Thought It Was A Drought

Kendrick Lamar

untitled unmastered.

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is a weighty album in every sense. It’s a miracle that it succeeded, really, given the scale of its ambition and the burdensome task of following a masterpiece. Now faced with doing that all over again, it’s easy to see why the Compton rapper has chosen to release this cluster of songs suddenly, free of expectation and with the low-stakes non-title, untitled unmastered. 

Still, Kendrick doesn’t do light and breezy, and if this is a victory lap then it’s one that’s riddled with demons and anxiety (Pimp, pimp – hooray!) It begins with the end of the world, recalling OutKast’s Da Art of Storytelling (Part 2) in a vivid, widescreen scene that sees trains jumping from their tracks, backpedaling Christians pleading for mercy and abusive priests running for cover. Elsewhere songs about self-doubt wrestle others about self-love, faith is questioned then reaffirmed, and Jay Electronica is told to take a seat (“I could never end a career if it never start”)

Mostly written in the sessions for …Butterfly, the sounds and themes should already be familiar. What we have here then is Kendrick clearing out the vaults, showing us exactly what goes into creating one of his grand album narratives – and what occasionally has to be taken out. Although untitled unmastered. doesn’t strive for the same perfection as TPAB, this is wild and experimental material, and the lack of pressure on the release sometimes works in its favour.

Boone

Pop a Perc

There’s something very satisfying about a song like Pop a Perc going viral without so much as a trace of marketing gloss. The only things I know about Boone is that he’s from Philadelphia and that he likes to get loose on Percocet, and for the sake of this song that’s all the info that anyone needs. 

The video is oddly captivating, shot on a smartphone held the wrong way up and uploaded to YouTube without any punctuation. Meanwhile the song itself is a wholesale Eazy-E jack, but none of these things matter. Until somebody famous decides to drop a remix with a big budget video, this one’s managed to be popular with no corporate funding. Let’s be thankful for Pop a Perc.

Denzel Curry

Knotty Head

Miami police authorities made headlines this month by proposing a national boycott of Beyoncé’s April stadium tour. As well as being an incredible song, Formation is news because it comes from Beyoncé, but the video’s ‘Stop shooting us’ plea is sadly nothing new. In recent years, the issue has been widely confronted and protested by artists as varied as Kendrick Lamar, Young Thug, Vince Staples and so many more.

Denzel Curry, who also performs in Miami this April, is another voice in this chorus. Knotty Head is of no interest to the local police department because A) they don’t know who he is, B) he doesn’t have the profile to hurt them, and C) he’s a young rapper from Carol City whose voice is unlikely to reach anyone ‘important’. Meanwhile, according to The Guardian’s research, more than 300 black US citizens were killed by the police last year alone. And they wonder why people are angry.

Tate Kobang

Oh My

Having flipped a hometown classic on last year’s breakout Bank Rolls (remix), Baltimore’s Tate Kobang is back this month with something fresh. This time he teams with Atlanta’s Honorable C-Note for Oh My, a short, sparse and to-the-point cut that’s destined for club ubiquity – or at least deserves to be. The beat – while light in detail – has a driving energy, giving Tate a platform to get his bars off and get out. 

AMTHST

Euphoria

AMTHST is a new group consisting of the Los Angeles singer songwriter Nite Jewel and Bay Area rapper producer Droop-E (son of E-40). The duo have worked together before on 2013’s N The Traffic – in my mind a classic record – and on this 5-song EP they continue to make moody rap songs to soundtrack midnight drives. 

An easy comparison here might be Droop E’s Sade-sampling Blvck Diamond Life mixtape, but where that record was a lovingly chopped and arranged tribute, this one is a true collaboration. Although signed to Sick Wid It Records, these songs have only blood ties to Bay Area rap, the closest it comes being Let it Go (unfortunately not a lovingly chopped and arranged tribute to Disney’s Frozen.) Still, you can trace Droop E’s producer finesse all over Euphoria, and the remaining songs slide down nicely.

Young Thug

I’m Up

Given its haphazard release as a last minute substitute for Slime Season 3, it’s tempting to view Young Thug’s I’m Up as a stopgap project. The tracklist, too, is slighter than usual at just nine songs, and when the tape was first uploaded to mixtape sites it appeared (and was downloaded thousands of times) with the wrong artwork. Still, overlooking it would be a mistake. 

In my view, this is Thug’s best collection of songs since Barter 6, from the giddy stream of consciousness of Boosie tribute Fuck Cancer, through to closer Family, which affectionately features verses from his sisters Dolly and Dora. That said, I wouldn’t say no to more Slime.  

Boosie Badazz

Out My Feelings In My Past

If Boosie’s first album of 2016 was bitter in the wake of last year’s cancer scare, this companion release returns to the reflective style of his other post-prison music. Out My Feelings In My Past is a longer and more varied record than its predecessor, but, while a less singular entry in the rapper’s catalogue, it’s best songs carry typical emotional weight. 

The Slim Thug-featuring Wanna B Heard meets the high benchmark for Boosie wisdom, joining songs like I Feel Ya and I’m Wit Ya that elevated his Life After Deathrow album. In essence, these are all songs about giving a voice to voiceless communities, and, just as importantly, being there to actually listen to it. “I saw Glenn had something on his mind, I should’ve asked him what’s wrong,” muses the Baton Rouge rapper, before casting off a devastating aside: “Probably would’ve told me before he blasted his dome.” Boosie might just be the greatest living folk artist.