Kendrick m.A.A.dness: FINAL 4
Welcome back to Kendrick m.A.A.dness, where Micah and Daniel attempt to tackle the behemoth that is 32 Kendrick Lamar tracks, in head-to-head fashion. We've come to the biggest stage for fake musical tournaments of them all; theeeeee.... (drumroll).... Final Four!
Just a reminder that yes, Daniel did accidentally delete our initial post explaining the songs in and seeds of the bracket. And did so in a way the entire post is non-recoverable. Here’s a SparkNotes version:
The two of us, along with Housemate Clint, populated the bracket
36 songs made the bracket, with the last 8 ‘at-large’ songs in the play-in games
The top seeds were the top-selling single from each of the respective solo studio albums
Seeding was based on commercial performance, though there was a 2-per-album limit on each seed line, so as to avoid DAMN. and Black Panther getting ALL of the top seeds
Also, if you've missed all the previous installments, here's our analysis of the play-in matchups, the First Round, the Sweet 16, and most recently, the Elite 8.
And with all the appropriate disclaimers out of the way, here we go!
DANIEL
(5) ‘m.A.A.d. City’ vs. (8) ‘Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst’
The right side of the Final Four is March— well, almost-May Madness at its finest. Two lower-seeds vying for the right to play in the esteemed Kendrick Lamar Championship. It’s also a matchup of what are probably the finest two tracks on Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City. The fact that we’re in the Final 4 and I still have to qualify them as “probably” the best two speaks to who ridiculously major GKMC's tracklist is.
Anyways, the higher seed here is the album’s namesake, which was only about the 4th or 5th most-played single from that album, but is continually a fan favorite. I’ve remarked more than once about how iconic the opening to this track is, and it’s true. Everyone from Lamar fans, casual music fans, your mama, and crows on telephone poles know the beat drop. But it’s more than just a “lit song, fam (flame emoji) (flame emoji)”. It’s lyrics that begin with a furious catharsis, pouring out the pain and trauma that he has had to endure, even at a young age, and adamantly offering defenses for who and why he is today. It’s a lyrical theme that then changes to one of relaxed introspection, a calm explanation of how his innocence was snatched from him but he’s committed to breaking through nevertheless. It’s an incredible guest verse from MC Eiht. It’s a musical backing that hooks you in start to finish. It’s a brilliant song.
And yet, not quite brilliant enough in this case. ‘Sing About Me’, though not receiving the radio release of its opponent here, is a fan-favorite for a reason. Spanning nearly 12 minutes, the two-songs-in-one, as well as the accompanying skits, are more an elaborate art piece than they are any old rap song. The first half, ‘Sing About Me,’ is three verses long, and perhaps the most noteworthy and celebrated aspect of this track is that each of the three verses comes from the ‘perspective’ of a different person — first, a friend asking K-Dot to continue sticking up for the people he loves, followed by a sister of a deceased friend offering a scathing rebuttal to the idea he needs to tell others’ stories, followed by the rapper himself, responding to the two voices that provided the preceding verses. After a climactic skit which provides the focal point of the album (NO SPOILERS!), “I’m Dying Of Thirst” kicks in with an ethereal chorus, and a pivot in focus towards Kendrick and his friends discovering their faith in Jesus. By the time the 2nd climactic skit, which features a part read by Maya Angelou (yes, really), closes the song? Game over. Good night, all comers.
Cinderella dances on to the final.
Winner: 'Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst'
(2) ‘D.N.A.’ vs. (4) ‘King Kunta’
On the “heavyweight” side of the bracket, it’s a matchup of what I think are the two finest songs from New Kendrick. Representing To Pimp A Butterfly is the only song on that album reminiscent of a traditional Rap single, ‘King Kunta.’ Representing DAMN. is what was easily the hardest-hitting, most explosive track among its peers, ‘D.N.A.’
This was such a hard decision, as, put simply, I love both of these songs so much, and have listened to each an embarrassing amount of times. But what also made it so difficult was that, unlike the previous matchup, there was a real similarity between the tracks here, in appeal, in tone, and in clout.
Both are Kendrick at his most brash, most confrontational, and most posturing, and in each case, the result is verses that knock the listener on his or her back. It’s awesome. The beats in each, too, are to die for. The delicious funk of ‘King Kunta’ is hard to beat, but the 1-2 punch of Mike Will’s simple and chaotic beats, respectively, in ‘DNA.’ may just beat it. Both are the toasts of their respective albums, and in neither case (maybe especially for ‘Kunta’) is that a small accomplishment. So there are very fine margins at play here. Ultimately, I think ‘DNA.’ is the more technically impressive by a hair; the merging of and transition between the two different beats is flawless, and Kendrick’s flow in the latter portion is astonishing. But, the relative straightforwardness (I won’t say simplicity) of ‘King Kunta’ is perfection. It’s a 4-minute crescendo of funk, taunting, truth-bombing goodness that is so impossible to not just appreciate the craft of, but throughly enjoy, from start to finish.
It’s ‘Kunta’ in a nailbiter for me.
Winner: 'King Kunta'
MICAH
(2) ‘DNA.’ vs. (6) ‘How Much A Dollar Cost’
This is hard. Like really really hard. If you’ve followed along with us in previous rounds, you’ll know I am a huge fan of ‘DNA.’. The de facto opening track from a Pulitzer Prize winning album (I see BLOOD. as an intro) is as immaculately produced and virtuously rapped as any in recent memory. It teeters on the edge of perfection. And maybe that’s the problem -- it’s almost too good. Does that make sense?
Let me make a quick comp: there’s a girl that I know (from afar). Her name is (REDACTED). Let’s say it’s Susie. Susie is intelligent, athletic, compassionate, gorgeous -- all signs say I should have the biggest crush on her (to be fair, I do). But Susie’s almost too perfect. There’s a sense of fakeness there, even though she’s completely genuine. It’s just that I doubt she’s ever had a pimple in her entire life, let alone braces. It’s totally unfair of me to make these assumptions, but I still do because that’s my gut reaction. You following me?
‘DNA.’ is Susie. It’s perfect. It checks off every box that should be my criteria for the champion of Kendrick m.A.A.dness. But I just don’t feel it. There’s no rawness. No “Oh, Kenny is human after all”. There’s something just barely missing. Something that ‘How Much A Dollar Cost’ has.
I was still torn over the winner of this matchup until I stumbled on this video:
I know we’re not supposed to idolize celebrities, but damn, it’s hard not to with this cat. ‘Dollar’ has that edge of realness that ‘DNA.’ doesn’t. I wish this was my championship matchup, but unfortunately, ‘DNA.’ makes an earl(ier) exit. It’s like Wisconsin v. Kentucky in 2015. This is really really really hard.
Winner: 'How Much A Dollar Cost'
(2) ‘The Heart Part IV’ vs. (5) ‘The Blacker The Berry’
You may think it's a surprise that 'Heart Part IV' has made such a run. And it's true, I’m a little torn about whether I want to put a loosie (loosie: noun. A released single not included on any larger album or project) in the championship game. But this is no ordinary loosie. Kendrick starved us for over a year between official releases (untitled unmastered 04/04/16 to ‘IV’ 04/24/17), then released this monster on the masses.
I’ll be honest, though I didn’t think Kenny’s fourth studio album would flop, I wasn’t sure how he could ever follow up TPAB without even slightly letting down the sky-high hopes of the rap community. ‘The Heart Part IV’ immediately reminded all of us who exactly we were doubting. Namely, “Screamin' '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the greatest rapper alive!'”
Of course, the most striking aspect of the song is the four distinct beats. As I wrote about earlier, the producers deserve a ton of credit. But for as great as the production is, Kendrick makes sure that everything comes back to lyricism. After all, he is the “hip-hop rhyme savior”. He asserts his dominance over and over and over again in this song. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, more cars, more lears/more bars, no peers, no scar, no fears, -- f**k y’all, sincere”; “I said it’s like that, dropped one classic, came right back/’nother classic, right back/my next album, the whole industry on a ice pack”; and of course, “You know what time it is, ante up, this is in forever/y’all got til April the 7th to get y’all shit together”. I’ll even give him a pass for throwing shade on my boy Kevin: “Tables turned, lessons learned, my best look/you jumped sides on me, now you ‘bout to meet Westbrook”. :(
Kendrick is King and ‘IV’ reminds us of that while quieting any doubts creeping to the surface. Also, though 'The Blacker The Berry' is phenomenal, I just couldn’t put 2 TPAB songs in the championship...
Winner: 'The Heart Part IV'
