"Untitled Unmastered" (2016) – Kendrick Lamar
Years from now when we look back on Kendrick’s (possibly) legendary discography, this will easily be the minor entry among his albums. And of course, there will be those who will (falsely) claim this to be a masterpiece in its own right. Please. This is no masterpiece. These songs are leftovers that LeBron James pushed for release. Yet, these "To Pimp a Butterfly" leftovers beat out virtually every other contemporary rapper’s best entry. Treat this album as a meal half-eaten by a couple in some five-star restaurant in Paris. You may think you don’t want these leftovers, but they’re still part of a meal from one of the finest establishments in the food industry. That’s just a humble testament to how great Kendrick is, and he knows he’s not even competing with anyone in the game today, except for Kanye and maybe a few others. But as far as charts and streaming numbers go, he could care less. Unfortunately, as Kendrick explains thoroughly in “Untitled 03,” sales and numbers are the only things that matter to labels and corporations. Given that one knows what they’re doing, this is not a particular difficult loophole to squeeze through. He knows the recipe for success all too well. Keep your music barely accessible, market a commercially-viable single, and for the most part, the fans will keep on frothing at the mouth for some of that new Kendrick.
Looking back, it’s amazing to see how far Kendrick has come. Just two albums ago, he was as commercial as they come. Although this may seem like a controversial statement given how distinct Kendrick’s sound is. Good kid m.A.A.d city, while amazing, had plenty of radio-friendly singles to market himself with. Now he has funk veteran George Clinton doing features and is incorporating spoken-word into his songs, none of which have cracked the Billboard Top 40, excluding “i,” which was heavily reworked from its radio-friendly form that came out in 2014. It’s quite brilliant actually, Kendrick’s plan to rule the world of hip hop, that is. Now that he’s got a large crowd around him, they’re going to stick around to listen no matter what. His sophomore effort was the bait; his junior was the switch, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.
And here we are today. Frankly, I don’t know anyone else who can blend together funk, jazz, and hip hop so seamlessly into these approachable cluster of genres. Don’t throw this aside as a negligible burden of fat from the "To Pimp a Butterfly" sessions, as most of these songs are very good. And unlike most outtakes, they aren’t forgettable or lacking effort. It makes me wonder as to why they were left off his previous album. Maybe they didn’t fit within "To Pimp a Butterfly’s" overall narrative, but songs like “Untitled 03” and the groove-heavy jam “Untitled 08” are nearly as good as “Alright” or “These Walls.” Shall I compare this to Radiohead’s critically-praised pair of albums Kid A and its lesser-sister Amnesiac? Or even The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour? It’s another one of those great pairs of one-two punches that are difficult to pull off. "To Pimp a Butterfly" was the equivalent of an earthquake, and this collection of songs are the aftershocks.
Although five out of the eight of the songs are great, it may have worked better as an EP. There were clear segments of songs that were included just to fill up more time for the record's short 35 minutes. “Untitled 07” is your typical banger waiting to hit the rap charts, but half of the song’s length was blatant, unneeded filler. “Untitled 04” is an interlude rather than an actual song, so you wonder why it’s even on here in the first place, but I guess anything less than eight tracks would’ve been underwhelming. Inevitable flaws aside, it’s still a wonderful surprise. After all, neither you nor I were expecting another Kendrick release for another two or three years. Pimp pimp, hooray indeed! A-
(Key Tracks: Untitled 08, Untitled 03, Untitled 06)
