Kendrick Lamar: King Kunta -worst song of the year?

[SL33]

I like the baseline and that Lira bitch can get it. That's it.

[DR. NICK RIVIERA]

the album is creative, but I wouldn't call it extremely lyrical

it's different

[TommySuits]

it's amazing to me how people can think that tracks like "King Kunta" and more specifically the whole "How to Pimp A Butterfly" is in any way or form a dumbed down, commercial record. Kendrick could have easily gone the easy route getting beats from Dre and rapping about bullshit and sold a million... instead he took the opportunity to make what he wanted to make, an important concept album about the black experience in America. it needs several listens to really truly get what he's talking about throughout the entire LP because it's so full of metaphors and Kendrick playing different characters. it's one of the most creative LP:s in a long, long time, and anyone thinking he dumbed down his flow or did this to sell records is clearly not listening.

I'm with claaa7 and I can never see this song as being wack. I do agree that this song is weakest on the album as far content goes, but the song still has meaning in the concept of the album. As a fan of west coast funk I really love the sound of this song.


as far the song goes - I think Rap Genius said it best -

Kunta Kinte was a fictional 18th century slave from the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Kunta had his foot cut off to prevent him from escaping his plantation.

“King Kunta” is an oxymoron — Kendrick’s simultaneously oppressed like a slave, and dominant like a king. In other words: a wealthy black man in America.

Although Kendrick’s well off (running) like a king, it wasn’t too long ago that he was poor (walking) like the rest of us. Those who weren’t interested in Kendrick before his success now want to know him, but he isn’t fooled by their duplicity—they just want to cut his legs off to keep him from running away with the game.



I can understand if people want more lyrical shit, but he isn't the type, at least not on this album.

jokes aside, you guys are probably right. i'm not gna lie i've heard almost nothing from kendrick and my earlier post was only half serious. i've heard absolutely nothing on this album or his first. in fact, the only kendrick tracks i have heard are kweli's 'push thru', an older track he did with kurupt and that verse that had everyone going crazy which wasn't really anything special at all. can somebody show me something that will help me understand why this dude has such a buzz? recently, i saw his performance on someones show where he got dressed up like meth and this here video. so not knowing much about him, i watch this video without any expectations or anything it just looks like he's doing the bruno mars thing.

[GhettoGnom]

jokes aside, you guys are probably right. i'm not gna lie i've heard almost nothing from kendrick and my earlier post was only half serious. i've heard absolutely nothing on this album or his first. in fact, the only kendrick tracks i have heard are kweli's 'push thru', an older track he did with kurupt and that verse that had everyone going crazy which wasn't really anything special at all. can somebody show me something that will help me understand why this dude has such a buzz? recently, i saw his performance on someones show where he got dressed up like meth and this here video. so not knowing much about him, i watch this video without any expectations or anything it just looks like he's doing the bruno mars thing.

You need to listen to one of his albums from front to back so you get a better sense of what he's doing and where he's going with it. It's really the only way you can form a proper opinion on the man in my opinion. You can start here:




He's made some real good tracks with Ab-Soul as well

[DR. NICK RIVIERA]

Section.80 is up there with the best west-coast albums ever.

[check two]

ok wera lol

[Holocaust]

how many mics did the source give his new album, its a classic to me

[THUGNIFICENT]

I gotta agree, I didn't really like this album. however, it is anything but simple or dumbed down.

This. I like about 5/6 songs from the LP (King Kunta being one of them, and maybe my favorite from the album just because of that bounce), and I loved the majority of his first 3 albums. I think sometimes he ventured into try-hard territory, where he seemed to really want me to be impressed with and/or befuddled by his metaphors and concepts. A guy like GZA in his prime dropped complex, lyrical, metaphorical shit that you didn't always get on the first listen, but it was still approachable and engaging no matter how many times you heard it. I think Kendrick here occasionally overreaches himself trying to impress. That being said I appreciate an album like this being put out by an artist like this at a time like this. I'm gonna revisit the album at some point; maybe I'm missing something and this time it will click.

[THUGNIFICENT]

how many mics did the source give his new album, its a classic to me

http://www.metacritic.com/music/to-p...critic-reviews

Source gave it a "90", which, if my calculations are correct, equates to 4.5 mics.