Deen prefers his Kool-Aid unsweetened.
Allow me to be slightly presumptuous and assume that you, the reader, have been reading my posts here. Maybe you may have detected some level of ambivalence in regards to everyone’s new darlings – the Top Dawg Entertainment guys. I’ve read a bunch of complimentary shit about these guys in the last two years or so and I’ve kept my ears open, but mostly out of politeness and a desire to stay up to date on these things so I can crack vaguely accurate jokes on Twitter. In other words, I’m not really on the bandwagon like that.
Don’t get me wrong, I KNOW they’re all talented and I respect their grind, but ultimately, I’d have to consider myself a bit a of a dissenter among my PotW brethren and the Internet at large. I’m just not hearing “it” consistently enough. Call me deaf, but I’m not hearing what you folks are hearing. I’d sum each member of the collective up with one sentence, but I’m feeling benevolent right now.
Nonetheless, I agree that Kendrick Lamar is probably the best of the bunch – especially when he eases off the asthma delivery. I kinda enjoyed Section 80 in a “listen to this enough times and you’ll find something to like about it” kind of way. So yeah, I’m anticipating his major label debut just as feverishly as most of you are. Or something like that.
Anyway, if this “Westside, Right On Time” shit is indicative of the quality of the album tracks on Kendrick’s debut, then he oughta be in good shape. I know a lot of you are disconcerted about the Lady Gaga collaboration that’s on deck, but efforts like this should provide welcome succor to those of you who consider K.Dot the second coming of The D.O.C. post-accident.
I assume this track won’t be on the album due to sampling issues and that’s a shame. You can never go wrong with a soul sample (unless you’re J.Cole, then you can ALWAYS go wrong in a variety of ways) and Jeezy always sounds great over those (is this shit a Jackson 5 sample? Can one of you smart muthafuckas riddle me that in the comments? Thanks).
As for Kendrick, it’s just another laid-back display of technique and I’ll admit that he seems to have gained more of a personality over the last few months. In general, I require MCs to engage in gross displays of frivolity on occasion, regardless of their philosophical bent. Kendrick is suitably disgusting on this track, thus, I approve – even though we all know he’s only jogging.
So take a deep breath and enjoy this shit. Your new rap hero probably won’t disappoint you. Gaga or otherwise. Even a purveyor of faint praise like me can admit that. We’ve suffered for too long for Dr. Dre and Interscope to ruin this for us. Based Gawd won’t let it happen. We can relax…
Download:
