Inside Philadelphia's vibrant music scene, an unexpected duo redefines the intersection of performance and therapy. On 'Hypnagogia,' their visionary sound effortlessly merges classical refinement and the soul tradition with hip-hop's raw energy and verbal play.
In "Watch The Party Die," Kendrick grapples with his calling as a musical prophet, torn between peaceful Christian ideals and the violent justice he feels compelled to deliver.
Kendrick Lamar's "euphoria" asks us to reconsider everything we think we know about hate. By embracing the role of hip-hop's "biggest hater," he exposes the paradoxical joy we find in our pettiest grievances, transforming a diss track into a meditation on human nature.
When considering the most current discoveries in astronomy one may not think about Hip-Hop. However, over the course of its first fifty years, Hip-Hop artists have rhymed about the movements of the sun, moon, and stars in multitudinous songs and freestyles.
One of hip-hop's most cerebral artists grapples with the nature of morality itself. Parsing Lamar's lyrics reveals a complex philosophical system where earthly existence traps us in perpetual error, while salvation waits in the beyond.
This show took place during the era when hip hop shows had a reputation (and oftentimes reality) of being hit or miss affairs, with late artists, middling sound, stage full of posse (out numbering band members)...off-kilter, chaotic and unpredictable. On a good night, exciting.
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is maybe the purest Kendrick Lamar Concept Album yet. The striking new production direction is here, the bars and the songwriting are here, the narrative arc is here. And we've even been treated to another helping of controversy, for flavor.