Mastered Minimalism: A Deep-dive Into Kendrick Lamar’s ‘untitled|unmastered’

By Blake Emsden

In 2015, the world of music was Kendrick Lamar’s. After his first major-label album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, everyone was waiting for Kendrick’s next album. However, nobody expected the hour-long manifestation of genius that is To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick changed his whole sound for this album, incorporating jazz and funk more than ever before, almost completely abandoning the commercial aspects of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City that catapulted him to stardom. To Pimp a Butterfly wowed audiences and critics and ended up being nominated for 11 Grammys (one shy of Michael Jackson’s record of 12), taking home 5, including the elusive Best Rap Album award that somehow escaped him two years prior.

The excellence of To Pimp a Butterfly didn’t stop at the Grammys. Less than a month later, on March 4, 2016, Kendrick silently dropped untitled unmastered, a compilation album of B-sides that did not make it onto To Pimp a Butterfly for whatever reason. The album consists of 8 tracks, all listed as untitled with the date of the initial recording next to them. They range from 2013-2016, from when Kendrick first started working on To Pimp a Butterfly to the final weeks leading up to untitled unmastered.

This album is a modern classic, perfectly embodying what Kendrick is about while also showcasing some of the best production and vocal work of his career. If To Pimp a Butterfly lacked commercial appeal, this album had absolutely none of it. Kendrick is more abstract than he’s ever been, and not one of these songs sound traditional. Hell, they don’t even have names. This album shows that Kendrick has perfected the art of minimalism; stunning the music world with only the bare essentials.

Before getting into the lyrics and the context of this album, I feel like it is important to address the production and sound of it first. Why? Simply because the sound of this album is its best aspect, and although the lyrics are amazingly written and extremely powerful, it is the production that makes this album the classic it is. Lyrics are like sprinkles on this album, and I can confidently say that this is the only moment in Kendrick’s career where the sound of a project is more important than the lyrics on it. If you couldn’t understand a lick of English, I doubt your opinion on the project would be much different.

The song “untitled 04” is arguably one of the greatest production moments in Kendrick’s career, sounding like a spooky ASMR brain massage. However, Kendrick doesn’t rap one vocal on this song, he lets the production carry it. In fact, by the time his verse starts in the next track, we haven’t heard Kendrick rap for four minutes and forty seconds, spanning over three songs. Kendrick disappears and lets his music do the talking, and then when he finally reinserts himself into his project he does so with one of the most aggressive verses of his career, a verse only made more powerful by his previous absence.

If I were to describe the recipe for the sound of untitled unmastered, I would say to take the harmonies and pitched vocals of To Pimp a Butterfly, the rhythm and drum kits of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, and throw them in a blender along with two tabs of acid and a jazz orchestra. The album opens with bass being slowly strummed over spastic, yet quiet drums and wind instruments. It sounds like a storm is coming, slowly approaching with each strum of that bass.

The production on this album is atmospheric, creating a psychedelic vibe that ebbs and flows along with Kendrick’s emotion on each track. As if we were listening to a bad trip, the album follows Kendrick on a steep roller coaster of emotions as he violently fights with himself over his world, reconciles with his situation, and then spirals back into despair. Jazz is used in a multitude of ways, sounding funky and groovy when Kendrick is at his highs, and brooding and menacing when Kendrick is at his lows. Uncontrolled and loose jazz segments at the ends of “Untitled 02” and “Untitled 05” seem to emulate Kendrick losing control, as the downward spiraling of notes seems to represent his psyche.

 It’s almost impossible to not compare this album to To Pimp a Butterfly, as they were recorded simultaneously and both feature Kendrick in the same creative headspace. However, these albums are completely different entities and work better as companion pieces. To Pimp a Butterfly is more about systemic racism as a whole, while untitled unmastered is about how this system and the world are affecting Kendrick personally. As his growing success helps him escape this system, he frets about it even more. Kendrick feels as if nobody is heeding his warnings and advice from To Pimp a Butterfly, and it’s driving him crazy. He touches on this in his first track, “vividly seeing” and detailing his version of the apocalypse, race war and riots that destroy everything, something he forecasted on To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Mortal Man”. He angrily vents about how it seems like it is his duty to “save mankind”, as he seems to be the only one who knows what’s at stake. Systemic racism eats at Kendrick throughout the project, as record labels are dissed (of course) yet he claims TDE is his one connection to his home, exposing his own hypocrisy.

He imagines himself without the money and tells the story of a man who snaps under the pressure of institutionalism and is driven to murder. The very next song finds Kendrick in a happier space, openly admitting that he overthinks things and that is one of his flaws, yet his flaws are a part of him and you’ve just got to accept that. This leads up to a verse in the next song, which, in my opinion, is one of the best of Kendrick’s career. Halfway through “untitled 07”, Kendrick takes a step back and elaborates on his self-discovery. He realizes he is asking too much of himself and gets his confidence back. Braggadociously rapping over ringing drums, Kendrick boasts about all he’s done for the culture, all those he’s inspired and all that he’s given back, before exiting and wishing more power unto his listeners.

The album ends with a song about his money, how he’s upset that the system is keeping other black men from achieving this wealth, but hey, at least he’s got his.

This album tells a story of a man tortured by his success and the world around him until he realizes that he can’t do much more than he already does, and he has to enjoy what he has. It’s truly astonishing how coherent this album is. The songs line up to tell a very abstract story, but a story nonetheless.

Transitions between songs are seamless, and when this album is over it really does feel like you just listened to a 36-minute song. It’s reasons like these that make it very easy to forget that this album consists of unrelated demos, songs that were never going to be on any album, let alone one this good. I don’t know if this speaks more to Kendrick’s unrivaled ability to put together astounding bodies of work, or to how truly amazing To Pimp a Butterfly was. The fact is that this album is Kendrick’s leftovers, but leftovers from a gourmet chef are always bound to taste better than fresh fast food.