Kendrick’s opening verse sounds clean, you see the flex, you see the swag, the beat is tight, and his voice rides perfectly. He watched House Party, and ate Apple Jacks” My conscience only knew what’s half-tightĪt 3:14 it’s time to get me a slice my NIGGA “I used to write rhymes all day and all night When the beat drops, we hear what Kendrick’s got: Lamar encourages the listener “smoke to this.” Indeed. The song starts with an array of synths, and McCluskey’s husky voice crooning out. The EP starts with “Is it Love” featuring Angela McCluskey and produced by Sounwave. Once again, the theme here is to be different. Lamar’s voice drips out that Rosecrans Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, but he makes it bend and swerve in unique ways around each beat he comes across on the album. It would be like listening to Bjork’s hoodrat cousin. Sounwave’s specialty is presenting music as an electric landscape set to a distinct hip-hop rhythm. The album gives a low-impact, low-tempo vibe that’s best served with a cold beer, an empty room, and some good headphones. The production on the “Kendrick Lamar EP” is mostly handled by Sounwave, fellow Top Dawg artist and Compton native, with helping hands from King Blue of Sore Losers, Insomnia, Wyldfyer, and Pete Rahk. He is definitely not a cut-and-dried, paint-by-numbers Compton rapper that recycles the same talk about peelin’ caps, Kendrick Lamar is out to make his own unique footprint in the long history of Compton hip-hop. It’s not a bad thing, and it’s really apparent that Kendrick Lamar is trying very hard to push music in his own image, absent of any pigeonhole or box that critics (like myself, with word association) try to put him in. Well, Kendrick Lamar loves the blunts, 40s and bitches, but his EP is about as gangsta as Kid Cudi’s argyle sweater. So when I say that my first review for RapReviews covers a young Compton cat named Kendrick Lamar, your mind might wander to blunts, beyatches, sippin’ 40s, poppin gats, and repping yo’ set. Dre.” Some of the younger hip-hop fans may even throw out “The Game.” Now, going by what most people think, Compton is synonymous with gangsta rap and gangsta livin’. When I say “Compton,” most people will respond with: “Gangs,” “NWA,” “Dr.
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