This is real interesting, cuz I like Kendrick a lot but TPAB and this album leave me a bit conflicted. Mostly cuz I feel like people love it cuz they think it represents all blackness so they don't wanna say they don't like it cuz that means they dont like niggas. That's not the case fam.
But to focus on this album, it starts off real weird. The first few lines are a guy seducing a woman during sex, which is ok by itself but the dude sounds JUST like Keith David in Requiem For A Dream. I legit expected someone to scream "ASS TO ASS" before the beat dropped. And that's just track one.
I really wanted to like this album, listen to it in the right frame of mind, I put on a dashiki, blow dried my beard and used Shea Moisture products. I wanted to be in the ZONE. But I think I expected too much, cuz this is really just the B-sides to TPAB, like..he references other tracks on that album on this album.
However this is still a good output, part of me feels like K Dot put this out because Macklemore put out an album last week and he wanted to be petty. I respect the petty.
Another thing about Kendrick in general, the more I listen to him the more I hear his misogyny. It's not outrageous but for a guy who claims to be as woke about social ills it's off putting. It's like watching Shaq in the 90s dominate and then miss all his free throws; I still think your great but you gotta up that part of your game.
The final thing I'll mention is Track 7, it's the best song on the album in my opinion, but what's more special is that we found out Swizz Beatz's 5 year old son produced part of the song. But when you watch the video all he does is mash keyboard keys...like father like son!
Overall this was a cool thing Kendrick didn't have to do for us, so you can't criticize it too much. So I'll give it 3.5 Afro picks out of 5