Listen Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer
- Thread starter Wintermute
- Start date
He's pretty damn good and deep in the thoughtfulness of his lyrics. I only have a couple of his tracks. Here is some context as to why he was chosen:
DAMN.”, the winning record, is “virtuosic”, just as the jurors say. Over the spare, stuttering beats of trap, a popular sub-genre of hip hop from the Deep South, Mr Lamar invites us to eavesdrop as he confesses to a host of sins—pride, lust, greed, anger, hypocrisy—as well as his fear of being judged, by his fire-and-brimstone God. Hip hop is still a genre that revels in braggadocio and conspicuous consumption, and Mr Lamar is no different from his peers. He understands temptation. But where some rappers look in the mirror and see playboy-gangsters, Lamar sees a sinner, tormented by his success and by his responsibility to those less fortunate than he is. His great talent is how, with his blazing lines, he makes us feel the heat of hellfire.
“DAMN.”, then, is most certainly virtuosic. The jury, however, also praised it for capturing “the complexity of modern African-American life”. Many of the experiences Lamar recounts will be familiar to those for whom racism and violence are daily realities: there’s the constant fear of being killed by a gang member or by the police, “‘cause that’s what you do when you’re 17”, and the desire for retribution that accompanies the news that a loved one has been murdered. Yet “DAMN.” is not an album about the complexity of modern African-American life so much as it is about the complexity of Mr Lamar’s inner life. The album cover is a portrait of a doleful Lamar, his head bent down, seemingly under the weight of his existential burden. On this album he turns inward, to consider the state of his soul.
DAMN.”, the winning record, is “virtuosic”, just as the jurors say. Over the spare, stuttering beats of trap, a popular sub-genre of hip hop from the Deep South, Mr Lamar invites us to eavesdrop as he confesses to a host of sins—pride, lust, greed, anger, hypocrisy—as well as his fear of being judged, by his fire-and-brimstone God. Hip hop is still a genre that revels in braggadocio and conspicuous consumption, and Mr Lamar is no different from his peers. He understands temptation. But where some rappers look in the mirror and see playboy-gangsters, Lamar sees a sinner, tormented by his success and by his responsibility to those less fortunate than he is. His great talent is how, with his blazing lines, he makes us feel the heat of hellfire.
“DAMN.”, then, is most certainly virtuosic. The jury, however, also praised it for capturing “the complexity of modern African-American life”. Many of the experiences Lamar recounts will be familiar to those for whom racism and violence are daily realities: there’s the constant fear of being killed by a gang member or by the police, “‘cause that’s what you do when you’re 17”, and the desire for retribution that accompanies the news that a loved one has been murdered. Yet “DAMN.” is not an album about the complexity of modern African-American life so much as it is about the complexity of Mr Lamar’s inner life. The album cover is a portrait of a doleful Lamar, his head bent down, seemingly under the weight of his existential burden. On this album he turns inward, to consider the state of his soul.
That guy doesn't even have the originality to come up with his own rapper name. When I first heard him I was like "wtf Aesop Rock starting to sound pretty lame" then I realised it's just some wannabe.
Hold up - pinked
Sit down - pinked
Pass out - pinked
Faded - pinked
Faded - pinked
Sit down - pinked
Pass out - pinked
Faded - pinked
Faded - pinked