The first thing you’ll be confronted by is the bare album art and unassuming track titles.

is: it’s Kendrick wading through the muddy swamp of his diary entries, but engaging us in a deliberately fragmented fashion. Right now, Kendrick doesn't feel like he wants to or needs to be the Malcolm X of the 21st century, but he could be on his way to becoming its James Joyce. And it’s not like he hasn't tried to get people to care about Kendrick the person - he’s gone to the extent of confessing to a f*cking homicide (“If I told you I killed a n***a at 16 would you believe me?” from 'm.a.a.d. city'). Kendrick’s albums excel because people love the message, the poetry, the daring instrumentation, the defiant lyricism that spits in the face of the establishment. His voice, his message, hell, his entire discography is a tribute to the trials and tribulations of being African-American. Kendrick rose to fame because of his thought-provoking and remarkably fresh perspectives of the black struggle, along with unprecedented artistry - when everyone in the rap game was lamenting about the death of Trayvon Martin, Kendrick was busy repudiating the black community for being hypocrites on violence. is rapper Kendrick Lamar’s fourth album, and it comes barely a year after his seminal, jazz-influenced To Pimp A Butterfly. Eminem became an unwarranted, screaming motivational poster with Recovery, but where would we be if Radiohead didn't take a ballsy shot at producing Kid A? Too often in the music world, fans get uppity about their bands or musicians changing - as if that in itself is a horrific act of treachery. Label: Interscope Records, Aftermath Entertainment, Top Dawg EntertainmentĪrtists go through transitions and that’s okay.

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