'greatness'
by: Khalil McCall
5|27|17
Kendrick following up with his fourth studio album if you count " section.80 ". From the first listen I knew this wasn't no TPAB, this is a kendrick we've never seen before. I really like this album it's definitley a new sound and from what I see is easier to digest and appeals to a bigger crowd than TPAB did. Kendrick on here with a little bit of everything giving us trap beats, singing and storytelling. As of right now I don't see it being better than "Good kid maad city" but still a great body of work.
1. BLOOD.
Intro starts off with a smooth tone and a voice speaking of wickedness or weakness, this could be directed towards the song titles being complete opposites of eachother ex: LOVE and LUST. On this track Kendrick is shot by a blind woman, I feel she represents the result of one living in this "DAMN"-nation. The outro portion of the track is a recording of fox news going at Kendrick for his lyrics against police brutality.
2. DNA.
On here Kendrick is telling his culture and what he grew up being around. All of which is part of him, makes him whole and is laced in his DNA. Kendrick really ripped through this beat as he paints a clear picture of whats runnning through his veins. This is a top 2 track off the album if not the best. This beat is dope, the organ or guitar playing in the background tone sets the mysterious wavy vibe of of the song.
3. YAH.
A real slow droopy vibe almost too slow. The song title "YAH" is referring to yahweh. Yahweh is the closest this to God's actual name, very religious track. Kendrick also goes at Geraldo on here for ripping Kendrick on Fox News. The track then suggests that all black people stop identifying as black and identify as Hebrew Israelites.
4. ELEMENT.
This is the grown and sexy record of the album. On here Kendrick is daring anybody to disrespect him, and won't lose his cool when retaliating. Throughout the song he speaks on his life struggles as well.
5. FEEL.
One of the more introspective tracks of the album. On this track, Kdot is highlighting his negative thoughts and feelings of his encounters with family, friends and inner conflict. Earlier in the album he said that ever since his grandmother died, no one is there to pray and look out for him. On a daily basis Kendrick is struggling with these inner demons.
6. Loyalty.
I love this song, great collab with Riri. On here Kendrick and Rihanna come together to express the importance of Loyalty in relationships. That secret society they speak of in the chorus isn't the illuminati but simply that inner trust and bond that lovers have between eachother. That digitized sound in the background is golden; the video is great as well.
7. PRIDE.
Kendrick is struggling with the paradox of calling himself the greatest rapper alive but at the same time being humble as well. Pride alone causes self destruction from the inside out. Pride is one of the many demons he faces that causes him to have conflict with other artists. Not titled as such but I feel like this is the Interlude of the Album.
8. HUMBLE.
Kendrick speaks on his humble beginnings to what he has now and his success. He's pretty much saying you have to pay your dues before you go at someone on the top. This is him speaking directly to Big Sean who he has been going back and fourth with for over a year now. It's interesting how he has more of a humble demeanor on the previous track 'PRIDE', now on 'HUMBLE' he's straight arrogant with it.
9. LUST.
Kendrick starts off by describing the average man's day of being unproductive by calling off work and tapping into his lustful desires of sex, drugs, money and partying. Then he describes the average woman in the same sense with her lustful desires of credit card scams, popping pills and clubbng. The last two situations are complete mirrors of Kendrick's tour life. Kendrick waking up, disorientated money and clothes everywhere, checks the news suprised to see that Trump has become president. This has woke a lot of people up in the black community to come together and get back on track but eventually blacks will go back to the same routine of lustful desires.
10. LOVE.
Kendrick is showing his love for his fiance. As you can see Kendrick continues to follow up these songs with the complete opposite. Zacari vocals on here are incredble.
11. XXX.
As Kendrick has said in an interview with Zane Lowe the title 'XXX' symbolizes complete chaos or madness. Kendrick starts off by showing the similarities between an animal in wildlife and a young black man in poverty. He then dives into the narrative of how America loves to show blacks excelling in everything except school and this drives the black youth further and further from their education. In the second section of the song he speaks on if someone killed anyone in his family he's throwing black power out the window and would do anything he can to get revenge even with gun violence. The third section of the song Kdot finds himself being a hypocrite by going to do a speech on gun control and violence even from what he said in the previous verse. This song has 3 different vibes that could hold some meaning with the 3 X's in the title.
12. FEAR.
Kendrick shows us the 3 stages of fear that he faced in life. The points in time are from when he was 7, 17 and 27 years old. The first verse comes from his mother's perspective. His mother constantly threatening for every bad thing he does at 7, I think everybody can relate to that fear. The second verse it's Kendrick's own perspective showing how being out in the streets and gang affiliation could cause him to die in a shooting or become another statistic. The fear grows as Kendrick becomes 27 and questions all the success he's getting, having the fears of god playing a joke on him and that he'll go broke again and back to section 8 housing.
13. GOD.
Kdot telling us how good it feels to have so much success after all the hardwork. In his teens he was in the streets wild'n with guns and having sex with everything moving but now he has a big house, money and all the success in the world. Kendrick is on the top with a lot of power and following, he compares that to how God might feel, as powerful as he is.
14. DUCKWORTH.
This song shows how life can allow things to fall into the right place or could be the absolute worst one person's split decision could affect another's for the rest of their life. Kendrick starts by telling Anthony's (Top Dawg) story who is Kendrick's label head and founder of TDE. Telling us how he grew up selling drugs and his gang affiliation. Then he dives into where Kendrick's dad (Ducky) and Anthony first cross paths, which was a KFC that Ducky was working at. But right across the street Anthony was planning to rob it. To get on Anthony's good side, Ducky would always give him free food to avoid getting killed; They formed a friendship through this. The two friends meet 20 years later and Anthony has started up a record label where he then signs Kendrick and is a major success. This story shows how if Anthony killed Ducky in the KFC, Anthony would probably be serving life in jail and Kendrick would have no father figure to guide him and could cause Kdot to die in some kind of gang violence.