Kendrick Lamar's Debut Album To Feature Drake + Mary J. Blige

I had the chance to attend an intimate listening session for Kendrick Lamar’s debut album in the DMV. I literally walked in just as the first song started. The bad news is they only played 3 songs, the good news is 2 of the songs have features and all three are pretty damn good. I wouldn’t quite call this a review, it’s more of recap but here are some highlights.

1. Title Unknown/TBA – Kendrick explained the song as a subliminal message to the people that expect for artists like himself to blow up and forget where they came from but this is him showing he’s remained the same. “Don’t Kill My Vibe” might be the name as it was mentioned in the hook.

2. Poetic Justice feat. Drake – This is a song for the females that dudes can enjoy too. Surprise? It samples a Janet Jackson song called “Any time, Any place” and features a verse from Drake. K Dot and Drizzy both end their verses with this line “I can’t right my wrongs unless I write them for real”. Hey and guess what? apparently they’re already shooting a music video for this.

3. Now Or Never (?) feat. Mary J. Blige – This is a very radio friendly song and has potential to be a single. To be honest, it’s the best MJB has sounded in a minute, to me anyway. Kinda in the same vein as “Reach Out” on Life Is Good but a lot better, in my opinion. I can’t recall any specific quotables from Kendrick because the entire production and hook of the song was that good.

Kendrick mentioned wanting to work with Erykah Badu at some point but that features were minimal on the album, we’ll find out on October 22nd when good kid, m.a.a.d city hits stores.

Source: D Dot Omen