STACK #245 March 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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This month, we delve into Kendrick Lamar’s cracking 2016 album, untitled unmastered . Words: Paul Jones V I N Y I T A L

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KENDRICK LAMAR UNTITLED UNMASTERED. (2016) REISSUE

K endrick Lamar’s reign as a hip-hop philosopher was dyed-in-the-wool when To Pimp a Butterfly hit record racks in 2015. While his legions of fans remained transfixed to the inventive jazz and funk-infused album, Lamar had another trick up his sleeve. Enter untitled unmastered. , an unpolished yet mesmerising collection of studio offcuts that would appear one year later in March 2016. The demo-like compilation is a snapshot of an artist caught in the whirlwind of his most progressive era. The album clocks in at a lean 34 minutes, but this project is less an album and more a peek behind the creative curtain, where ideas swirl in a jazz-funk haze, and Kendrick delivers some of his most visceral performances to date. Unlike the precision-crafted narratives of good kid, m.A.A.d

Lyrically, Lamar is as sharp as ever, his voice a shape-shifting

instrument, slipping easily between perspectives. He

wrestles with survival and salvation while riding beats that seem to bend and ripple under his command. The jazz influences, guided by talents like

Thundercat and Terrace Martin, take centre stage, lending an otherworldly feel to the entire record. Though untitled unmastered. lacks the thematic cohesion of Kendrick’s full-length projects, its spontaneity is its greatest strength. It’s an artist at the peak of his powers, unbound by expectation, sketching out brilliance in real time. Even in its supposed incompleteness, it stands as a testament to the restless genius of Kendrick Lamar - a reminder that for some, even the throwaways are masterpieces.

Kendrick Lamar

rawness. The tracklist, stripped of traditional titles, instead carries cryptic timestamps, a fitting touch for a record that feels like fragments of a fever dream. And yet, these are no mere scraps. From the eerie synths and apocalyptic visions of untitled 02 | 06.23.2014 to the sinister grooves of untitled 05 | 09.21.2014 , every song pulses with Lamar’s trademark urgency, proof that even his outtakes hit hard. The DNA of To Pimp a

Butterfly is all over this project - live instrumentation, warped jazz, and spoken-word cadences - but here, Lamar sounds even freer. On untitled 07 | 2014 - 2016 , Kendrick stretches across three distinct movements: the first, an addictive mantra of “levitate, levitate, levitate,” the second, a playfully scattered freestyle, and the third, a stripped-down jam session that feels like a glimpse through the studio window directly into the late-night creative process.

city (2012) or the sprawling sociopolitical grandeur of To Pimp a Butterfly, untitled unmastered. thrives in its

KENDRICK LAMAR’S DISCOGRAPHY

Section 80 (2011)

To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

Damn. (2017)

GNX (2024)

good Kid, m.A.A.D City (2012)

untitled unmastered. (2016)

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022)

34 MARCH 2025

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