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Untitled, unmastered: Top Five Kendrick Lamar Songs
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Kendrick Lamar performs at the FIB Festival on July 17, 2016 in Benicassim, Spain. (Shutterstock.com/Christian Bertrand)
T
he Grammy committee may have snubbed Kendrick Lamar when handing out the Best Album prize to Bruno Mars earlier this year, but on Tuesday, Lamar won the ultimate prize, one with a cultural impact more profound than an industry award like a Grammy.
In its statement, Pulitzer Prize organizers said Lamar’s album, Damn, offered “affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” Fans of Lamar know very well that his flow and delivery is only second to his storytelling skills. He is able to craft some of most economical lines and rhymes to tell the complexity of being black in America today. Also, Lamar may be the first post-modern rapper who is not only self-aware about cannibalizing all elements from jazz, soul and funk but also likes to mess with cliché and stereotypes associated with the genre. The following five songs show us that Lamar is at the top of his game and deserves all the accolades.
5. All the Stars
The latest addition to Lamar’s expansive catalogue. Even if this track has no ties to the blockbuster Black Panther, it is still one of Lamar’s best, cementing his status as one of the most sought-after songwriters in hip-hop. At this point, he is invincible.
4. m.A.A.d City,
An ode to his hometown Compton, m.A.A.d City is a fine example of West Coast hip-hop where Lamar took his cue from the baddest of all badasses, Ice Cube. Released in 2012, this is the moment when Lamar took over the mantle as the biggest rapper on the scene from Kanye.
3. D.N.A
Post-MTV, Lamar manages to singlehandedly revive music video as an art form. D.N.A owes much of its success from the fact that it serves a vehicle for storytelling to a Don Cheadle-starred video. In the video, Lamar makes Cheadle acts as if he delivers some of Lamar’s introspective lines over a chaotic rhythm that ebbs and flows like a drug.
2. i
The moment when Lamar digs deep into his musical roots, unearthing thick funk sound once peddled by Parliament Funkadelic and War. In between his rapping duty, Lamar sing-speaks some of his bars atop vintage funk guitar and synth that earned him two Grammys in 2016. Even David Bowie claimed this as an influence for his last record, Black Star.
1. HUMBLE
Lamar’s biggest hit, the first track to win the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, for obvious reasons. Speaking about being paged by president Barack Obama certainly does not qualify as being humble, but Lamar uses the line to deliver one of his most effective critiques of our social media-obsessed society. Backed by an ominous piano riff and expansive beats, the track is a hedonist meditation on narcissism.
