Both take title seriously.
[Video][Website]
[6.67]
Thomas Inskeep: I wish this were the first single from Kendrick’s new album rather than the snoozefest called “I.” Rapid-fire jazz dipped in d’n’b apparently brings out the best in Lamar and gets him at his lyrically nimblest. Plus, Thundercat thwacking the bass — always a plus. This is reminiscent of the Robert Glasper Experiment, particularly as it’s pinned around a superb piano riff.
[9]
Alfred Soto: There’s novelty in hearing jazz fusion so compressed, and Kendrick’s Lamarmouth can keep up. “Proficient” sounds about right. Context is all, so if I hear this on Y-100 and/or breaks top forty I’m bumping the score.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: Steven Ellison’s journey from so-so loop provider to avid J-Dilla biter to the leader of a campaign for instrumental hip-hop to go prog in all its ambition and downright insufferability (as opposed to just the insufferability; does that make DJ Shadow the rap Procol Harum?) is a crazy one. One minute his unique sense of glitchy-rhythms and esoteric melodies can seem to suggest a whole new realm of music… The next, he’s bogged down in portentous fusion bits with Thom Yorke sobbing about the relationship between krill and the sea or whatever. Here, we’re treated to his blend serving as backing to the vocal equivalent of black prog in rap, “your conscience who goes by the name of Kendrick Lamar *Lost In Space vox*”. Truth be told, it’s a match made in heaven, with Kendrick weaving poetical about mortality through the elastic slurricane of the Flying Lotus overload longtime fans are accustomed to. There’s wild solos, a terrible attempt at a juke breakdown, and a vicious pace until for a moment, the post-Sa-Ra glamorous ‘hook’ suggest a moment of pop euphoria and clarity, before descending back into the tempestuous nature of his ADD.
[6]
David Sheffieck: This sounds like Kendrick still working past the wall he ran into earlier this year, when every verse found him devolving into a furious, hoarse, monotonous delivery that quickly became self-parody. He’s showing some flexibility here, though that voice is still apparent, and just by providing some contrast he manages to make his performance twice as interesting. Conceptually and sonically, it’s a bridge between “Radioactive (Remix)” and “i”, and hopefully, it’s a signal of a return to form after a brief stumble.
[7]
Brad Shoup: Even set against this massacred drum’n’fusion, Lamar sounded more engaged on “i”. Maybe the obvious flip was a kind of mandate to be interesting. Here, he’s just gotta maintain that Adult Swim bumper feeling. The bass starts popping, and he starts to sing.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: For a couple months a couple years ago, Flying Lotus’ Until the Quiet Comes was my go-to writing soundtrack; full of enough interesting textures and shifting dynamics to keep the back of my mind interested, but unobtrusive enough to leave the foreground alone. In that same period, good kid, m.A.A.d. city was my driving-around music, an example of what good writing about the modern world could be. If this collaboration is underwhelming, maybe that’s because I’m the one who’s drifted away from inhabiting their worlds.
[7]