Kendrick Lamar has been above all else consistent. Ever since he released his first EP The Kendrick Lamar EP, his first mixtape Overly Dedicated, and his first independent album Section. 80 it has been evident that Kendrick had an incredible talent for mixing self aware, insightful, and emotional lyrics with catchy, intricate, and accessible music.

This talent was brought to mainstream attention with the release of Lamar’s first major label album good kid m.A.A.d city, a concept album that follows the autobiographical story of a young Kendrick Lamar tempted by the gang violence, hedonism, and substance abuse that surrounds him on the streets of Compton before finding redemption in religion and music, becoming a positive person. The album was a commercial hit and was acclaimed across the board as one of the best hip hop albums of all time and one of the best albums of the decade so far.  

Faced with incredibly high expectations Kendrick somehow delivered with his follow up To Pimp A Butterfly. With lyrics tackling racial tension, religion, the temptations of fame, the corruption of the music industry, self hatred, and self-love and music that fused genres like jazz, funk, 90’s boom bap hip hop, neo-soul, and afrobeat the album was a monumental achievement. While some fans were upset that Kendrick looked to the past for musical inspiration rather than the modern day, the vast majority of the music listening public thought Lamar’s ambition paid off and hailed the album as a masterpiece, perhaps even more monumental than his past accomplishments.

Which brings us to Untitled Unmastered. A compilation of extras, after thoughts, and previously live debuted tracks from the To Pimp A Butterfly era. Eight tracks, all untitled, all marked only with a number and the  dates they were recorded marked next to them. I think that releasing this compilation was a great idea as it gives Lamar a chance to eject all of the extra ideas from the TPAB era before starting his next project as well as giving fans something to listen to until that next project comes. Now this being closely related to To Pimp A Butterfly the lyrics and music are quite similar in content. Jazz, soul, and funk music are all infused into the songs, many of which are performed with live instrumentation giving the music a very raw in the moment feel. These being “unmastered” the intricate and creative production from To Pimp A Butterfly is absent, these are definitely raw and untampered with for the most part which I think gives the project a more distinct feel when compared to it’s predecessor despite the similarities in music and theme.  

The lyrics are predictably fantastic.  With themes as wide as the harmfulness of racial stereotypes, the apocalypse, religion,  fame and success, and Kendrick’s own legacy. It’s definitely not music you can “switch your brain off” to. That being said Kendrick also has a rare talent of being able to talk about complex themes without sounding condescending or alienating which I think plays a big part in his popularity. He makes the political personal and allows the listener to come to their own conclusions about the themes he addresses as he rarely sounds “preachy”. Rather than giving a sermon about the morals he thinks you should adopt he instead tells stories and asks the listener to empathize and understand the situations he talks about allowing them to create their own opinions on the issues and also possibly educating them about a walk of life they knew little about before. This makes Lamar’s music very accessible and enjoyable to people of all walks of life.

As far as criticisms go, the intro to the album is a little long and doesn’t seem to really connect to the songs that precede it very much, also the third part of the three section “Untitled 07” is a little needlessly indulgent, a completely unproduced section of Kendrick riffing over a single bass line and coming up with lyrics as he comes along and joking with whoever else is in the studio, making musical notes as he goes along. It comes off more as a behind the scenes moment than an actual song. This wouldn’t be too distracting if the moment hadn’t gone on for 4 minutes. Overall however, the album is pretty fantastic and show cases Kendrick continuing to push himself and his unique style into new territory.

I give the album an 8.5/10

Recommended to fans of introspective and creative hip hop with a heavy jazz, soul, and funk influence.