To be fair, money trees is literally a round-up of everything going on in the story up until that track. It's literally an interlude but still a fantastic track
Sing about me I'm dying of thirst is kendricks best written song imo. He hasn't topped it and I don't know if he will. 3 stories in one and different perspectives from different people. Also relates to keishas song.
I'd argue because of how it fits within the context of TPAB, how it's a microcosm of the entire album, the wack flow, the gorgeous sample, the lyricism, and its message, it's his most underrated song ever.
I feel like Mortal Man gets dismissed harshly by just being know as having the "tupac bit". It's a beautiful ending to a ridiculously epic and ambitious album that underlines the narrative throughout it. In my second or third listen through TPAB it actually got me a bit choked up. Partly because it gave me this incredible sense of accomplishment for Kendrick but also the throughline of the album coming to a conclusion: after everything he's been through - all he wants to be known for is having elevated people (or freed them in their mind, as he puts it) through his art. "I want you to love me like Nelson".
@@husaanshabendri4331 Yeah I guess but I always hear SAMIDOT, u, or mortal man. They’re all amazing songs but How Much A Dollar Cost just hits different.
These walls is an insanely good track. The many layers and metaphors, the funky beat, the way the track develops. I like levitate but these walls got snubbed
ikr, sing about me could've been in the top 4, since it's easily better than FEEL. so that quarter was just very weak, and now a song that doesn't belong in the top 4 is in the top 4 just because it had easy competition. and don't get me wrong, i really love FEEL. more than most kendrick fans since DAMN. was my first album of his, but that song is nothing against the twelve minute masterpiece that is sing about me im dying of thirst
Instrumentals insane, especially with Kendrick’s interaction with it. He raps straight through the beat switches which sample completely different songs but still work to create a continuous feeling that backs the narrative. The way he raps right through the barline sounds like Charlie Parker anticipating the chord changes to a jazz song and playing right over through the end of harmonic phrases. In my opinion the best track off DAMN and what makes the whole album work, tying together the theme of understanding abstract concepts and linking it to the fact that his own existence is arbitrary and a matter of chance.
This bracket is seeded incredibly weirdly. Love being a 1 seed is BS. Blood being on the bracket is weird and some of those first round matchups are brutal because of seeding.
Brian Murphy I read through the reddit, and it turns out the creator seeded the bracket by Spotify sales to avoid favoritism or anything weird like that
I feel like sales/streaming numbers have a huge recency bias, which really shows here, even with less than a decade between the earliest and latest releases. Works much better for an artist that hasn't released anything in the streaming era, or in another 5 years where more artists will have only released music while streaming has been this big. But really, not much you can do, very few ways to objectively seed something like this.
That's pretty tough having "Sing about me, I'm dying of thirst" and "The art of peer pressure" against each other in the first round because those are both INCREDIBLE
@@Velocity165 that’s fair but to me the squeaky young Kendrick voice on m.a.a.d city and the rough angry voice on blacker the berry has just as much emotion
that one had me thinking for so long, but i think melon has a point. tho personally would probably go with alright because that instrumental is fucking icnredible
@@xbenci i mean based on just quality, i do think that a song that became an anthem, with such significance even now, surely is better than a comic interlude
@@snow5064 actually yk what thats a really good point. that song alright has sort of become a theme song of a group of people and an age group. Tho if we were to just go on the songs themselves not theire significance outside of the album, i think For Free? can hold its own with any song on the album, filled with details, absolutely HILARIOUS song, and extremely creative not to mention actually good jazz production.
“The Blacker The Berry” is one of the more fully realized tracks that Kendrick has. I think the outro from “Complexion” gives a great lead in and frame to Kendrick’s angry spitfire, but Kendrick steps back toward the end of “Berry” and tackles his common theme of self-love on a much higher level. It’s one of those bangers (much like m.A.A.d city) that takes the energy from the beat, the politics he struggles with, and his reflection on his upbringing and community and puts them together in such a precise and charged manner. I think for sure it’s what I would have chosen to win.
Biggest loss for me too.Are you fucking kidding me. Alright is a definitive song for kendrick and even if its not your favorite, it has to beat out what is essentially an interlude. Also though, why would I ever I give an effort into getting upset over melon's kendrick bracket
I feel like simply because of how much For Free contributes to TPAB and how engaging it is makes it a better track. Would totally listen to Alright way more on its own.
"Sing About Me" and "Art of Peer Pressure" could literally be in the finals. Arguably my two favorite Kendrick songs. Sucks to see AoPP out in the first round :/
u is the rawest (and imo best) kendrick song to this day. so incredibly personal yet he amplifies it by embodying the other characters and basically acting it out with that chilling vocal performance
whoa I was not expecting the #1 to be what it was. I would've counted it out, but you had a fantastic case for it. _+1_ *respect* _+69_ *melon* *polish*
u from TPAB is an emotional mess in the best way possible. He just can't control himself but he still lets his story be heard. His acting on the music video is also on point and describes the emotion throughout the song perfectly.
Maad City and Blacker The Berry is definitely the hardest one....Maad City is like NY State Of Mind for Compton but TBTB is so hard hitting and heart felt
Honestly I am so happy that someone finally shed light on the fact that FEEL. is an amazing and incredibly underrated track; I probably would’ve put FEEL. and King Kunta in the championship and had King Kunta win it, you just can’t beat that track
I think you miss the point of No Make Up. It isn't Kendrick being preachy about make up, it's a story of a boy trying to tell his girlfriend he loves her no matter how she looks, without him knowing that she was wearing make up to cover up the abuse of a family member
@@sergiomendoza4040 I would agree, but our friend Marchthony Madtano didn't think GKMC had a strong central theme, but thought TPAB did, because TPAB had the same poem fragments in a ton of its tracks, while you actually needed to listen to the lyrics and tone in GKMC to follow the themes. Source: his own words in his TPAB review, where he uses this to justify TPAB getting a 10 over GKMC's 9.
Jason I don’t think he said it didn’t have a strong central theme I also don’t think that Good kid getting a 9 was because of the “lack of strong central theme” in the tpab review melon mentions how Kendrick’s mindset was likely that “I’m going to make trendier music but I’m going to do it on my terms” when making GKMC I figured that was more of the justification for the 9 where tpab was completely on its own in terms of sound/ production etc at the time of its release there was nothing like it not that good kid didn’t stand on its own but in terms of production I always assumed melon realized this wasn’t Kendrick pushing himself to his limits to make something like tpab which was a “benchmark in music history” his word too in the tpab review
Ronald Raygun Ronald Reagan Era has some really good verses and plays a big role in the concept of Section 80. Also the Kendeick Verses on Money Trees are super repetitive in comparison to Jay Rocks
AYO HOW DID MOMMA LOSE FIRST ROUND THO? That is one of the most thought-provoking analyses of how fame intersects with going home. No other celebrity, let alone musician, has put the audience in their shoes as well as Kendrick on Momma.
Thanks. Now I dont have to say this. The two songs are so opposite, unfair to pit them against each other. I'm still waiting on a full release of the outro on momma: "I been lookin' for you my whole life, an appetite For the feeling I can barely describe, where you reside? Is it in a woman, is it in money, or mankind? Tell me something got me losing my mind, ah! You make me wanna jump Jump, jump, jump, jump Let's talk about love Jump, jump, jump, jump Let's talk about love Jump, jump, jump, jump Let's talk about love Jump, jump, jump, jump Let's talk about love I been lookin' for you my whole life, an appetite For the feeling I can barely describe, where you reside? Is it in a woman, is it in money, or mankind? Tell me something think I'm losing my mind, ah! I say where you at, from the front to the back I'm lookin' for you I react, only when you react Ah, I thought I found you, back in the ghetto When I was seventeen with the .38 Special Maybe you're in a dollar bill, maybe you're not real Maybe only the wealthy get to know how you feel Maybe I'm paranoid, ha, maybe I don't need you anyway Don't lie to me, I'm suicidal any day I can be your advocate I can preach for you if you tell me what the matter is..."
FEEL. finally getting the respect it deserves. Not only is the song superb from a lyrical standpoint, but Kendrick's flow on that song is on another level.