Album Review: Kendrick Lamar- Section 80

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Overall Rating: 9.3/10

         1. Fuck Your Ethnicity (9/10)

          2. Hold Up (8.5/10)

          3. A.D.H.D (4/10)

          4. No Make Up Ft. Collin Monroe (10/10)

          5. Tammy’s Song (7.5/10)

          6. Chapter 6

          7. Ronald Ragen Era Ft. RZA (10/10)

          8. Poe Mans Dreams Ft. GLC (8/10)

          9. The Spiteful Voice Ft. Schoolboy Q (9.5/10)

          10. Chapter 10

          11. Keisha’s Song Ft. Ashtrobot (10/10)

          12. Rigamortus (7.5/10)

          13./ Kush & Corinthians Ft. The Chicago Kid (7/10)

          14. Blow My High (6/10)

          15. Ab-Saluts Outro F. Ab- Salouts (9/10)

          16. HiiiPower (9.5/10)

    When you look at hip-hop from California, it’s normally all about hardhitting, gangster style beats, gang oriented lyrics, and a lot of sex, gang wars and drug references, yes, with all that most of California based hip-hop is really good, it brought us some of today’s best rappers, such as Game and Tyler, The Creator, and it brought us some of the best hip-hop acts of all-time, such as Dr. Dre, NWA and Tupac. Now, a new California rapper is here, but this time there are no gang ties, gang style lyrics, or any of the hard hitting beats, this time, and things are much different with the new rapper from Compton, Kendrick Lamar.

   

     Section 80 is a strongly themed and concepted album. Most of the beats on the album are very similar and ha a rally calm mood. The rhythm is mostly layer back and relaxed. Lyrically the album talks about Kendrick’s thoughts and mainly his confusion with his career, and his thoughts and more confusion on what he sees in the streets and everywhere he goes.

   

     The strong theme in the album plays as a good thing for an album, and at the same time a bad thing for the album. It’s a good thing because it gives the album a certain feel and a certain mood, making the album seem more like a movie, giving it a more cinematic feeling. It’s also a bad thing for the album because due to the strong beat similarities, every track in the album sounds a bit too familiar to the other, making the album seem a bit boring and making the listener wonder if there would be anything different on the album.

 

     There are mainly two sides Kendrick shows in this album. The first, and more common side on the album is the story telling, and the second, less common side on the album is when he either talks about his thoughts or opinions, and honestly, I love that setting and concept for an album, because with a concept like that, an artist can show his or her real lyrical skill, and show if they really do have talent.

      On the story telling side of the album, Kendrick tells multiple stories about his life, or stories about things he’s seen.  Some of my favorites on this part of the album where “Ronald Regan Era” where Kendrick, and RZA talk about their lives through the time Ronald Regan was president, Kendrick mostly focuses on his childhood, and how that affected his life, and “Kiesha’s Song” was apparently about a girl who struggled, and work hard all her life, and I think that the song was in a way a metaphor for Kendrick’s life growing up, because he himself was struggling and a hardworking person growing up.

    As for the second, less common side of the album, there were also some great tracks as well. Some of the best are in that part of the album where “No Makeup” a song that talks about women’s insecurities, and how they shouldn't worry so much about their looks, and “The Spiteful Voice” which was about how people started talking to Kendrick again after he became successful, and that he doesn’t care about them and the fact that they left him means that they left him for good.

     The album has some downers though. The extensively repetitive theme was a problem for the album, and there were some tracks like “A.D.H.D”, “Kush & Corinthians” or “Blow Me High” felt like they had really no point in the album, and really they just felt completely out of theme, and honestly there was something that sounded wrong about them, but I’m not quite sure what exactly.

    Either way, whether flawed or not, it’s very clear that Section 80 has it’s strong points, and clearly those positives stand out to make this album a strong, great and a very enjoyable album. It was an album that was strongly themed, lyrically it was something smart and different, and honestly, I think Section 80 may open up something very big for Kendrick’s career, and possibly open up something big for hip-hop later on.