Keeping It Fresh

**When I posted this, YouTube had been kind enough to leave the song, FEAR. online. Sadly, they pulled it down yesterday, but for reference, the song being discussed is indeed FEAR.** Today is the last day in the Kendrick Lamar saga. I have to say, it has been pretty awesome being able to write about his music and how impactful the album is. And so to wrap up this chapter of music, I wanted to start off by thanking YouTube for not taking this down. Everywhere I look, Kendrick Lamar's latest material is being taken down left and right. But we do have this one final song, so here we go! Okay, so this song is a standout piece for a few reasons. For starters, it is one of the longest, if not the longest song on the album. And while this is all great and dandy, the real uniqueness comes from the autobiographical nature of the song. Kendrick Lamar uses this as a way to create a biopic kind of piece, which I thought was pretty darn interesting. We get an inside look at the life of Ken...

Today's post is coming in a little bit late, that's my bad! But guess what? We are still on the Kendrick Lamar train. And I have to say, with all the hype surrounding the album, it is getting harder and harder to find the music on sources like YouTube. But thankfully, I think we can get a couple more songs out before we can't find anything else. But with all the Kendrick Lamar buzz that is happening, it would be an absolute shame if we didn't take a look at the first release from the album. Now this song was the first single we got, the first taste of Kendrick Lamar's damn good album (sorry, the joke had to be made at least once). And personally, I think this song was a good choice as the first single. This song does a great job of summarizing the intent and purpose of the album, without going into detail about certain points which are heavily described in other songs. This song is more of an overview on what Kendrick Lamar sees wrong in society, and who he really...

Today I am pretty excited to talk about one of my absolute favorite songs from Kendrick Lamar's latest album. This song features the vocals of an artist who has been quietly and powerfully been building his presence in the music world. Zacari is a soulful R&B artist out of California, and he has been featured in a few different albums and singles. But we will dive deeper into his music later. So as we are making our way through Kendrick Lamar's album. The past two songs that we have had are very focused on societal injustice. They are very heavy songs to take in, the kind of songs which require a couple of listens to really have everything sink in. The material is very angry and pointed with a clear focus of what Kendrick Lamar wants to call out. And while I appreciate the depth to which Kendrick Lamar explores the impacts of media and preconceived notion, I am even more enamored by the way he delves into the recesses of his own mind and thought process. Now what made thi...

Today we have Day 2 of the Kendrick Lamar special. This song is the one that probably had the most questionability surrounding it. When people first saw that U2 was the featured artists on the song, it definitely raised a lot of questions and left people scratching their heads. But, this song was so well executed with the inclusion of U2 that I felt the need to talk about this one. This song is a bit more subdued than a couple of the other tracks on the album, but it tends to fluctuate a bit more between being more calmed down and fired up. Kendrick Lamar starts this song off with a more mellowed out and simmered down kind of sound. In the progression of this album, I do feel like that more calmed down was necessary. As much as we all love a hype song, there is a need for a break every once in a while. And Kendrick Lamar gives us that! The basic breakdown of the song goes a little like this. We are introduced to the song with some eerie chorus singing over a softer synth melody. Whic...

This week I wanted to spend some quality time talking about an album which recently released but has left me absolutely spellbound and beyond impressed. Going into this week of music, I'm going to pick some highlighted songs off the album and talk a little bit about why they stood out to me and what makes them so unique. So if you were trying to guess which album I am talking about, the answer lies with Kendrick Lamar. This latest album DAMN. is one of the greatest albums I have heard from the rap world. In the long-standing question as to who the top 5 rappers are, this album puts Kendrick Lamar on this illustrious list. Kendrick Lamar has always been a great lyricist, but this album showcases his abilities as a rapper, lyricist, producer, and activist. From beginning to end, there is an incredible emotional charge to the album. Not all of these emotions are sad and tear jerking feelings. We get anger, frustration, contempt, vulnerability, and more. There is an incredible passion ...

Today I have some really cute and sweet music for you by the South African singer-songwriter Christoph Kotze. The first time I heard this song was in a movie called The Road to Your Heart. It was such a sweet movie, one that was easily predictable but still incredibly heart warming. This was the first South African movie I have seen, and the first movie to be spoken completely in Afrikaans. I thought that was super cool, and only enhance the movie to be something beautiful and wonderful. This is a sweet and adorable acoustic song, one that reminds me of some of my comfort artists like John Mayer and Jason Mraz. This song has an overall feel-good vibe to it, making the song something that I really enjoy. While this song does sound like quite a few other songs out there, the thing that sets it apart from the rest is the lyrical content. I just found the words in the song to be very pleasant and endearing. Not to mention, I love how unique and darling the title of the song. It ju...

Today I have some music for you by an electronic duo out of Egypt. When I first heard Aly & Fila I got really excited. Nowadays it is so hard to find some really good and solid trance music. However, these two deliver us some really good trance, and better yet, they top it off with some sick Arabic influences. This duo hails from Egypt, a fact that made me even more excited. It isn't often that we hear music like this in general, and even rarer to hear this style of music from the Middle East. So this little taste of Egyptian electronic music makes me quite excited! But Aly & Fila do an incredible job of capturing that trance style of music which was so popular in underground European music scenes during the early 00's. This song has everything we could ever really ask for in a good trance song. We have the ethereal vocals which kind of carry on throughout the song. We've got the longer buildup which brings us to this high paced and full energy kind of drop. But the...