who on the drums kendrick lamar untitled unmastered 2

Even now, the album is locked away from its expectant audience on West’s co-owned streaming service Tidal. Lamar’s humble bundle of songs, which he’s since revealed are demos from his knotty hip-hop masterpiece “To Pimp A Butterfly,” is all the purer when held against the antics of the other recent marquee hip-hop release: Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo.” West’s seventh album was the opposite of a surprise, with a moving target of a street date he only seemed to eventually hit because he’d rented out Madison Square Garden for a release show. There is no chance to filter to the album through a music writer’s very different ears, or skip directly to the single and set the rest aside.Īlbum leaks, promo cycles and listening parties are de rigueur for the industry, but they benefit the two least important parties in the process - the publicists and the music writers - while hindering the experience of the ones who truly matter in the exchange: the artist and the audience.

With zero preparation, everything hits at once. Usually, it stems from seeing songs memorized for years performed live for the first time, or the DJ playing “Who’s That Lady?” at the club right as you lock eyes with your future ex-wife.īut surprise album releases have added a new moment of ecstatic disbelief to the lives of music obsessives.

Music has been known for inspiring moments of irrationality, but not like this. The only words anyone could come up were variations of “f*ck,” “good,” and “sh*t,” but even that was more than we needed to say. By the time the third track’s splashy drums crashed in, the palpable excitement in the car caught fire. Despite the fact the titles were essentially placeholders (the tracks are labeled “untitled 01” through “08” with a date for each), this wasn’t just some dashed off mixtape. Antenna in one hand and a phone in the other, I moved around to find the best reception, which ended with my arms contorted in something resembling a tai chi pose, the phone pressed up against the ceiling and the antennae dangling just below the rear-view mirror.

Even the best station hissed with static, but the shy synth of the album’s first track finally peeked its head above the crackle. Scrambling for the radio tuner, which is so ineffective it’s only worth using deep in the mountains, I started swearing even more than I usually do, as if it was all a dream that might fall away at any moment. Sunday, September 18th 2022 Home Page Close Menu

Who on the drums kendrick lamar untitled unmastered 2