If you’ve caught any of Kendrick Lamar’s recent television performances (like his jaw-dropper at the Grammys), you may have noticed that he often works unreleased material into the multi-song medleys he performs. In the wee hours of Friday, March 4, when Lamar digitally released untitled unmastered., he finally (sorta) released them to the world.
The surprise release appears to be thanks to Kendrick Lamar fans (including Lebron James) pestering Top Dawg Entertainment head honcho Anthony Tiffith to release the untitled dopeness they’d seen on television. After a few weeks, it would appear he cracked, and untitled unmastered. moved from the vault to the cloud. In a recent interview with 2 Dope Boyz, Lamar explained the origin of the mystery songs:
“You see all these performances on these late night shows…I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album. But I think probably close to ten songs that I’m in love with that I’ll still play and still perform that didn’t make the cut.”
You can find untitled unmastered. on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, TIDAL, and Google Play. Seven of the eight tracks are named after various dates between 2013-2016; the eight-minute-plus seventh track is labeled 2014-2016, and produced in part by Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s 5-year-old son Egypt. “untitled 03 | 05.28.2013” is the song he played on The Colbert Report , and “untitled 08 | 09.06.2014” was performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . On a first listen, the songs carry the unpolished texture the record’s title suggests; the sound of sketches from the artist’s notebook. Consider it the To Pimp a Butterfly bonus disc.
