Less than five years ago, before he was on the top of the world, before he was King Kendrick, a young Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was in the mixtape game the same as any up-and-comer before him. (O)verly (D)edicated is the most official unofficial release of the rapper’s career. He had done many mixtapes before this such as the The Kendrick Lamar EP, which is important for the fact that this was where he decided to K.Dot as his official name and go with one closer to himself. In addition, this mixtape is getting ever closer to the Kendrick Lamar we know in his music today; unlike other tapes the influence of the Lil Wayne hype train is starting to disappear, which as far as I’m concerned can only be a positive (though the worst song on this mixtape would be its last gasp of breath).
In terms of the mixtapes of 2010, OD did not have the instant appeal and recognition of K.R.I.T. Wuz Here or the outsider appeal of Earl. But it is here that we get the sense of the artist that would blossom in the context of the studio system, one who was big on ideas and conceptuality, as highlighted by the cover of artists who had inspired him – many of their death involving overdoses – and the model woman with a wave for a head (what is it about? I dunno, but it’s interesting). Here we have the clever, dense wordplay and focus on ideas of drugs and Compton strong that would only come to get stronger. The music on also has more a jazz influence than any release until To Pimp a Butterfly, though more through the filter of A Tribe Called Quest than Gil Scott Heron. At the same time, he does on occasion confuse being contemplative and mellow with being quiet and disconnected. This is undiluted and unmolded Kendrick, with all the pros and cons that this implies.
With all that said, we’ll look at the tracks one by one, with my favourite line from each to boot:
- “The Heart Pt. 2”
This song is curiously missing from the Spotify listings of the mixtape, which is a shame not only because this is probably the best song on the whole thing – and the best song of his pre-studio career – but starts off with the spoken word passage that caps off the whole themes; that of Dash Snow, who died the previous year due to an overdose, and his morbid ironically monologue ends with the idea that the music is what’s keeping him alive (This wouldn’t be the last time he sampled the interviews of dead influences). The music here was produced by the Roots, and with its jazzy styles Kendrick Lamar spits dense passages about rap beefs, his previous EP and contrasting the recent disaster in Haiti to life in LA. He spits this out with an intensity that literally only stops when he coughs and just cannot say anymore. And as he highlights, there is still a lot more to talk about.
“Out in Haiti, adolescents barely have a home/In L.A everybody think they fucking on/Hop on twitter, perpetrate we doing big shit/Who we hanging with and bragging about the iPhone”
- “Growing Apart (To Get Closer)
With the sultry tones of Jhené Aiko providing the hook, this provides the tale of a couple who are contemplating the stasis of their relationship, or whether or not they should slow down. This is a common topic that Kendrick manages to cover without too many clichés, and one interesting musical choice is how the sample will occasionally slow down and mellow out to parallel their relationship. This is one of the songs that I wish Kendrick wasn’t so mellow on, but his passages allow the progression of their relationship to have the payoff of being back together by the end
That’s what he said to me/ But that place we call Heaven’s unfair to me, only 144 can go/Seven billion people on planet Earth today/Is there something that I don’t know
- “Night of the Living Junkies”
This is not the strongest song on the album hook wise, but is important for the fact is that this is the first contribution by Sounwave, the producer that Kendrick would work with most throughout his next projects. But the beat here sounds ill. Not in the usual way, but a way that matches the idea of people on drugs about to O.D (as indicated by the outro) to being a literal Zombie.
“Every listener is a strawberry to me/You pussies ain’t shit but venereal disease”
- “P&P 1.5”
This was originally on The Kendrick Lamar EP, and has the same Roots instrumental, but expands and improves on that beat and rhythm. Here he contrasts what sounds like a traditional club chorus with verses about his Compton life, including references to his dead Uncle that would make a big part of Good Kid M.A.A.D City. It’s about two mintues two long, and it’s a shame that the Ab-Soul verse is not one of his best. Don’t worry, he’ll make up for it on the next release.
“Pushing in my momma van, stop for gas on Rosecrans/Trust me these niggas rushed me for something my cousin probably did/Guilty by association story of my life, nigga”
- “Alien Girl (Today With Her)”
Kendrick Lamar’s relaxed flow here really compliments Sounwave’s spacey beat, which in turn compliments the central metaphor. It’s cool and casual and almost lame in how he compares the woman to an alien, but in a way that is sincere and unlike some songs I could imagine working (but maybe I’m cheesy like that). That is until the tears that move into…
“So now we on, so now we going/Living in the city of the unknown/I show her off, I stunt with her/We do it sweet, they look bitter”
- “Opposites Attract (Tomorrow W/O Her)”
The ugly breakup of this song. In the context of the previous song it actually helps to perceive his perspective as confused and in the wrong rather than being some justifications for his actions (as many cheater songs in rap tend to do). It also helps to include both perspectives, a multi-POV technique that he would continue to expand on it subsequent releases.
- “Michael Jordan”
This is a Lil Wayne song and I don’t like it.
Nah
- “Ignorance is Bliss”
This is another highlight from the album, and thanks it to being heard by one Dr Dre is pretty much the reason he was signed to Aftermath records. From that central sample they build upon those strings with a smooth sub bass, a great slow drum sound and Willie-B strange synthesiser sounds. And with the dense lyrics make that central “Ignorance is Bliss” mantra apply to so many scenarios: the kids in gangs with a hood mentality; the people who glorify this lifestyle though music or those don’t understand their lifestyle and easily box apart conscious with gangster rappers
The critics are calling me conscious/But truthfully, every shooter be callin’ me Compton/So truthfully, only calling me Kweli and Common?/Proves that ignorance is bliss.
- “R.O.T.C (Interlude)”
Usually the Interlude is the place to relax from the central concepts of the album, but here Kendrick displays the almost stream-of-conscious feelings he has early in the morning, with a woozy guitar rhythm that matches that contemplation. The title is a play on words, both in the contemplation of joining the corps to earn money (something also in Section 80.), the more pressing temptation to earn money from drug dealing, or to carry on with the rapping in hope of making it big. That “Right on time conscience” lets us know he made the decision to continue rapping: Good choice! (Also, BJ’s the Chicago Kid’s interpolated singing of Common’s “The Light” helps to illustrate that temptation before snapping back out of it).
Or should I sell my music .zip to buy your zip/And hope one day it flourish to a kilo, track record of a hustler
- “Barbed Wire”
Another Sounwave beat, and maybe his strongest with ethereal vocals and a pumping sub bass, here as Kendrick makes another tale from multiple perspectives. Here it contrasts too verses of “black sheep” whose disconnects results in them turning to more criminal activites, and then the final verse where Kendrick shows how hard and almost unbelievable it is for people that one escapes that lifestyle without being drawn into those worlds (this would be something we feel from an even more evocative perspective on Good Kid, M.A.A.D, but the seeds are here).
But they won’t give you the credit, disses out they mouth/You must have joined the Illuminati just to ball out
- “Average Joe”
As the title suggest, this song follows the themes of the last two songs, with a beat by Wyldfire that has hooks very similar to the slower songs on Eminem albums . If that connection there is the line “I don’t do black music, I don’t do white music/I do everyday life music”. The final lines though suggest getting out of that corruption is not as simple as getting out of the ghetto; that “behind the scenes” there are gangster types everywhere.
Everyone I knew was either crip or piru/Cousins in elementary, relatives in high school/With that being said, each one of their rivals/Was aiming something at my head,
- “H.O.C”
In many songs throughout his career Kendrick Lamar has made it clearer that his music doesn’t come from “extra-curricular” activities, which he makes explicitly clear here on a beat that really does sound like a Snoop Dogg song that people would be getting high to. This is not the strongest song on the album, but his ability to subvert the expectations of what the song sounds like to his content would help produce his biggest hit. The beat from Growing Apart returns to, to move us into…
In high school my teachers thought I was smoking stress/Didn’t know my eyes low cause of genetic defects/I stimulate my mind every time I think about the end of time/Creation of man and Columbine
- “Cut You Off (To Grow Closer)
One of Kendrick Lamar’s most popular pre-studio songs, it concerns cutting out those in your life that have a negative influence upon your life or removing all the negativity from your life. Self love is a major theme of Kendrick Lamar’s music, and this song ends with a description of the “HiiPoWeR” that characterised a lot of his early work and I sometimes wished he would bring back more overtly. With all that has happened before this anthem also acts a major cathartic lift from the negative narratives of the rest of OD (even if I think the beat is a little too lightweight for the message in question).
“I’m back chilling with a friend of mine, she mighty fine/But I notice that her heart resides next to bitterness/Always hollering who she don’t like and who she kick it with”
- “Heaven and Hell”
(O)verly (D)edicated ends with funky beat from Tommy Black that has some similarities to sounds of nineties Prince. And on this beat Kendrick Lamar produces a nice coda to the narrative of the album, though it does feel that perhaps it should have ended with “Cut You Off”. And it all ends with a final verse about, fading out in a way that could range from him giving up on ideas of heaven, to him transcending himself whilst thinking about all those images.
“Malcolm laughing, Martin laughing, Biggie spittin’/Pac is rapping, Gregory tappin, people singing, bells is ringing/Children playing, angels praying, 14 karat golden streets, collard greens/Red wine, potato yams, turkey legs, calling every human being…”
The ideas are raw and the beats are weaker than they would be as his career continued, but on (O)verly (D)edicated Kendrick Lamar shows his penchant for conceptual narrative and ideas on self love and an oppressive culture that he is trying to escape from. Even sounding his age 22, he also presents himself as the more thoughtful and contemplative voice that would lead to wider adulation only a couple of years later. All that dedication had paid off; it was time to head off to the studio…
What did you think, though?
Kendrick Lamar Rankings
- (O)verly (D)edicated