The Singles Jukebox

This is the first of what I believe will be many songs called this in 2016.

[Video][Website]
[5.43]

Thomas Inskeep: It’s a demo and sounds like it.
[3]

Micha Cavaseno: Kendrick out here doing a fake blues/gospel vibrato (proving that the teacher has become the master now that he’s biting Chance), and he’s doing a spooky voice for the word ‘jigaboos,’ which only results in five more gray hairs popping at the fact that so many people were thrilled with this record also heard that and thought “hahah, heck yeah!” — hahah, heck no. Never mind this decent Organized Noize lift for the production, at the end of the day, Kendrick is redundant as far as a rapper here, both overworked and hollow at the end of the day. But all this fake pomp and weird reaching with the vocab makes all the people who suggested Bowie’s Blackstar was riddled with the same pervasive failings of To Pimp A Butterfly via enamoring really do get a ribbon tied on their case with Kendrick doing shit as grim as this.
[4]

Alfred Soto: The high pitched drawl affected for the “I see jigaboos” verse is the only mistake in a track that takes Fannie Lou Hamer and Kamsai Washington on a tour through a sated mind, stuck in L.A. at the same parties with Kanye except the insistent minor key hum of the music and an excellent third verse make clear there’s no conflict: he hates it there. Where he goes from there — where he goes from here — is another story, and Kendrick Lamar has shown he can write them.
[7]

Jer Fairall: Noodly and meandering in a way in which the heroically pretentious and masterfully crafted To Pimp a Butterfly never was (no, not even “Mortal Man”), this feels like a draggy outtake. Even when the rap that dominates the second half promises to liven things up a bit, Kendrick comes off sounding restrained–the track isn’t worth the virtuosity that he can deliver in his sleep at this point, and he knows it. Still, it is impossible to deny if that if anyone should be permitted a victory lap in their career right now, it’s Kendrick Lamar.
[5]

Juana Giaimo: I live in a culture in which hip hop is considered underground and there is no such thing as a mainstream hip hop act. People know Kanye West because he is Kim Kardashian’s husband! I don’t know what it is to be a good rapper, but I constantly read that Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper of these days. While I’m not so knowledgeable about the genre, I feel as if Kendrick Lamar has the ability to make hip hop feel less distant. The jazz in the background creates a hazy mood, the hook is catchy and the shifting tones of his voice are mesmerizing. If this is protest music, there is no better way make a listener pay attention to the lyrics.
[8]

Edward Okulicz: I’m not bothered by the fact that it’s a demo, or that it’s unfinished when considering this track in total. If anything, this would actually have benefited from having fewer ideas. At its most minimal, it’s the most powerful; the third verse of this is terrific and that there really ought to be a finished, fully produced track that expands on the intensity of Lamar’s delivery adorned by suspenseful, nervous bass throbs.
[4]

Cassy Gress: I had my media player on random, and before I could press pause, it started up the next track, which happened to be the first few seconds of a live version of The Stylistics’ “Betcha By Golly Wow.”  Sitcom synths and applause: an ironic coda to a song that sounds like a lost track from The Love Below, recorded while Andre 3000 was depressed and stoned.  Kendrick here is someone you know, probably not too close to, having a nervous breakdown in the corner on the kitchen floor, wide-eyed and trying to smile but it looks like a grimace, shaking his head too quickly, assuring you he’s fine. The amazing thing about Kendrick isn’t his flow or his thoughts about being a black American; it’s the seeming ease and clarity with which he is able to express himself. His flow is pristine, his alliteration soft and effortless, and the relative flatness of his rap in the second half of this combines with his own disillusionment and the muddled keyboards to sound thoroughly disconcerting.
[7]