"Kendrick Lamar’s latest “album,” Untitled Unmastered was released on March 4th, 2016. It’s been 18 days since the release and still there are reviews being published every few hours. Needless to say that it’s already made a big impact in the music stream." - Pablo Gomez
Lamar claims that the purpose of this album was not to make an impact, but to show the creative process of creating an album. The act of naming all the tracks “untitled” was a decision which within the definition of decision implies it being seriously intentional. The intent? To make it painfully obvious how this is just a project. But what does that mean? It means that Lamar just put all his b-sides and the tracks that didn’t make the cut for To Pimp A Butterfly into this project for the world to see, completely untitled and unmastered.
Lamar is building a reputation for being unapologetically real. Untitled Unmastered is perhaps one of his greater examples of realness in a line of amazing and ambitious work. With To Pimp a Butterfly he uses his voice to put a spotlight on race issues within the U.S. and our society. With Untitled Unmastered he puts a spotlight on himself while revealing his rough edges and saying to world that he is not a “Rap God” or an “Immortal Man.” Other artists want to keep a clean record of publishing things that are worth of publishing—tracks that are polished, finished, mixed. Lamar is making a statement that it’s okay to be a little vulnerable sometimes.
The tracks themselves are still amazing even while being audibly unpolished. In “Untitled 02,” he says:
Lamar is building a reputation for being unapologetically real. Untitled Unmastered is perhaps one of his greater examples of realness in a line of amazing and ambitious work. With To Pimp a Butterfly he uses his voice to put a spotlight on race issues within the U.S. and our society. With Untitled Unmastered he puts a spotlight on himself while revealing his rough edges and saying to world that he is not a “Rap God” or an “Immortal Man.” Other artists want to keep a clean record of publishing things that are worth of publishing—tracks that are polished, finished, mixed. Lamar is making a statement that it’s okay to be a little vulnerable sometimes.
The tracks themselves are still amazing even while being audibly unpolished. In “Untitled 02,” he says:
“Get God on the phone
I just got a raise
Spent it all on me
Diamonds all appraised
And I'm bossing up
Bitch get out the way
I'm the only way, we can fornicate
Ah, pimping and posing, look what I drove in, ah
Having these hoes and I know that I'm chosen, ah.”
He wants to call God to tell him and confess for all the sins that he committed while he was living the high life, indulging in the “fruits of his labor.” Reflecting on his own image, he is confessing to the listener, the closest thing to God that he has because we are his God’s gift, his success.
To Pimp A Butterfly was Lamar’s most well-received album to date, likely giving Lamar a huge boost to his morale. He showed a lot of his scars in this album. Specifically in “u”, he exposes his alcoholic side and his emotional sensitivity in the second verse, rapping while crying and drinking. While reading Genius notes for “u”, in the overview, someone quoted Lamar in an interview with Rolling Stone while he was delving into “u.”
“That was one of the hardest songs I had to write,” “There’s some very dark moments in there. All my insecurities and selfishness and let-downs. That shit is depressing as a motherfucker. But it helps, though. It helps.”
Perhaps the public’s support and respect has encouraged Lamar to be more confident about being personal in his work. It’s one thing to tell one of your friends about something traumatic that happened to you and it’s another thing to release an album with a big label to millions of fans with songs detailing your whole life’s struggles. I give the highest of respects to Kendrick Lamar for creating a new definition of bravery in the Hip Hop industry.
