Quick Hits, Vol. 362 (Kendrick Lamar, Chalk Dinosaur, Freddie Gibbs, The Smile)

Kendrick Lamar - GNX.  Before I get to this album, I wanted to talk a little about the Super Bowl performance.  It is a sort of fraught subject, in that most of the talking heads who had major problems with it based that critique on political issues or racism or some odd pearl-clutching worry about Drake's feelings.  I also did not enjoy the show, but it was for one new reason and then for the same reason that I really have not enjoyed his multiple live shows I've seen.  The new reason is that he mainly played music from this new album.  Which was a huge disappointment to me.  I wanted him to take a victory lap in front of the biggest audience he's ever had - show people how much fun his music can be and why he is vitally important to the rap world.  Instead, we got five songs from this new album, a few recent loosies, and "Humble."  No "King Kunta," no "Swimming Pools," no "Money Trees," no "Alright."  That was a disappointment.  To me, having the whole world bounce along to "Alright" or yell YAK YAK YAK YAK! would have been very cool.

But the deeper issue with the show, for me, is that this is not easily digestible, fast food, compilation type music.  It is like the time I saw Hamilton, and had zero clue who the hell was on stage, why, or what they wanted.  You can't just listen to "tv off" for the first time, as part of a collection of disparate other raps, and have any understanding of what is being presented to you.  Lamar's lyrics have won a damn Pulitzer.  He's not making party rock anthems like "OPP" or "Hey Ya!" where people listening know immediately what is being presented to them.  Instead, still taking "tv off" as an example, I just went and pulled up the Genius notes about the lyrics.  The notes for the first verse say he playfully alludes to Revelation 22:13, and then hints at his 2024 rap battle with Drake, before claiming that the final line does the following: "Figuratively, Lamar is offering a larger and broader critique regarding the commercialization of hip-hop as a whole, pointing the dangers of placing yourself in the “hands” of people interested in profiting off the exploitation of others rather than working to uplift the community and create real, meaningful change."  The line at issue there is: "Don't put your life in these weird niggas' hands, baby (Woah)."  Suuuuure. That is exactly what the whole world understood from that line as he danced around the Super Bowl field. 

So, for me, trying to parse the extremely complicated meanings of all of the rapid-fire words, during a televised dance party, while in my backyard with people asking what was going on and what was Sam Jackson going on about?  Not the right Super Bowl halftime show in my opinion.  Kendrick should be doing 3 hour Tiny Desk shows with interviews between the tracks to explain his mindset.  And the Super Bowl should be, like, Miley Cyrus with the Aerosmith band, Snoop Dogg with the Rage Against the Machine Band, and Adele fronting the Nirvana band, as all three "groups" play the greatest hits of Tom Petty.

So, sorry for the long detour there, but just something I had on my mind.  The weird thing about this disc was that, before I had ever turned it on, I had read someone on the Internet saying this was his party album to celebrate his victory over Drake.  Not sure I can hear that as a whole unit.  Again, the man's rhymes are so dense that it really needs a close listen to see if I can find those ideas in here.  Because, without "Not Like Us" on here to hype things up, the party comes and goes.  "good kid" is one of the best rap albums of all time, in my opinion, and this is miles better than the Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers album he made last time, but only a handful of the songs on here sound like they were intended to have people dance.  And they sort of crib the vibe from "Not Like Us," like on both "tv off" and "squabble up."  I don't know, maybe this is just what happens when you are a SERIOUS rapper but also want to grab the POP STAR and SUCCESS title as well.  I think maybe I just wish that this really was a party anthem album.  Like, stop with the seriousness and lyrical depth and just make a G-Funk banger about cruising through Compton in your ride, or something.  I'm probably just missing the entire point, and his evolution into this stage is very much on purpose and appreciated by the wider world.  Dunno.  I will definitely say that several songs hit - the aforementioned "tv off" and "squabble up," "peekaboo" gets me wiggling, and "wacced out murals" has a dark grind to it that I like.  I keep finding myself thinking of some bits of this after another listen, so there is something here.  Very surprisingly, at least to me personally, the top track on here is not one of the bangers, but is the slow jam "Luther" with SZA on board.  529.2 million streams.

This speaks to my issue outlined above.  What does "roman numeral seven, bae, drop it like its hot" mean?  If you're bumping this and enjoying the groove, you'd like to understand what is going on.  Genius gives us a tortured reading of it, claiming this is because God rested on the seventh day so this is Kendrick saying that his lady completes him and embodies a sense of wholeness for him.  WTF.  That makes no sense at all.  So then, I get all caught up, wondering what he really means by this very clear delivery of "roman numeral seven."  Who knows, maybe it really is all about God.  I'm going to leave this disc in my new music list for a while and just hear it a handful more times to see if anything ever really gets me.

Chalk Dinosaur - Stuck in Between.  I know, I know.  Some of you hate jam band music.  I've heard.  But after a particularly pleasing Eggy set at ACL last year, I have decided that I dig it.  Not all of it.  I have tried going back to some classic Phish albums and I am just not able to get my head around it, but some of these noodly, anthemic, happy tunes just hit my pleasure center.  Several of these tunes have no lyrics, they just boogie their way off into the sunset with a jazzy kick of the heels.  My brother-in-law actually put me on this, and its good times.  "Bardo" has a section that sounds very much like it was cribbed directly from that Level 42 song from the mid-80's ("that there is something about you, baby, so riiiiiiiight!").  That song is greatness (the old ass Level 42 song).  The album opener is the top streamer, "Legend Sunrise."  552k streams.

I dig the fact that it sort of comes on like a sunrise, slowing blooming with more and more sound until the light pops up over the horizon and the sun begins to soar around.  I very much feel like this song should be used as the intro music for a Colorado public access television station's snow report.  By the way, their Spotify bio lists "key" albums in their discography, which I find to be a very odd way of promoting your project.  But they apparently have four key electronic albums, eight key solo albums, and five key albums with the band.  This is a key album with the band, of course.  Dig it!

Freddie Gibbs - You Only Die 1nce.  To me, this fella is one of the top rappers out there right now.  No mumbles, great beats, dexterous flow.  This disc also has some skit pieces that make me smile each time - he has the Devil speak up every once in a while on it, and in one piece, he's using a scary voice and then starts coughing and, in a very normal voice is like "ahhh, I can't keep talking like that."  Makes me grin.  Also, later the Devil does some coke and is yelling about it and I smile again.  In a very weird slice of how the world works these days, one of the songs on the album is now grayed out.  "It's Your Anniversary" is off limits for Spotify users apparently.  That is freaking weird, right?  Like, if I bought the CD, then I still get all of the songs, but if I'm streaming they can just change the setlist?  I don't like it.  It got to 1.7 million streams before they stole it from us.  I can still hear it on YouTube, but I guess the sample of Tony! Toni! Tone! wasn't cleared.  Which is really too bad, because it is a good track.  Just offer those Tony's some royalties, man!  I had some sort of compilation album - my brain is saying it was Jock Jams, but that can't be right since that is not a hype party song - with that old TTT song on it.  But who knows.  Anyway, the top track on here is the second song, "Cosmo Freestyle."  3.6 million.

Ahh, man.  They didn't keep the Devil's coke snort bit at the end!  Jerks.  I love that chill ass beat, and I think the pace, punctuation, and pronunciation of his flow just makes me feel good.  Just a pile of bragging bars.  And that lady winning on the slot machine at the very end is amazing.  I will say, the "Nobody Like You" interlude skit is overly long, even if the first time it was kind of funny.  But once you've heard the lady complain about his crusty toes more than once it loses its luster.  Good stuff though.

The Smile - Cutouts.  I forgot about this band the other day when I was talking about how weird it is for certain lead singers to go out and do solo stuff, when it ends up sounding just like their band's music.  Eddie Vedder, Jim James, Marcus Mumford - the solo stuff is just too close to the band's tunes.  And here is another, and to my mind even weirder, one.  You have Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, making Radiohead-ish songs with a different drummer.  Poor Philip Selway, the Radiohead drummer, had to come out saying "oh yeah, it's great and very healthy for me to get left behind while y'all make money and that dude plays the drums just like I could, cool cool cool."  Totally real quote as well.  Do you think part of the requirement for being in Radiohead was to have your name spelled incorrectly?  Thom, Jonny, and Philip out here just dropping and adding letters willy-nilly.  If you are in to the newer version of Radiohead where there is a lot of arty rock and ambient weirdness and synths, then this is going to do you right up.  In general, I find myself disappointed with that angle of their discography, but then I listen to this disc again and I find myself really enjoying it.  "Eyes and Mouth" has a jazzy flow to it.  "Zero Sum" has an insistent freakout to it.  I definitely like the more energetic tracks to the more chill stuff, but I enjoy the feel of the whole thing.  Top track is that freakout - "Zero Sum" - with only 4.1 million streams.

My very first thought when it starts is The Revivalists, but that launches out the window about 5 seconds in.  My guitar-playing life made it to about 4 chords, but I have a feeling that the frenetic pace of this tune would absolutely blow my fingertips to chunky smithereens. But the underlying funky and cowbell is what really keeps me in the curl.  Surprised to want to save it, but yeah, I'm adding it to Keepers.