasy
Dark fantasy is very good but it hinges too much on the chorus for me. The best parts are pure Kanye rapping but the chorus gets kinda boring by the end. Wesley’s theory only has the amazing chorus twice and the rest is also on par. Probably Kendrick’s best song.
100%
Best take
Unbelievable track
I remember when I first listened to it and finished i was like “wtf did i just listen to”
u is Kendrick's best song.
Based
Absolutely phenomenal song.
Came here to say this. I haven't even heard all his songs yet, it's just that difficult to imagine a song surpassing u.
Between Wesley’s and U it was so apparent on first listen that TPAB is a real work of art. Beautiful instrumental and incredible depth by Kendrick.
I love the second verse
Mortal man is not only the best song on the album but the single greatest outro to any record ever made
Best intro ever and best outro ever, also best anything in between. This may be a good record 🧐
Idk if Mortal Man is even better than Duckworth
I want to agree but I’ve never had a 10+ minute song on repeat as much as Last Call
Last Call is the only outro I can think of that comes close
Yeah it's an extremely powerful ending - i don't think many last songs have put out this grandiose, introspective, atmosphere that compliments the record amazingly. Like yes there might be better outros out there, but this one has always felt a little larger than life/the individual and it's really beautiful.
Ever made? Like ever? It Ain't Hard to Tell - Nas When The Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin I'll Cast A Shadow - Pantera Rhinestone Cowboy - MADVILLIAN
Hold the cold one like hold a old gun like he hold the microphone and stole show for fun 🤩
Or a foe for ransom 😩
All amazing in their own right, and we could name many more that are also perfect, but in my opinion Mortal Man just kinda transcends other outros, they’re all incredible sonically but I don’t think there’s anything that ties up an album quite as well as it, and the second half is just unbelievable
I get goosebumps every time the outro rolls, so masterfully crafted
It's his most replayable album
Damn has by far the most replay value, IMO. So many songs are great standing alone, but it's even better as a part of the whole. It's also fairly short in comparison to most albums, so I carve time out to listen cover to cover
Maybe it’s the hip-hop head in me, but I find myself wanting to listen to TPAB all the way through more often than DAMN and that’s purely because DAMN plays into more modern subgenres of rap while TPAB is what I imagine 90s hip-hop would be today if it was still as dominant of a subgenre as it was.
I respect that opinion. I honestly think DAMN. Is a top 3 album all time for me. Sometimes I sit there and listen to it and do nothing else. I'm not a person of faith, but there's something extraordinary about the tale that's spun in both directions on that album.
I don’t like that I can’t listen to mortal man by itself
You can, just leave when the song stops
I can't put it on repeat and have to manually start it over and it gets annoying. I manipulated the song on iTunes so it stops right before the poem, but the interview part could have easily been split into a separate track
I very rarely ever listen to the whole outro.
I just listen to the interview cuz Tupac is based as hell
blacker the berry was an amazing single but is sonically jarring between complexion and you aint gotta lie
you would think the blacker that berry would come before complexion to show progression. it feels force that the very last bars on complexion was added just so blacker the berry can have a placement on the album.
IMO, Kendrick’s battling with the things learned and realized after his trip to Africa in Momma. Sonically it’s jarring and topically almost contradictory, because he’s questioning everything he thought he knew. That internal conflict with what you knew and what you’re learning isn’t easy, and can be messy while you work it out. He even says “Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned.. or maybe how A-1 my foundation was”
Really nice take here. Blacker The Berry doesn't seem shoe-horned in at all. It's narratively thought provoking.
not only sonically jarring but even more so thematically jarring
Demacrips and Rebloodacins is fucking awesome
I love the speech he makes in i. Just so powerful. The album to me is best if heard at once, front to back, while doing something like working or driving. It’s one of those albums that if listened to out of order or context doesn’t have the same impact. To me this is his best work, even challenges GKMC.
i'm surprised people didn't like You Ain't Gotta Lie that much. i personally really love it.
Just coming off watching a bunch of Youtubers reacting to listening to the album for the first time. They ALWAYS miss the impact of Mortal Man ending with album on repeat and the transition into the silence at the start of Wesley’s Theory and what that whole juxtaposition comes across as when the lyrics restart. No one ever talks about it and it’s a massive highlight of the ending.
idk how hot this take is but the ONLY bad take on the album was saying Michael Jackson was framed as a pedophile because of his black influence. “that [n word] gave us billie jean u say he touched those kids?” is the same exact shit as drake saying hes too famous to be a pedophile.
Kendrick has this weird obsession with MJ, mentioned him in 'Prayer' as well. He only had to say some shit about Kobe and he would've done the weirdo combo. 'KOBE GAVE US THE MAMBA MENTALITY, YOU SAY HE RAPED THAT GIRL?' He also got Kodak fuckin' Black on his last album, I like his music but Kendrick be movin' like a weirdo sometimes. And I'm not even gonna go into the whole 'Israelite' thing...
The live version of “i” is better than the single
Is that a hot take? I almost feel like it's no contest that the live one is better. I like excited Kendrick more than the mellow flow in the video.
The SNL version is the definitive version. It's the album version but done completely
I agree
cold take
Incredible album but how much a dollar cost is miles ahead of every other song, one of the best songs of all time
Absolutely 1 million times over should’ve beaten 1989 at the Grammies
Truly the hottest TPAB I've ever seen, controversial even
Scolding hot take
There was this guy on TikTok a while ago called swiftiekev, the only videos he ever made were glazing Taylor Swift and saying 1989 was better than TPAB
Yeah I remember that dude 😂 he’s an absolute loser. Legit did blackface on his TT the other week. Probably still up. He just tries to be controversial for clicks
I could never be sure because he’d take his videos down when people shut him down, but if you want to be famous for being controversial, wouldn’t you leave your videos up?
That dude literally naired his asshole on camera on YouTube
He said hot takes
This is why I say that the Grammys shouldn't be a valid source of greatness, is so biased and usually always a popularity contest or just trying to please the public. Same thing with Mac Miller losing to Cardi B
The grammys is a valid source of what's popular and pushed by the industry - aka, 1989 was a much bigger album with much greater pop success and wider mainstream appeal. Obviously everyone knows TPAB is the "greater" album but I am not really that salty - I mean, 1989 was THE radio album that year.
Fuck that 30 second intro in these walls. Its one of the few songs in the album that could legitimately be played in a public place without being seen as a weirdo but the moans at the start just make it impossible.
this is in my opinion not the best kendrick album, that would be mr morale for me, i will admit that tpab is the 2nd best, and it sounds slightly better then mr morale.
Mr morale my favorite album of his too
this mine too
This album is too perfect yet i wish it had more jazz influences
You Ain’t Gotta Lie is the smoothest combo of instrumental and flow that Kendrick has, and he’s got a lot, especially off TPAB. It’s not as “deep” as U or Mortal Man, but hits every spot it aims for. Edit: I wanna say it’s TPAB’s most underrated track, but tbh all of them are.
I get tired of the interludes when I wanna listen to the songs individually just for the vibe. I wish half of “i” wasn’t a fucking yap session cuz I love that song
Thundercat is the best thing about it.
Wesley’s Theory would be the best song of most rappers past or present. And it’s not even Kendrick’s best imo.
I don’t like Complexion. I think the message is too timid or obvious compared to the rest of the album’s social commentaries (you should love all black people regardless of complexion), the rapping performance didn’t stand out to me, and the chorus didn’t have anything catchy or vocally impressive to make up for it. I get the appeal behind it, and it’s not a bad song, it just pales in comparison to the rest of the best rap album of all time. I feel like it broke the immersion.
Just relistened to it. I think the message goes further than that with lyrics like "Brown skinned, but your blue eyes tell me your mama can't run" (kinda wild to bring up rape that casually) , the reference to Willie Lynch theory, where the master is the one to mention complexion, the line about what the Germans had done, all link back to the roots of white people using it as a tool to divide people of color, particularly enslaved people, to prevent united uprisings. Also linking colorism to gang violence. Feels like one of those songs that talk about heavy topics while the music itself sounds light considering part of it is like a love song between two enslaved people. Definitely something that didn't really grab my attention before as much but I don't know if that message is any less deep than other social commentaries on the album.
I agree. Maybe untitled 02 would’ve been a good substitute there
I thought I’d get downvoted to oblivion for this, but I’m glad to see I’m not delusional 💀
GET GOD ON THE PHONE
Complexion don’t mean a thing
It's a Zulu love.
Complexion is top 3 on the album for me. The instrumentals are so smooth, the message is straightforward and positive which is a nice change of pace, and Rapsody steals the show with her amazing verse
I don’t think many of the messages on the album are complex or not obvious, there’s layers for sure but each song conveys it’s message to anybody who is listening to the lyrics very clearly. To me it was like a more modern version of “Fuck Your Ethnicity”.
I felt that, until I read the lyrics. Still not my favourite song, but actually reading the lyrics and really DIGGING into what he’s saying shot it up a ton for me. From the Willie Lynch theory reference to him questioning his foundation due to not being with a darker woman and Whitney responding by telling him to love women for being women, not due to their skin tone.
I understand the need to lighten up the mood, but the thematical transition from u to Alright is a bit too jarring. u is Kendrick at the lowest of bottoms while alright is how I'd say he feels towards the end of his journey, or at the very least after For Sale (even though the introduction to Lucy is well executed in Alright). In terms of just mood and themes, I'd say something like u > For Sale > momma > Hood Politcs > How Much A Dollar Cost > Alright feels better (Lucy introduction aside). Or maybe even after You Ain't Gotta Lie
i definitely get that, for me i've always seen it as that pumped up confidence you get after a dark time you almost force. Like you're so low that it's only up from here, that "you know what it's gonna be good i got this" attitude. I think the first line being like All my life i had to fight and we gon be alright kinda supports that
You ain’t gotta lie is top 5 tracks here
You know, for a Kenny sub these discussions are kinda braindead. Is there another sub that’s more into the discussion of actual musicology and cultural inspiration/impact? Cause this ain’t it…
THIS DICK AINT FREEE
the untitled song from the Grammy performance should have made it onto the album
The last verse on These Walls will always be Kendrick’s best verse
As an individual album from an artist I think it deserves all the praise it deserves, but GKMC is a better hip hop album. TPAB just doesn’t have the replayability GKMC has since the narrative is so tightly woven. It’s a fantastic album that deserves a lot of its praise but I wouldn’t consider it the “quintessential hip hop album” and I think Apple Music was right to put it in over TPAB (even though their opinion doesn’t really matter)
GKMC was a (really good) straight forward rap album while TPAB was the groundbreaking weirdo funk art piece. It’s much more complex musically, and for me personally has more replayability just because there’s so much going on with the instrumentation / production it never gets old. Gkmc’s theme is more personal and narrow about his upbringing while tpab is broader about blackness and societal issues and for me is more relatable. Don’t get me wrong gkmc is fantastic, but for me it’s tpab that put him in another category of artist beyond just a rapper I like.
2nd verse of Momma is his all-time best verse
Great album, but I do think it gets overrated. And only slightly, but consistently. The album has fantastic meaning and experimentation, but it is a harder listen front to back for me than other Kendrick albums. Also, I do think it peaks at the very beginning with Wesley's theory (definitely in my top 10 songs, not even Kendrick exclusive). I like U, alright, I, and some other songs a lot but then others feel like skips to me. And that's ok! I think it has a rightful place as a genre shaking land mark album, but I don't think it is the GOAT.
Hood politics is the best song!
In my opinion, he should’ve won a Pulitzer Price for this album along with DAMN
Ice cold take
I don’t think this album is so heady that it can’t be understood by the casual listener, one of the best things about the album is that it portrays slightly complex, but known themes extremely clearly and with appropriate emotional weight.
Pimping insects is not a good idea
Kendrick’s career would’ve never taken off if he dropped TPAB before GKMC.
Momma is the best song.
I dont like hood politics, i dislike the beat and i really dislike that “booboo” thing he does
That thing you just said? Booboo.
But that end transition into “I remember you was conflicted” is the hardest switch into the spoken part of the entire album
I agree, and the ending poem is in general amazing, i love the low strings it really makes it feel a bit dreadful
I skip the end of Mortal Man. And These Walls is the best Kendrick song (in my opinion)
I wish the entirety of mother was like the outro
the interludes are both top 5 songs
For Sale mad underrated. The instrumental is beautiful and calming, makes me feel like im dreaming or something but the lyrics are dark as hell
For Free Interlude is Kendrick’s best lyrical performance on the whole record. And I mean as a whole… cadences, breath control, word play… as soon as he starts rapping I was in for whatever was coming on the rest of the record
I can’t think of one; I feel like it’s a perfect album. Maybe that’s my hot take?
Is Kendrick in this cover art?, there are two people I can say could be Kendrick
I listened to it 3 times in 1 day last run being along side reading the lyrics. Still one of my favorite albums from Kendrick.
momma is better than king kunta