For those of you who were more critical of this album, what turned you off? I'm curious to get your perspective

for those of you who were more critical of this album, what turned you off? I'm curious to get your perspective

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Anything that isn't Kanye isn't worth listening to.

The Life of Pablo is the peak of music as a whole.

GOD and LOYALTY are fucking bad

why?

I find rap too depressing to listen to

These responses are fucking garbage. Just goes to show that the only people that didn't like when it first came out were just contrarian faggots.

inconsistent. gkmc and tpab were some of the most consistent hip hop albums created. damn fell off on too many tracks and every time I go back I find another track I feel that way about. it also just isn't very interesting. it seems like he's rapping for the sake of image and to show off his "fire bars". hip hop as a whole falls off because of the fact so many artists rap for the sake of image. his albums before this had passionate and interesting concepts, though damn falls under the same category as most every other rap album released, bland and inconsistent.

tired of this style of boom bap
was expecting more experimental sounds not this straight edge sound

It's shitty nigger rap.

Rap isn't music, even if it's made by white people it's trash.

again, why?

>4 responses
>one is a meme and one is "why?"
>hahaha just goes to show that ALL people who didn't like DAMN are DUMB!
fuck off newfag

They just sounded generic as shit. I fucking hate for free? But i still listen to it because the jazz section makes it at least interesting.

thank you for actually giving me something to work with lol

what would suggest that he's rapping with the intention of furthering his image? I think he does quite the opposite and breaks it down as he reveals in a close examination of his self and the relationship between his self and his environment, both past and present, that he's not the messianic figure of hip hop that everyone makes him out to be. For example, when he talks about how he would kill someone who killed a loved one

i think there's a lot more to the album than its sound alone. even at that i think he makes some interesting decisions with his beat choices. but i will concede that this album is not nearly as experimental as tpab was at certain points

ok yeah I can agree that those two were probably the worst tracks on the album in terms of originality and song writing. what do you think of the rest of the album though?

The trap beats

his voice is absolutely retarded

Yeah i think those are just generic topics. They're face value normie "deep" thoughts that have been rehashed thousands of times. I mean the names of the tracks all are on topics we've heard over and over and over again across multiple genres and especially hip hop. Even outside of music you see these topics brought up everywhere on psuedo intellectual motivational or introspective blogs. Hell, half of them are themes you'll see constantly in churches which have been rehashing them for thousands of years. Just boring themes people pander to for the sake of making themselves feel thoughtful and important. The themes weren't even necesarilly the worst part. The songs just didn't mesh well and were simply boring after hearing them a couple times over.

tfw 9 but 7

ok well humor me on this then, can you give an example of a piece of music which explores concept(s) that you can agree are, as you see them, deep in a more genuine sense?

Meh. Its going to be forgotten after he releases his next album.

presumably for similar reasons?
also where do you think damn stands in relation to his other albums?

You can say I'm avoiding the question, but there's a lot of shit. It's hard for me to name an exact album when discussing genuine and interesting themes simply because it's so easy for me to. Generallly a good album will have a genuine and interesting theme, so I guess just looking at a mucore or top 100 chart would answer your question. Themes are so wide spread and different I really can't just give you a simple answer to that question. You don't even have to be themed around any social idea to have a genuine and interesting concept. Literally the past two Kendrick albums both follow a genuine and interesting theme. Just rapping about being on top of the game, god, protecting family isn't very interesting to me.

hmm ok i guess what I'm really trying to get at here is what you think constitutes a theme to be genuine and interesting (if you're so inclined, try to seperate the two concepts. like what makes a theme genuine, or alternatively phrased, what gives a theme a notable amount of depth, and what makes a theme interesting to you in particular

Good question. I guess what makes a theme interesting to me is if there is an emotion I can follow a long to. Sad, happy, eery, psychotic, dramatic, stressed, angry, etc. I love when an album can set an emotional atomosphere. That's why I listen to albums instead of choosing to just listen to songs, the atmosphere. When an album is jumping around in concepts with no real distinct emotion attatched I lose interest in the theme. When those concepts are what I would consider rehashed like I feel they are on Damn, I lose interest. I think Damn is a decent album, somewhere in the 6's, I just think it's not what I would look to when wanting a complete hip hop album. There's some great songs and moments on the album, but when judging it on a scale of all albums, it just lacks the atmospheric theme or interesting concept which I look to when determining a great album.

TPAB>GKMC>>>DAMN>S80

I was really disappointed with the beats and overall production on this album, pretty much two remotely interesting moments are the drum pattern on Element and the whole of Duckworth. The production is too spacey after the lushness that both GKMC and TPAB had, the samples are also disappointing (Sampling free Soundcloud stock vox on such a high profile album is just bad taste even if it sounds good)

I really like Pride and Lust but they cross too much into other genres (rock ballad and trip-hop) for me to really enjoy on what's supposed to be a hip-hop album. I know that's more of a nitpick, but I think Kendrick is much better sounding on G-Funk or Jazz Fusion or just straight up Pop Rap beats, instead of whatever this spacey sound is.

I hate his voice

I know this is bait, but I actually really like TLOP despite many people saying it's his worst one. I don't see why that is, I just think it's different from his previous work and many people seemed to be turned off by that. It's easily one of my favorite albums of his
[No particular ranking]
>TLOP
>808s
>MBDTF
Don't get me wrong, I fucking love old school Kanye and TCD is a masterpiece, but something about his newer work just resonates with me. I like new Kanyes work alot better and each release drastically changes the rap industry, ever since he dropped 808s.

>ranking TPAB over GKMC

ok so if i'm understanding you correctly I take it that your criticism of damn mostly stems from its emotional incoherence. fair interpretation

could you point me to the soundcloud samples? I would love to get ahold of those lol

ok so why don't you think the spacey sound works? and what about kendrick on gfunk, jazz fusion, and pop rap beats does work?

Turns out not Soundcloud but still stock samples, my apologies.
youtube.com/watch?v=nK0sBRgoxsE at 1:05

His flows match the beat too well, which comes as a detriment on DAMN, but didn't on his earlier work. Pretty much only exception where his flow brings more energy than the beat provide I can pull off the top of my head is Hood Politics.
So because of that you basically get a really low energy hip-hop album. I'd rather go listen to shoegaze if I want some effect-laden spacey music, especially since it also has good layering.
I listen to hip-hop, and Kendrick too, to get a quick and concise shot of energy. I understand that since it's art and stuff you can push the boundaries all you want and low-energy hip-hop has its place (Earl Sweatshirt the most notable example probably), I'm just disappointed in Kendrick going in this direction, it feels very lazy in pretty much every aspect, especially since Heart pt. 4 was a really promising teaser.

To put it shortly, I had very different expectations, especially considered his previous work, and what I got disappointed me.
Maybe DAMN will be kind of like an 808s later, after it can be put in context somewhere in the middle of an artist's discography, but right now, as his most recent album, it's a change of direction that feels lazy and hides everything that was good about Kendrick in his previous albums.

Half the songs are great, but the other half is just generic trap songs

loyalty is garbo

GKMC > SEC 80 = TPAB > DAMN

ok, so you think that his shift is bad mostly due to his execution? or does it have more to do with that fact that your particularly fond of that certain higher energy sound? or is it both

i personally think that the decrease in energy works well for the introspection he was going for on this album

thanks for responding but I'd like to get some real discussion going here so if you would please provide some arguments if you're going to reply. my intention here get an understanding of other perspectives than my own

DAMN feels like a completion album rather than a theatrical like album with story like TPAB or GKMC.

what do you mean by completion album?

I'm not ok with how the sound is at the same time spacey AND low-energy. Just throw some gimmicky sounds in the beat (These Walls), or shuffle up the rhythm (How Much A Dollar Cost) and you already have something to catch the listener's attention. FlyLo is the master of this thing, and it showed.
The beats on DAMN sound like they wanted to go as straight-sounding as possible, couldn't get anything remotely interesting from anyone not named Mike Will or 9th Wonder, threw on a bunch of reverb and called it a day.

Also introspection was so nicely done on TPAB with u/i, that honestly there's no need to touch on it ever again.

Okay, so if GKMC is the OKC of rap, TPAB is the Kid A, and UU is the Amnesiac this is the Hail to the Thief. It's a return to genre conventions that's well executed but ultimately forgettable. If a lesser named rapper dropped this, we would have given it an 7-8 and then move within a month. It's better than Section 80 (probably) but worse than everything else he's done.

well i heard in an interview with kendrick that he intended for this album to be listenable in a number of contexts (club, car, by yourself, etc). But i guess that doesn't mean you have to agree with his decision.

I also think gimmicky sounds would have conflicted with the fairly minimal sound he was going for. He tended to keep to a bass, vocals, sampled singing, and percussion which again works toward the theme of introspection in that the production is less cluttered, there's more clear space in the mix as well as in his own head allowing him to focus on himself (the lyrics). Also I think that introspection is far too vast a theme to be exhaustively covered by one song

I agree in an aesthetic sense that damn is a return to certain genre conventions but I also feel like the level of analytical introspection that he is able to achieve on damn is far from conventional with respect to hip hop at least

The album is straight up boring to listen to, I don't like most of the beats. First time I listened to it I felt depressed because of how bland it was (not because i'm a huge fan, I like his music but he isn't great).

The beats sound mainly like something from late 90's/early 2000's, but it's more like rejected beats no one wanted.

There are a lot of annoying parts to it like the kung fu kenny shit and "i don't give a fuck" at the start of Element.

The singing on Pride doesn't fit with the rest of the album and feels like it was just done to be "creative".

TPAB tugs on the heart strings for me senpai. It makes me emotional. I gotta agree with TPAB > GKMC

Because I don't really like Ku Klux Kenny. Only a few of his songs, he just comes across as pretentious.

how so?

Couldn't agree more with everything you said desu

His voice is faggy, his flow is obnoxious and has no sense of rhythm, and Trap music is the most genre-killing sub-genre since Hair Metal.

i thought he was supposed to be a conscious rapper or whatever, now he seems to be glorifying being a blood and shit.

The Wackness of it

>his bitching
>lazy hooks
>too much filler

Went down hill when LOYALTY kicked in.

...

Even the elders are such fucking plebs.
pic related.

>-Bitch that didn't listen to the album

I don't have a reason to return to it apart from BLOOD, DNA, PRIDE, XXX. And even then I can't remember the last time I listened to them, whereas I frequently revisit GKMC and TPAB.

It's not half as interesting to listen to as TPAB or GKMC. The instrumentation is boring, lyrics are some of Kendrick's worst relatively; they're still good but not TPAB or GKMC level.

Just a good album after what were two amazing albums.

true patricians rank his albums the way he ranks them
DAMN > GKMC > TPAB > s80

He tried to do what Drake did on Nothing Was the Same but couldn't do it as well. It's a very surreal album with mature, personal lyrics, and airy beats with murky basslines and sharp drums. DAMN takes a bigger influence from rock, funk, and West Coast hip hop, while NWTS is more influenced by East Coast hip hop and R&B, but they have similar feels to them. Both artists released their long magnum opuses before switching to a less thematic theme that clocks in at under an hour. I think that Kendrick might have been trying to prove he could do the sound Drake does and do I think better, but he couldn't. It's still a good album, but Nothing Was the Same is in a different league.

>LAFFIN TO DA BANK LIKE AAAAAHAAAAAWWWWH

nignog music post-1973 is not good, period.

>nigger

Rap is bad

I dislike you and your opinions.

Loyalty is garbage, Elements hook is pretty trash, YAH is also pretty bad. Lots of the middle of the album is just boring. Kendrick conformed to a lot of what is considered popular so his album could be more popular, some of what he conformed to is fine (I like his "bangers") but he also adopted the fucking worst parts of modern popular music. The album would be third or maybe even forth if I had to rank his albums, it can't decide if it's great (duckworth) or if it's generic shit (loyalty)

Well now I know Sup Forums hates DAMN for a variety of stupid reasons.
How is the album boring, but you say Duckworth is your favorite track? That's easily the blandest track and everyone overrates it. It's best is truly trash and Kendrick's flow on it is atrocious.

>stupid reasons

what?

Some of the straight up radio hits really turned me off. And the album overall doesn't really leave much to think about. The production is hit or miss. That being said it should have gotten an 8.4 BNM instead of 9.2

Wut? Duckworth is amazing.

Sup Forums has terrible opinions on rap

yo this album is ALL over the NBA don't try and say he ain't rapping for image

Gkmc>tpab>damn>s80

Would've been my favorite if not for Rihanna's verse. Literally nothing is said but "I'm rihanna bitch"

It's a bunch of white hipster dudes, what in the world did you expect? Only hip hop we listen to is whatever gets BNM on pitchfork

Sounded like a bunch of Future tracks. Nothing enjoyable about any of them at all. One listen and that was is.

Name 1 (one) good thing about it.

My thoughts exactly. It's just really boring and highly overrated due to the (shitty) lyrics that reflect the feelings of those in the media/review industry and libterds

Also

>mocks Geraldo for saying rap is bad for youths
>proceeds to glorify sex, drugs, violence, and guns in his lyrics

>How is the album boring

Straw manning me, I said the middle is boring (which it is), because it's repetitive or sounds like lots of other shit released by completely mediocre popular rap artists or both.

The beat, the beat change, and the storytelling.

It's not the best record he has put out, but by no means is it a bad album. His last two LPs were some of the best in the genre. Those albums created a heightened level of expectations from listeners. I've read a lot of people say that the album had a couple of duds; it did. People are trashing this album because they remember gkmc and tpab's consistency and how well the record flowed.

This album is not like those albums. The song God should have been a bonus track and not in the overall flow of the album.

O M R

HAIL MARY AND MARIJUANA TIMES IS HARD

This reeks of insecurity so much, lmao when will whitebois ever learn

>>mocks Geraldo for saying rap is bad for youths
Geraldo said rap is worse than racism though, that's the point of including the snippet. Also Geraldo is talking about "Alright", which didn't have any of that bullshit.

This reeks of insecurity so much, lmao when will whitebois ever learn

...

NEW KUNG FOO KENNY AINT NOBODY PLAYING ANYMORE

Without even getting into the quality of the songs, he ruined the album by adding people yelling for no reason.

>Geraldo said rap is worse than racism though
Is that *that* far fetched of an idea? Ghetto black culture is doing them no favors. In those cases, even if you think it's wrong, it's not an unreasonable debate to have.

only listened to good kid because it was forced on me by everyone- friends included. Didn't listen to TPAB because I wasn't into "i" so I tried to listen to a song or two off this and was just not interested by the chilly boring "atmosphere"

half of it sounded like filler and Rihanna and U2 are shit

TPAB was arguably the best album, The version of I that was the single was not included on the album.

>it's not an unreasonable debate to have.
I completely disagree

>black neighborhoods are complete and total irredeemable shitholes
>black culture keeps getting worse by enabling this behavior
>white liberals are even worse enablers
>but when someone says something mean about black people that is somehow a worse problem for black people

really makes you think

Is DNA boring to you guys?

But that's the whole point, the album is all about contradictions, and Kendrick being a hypocrite. I mean you have a song about Pride next to a song about being Humble. Lust and Love are completely opposite, on XXX he raps about shooting people for revenge, and later speaking on gun control. On Fear he talks about losing his money and being afraid of that, yet on God he flaunts his money and power. The whole album is about how he is a walking contradiction which is something he's brought up on GKMC and TPAB. Also Element has a bar that alludes to all this.

No it's one of the few good songs on the album that keeps me from hating it as an album.

My biggest gripe is you go from a hype track like DNA to YAH.
Other than that, there's a lot of tracks I just don't come back to.
Lust is goat, though

This is the line I was talking about: Niggas thought they wasn't gonna see me, huh? / Niggas thought that K-Dot real life / Was the same life they see on TV, huh?

see