Kendrick Lamar has been on quite the winning streak. Section.80, Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, and To Pimp a Butterfly were all very big critical successes, the last of which won him a ton of awards, household name status, and a large amount of fans (this album was also number 3 of my year end list). To Pimp a Butterfly was a profound work, blending funk, soul, beat poetry, and hip hop and discussing themes of race relations, self love, greed, and fame, among others. And it seems like this is the avenue Kendrick continues down on untitled unmastered, though to be fair, it is because most of these tracks are leftovers from To Pimp a Butterfly.
That is not to say that these tracks are lesser in any sense. I quite enjoy most of the tracks on here, and I feel like they would fit pretty well into the aforementioned album. 'untitled 02 | 06.23.2014' sounds like it could be around 'u' in the albums narrative, what with the kind of drunkenly delivered vocal lines here. I also really enjoy the whispered, yet incredibly fast rap on 'untitled 04 | 08.14.2014', an ode to education.
The tracks have a bit of a rougher sound to them, as they are demos, but Kendrick's demos are better than other peoples albums, and the production is still layered, and hardly suffers from the raw aesthetic. The production fits in pretty well with To Pimp a Butterfly's sound, though it does throw in some trap feel, a la Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. Swizz Beatz' son Egypt produced part of 'untitled 07', which as long as he doesn't go in his father's footsteps of SCREAMING ALL OVER EVERYTHING HE PRODUCES, he's cool by me. The demo quality is most evident on the studio banter/skit heard at the tail end of 'untitled 07', which gives us a glimpse into the studio and Kendrick's sense of humor, as well as his singing voice.
All in all, I think this offering is a great way to finish up the To Pimp a Butterfly narrative and let Kendrick move on to other projects. As it is a collection of tracks and not an album, it's not as cohesive and lacking in the elegant structure and overarching themes of its predecessor, but that is to be expected. I feel like people were expecting the moon from a b-sides comp, but if your expectations are in the right place, I feel like this project will be thoroughly enjoyable.
Out of a total of five stars, I give this:
Check in later for more reviews. What did you think of this album? What albums currently have you excited?
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