Kendrick Lamar, an American rapper and songwriter, regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of his generation, recently released a new album that came out November 22nd 2024. which included 12 songs. 12 of the songs from the album included features, with artists such as SZA and Roddy Rich. I decided to listen to all the songs and give my rating out of 10 and feedback on each one.
1. “wacked out murals”
“wacked out murals”, which starts with Spanish rambling, is a negative song about Lamar being angry about his life. It’s a bit of a slower rap with a slow beat, prioritizing lyrics over beats, which I like. As the song progresses, it speeds up both the lyrics and the beat. At the end of the song, his singing speeds up even more, making the beat feel slow in comparison to the quick rapping. 4/10
2. “squabble up”
Starting off, I could already tell it was a lot more upbeat. This song sounds like a party song, which contrasts the previous song and it sounds like it was fun to make because he makes a bunch of silly noises. At around two minutes, there was a switch-up,and much like the previous song, he started rapping faster and the beat became more simple. 8/10
3. “luther (with sza)”
It begins very slow with guitar and then the beat turns on and it sounds like a chill mumble rap song, which I don’t really like. SZA has a short solo before they immediately start singing together which made the song sound much better. SZA was overpowering Kendrick on their voices for most of the duet and the duet continued for the rest of the song. I didn’t like the beginning but the duet made it much better. 7/10
4. “man at the garden”
Starts off with a slow beat, following the pattern of the previous song, but this time the slow beat continues into the song. This is a negative song, but not as aggressive as “wacked out murals”. At the end of each sentence, he makes explicit noises in my ear, which makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s a very repetitive song where he says a lyric then says “I deserve it all” and moans while saying “all”. At the end he “crashes out” as the violin is introduced to the beat. As once again speeds up before it cuts back to the slow beat and he repeats “i deserve it all” again. 2/10
5. “hey now (feat. Dody6)
As the song starts, I am immediately greeted with “d**n baby” in a seductive voice, which The beat made up of weird edited breathing and some bass. At 1:30, a beat switch-up happens as he begins talking about parmesan cheese and taxes in the same sentence. This song is very beat heavy and the lyrics mean little-to-nothing but only helps make the beat sound better. At 2:20, it’s another beat switch and it sounds weird. At 2:40,Dody6’s feature kicks in where he and Kendrick go back to back singing before Dody6 solos. Dody6’s voice matches the beat very well and I think it sounds better than Kendrick. The end entirely saved the song as before it sounded like how unseasoned chicken tastes. 6/10
6. “reincarnated”
To slide on some more he makes even more silly Spanish noises like the first song before going into a piano beat. As Kendrick starts rapping, it sounds weird; it does not match the beat. Kendrick’s voice is so aggressive as the beat is made up of calm piano, violin, and drums. He opens up about his drug addiction and his sin and about how he was kicked out of the house by his father and is trying to prove his dad wrong by his music. He then starts arguing with his “inner voice”, which is just his voice but with less emotion. This song reminded me of something Kanye would release. 3.5/10
7. “tv off (feat. lefty gunplay)”
I really like the beat and the rap actually flows with the beat on this song and he melody is very catchy. There’s a few small switch ups periodically but at 2:00 there’s a big switch up with the beat, then Kendrick yells “mustard”. Overall, a very good song with both parts of the song being exquisite. 9/10
8. “dodger blue (feat. Wallie the sensei, Siete7x, roddy rich)”
The beat started out so good but the rap from kendrick did not mix well with the beat and kind of ruined it. Halfway through, the rapping becomes better as the features start singing so it becomes much more bearable. Overall, such a good beat but was ruined by the rap, lyrics, and that the song was only two minutes long. 4/10
9. “peekaboo (feat. azchike)”
The beginning reminded me of some older kendrick songs and then the beat switched up and he started being very repetitive. This song just talks about explicit topics like most rap songs and then he randomly starts saying “heyheyheyhey.” Once again, the feature at the end of the song’s voice just matched so much better and the song would have been much better if it were released by azchike without Kendrick on it. 5/10
10. “heart pt.6”
A very slow guitar beat starts off the song as bass drums and some weird noise come into the beat. I don’t know what it is but it sounds good. Kendrick actually does really well on this song as his voice matches the beat. This song was very unique compared to the other songs. The beat really carried this song. 7/10
11. “gnx (feat. hitta j3, youngthreat, peysoh)”
This song had a very unusual beat with a lot of bass and it was very repetitive. It was the only one that I felt like the features didn’t actually help the song that much, especially the first one as it sounded like youngthreat only was trying to promote his name because he was on Kendrick’s song so he said his name over 3 times. 3/10
12. “gloria (with sza)”
The Spanish comes back at the start of this song. Overall a pretty basic song and didn’t stand out at all. land but still a decent song. Kendrick was better than SZA on this song though. 5/10
To wrap it up, This album was a bit worse than I expected it to be as it’s the first album from him in over 2 years. But there were a few songs that I might listen to randomly. Overall I would rate the album a 5/10 as it was pretty average, with 3 or 4 decent songs. Kendrick’s solos were not very good and I much preferred when a feature came on the beat and sang instead because it just made it sound so much better.