Kendrick Lamar wins 2018 Pulitzer Prize in music

I ****ing know, dude!

L.

 

I think Biggie & PAC are for sure. At least by many hip-hop fans, they are worshiped to death, and to say anything about negative about them leads usually to a lot of backlash.

That said, of course, I think it does wear off, but that happens to all artists. Even the Beatles reputation will slowly fade even if they'll forever be known the way Bach, Beethoven, Mozart are. And the Beatles very much are a rare case, as not many artists from the rock era gets that kind of love years later to that extent.

The Kanye West & Kendrick love is pretty overwhelming at the moment. I'm positive they'll last, no doubt, they are too defining for their era to be forgotten, but certifiably deified? I'm not sure

 

I recognized in the Butterfly thread that he is way talented. My problem lies that I dont relate to the subject matter. The music, approach and ideas are uniquely put together in a brilliant way. But very little, if any, of the subject matter is something I an touched by in a relatible way.

I was raised poor as dirt, had a totally disfunctional family and scraped and clawed my way out of the familial hole of hell.

So, its not because Im some priviledged white guy.

A simple love song. A southern touchstone. A soaring lead guitar that conveys emotion.

The above are just as valid.

We come from different cultures and experiences. Enjoy rap and hiphop. Enjoy turkish dance music. But dont call me out because I am not into it and cant relate to the culture.

 

Zuma being one of Neil Young's most admired and highly esteemed albums, and rightly so, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the albums's bizarre, dissociative, rambling, braggadocious lyrics in the gloriously offensive farrago on Rolling Stonesness, "Stupid Girl":

You're such a beautiful fish
Flopping on the summer sand
Looking for the wave you missed
When another one is close at hand
You're such a stupid girl
You're such a stupid girl
I saw you in Mercedes Benz
Practicing self-defense
You got it pretty good I guess
I couldn't see your eyes
You're really stupid, girl

 

I wonder who influenced Kendrick Lamar more. Rapper Deborah Harry via "Rapture" in the early 1980's or Kim Kardadhian's husband?

 

Dude, you just posted this track a few pages ago. Blondie didn't invent rap--they appropriated it.

 

My son encouraged me to listen carefully to this track from good kid, m.A.A.d city. It's a pretty impressive piece, and it lays out the basic idea of the album: how the good kid navigates the dangers of the mad city (gangs on the one hand, cops on the other, the siren call of drugs, "Grown-up candy for pain") and comes out of it with the power to represent his experiences in song. We can tune into that station, and if we do we will find ourselves rightly in debt to the artist who gives us what we need to rise above the hallucinations and lies that hide the truth and keep us from reconnecting with our "elations." That's a pretty traditional poetic project, and as beautifully executed as any similar one in popular music. And the chorus, sung by Pharrell Williams, is a lovely, evocative bit of smooth R&B that floats above the rougher currents of the song's 3 rapped sections (and the three rapped sections modulate between different styles of delivery, some of it sung). It's worth paying attention to the way the delivery imposes form on the stream of the language, which tumbles out pretty rapidly but gets stamped by Lamar's rhythmic emphasis, the way it punctuates the syntax and sort of pulls the rhymes out for our attention. The effects are complex and the product of considerable skill. These sections work as pure rhythm, but they reward careful attention to the language, too. And there are some larger symbolic touches that work beautifully. The most obvious example is the way the red and blue of gang colors in the first verse pop up again as the red and blue of the lights on the top of a police car in the second, just one part of the way the song draws its parallels.



Kendrick Lamar – good kid Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

L.

 

As long as the illegal street drugs trade is provided with economic clout and outlaw appeal by drug prohibition, the narrative focus of rap and hip-hop will largely revolve around the gangs and drugs game. Even "positive rap" artists like Kendrick Lamar draw heavily on that subject for source material and dramatic focus. Which should be unsurprising.

The War on Drugs paradigm is the dry rot of domestic public policy in this country. The impacts are insidious, and compound like interest. Across the board, at every socioeconomic stratum.

It would be interesting to see what forms rap and hip-hop might take, in the absence of its current emphasis on criminality and antisocial conduct. Just like it would be interesting to see what this country would look like if gangs of career criminals were effectively deprived of their de facto monopoly control over the trade in the wide array of currently prohibited substances.

 

Yeah...he's a using a fish as a metaphor for the girl, in a rather poetic way. There's nothing "bizarre, dissociative, rambling, or braggadocious" about it. It's not as if they're disjointed thoughts thrown together without any context. I'm surprised that it went over your head.

 

To which track by Lamar were you initially referring ?

L.

 

Well, artists like Drake for example, focus a lot on love/relationship type songs. Kendrick does that sometimes too, like on These Walls, Love, or Poetic Justice (ft. Drake).

Most of Butterfly is about the change fame has brought him & his relationship to his home town, other famous people, his friends from back home(and how they were acting at the BET awards: see Institutionalized) and the times(political climate, police shootings, racism today etc.).

I don't think he relies heavily on either gang or drug culture, though obviously that stuff is in there with a bunch of other stuff. However, without that stuff, I imagine hip-hop wouldn't change that much. Political/conscious rappers would stay talking about anything they feel important, & the radio/pop friendly guys will focus on keeping it light & just focusing on the parties & stuff

 

Can't tell if you are trolling or not. Tons of poetic metaphors and meaning that aren't immediately apparent upon a cursory listen (or one with a negative preconception as you clearly have) of Kendrick's music. Hope you can see the irony. Particularly in your last sentence.

If you are actually interested in learning about it read this lyric analysis/annotation of the song you clearly misunderstood. Here.

 

Are you unaware of rappers who don't rely heavily or at all on these themes? In fact I would say that it isn't nearly as common at the moment as in the past. Genuinely curious are there are many and I'm not sure if you were just making a point, which I think is valid for certain genres of hip-hop, or not.

 

That's not my experience.

 

These aren’t great lyrics.

 

Really? Surely you've met some younger people that like one or both of them? Or at least know some songs? Either way, 20 years later, their reputation is still intact & they still get views on YouTube/streams online, i'd say their legacy is still strong

 

Was Burlesque Beyonce with "her" long blond hair a major influence for Kendrick Lamar?

 

Wut? Why do you keep posting videos that have nothing to do with Kendrick? Are you implying Beyoncé isn't a woman? What does blonde hair have to do with anything? How could a song that came out way after Kendrick made it big be relevant to his influences? Either nonsense or weirdest troll ever. I am so confused...

 

This award is reminiscent of Moonlight winning an award. Some of his music is good and thought provoking, but its self serving. Nothing about it benefits all of mankind from what I've heard.

Flame away.

 

No flaming necessary, you should hear more of it maybe or not. I don't think it's self serving, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me that much either.

I also thought Moonlight was great, another piece of art that got an award it was more than worthy for.

 

Okay, these are dumb, rambling free-association gibberish, but you had to go bring this particular track up to show that old rock stars could write lyrics just as "offensive" as rap lyrics--in order to defend the misogyny that is hip-hop's stock in trade.
It reminds me of when hip-hop defenders use to trot out Johnny Cash's " Folsom Prison Blues"----I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die..... or "Eric Clapton's" ( not realizing it was a Bob Marley song) "I Shot the Sheriff" to excuse gangsta rap twenty five years ago.

Look, you like what you like and I'll like what you like. There's something for everyone. But why do certain people always have to impugn the motives of people who don't care for hip-hop by calling them ( in so many words) "old geezers" who are out of touch and fearful of change. I've listened to Lamar and while I recognize his talents and gifts, I really don't care for his message and I think the man is monumentally over-praised --critics trip over each other trying to throw superlatives and prizes at him--precisely because they agree with his political message.
I don't because I see daily the fruits of the glorification of ghetto-culture and the glamorization of the drug dealer and nothing will improve ( and hasn't improved in decades) no matter how many "woke" hipper-than-thous listen to Kendrick Lamar.

 

Show me an instance where Kendrick Lamar glamorizes drug dealers.

 

It's implied, not overt.

 

No, it isn't. Show me where it is implied.

 

Why are you bothering? He has no proof at all to back up his claims and every one of us that likes KL knows he isn't glamorizing much of anything let alone the drug trade.