Kendrick Lamar - ‘Section.80’ Review..

He may just be one of Hip Hop’s saviour, something rap has not had in a good long while (apart from J. Cole). I’ve been banging out his album ‘Section.80’ for a few days now and it just made my love what I have missed.. which is real rap, good music with intelligence, concepts and meanings.. as well as beats.

The first track I heard from Lamar will always be my favourite. The J. Cole-produced song ‘Hiiipower’ is such a powerful track with such deep content which was the sort of stuff I grew up listening to from Tupac Shakur. There was something that made me think ‘Tupac’. I don’t want to say that he’s the next Shakur or anyone else. I don’t like saying people are the next Pac or whatever, but I can say that he’s keeping his legacy alive.

Another track I felt on the album is ‘Keisha’s Song (Her Pain)’ which features Ashtro Bot. The first thing that I thought when I heard this track was that this was his equivalent of Shakur’s ‘Brenda’s Go A Baby’ where he spoke about the hardship of a young woman who is sexually abused. It had a deep message to it and he told the story pretty well and vividly.

I’m a fan of Colin Munroe’s music and for him to feature on the album made me like it more. ‘No Make-Up (Her Vice)’ was written in an interesting way, where he speaks about a woman’s beauty with one verse but in the second verse, the first verse is performed again but with a woman cutting in and out speaking about her beauty, which was creative and effective.

If I was to rate ‘Section.80’, it would be an 8/10. The album does showcase his lyrical skill and his storytelling ability very well. Despite selling 5,000 copies in its first week (apparently), this album has to be labelled as one of the best rap albums of 2011. I shall be waiting patently for this collaborative mixtape with J. Cole I’ve been hearing about.