Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered.' Album: Track-by-Track Review
Kendrick Lamar continues to keep the music industry on its toes.
Late at night on March 3, a new album by the recent GRAMMY winner dropped on Spotify, making many believe he was once again putting his latest release up for streaming ahead of its physical release like he did with 2015's universally acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly. The new LP is untitled unmastered. and features eight tracks that seem to be just that—they have no official titles, have fascinating imperfections, and represent Kendrick in his rawest form while shedding insight into his creative development over the last three to four years.
These "untitled" tracks are not all new to Kendrick fans, as he's performed some of them in the past including the final episodes of The Colbert Report back in December 2014, and then later on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Details are still hazy about the album, but super-producer Swizz Beatz's 5-year-old son with super-singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, Egypt, produced the back half of No. 7. (Watch him in the studio—OMG!) Meanwhile, Robert Glasper's recent retweets seem to indicate he plays piano on track No. 5, and noted producer Cardo worked on cut No. 2 and 7.
Stream Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered. below via Spotify and read on for our track-by-track breakdown while you listen.
2m
56s
4m
7m
6m
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3m
1h 7m
1h 18m
56m
4m
3m
10m
2m
23m
20m
20m
20m
1m
3m
4m
5m
5m
4m
4m
21m
2m
22m
20m
20m
3m
21m
11m
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15m
9m
13m
4m
5m
3m