It’s a notion he repeats more than once on the album.

“My mama told me that I was different the moment I was invented/ Estranged baby, no I’m not ashamed/ I recommend every inch of your lunatic ways,” Lamar raps on the track, an ode to individuality. “untitled 06” and “untitled 08” are brilliant slices of bouncy, funk-influenced hip-hop, drawing from songs like TPAB‘s “These Walls” and the good kid, m.A.A.d city bonus track “Now or Never.” “untitled 06” is particularly enjoyable, with dancefloor-ready drums, floating keys and an absurdly catchy CeeLo Green hook that could be part of a long-lost Gnarls Barkley cut. Of course, untitled’s experimentation is a success largely because it results in some of the most upbeat, exciting Lamar tracks in recent memory and - despite the TPAB ties - offers something for fans of any of the rapper’s distinct sounds. It matches the structure of these tracks, which seem both haphazardly thrown together and incredibly calculated, drawing inspiration from the rules and styling of improvisational jazz. Lamar’s lyrics are as dense as ever, and the vibrant production transforms constantly. Nearly every song on untitled requires multiple listens to decipher, though usually just one to enjoy. These are freewheeling, experimental, unbound songs that (for the most part) avoid the trappings that frequently come with those descriptions.įrom the unsettling introduction of “untitled 01” to the whispered secrets of “untitled 04,” the album plays with expectations in ways other rappers wouldn’t even consider. pulls from the same gumbo of African-American musical tradition, much of the semblance to standard rap composition is missing. While the instrumentation on untitled unmastered. Thankfully, the vagueness of the title and the somewhat mystifying release don’t signify, as some feared, a lack of identity - these songs might be demos originally intended for Lamar’s previous project, but untitled offers a surprisingly cohesive, unsurprisingly excellent glance into the musical mind of rap’s most intriguing MC.įor all its sonic experimentation, To Pimp a Butterfly rarely eschewed traditional song structure, its stories of systemic and personal turmoil tightly packaged into rap verses separated by soul- and R&B-inspired hooks. apparently saw the light of day largely because of a Twitter exchange between LeBron James and Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith. After all, Lamar dropped the near-universally praised To Pimp a Butterfly less than a year ago - not to mention the fact that untitled unmastered.

In other words, it’s a release that welcomes skepticism. is a collection of eight title-less tracks, some of which were performed on late-night television following the release of his last album, others heard here for the first time. The Compton rapper’s untitled unmastered.

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