As someone who doesn't pay close attention to lyrics or really assign much value to them beyond aesthetics, are albums like To Pimp a Butterfly lost on me? I honestly can't get into it and don't understand why it's being hailed as a great.
From what I've read and heard a great deal of the praise has to do with the themes and lyricism of the album which, like I said, I can appreciate but they don't do much in my mind to improve the actual MUSIC and SOUND.
Am I approaching hiphop in the wrong way or should I just give up on trying to enjoy this Butterfly?
No, you'd do well to ignore the lyrics in TPAB
>memerap
>music
>>61017281
epic
>>61016834
>Am I approaching hiphop in the wrong way
Yeah. But you're not alone and that's the sad part.
I never really listened to the lyrics of tpab.
is it dindu nothin' apologetics or does it preach respectability politics?
>>61018501
>you're wrong to approach a musical genre expecting musical excellence
this is why people don't take REAL HIP HOP fedoras seriously. you're definitely not a poor black person having your struggles reflected in this idiom. chances are you're a dumb white liberal who wants to watch poverty porn and be applauded as a good ally and an artistic connoisseur to boot for it
Take some acid and just listen to that shit bro
>>61019006
Having to take drugs to make music good means that the music isn't good.
>>61018647
respectability politics mostly
The first time I listend to the whole record through i popped some acid, granted not saying it makes music any better. That being said there were at least two songs I didnt fuck with on the record.
>>61017234
this
>>61018706
lyrics are a part of music
you're wrong to ignore the lyrics in a lyric-centric genre
i dont know why you had to sperg out about some sjw shit lmao
>>61016834
>As someone who doesn't pay close attention to lyrics or really assign much value to them beyond aesthetics
This shit is unfathomable to me. The fact that OP is not alone in this blows my fucking mind.
yeah the lyrics don't matter for the most part, just the delivery and flow (though I hate when they rap about random meme shit, which kendick never does)
I like how kendrick uses his voice as an instrument in its own specially in this album, I'd say you can go by just fine by not paying attention to the lyrics but do pay attention to how he delivers them, and the different tones of voice he uses. Plus I love the intrumentation.
>>61016834
Some songs like Mortal Man i think you should really take a look at the lyrics, I myself I am just like you and don't really care about the lyrics, I like them if they're "clever" but don't really care about them, and after taking a closer look to them i realized why TPAB was so praised. But if you still don't like it, then you should just stop tryng, after all its just music and everyone has a different taste
>>61019640
I listen to too much music and I can't keep up with/understand lyrics in most things. I'm not going to look up every song's lyrics so I just enjoy the music and try to enjoy and understand what stands out.
That being said, the more I listen to stuff, the more in gets ingrained in my head, so if I like it enough, I'll eventually know the lyrics.
>>61019838
wtf?
>>61019640
OP here, perhaps I didn't capitalize on what I really was meaning properly. I guess I could say that I'm really more of a "sound oriented" listener when it comes to enjoying the music that I do. I kind of came up in my musical taste in a strange way where most of what I was listening to was foreign, so I couldn't understand the words anyway. Lyrical themes simply do not make the music for me. The music comes first always and then the lyrics are kind of just a filler. It's nice if the lyrics are good that's an added bonus to the album but I only ever put effort into getting into them and understanding them if I already really like the album.
Is that unfathomable?
>>61019901
What?
>>61016834
read this
http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/deeper-story-kendrick-lamars-album-pimp-butterfly/
sums up pretty well the concept meaning of the album
>>61020060
I see what you're getting at. However I think its a slightly narrow view with which to approach hip-hop.
The spoken word is sound oriented via flow/delivery/cadence. Unless you only listened to foreign instrumentals the spoken/sung word did play a roll in the sound you simply couldn't understand them.
if you dont listen to the lyrics you have no right to say which rappers are good or bad
>>61019167
wrong
drugs just make music sound way better, you notice all of the subtleties that you may have missed while sober
