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The former lacks the firespitting Black Power outro the latter appears minus a final verse and outro, sacrificing fire for a tighter, more upbeat album-closer. Lamar premiered versions of “untitled 03” and “untitled 08” (then known as “untitled 2 (Blue Faces)”) on Colbert and Fallon, respectively, and they’re changed up a bit here. “untitled 01” is tagged 8/9/14, although Lamar rhymes about how he “made To Pimp A Butterfly for you,” referencing an LP that didn’t come out until nearly a year later. The songs are not titled per se, simply numbered and dated, although it’s unclear exactly when they were finished. But before we hit the two-minute mark he’s seeing rapists and murderers, “death faces screaming in agony,” “atheists for suicide/planes falling out the sky/trains jumping off the track.” And this is a jam about uplift. This eight-track, 35 minute set begins in a bedroom, incense burning, Lamar sexing up a lover over soul-jazz, bass-and-percussion foreplay. Of course, nothing’s that simple in the mind of Lamar, and after torching the Grammys, his embers are still popping.
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It feels like an earned and inclusive celebration of a singular artist’s excellence, achieved against all odds. “Pimp, pimp: hooray!” goes the cheer that reappears throughout the record. Why wouldn’t our best artists mirror that? In the wake of Kanye’s work-in-progress psychodrama comes this left-field Kendrick Lamar surprise drop – a similarly unfinished-feeling, just as all-over-the-place, yet somehow more decisively indecisive set, which functions as a victory lap following the triumph of To Pimp A Butterfly. We’re up to our molars in data-seas of dissonance, and most of us are flipping out, at least a bit.