Kendrick Lamar Drops Surprise New Album ‘untitled unmastered.’

Kendrick-Lamar-untitled-unmastered

King Kendrick does it again! Less than a month after taking home five Grammys for his critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterly, K Dot has blessed us with another LP. Top Dawg Entertainment first hinted at the release with an Instagram post listing upcoming releases for 2016- Lamar’s name was included on the list, followed by “???”. The hint turned to reality when the album, simply titled untitled unmastered., showed up yesterday on Spotify and then dropped at 11pm EST. Since then, the music world has gone wild.

The eight track album is exactly what we hoped and expected from K Dot. The songs are all named “untitled” followed by dates, probably from when they were recorded, ranging from the years 2013 to 2016. While we can’t yet say for sure who and who isn’t involved in the making of the album, it sounds like TPAB collaborators Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Bilal and Robert Glasper are on their respective instruments. It also sounds like Ceelo Green may’ve joined the musical cast on “untitled 6”.

In typical Kendrick fashion, this album draws from a myriad of musical sources including jazz, funk, and trap. “untitled 2” and “untitled 7” have heavy trap influences with deep 808s, hi hats and crisp snares. “untitled 5” and “untitled 8” are jazz and funk inspired. While we have yet to get the credits for the album, the vocals on “untitled 5” don’t quite sound like Anna Wise, the extremely talented songstress who worked with Kendrick on TPAB and his previous albums. However on “untitled 8”, it sounds a lot like Thundercat on the background vocals and bass. The lyrics are as layered and intricate as the music- some favorite lines from the album so far are lines like “Im sick and tired of being tired/ can’t pick a side of Gemini” from “untitled 2” (Kendrick is a Gemini) and then “both sides of me are evenly odd…Am I mortal, man or make believe?” from “untitled 6”. All of these songs touch on the themes K Dot has been known to explore- racism, classism and an existential look into the dualities of himself as a person and as a performer.

If you love Kendrick Lamar’s work, then you must add untitled unmastered. to your track list. It’s a must have for any fan looking for music with inherent substance, flare and style. You can stream the album via Spotify below- the album is also available for purchase through iTunes.

untitled unmastered. Tracklist

01. ‘untitled 01 08.19.2014’
02. ‘untitled 02 06.23.2014’
03. ‘untitled 03 05.28.2013’
04. ‘untitled 04 08.14.2014’
05. ‘untitled 05 09.21.2014’
06. ‘untitled 06 06.30.2014’
07. ‘untitled 07 2014 – 2016’
08. ‘untitled 08 09.06.2014’