BY PRESTON WALTER
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On March 3, Kendrick Lamar dropped a surprise album titled Untitled Unmastered on iTunes, Spotify, Tidal and Google Play Music.
This album, which marks Lamar’s 5th studio album, is a compilation of all his untitled songs that never reached his albums. This is extremely unique because not many artist have a whole list of songs that they produce that never make their albums, and they almost never have those songs released into a full-fledged album. The album consist of eight songs, all titled “Untitled” one through 8 and it brings back that traditional Lamar freestyle flow that fans have loved.
The songs are very unique, with up tempo and jazzy beats, reminiscent of Lamar’s Grammy-winning album To Pimp A Butterfly, because these songs were made around the same time Lamar was making the album. It’s evident that Lamar had fun making this album, which contributes to producing a genial and enjoyable listening experience. For example, in “Untitled 7 2014-2016,” you hear Lamar say, “this song gonna be 15 minutes” as he jokingly laughs with his friends.
Lamar also brings forward the racial issues and poverty which his tracks concentrated on in To Pimp a Butterfly. Songs like “Untitled 3” and “Untitled 5” carry the lyrics of minorities and black rights which is something Kendrick has been known to advocate for a lot, the vibe he gave us in his show-stealing Grammy performance. In this album Lamar dives into the racial discrimination in songs like “Untitled 3” saying how the “white man” always has control of the minorities.
My personal favorite songs from the album are “Untitled 2,” “Untitled 7” and “Untitled 8,” all of which provide a great range of powerful lyrics from Lamar and showcase the black excellence for which he strives.
What’s interesting about the album is that Lamar has teased some of these songs for a while. For instance, even performing them on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Colbert Report. Lamar debuted what was formerly titled “Untitled” on The Colbert Report and “Untitled 2” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. These songs ended up having different titles on the album with “Untitled” being “Untitled 3” and “Untitled 2” being “Untitled 8.”
While, this is not my favorite album from Lamar, it’s a very good one to say the least. I thoroughly enjoyed every song on the album, and I will continue to play it in my car for a long time. I think it’s safe to say that Lamar is still running the rap game and I think he’s going to have it for a while.
