auntie song made his dad cry love these guys + bridging the gap yt channel

SICK, It’s almost Dry, Ramona Park, Aethiopes, Continuance are not mid my guy

Damn the pitchfork score is low wth

Didnt even get BNM

I’ve already played out this album and need a break lmao

like i been trying to see if anyone who likes the album can at least agree but

it really feels like at most, people who can go out to say why the album is different will start bringing up the socio political issues and start going off on "music with a message"

and to me, it's like...if you really cared about those issues, then i feel like you'd already heard all the s*** kendrick said before, and truthfully find his angle a little weak, dated, and naive?

i hate to use naive, cause it just immediately drenches your s*** with this sense of superiority. the thing is im not trying to convince someone else they're wrong, but rather that maybe they're not right.

but it's impossible. ppl just get too defensive. i cant blame them tho. as lame as all the supportive comments are for this album, so are most of all the hate comments for the album as well

Pitchfork doing that to be different because everybody else giving out 10s. Also cause Kodak is on the album and Auntie Diaries

B****fork

pitchfork gave DAMN a 9.2 tho lmao

kodak absolutely slaughtered this album man

Some put it on the Devil when they fall short,
I put it on my ego, lord of all lords.

played Savior for my homeboy tonight
that bass drop catches everyone off guard

F***itupfuckitupfuckitup

Can’t stop listening to this f***

sounds like you’re the weird one

you’re mad about the praise and mad about the hate

figure your feelings out

Maybe I’m in the minority here but I absolutely hate Amanda Reifer’s chorus on Die Hard

This is how we conceptualize human beings

Really got this masterpiece dropping at the same time as new BCS episodes with both filling that connection between my mind and soul on a whole other level with their attention to detail, emotion, and overall perfection

You either gon be dead or in jail, killer psychology

Ughhhh, you're making prxstos use his brain and free write on KTT all because of your fair and constructive point, I appreciate you.

A. Those examples directly aided the narratives of their respective albums

B. Its abundantly clear that Kendrick's more playful side has evolved from a basic dichotomy in his art to, now, an entirely new dimension of his bravado and artistic subject. The "Kung Fu Kenny" aesthetic is the clearest example of this, and conveys a nimble and agile demeanor that is contrasted by the tacit humor of retro kung-fu aesthetics, and long shot juxtapositions of kendrick as a god-like figure, stereotypical rapper, everyday man, and Steve Jobs in the HUMBLE vid, the most braggadocios song on DAMN and probably the defining song in Kendrick's discography to the everyday listener.

This artistic language that Kendrick and Dave Free obviously feed off of each other through has now become their own independent venture, and this nimble and humorous aesthetic has spilled onto all of their subsequent pglang/baby keem/tanna Leone initiatives.

So that brings us to the N95 video. Representing his first album in 5 years that touches on the deepest content of his entire career, Kendrick pulled out all the same tricks from 2017-2018 - Jesus imagery, holding a pigeon while erratically adlibbing, random stills in bushes, rapping fast with a board and dissociated disposition, slo-mo shots of a bad b**** leaning on a grand piano set atop a Jeezy-esque synth lead, etc. - you saw the video you know the vibe. And when judged on its own I'm not mad at the track or video at all, it restores the feeling quite nicely.

But to your last point, as a man who's bowed out from "the culture" in favor of his self-enlightenment and family's well being, what purpose does this serve now, and what is its function in understanding Kendrick's "post-culture/post-savior complex" mindstate? It doesn't depict a soullessness to the point of warranted post-ironic introspection (re: Bound 2 video), but it doesn't depict the "non-materialistic/spiritually rich" subject that is implied as the contrasting ideal to the song's subject character either.

On the Kendrick album we can most conveniently compare MMBS to content-wise (TPAB), there's nothing about any of the songs on TPAB you listed that obfuscate what the message of that album is - it sticks to its themes as you mentioned without any grievances to be made in sight. The videos for that album use Kendrick flying through LA, hanging out of a car window, and acting a fool at a house party to paint a picture of a dualistic celebrity experiencing a dissonance between himself and his hometown, himself and his family, himself and his own ascension to stardom.

If N95 is ultimately the lone video that comes from this album, and we observe the aesthetics of the video and his kung-fu Kenny tendencies as a natural culmination of the identities formed through the TPAB and DAMN years, a substantial portion of the playfulness and bravado in this video and on this album dulls out the heaviness of this album rather than dynamically counterbalances it. And in the same vein as @Scratchin_Bandit 's critiques of MMBS' messaging, it reveals the contradictions of Kendrick's enlightened individualist ideology - songs like Rich Spirit come off a lot more like "I'm so spiritually whole now that I CAN be this preposterous" than just existing as a lighthearted bragging track containing fun and witty bars in a more neutral context.

Kendrick is asking us to digest a deeply uncomfortable account of his personal life, and potentially allow it to strike trauma-tuned chords in our own paths towards healing. As Kendrick exits left-of-stage, he suggests that we undergo a similar process of unlearning behaviors and untethering ourselves from detrimental relationships, and thoughts we've suppressed for longer than we can conveniently remember - void of a savior-like reference and in immediate proximity to those we may call our loved ones. A glimpse of what this pathway's horizons may bring us reveal a once-embodied-but-now-caricatured savior who's convictions have all but swallowed the man behind the mask whole. It is in this regard that N95 is a zero-sum move, and does nothing to convince us that Kendrick, family intact, is even certain of his own self-sacrifice, and with the limited amount of info about his personal life that we have, I hope he comes to realize that he presented himself with a false dealer's choice.

im gonna assume you're being genuine

but, no that's not what the post was about

well look what just walked in...

I feel like none of these Drake stans talking s*** could knuckle up

Its to the point where if a nigga slanders this album to me in person we gotta squabble