onelastdeath
Banned
King Kunta itself as a concept/term is just
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly | (Discussion Thread) *Stream*
- Thread starter afterlife2009
- Start date
Mike Otherz
All Star
how u feel about people who have problems with this album because of its politics? and i dont just mean whites or new blacks. im talking bout some black social justice types who think kendrick is engaging in respectability politics or that he is confused and not coherent. this is the new criticism i am hearing. its like they cant fault it musically or from a mc virtuoso performance so they looking at kendricks politics and the message they think he espousing.
was kinda annoyed with that grantland podcast saying kendrick seems confused. or that he contradicts himself from songs like "hood politics" and then a song like “I".
was kinda annoyed with that grantland podcast saying kendrick seems confused. or that he contradicts himself from songs like "hood politics" and then a song like “I".
I wonder if King Kunta will be like Pac's California Love 2 video
...Quik gotta make an appearance to make the cypher complete
Can't stop listenin to this future GOAT: Screamin' Annie are you Okay? Annie are you Okay?
...Quik gotta make an appearance to make the cypher complete
Can't stop listenin to this future GOAT: Screamin' Annie are you Okay? Annie are you Okay?
Despite the album's brilliance I can't deny that the victim blaming and respectability politics he focuses on annoys me a bit. They have a point, but overall I feel the music is so beautiful, powerful, and at times uplifting and thought provoking that I look past that to enjoy the whole. Yeah there's some cringe worthy victim blaming on the album, but there's a lot of passionate love for his people and a genuine desire to want to see us do better as well. Not to mention he doesn't exactly let cacs off the hook either.
It's balanced. There's some respectability politics, there's some black empowerment, there's some introspection and there's some putting cacs on blast for their despicable history.
It challenges and addreses everything, and because it does, I can personally tolerate and look past the things I don't necessarily agree with. And I can let him speak for himself as well, because I know he's trying to reach a more oppressed and dumbed down brother and sister than me. He comes from the heart of Compton where there are tons of black men and women who look just like me and need to hear his message urgently. For me the album is just a reaffirmation and a beautiful regurgtitarion of what I already know and feel. For them it's an enlightening awakening that could save their lives and help propel us as a race forward.
People clown us Lupe fans for T&Y selling poorly and this selling well, but to be honest, I'm glad it is and wish it'd sell even more. The topicalness of this album in comparison to the layered complication of Lupe's makes the important message Kendrick had for his people more easily understandable. I don't think it's a better album than T&Y but it is certainly a more important one to the black community. If every black person in this country could hear TPAB I would be elated. I consider it that culturally important - especially for our generation.
So while I may hate blacks killing other blacks just as much as I hate racist white cops killing blacks and therefore am not the biggest hypocrite of 2015, I can remove myself from the situation and acknowledge many of the people listening to this album are and need to hear it.
My 2 cents
It's an album that's based around pushing his message across though, so I feel like that's a valid complaint that people can have. A lot of people loving this album are the same people that will turn around and neg and 1* anybody that comes on here and makes a thread stating some of the same stuff Kendrick is saying on this album.
Just imagine a thread titled like this...
"This Trayvon Martin situation is unfortunate... but where's the outcry when black people kill innocent black people?"
"If black people respected each other more, white people would respect us more"
And I like the album, and I bought it, but I don't agree with everything on it. And I'm going to continue to bring up how people really don't mind Kendrick's pretentiousness and preachy-ness all over this album, but when other artists go to the same length that he's displaying on here to drive home his opinion/thoughts it's a problem.
Despite the album's brilliance I can't deny that the victim blaming and respectability politics he focuses on annoys me a bit. They have a point, but overall I feel the music is so beautiful, powerful, and at times uplifting and thought provoking that I look past that to enjoy the whole. Yeah there's some cringe worthy victim blaming on the album, but there's a lot of passionate love for his people and a genuine desire to want to see us do better as well. Not to mention he doesn't exactly let cacs off the hook either.
It's balanced. There's some respectability politics, there's some black empowerment, there's some introspection and there's some putting cacs on blast for their despicable history.
It challenges and addreses everything, and because it does, I can personally tolerate and look past the things I don't necessarily agree with. And I can let him speak for himself as well, because I know he's trying to reach a more oppressed and dumbed down brother and sister than me. He comes from the heart of Compton where there are tons of black men and women who look just like me and need to hear his message urgently. For me the album is just a reaffirmation and a beautiful regurgtitarion of what I already know and feel. For them it's an enlightening awakening that could save their lives and help propel us as a race forward.
People clown us Lupe fans for T&Y selling poorly and this selling well, but to be honest, I'm glad it is and wish it'd sell even more. The topicalness of this album in comparison to the layered complication of Lupe's makes the important message Kendrick had for his people more easily understandable. I don't think it's a better album than T&Y but it is certainly a more important one to the black community. If every black person in this country could hear TPAB I would be elated. I consider it that culturally important - especially for our generation.
So while I may hate blacks killing other blacks just as much as I hate racist white cops killing blacks and therefore am not the biggest hypocrite of 2015, I can remove myself from the situation and acknowledge many of the people listening to this album are and need to hear it.
My 2 cents
@Versa for current post of the year
Although I SLIGHY disagree with the "respectability politics" angle (I don't think anything he said regarding black on black crime or his feelings regarding it went into victim blaming territory) you are spot fukking on with everything else
I just can’t figure out what I am missing with this. Yeah, it’s grown on me, but I haven’t been able to wrap my head around all the great praise it’s getting. I felt the same way about the D’Angelo album. Everyone was saying it was a masterpiece, but I couldn’t get into it and gave up.
Maybe I just need to give both some more listens or be in the right frame of mind.
Maybe I just need to give both some more listens or be in the right frame of mind.
Animal House
Superstar
Momma
And that's my nikka Knxwledge on the beat
This is album gets better after every listen
And that's my nikka Knxwledge on the beat
This is album gets better after every listen
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
"Respectability Politics"??
i just can't with y'all sometimes...regurgitating and repeating the wild ass ideals of bloggers and twitter revolutionaries who are more so looking for hits and re-tweets than initiating real discourse.
what a lot of people are failing to take into consideration is that Kendrick spent the majority of his life inside of a social vacuum that even a lot of black folks have never experienced. on his own, he has discovered a couple of the very principles that the original Panthers and Malcolm X pushed - 1. accept your own responsibility and the fate that it brings. 2. understand who YOU are; knowledge of self.
how do either of those translate into being apologetic or victimisation?
i just can't with y'all sometimes...regurgitating and repeating the wild ass ideals of bloggers and twitter revolutionaries who are more so looking for hits and re-tweets than initiating real discourse.
what a lot of people are failing to take into consideration is that Kendrick spent the majority of his life inside of a social vacuum that even a lot of black folks have never experienced. on his own, he has discovered a couple of the very principles that the original Panthers and Malcolm X pushed - 1. accept your own responsibility and the fate that it brings. 2. understand who YOU are; knowledge of self.
how do either of those translate into being apologetic or victimisation?
Mike Otherz
All Star
It's an album that's based around pushing his message across though, so I feel like that's a valid complaint that people can have. A lot of people loving this album are the same people that will turn around and neg and 1* anybody that comes on here and makes a thread stating some of the same stuff Kendrick is saying on this album.
Just imagine a thread titled like this...
"This Trayvon Martin situation is unfortunate... but where's the outcry when black people kill innocent black people?"
"If black people respected each other more, white people would respect us more"
And I like the album, and I bought it, but I don't agree with everything on it. And I'm going to continue to bring up how people really don't mind Kendrick's pretentiousness and preachy-ness all over this album, but when other artists go to the same length that he's displaying on here to drive home his opinion/thoughts it's a problem.
sure the respectability angle isnt unique to kendrick at all. everyone from public enemy to cube to pac been doing that. we either have a problem with all of them or none at all. personally i try to separate artists from politicians. if he was a politician then i would be like
with that aspect, but i think artists are speaking to us on a more intimate level and i get his frustration. i can take it as a frustration on his part, but if cacs and politicians take that as an excuse for the racist bs thats when it can become a problem, but i wouldnt want to censure kendrick. its obvious coming from a place of sincerity and hopefulness.
Big Mel
@bigboss
Lotta moist negroes in here spouting shameful shyt. Grow a pair you bozos. Jesus fukking Christ.
this.
There are some tracks that are stand out tracks that you go straight to, ie: Complexion, The Blacker The Berry, the Isley joint, but some are tracks that only fit in the scope of listening to the entire album.
At first I didn't feel the album because I was trying to skip around tracks to find the standouts. But when I sat and listened to the whole album in one session it made sense! Its a movie.
Kendrick and his consecutive masterpiece
Piff Perkins
Veteran
I listen to individual tracks but often end up listening to more. If I'm at home I tend to start with These Walls, and often let u play through. If I listen to Hood Politics I have to listen to How Much A Dollar Cost. If I listen to You Ain't Gotta Lie I gotta play i afterwards, and Mortal Man.
Blacker The Berry in the whip tho
was blasting that shyt after work, driving around in my suit and tie. Pulled up to a red light and the old cacs in the other lane were like
black dudes like
ayo what's that
Blacker The Berry in the whip tho
was blasting that shyt after work, driving around in my suit and tie. Pulled up to a red light and the old cacs in the other lane were like
black dudes like
ayo what's that
A young black man jamming to his music in his car makes white people uncomfortable afI listen to individual tracks but often end up listening to more. If I'm at home I tend to start with These Walls, and often let u play through. If I listen to Hood Politics I have to listen to How Much A Dollar Cost. If I listen to You Ain't Gotta Lie I gotta play i afterwards, and Mortal Man.
Blacker The Berry in the whip tho
was blasting that shyt after work, driving around in my suit and tie. Pulled up to a red light and the old cacs in the other lane were like
black dudes like
Especially if it's some hard shyt like that
I don't turn down shyt either