Kendrick Lamar Lives Through the “Ronald Reagan Era” (Listen & Download) Posted by Nathan S. on 06/17/11 | Filed under Top Stories, Downloads, Kendrick Lamar, West Coast

The "conscious" rapper thing can be just as shallow and formulaic as the "Racks" thing. Every track has a slightly different version of the same production, the same topics, the same vocab, the same flows. It's a template and these rappers are more than happy to color inside the lines. That's why I'm really feeling Kendrick Lamar, and new release "Ronald Reagan Era".

You really have to think about his music. As the comments on previous release "Sex With Society" proved, and the Gucci Mane-assisted "Vanity Slave Pt. 2" proved, it can often be hard to figure out what Kendrick is serious about the more 'shallow" elements of his music, or he's using them as commentaries on themselves, or both. Did that make any sense? Probably not, but that's the point. Kendrick has me actually thinking about the music he's making.

Just listen to "Ronald Reagan Era". I don't know what's up with that Randy Newman-esque intro, or the weird skit opening/outro, or what the hell RZA's saying, but I've had this on on repeat for 30 minutes now trying to figure it out.

"#Section80" coming soon. (Marcus Camby shots alert. Bonus points for the Michael Johnson reference though.)