Kendrick Lamar's 'untitled unmastered': A track-by-track review
Last year, Kendrick Lamar dropped his classic second album To Pimp A Butterfly on March 15 — and fans and critics alike spent the rest of 2015 digesting it. Now, even earlier in the year than its predecessor, we have the surprise release untitled unmastered, a new K-Dot album to ruminate on for the remainder of 2016.
The morning after its unexpected (but very welcome) arrival, USA TODAY's Patrick Ryan, Jaleesa Jones and Maeve McDermott examine untitled track by track.
1. Untitled 01 | 08.19.2014
Frenetically rapping over a moody wash of reverb and drums, Lamar condemns humanity for its wrongdoings and attempts to reckon with God on Judgement Day. "I made To Pimp a Butterfly 'fore you told me to use my vocals to save mankind for you," he defiantly emotes, painting himself as something of a prophet and adding, "Who love you like I love you?"
Lamar has never been one to shy away from religion in his music (this is a man who dressed up as Jesus Christ for Halloween, after all), but this unabashedly spiritual song stands out for its raw emotion. — Patrick Ryan
2. Untitled 02 | 06.23.2014
"Pimp, pimp -- hooray!" This woozy jazz number is an instant K-Dot classic, as he performs vocal somersaults over sporadic blasts of saxophone. The song, which fans already heard when Lamar performed it on Fallon, is more braggadocious than we've come to expect from the rapper, who mulls the idea of emptying his bank account and splurging on diamonds, cars, women, and liquor: "(Expletive) is amazing, I'm feeding my cravings." — Ryan
3. Untitled 03 | 05.28.2013
Lamar premiered this Thundercat and Terrace Martin collaboration on The Colbert Report last year. Despite its breezy, upbeat vibe, the song has a heavier message, as the nimble rapper receives "advice" from an Asian, American-Indian, black man and white record-label exec. The latter makes him question his artistic integrity: "What if I compromise? He said it don't even matter / make a million or more, you living better than average/ You losing your core following, gaining it all."
In many ways, untitled unmastered feels like a direct response to his wild success this past year, reminding fans that he's not one to fit in any industry mold. — Ryan
4. Untitled 04 | 08.14.2014
On Untitled 04, Kendrick steps back to lurk in the shadows of this unsettling interlude. SZA and Jay Rock trade hopeful, moodily-soulful lines about the future, interrupted by one of the album’s most arresting narrative quirks: Kendrick’s whispers, interjecting between lines to urge them on, betraying their guide of confidence by embodying the nagging voice in the back of his head. — Maeve McDermott
5. Untitled 05 | 09.21.2014
This jazz-focused track comes at you like the last amber drop in a glass of disillusionment. As the cymbals crash and the piano keys flutter under Anna Wise’s soulful vocals, Kendrick's gritty verses paint a picture of a man staking out a house to rob.
The consummate storyteller, Kendrick and his protagonist wrestle with the widening gulf between him and God, the engrossing quest for money and the idea of escape: “I’m passing lives on the daily. Maybe I’m losing faith / Genocism and capitalism, just made me hate / Correctionals and these private prisons gave me a date / Professional dream killers reason why I'm awake.” — Jaleesa Jones
6. Untitled 06 | 06.30.2014
As if to ease listeners out of the melancholy haze of Untitled 05, the easygoing track whirls around a dreamy jazz flute and the mellifluous stylings of CeeLo Green. A sweeping meditation on embracing flaws, the track positions Kendrick as a fallible partner speaking to his lover.
“I reside. I want God / Both sides of me are evenly odd / It’s attractive. You’re intrigued / Am I mortal man or make believe?” Green croons as Kendrick, a fellow Gemini, beseeches: “Look at my flaws, look at my flaws / Look at my imperfections and all.” And yet, she does and still thinks his “mystique is a round of applause.” — Jones
7. Untitled 07 | 2014 - 2016
While every other song on untitled carries a specific date, Untitled 07 is simply attributed to “2014 - 2016.” Of all the songs here, the wide-encompassing date is most fitting for the three-part track, its structure reminiscent of another Kendrick classic, good kid, m.A.A.d city’s Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.
All his favorite themes are present here, as he swaggers “like Pacino in Godfather” and preaches HiiiPower and dreams of living life like rappers do, all culminating in another classic Kendrick move: the phone call outro. — McDermott
8. Untitled 08 | 09.06.2014
The last song on untitled shows Kendrick bouncing on These Walls-style hydraulics, intertwining two of the album’s most striking narratives one of a young woman struggling with her come-up, the other an impoverished voice lashing out at Kendrick’s own accounts of his struggles. Both stories dissolve into his own, as he ends the album questioning what exactly we're owed by the universe for existing, and how hard we need to fight for what we're not. — McDermott