Kendrick Lamar - GNX (November 22nd, 2024) Album • Page 18

Did not know this, that sucks, especially because I thought this review made some solid points.

 

Are the writers the ones who assign ratings and BNM labels on things though?

 

Another one

 

As far as my knowledge, no

 

I love Damn even if there is a few tracks I skip, I love the social commentary, I love when Kendrick raises the intensity in Dna, Xxx, Feel and the reverse effect beat in Lust

 

I think Damn is his best distillation of heady themes and accessibility. It's everything I enjoy about his music wrapped into a single, digestible project.

 

Damn forever

 

Kendrick's voice on the "Squabble Up" chorus

 

One of the things I find most annoying about the review in the context of Pierre's catalogue is that he seems to have so much distaste for Kendrick's contradictions and hypocracy in ways that he doesn't for the negative shit that many artists that he covers says or does. It reads as if he has a specific bone to pick with Kendrick rather than as a good faith critique.

 

Yeah, this review definitely doesn't sit well next to that Noname one. And if anything, I admire Kendrick for attempting to grapple with his own contradictions on Mr. Morale (whether you find it successful or not) where Noname pretty much just tried to skate by the Jay Eelctronica thing by saying it was only white fans that were mad about it iirc.

 

DAMN. came out a week before I saw him for the first time where he headlined Coachella and played a set heavy on that album so I’ll always have love for it. I’ll always remember hearing Humble and DNA playing at literally every campsite

 

From what I've heard no, although I imagine they have to be at least vaguely aware of the score/label being put on their published writing. I'm actually pretty curious how the process to that is. In any case, the BNM isn't so much the point as the writing in reference to that stuff on Noname's, because it shows he has the ability to pick and choose when he wants to focus on outside circumstances to incorporate into his review or not.

And that's not to say it has to be line in the sand clear cut, because again I do think he brings up some good points about Kendrick's focuses on the album with it. But as an overall review of the album a bunch of it feels off to me personally.

 

I feel like since Good Kid every other album is dense or accessible.

 

I assume this may have been one of the references, but thought I may have just been overthinking it and was just a coincidence.

 

I’d say every album of his is perfect in its own way. Even the tracks that I dont always listen to are better than most peoples better tracks.

This album has some incredible highs while also being his most accessible in a sense.

 

I can see this. I think the review is fine for the most part, but it does feel like parts of it were written before he even heard the album, like he already had his mind made up about the album (to a certain extent)

 

lol, sorry, but I kinda hate this so much.

Maybe it's true, but so could the opposite where people not liking it as much right now just need time for it to grow. That's a pretty good description on how people experience music. Some people have a strong initial feelings, and then it fades, or changes, or grows, and it usually happens on some version of that spectrum for everyone. But it feels so dismissive when phrased as though those excited about something new are the ones "wrong" and anyone not as high on it right now has the "right" view and is somehow less "biased."

I keep coming back to how many reviews, or statements, that seem to want to tell me how I should feel about music or art or entertainment. That my excitement isn't real, and I'll grow out of it, and the more mature and sophisticated view is ______. And it bothers me so much.

 

I think this is a good album and probably the one of his I’ll come back to the most. I loved damn when it came out but the last few times I went back to it I wasn’t feeling it and didn’t finish my play through. I think TPAB his is best and he’ll probably never top it.

 

It def has some bangers I will be returning too. I think it qualifies for one of the best albums of the year. I do think particularly Wacced out murals will not age well just due to the beef adjacent stuff. Not that stuff is bad, but the rest of the record’s diss related stuff isn’t specific so you can apply it anywhere, where as that song is specifically about the Super Bowl and the beef

 

Ehh hit em up is still great 30 years later. I don’t think any of the beef stuff will age poorly.

 

I think about it like: every time you do a ranking or express if something is your favorite or least favorite or whatever, we know it's a snapshot of that moment in time. That's not something unique to brand new music, you can feel differently 10 months from now than you feel 11 months from now, just like you can feel differently 10 months from now than you do this second. So yeah people can be reactionary, but yeah I think that reaction is important too and a part of that moment's snapshot. There's not gonna be any auditors out there coming in to be like "but you said you loved GNX in November!!!!!" (This feels like something Sean will do now that I mentioned it don't do it Sean) so yeah, to your point, it's good to just embrace how you feel at that moment and know that it may be different but it's not now so why anticipate the change to be "more right"? I dunno. Quick rant

 

I was thinking Tupac and Biggie too, even though that beef was between two great rappers. I feel this beef is a little unfair lol Kendrick is beefing against a corny ass pop star and against a dude past his prime that is upset he's not doing the superbowl even though he sounds like dog shit live.

 

Totally agree with that and it's that fluidity that I think's cool to embrace and one of the things I do find interesting about ranking/rating things is how they change, and why they change. The things that stay with you, those that fade.

What's the phrase? Strong opinions loosely held?

 

Sure, I agree with most of this and am not saying anyone's excitement isn't real (I'm excited and like the album), I just think coming in and saying "I like this a lot, I'm excited for it to grow on me" is a more sensible take than claiming it's his best album less than a week after release - especially when it's an artist whose work is notoriously dense and often requires unpacking beyond a week's worth of discourse.

I'm obviously not saying people shouldn't talk about the album or aren't allowed to be excited or hyperbolic about it. I just think on forums like this, that is where recency bias can often come into play.

 

That's fair for sure!

My rant was independent of your post for what its worth, just something that's been on my mind in general