Over the last decade, Kendrick has been nothing less than prolific. He out rapped his peers on Section.80, he took us into the city of Compton on Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, he created one of the best conceptual rap albums ever with To Pimp A Butterfly and he crafted socially conscious bangers with DAMN. However, 2018 has seen Kung Fu Kenny soar to new heights in his already sky-high career, and these heights come in the form of Black Panther: The Album.
Black Panther: The Album is far from a movie soundtrack, it’s a blockbuster of its own. This project allows Kendrick to delve into sounds and styles that he’s yet to experiment with in his career, and will likely be remembered as one of the most successful projects in his career.
Kung Fu Camaraderie: The Collaborative Spirit of Black Panther
Black Panther: The Album is loaded with features that are all fulfilling and tasteful. Kendrick hasn’t thrown random artists in random places for filler, but instead to enhance the depth of the project. Each artist on here feels completely in their element, and the chemistry is almost unbelievable.
Tracks such as "X" with Schoolboy Q and 2 Chainz are perfect examples of the melting pot that is this project. Q and 2 Chainz are an unlikely pairing, but with Kendrick's curation, their chemistry is seamless. Kendrick has demonstrated more than enough times in the past that he's capable on his own, but leading a whole team of artists is a completely different ball game. Black Panther allows Kendrick to shrug off his lone wolf status and signify himself as the leader of a pack.
From the West Coast to Wakanda: Black Panther’s Thematic Excellence
Kendrick has never been one to shy away from social commentary. But along with the aforementioned slew of collaborations that Black Panther offers, comes an equal number of topical flurries. Black Panther: The Album is a conceptual experience that takes place in Wakanda and uses a strong influence from African culture to explore explores topics such as self-love, heroism, strife and various political issues. By using the limitlessness of a fictional world, K.Dot and his contemporaries tackle real-world issues in unique, never done before ways, and are able to present the beauty of African music on a mainstream level.
The theme is most prevalent in songs such as the Weeknd-assisted “Pray For Me”, where Kendrick explores what it means to be a hero, and cuts like “The Ways” with Khalid and Swae Lee, where each vocalist highlight the traits of strong women. On cuts like “Black Panther” and “King’s Dead”, Kendrick respectively takes the forms of T’Challa and Killmonger, showing the contrasting sides of a leader. The world that Black Panther exists in served as the perfect opportunity for Kendrick to take more risks as a thematic curator, and continue to himself every project.
Boundless Soundscapes
Traversing different styles of production isn’t a process that’s new to Lamar, but Black Panther features sonic palettes that he’s never explored before. TDE regular Sounwave appears all throughout the project, along with blockbuster beatmakers such as Mike Will Made It, Frank Dukes, Illmind and BadBadNotGood. However it isn't the names that make the production so great, it's the quality.
Adhering to the major themes, the production on Black Panther: The Album is garnished with African influence. The Travis Scott-assisted “Big Shot” is filled with woodwind flutes and tracks like “Opps” with Vince Staples and Yungen Black feature tribal percussion. Kendrick and his production team manage to incorporate these African elements to enhance the theme and narrative, all while providing enough 808s and hard hitting kick drums to appeal to a contemporary audience. This is experimentation done right and serves as a testament to how meticulous Kendrick is with his craft.
Kendrick the Chameleon: A Variety of Sounds
While Kendrick may be exploring the themes of Black Panther, it would also be safe to say he's testing his role as a musical chameleon. K.Dot jumps from sound to sound garnishing his style on a flurry of different moods and songs. His role as a songwriter and curator throughout the project makes the elements of trap, boom-bap, afrobeat and r&b segue into each other seamlessly. This is a prospect Kendrick has never explored in his previous projects and showcases that even with three amazing albums under his belt, he's always able to elevate himself even more.
Kendrick perfects his newfound knack for curation on the transition from Jorja Smith's gloomy "I Am" into SOB x RBE’s high-octane banger "Parademic!". The contrast in the sounds, tempos and styles make the idea of these songs together quite obscure, but Kendrick is able to execute it in a natural way. This sort of full-circle quality that finds K.Dot excelling as a vocalist, curator and tastemaker are key to Black Panther: The Album standing as one his best projects to date.
While Kendrick has always been an incredible talent, he’s never taken the time to truly flex. Black Panther: The Album, however, signifies a change. When he isn't exploring the dense themes of the concept, he's basking in the glory of newfound braggadocio. His bombastic presence on this project showcase Kendrick's duality. Sometimes he's here to convey a message, other times he just wants to destroy your favourite rapper.
The collection of bangers on the album including "X" "Paramedic!" and "Big Shot" all find Kendrick in a bag, effortlessly wiping out his predecessors with fast triplet flows and bars. When Kung Fu Kenny spits the line “Big Top Dawg and I dance on ‘em like Diddy” you know it’s a K.O.
Messages For The Masses
While Black Panther: The Album is incredibly experimental in many different ways, the true genius behind is its ability to present differentiating ideas in an accessible way. While the songs take great inspiration from fictional ideas, Kendrick’s songwriting skills translate them into something real and understandable.
This is prevalent in songs like “The Ways”, “All The Stars” and “Pray For Me”, which presents off-kilter instrumentation and songwriting in a way that can top the charts. This makes Black Panther: The Album Kendrick's most accessible project yet, and allows him to bring his messages to the masses.
Black Panther: The Album serves as Kendrick’s opportunity to prove that he is more than a rapper, but a unique visionary in mainstream music. He leads, he writes, he directs and kills throughout the project's 14 tracks, positioning him as the hip-hop prodigy he is. It's not only a culmination of Kendrick's mission statement, but it shows elements of talent that we've never seen from him before, symbolising a future that holds more than hip-hop. So while the prospect of Kendrick's best album is one that's going to be debated for decades, there's no denying that Black Panther: The Album is a significant milestone in his already legendary career.
