{"id":64,"date":"2019-12-02T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/?p=64"},"modified":"2020-04-25T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T17:08:13","slug":"king-kunta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKing Kunta\u201d \u2013 Kendrick Lamar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hRK7PVJFbS8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three schools of thought on who the artist of the decade was. Beyonc\u00e9 brought high art to poptimism, pushing the boundaries of how music is consumed while continuing to be the biggest star on the planet. Frank Ocean became a generational icon, driving what became the dominant sound in \u201810s R&amp;B and achieving a level of worship so fervent it recently got Drake booed off a festival stage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third \u2013 and for my money, the right answer \u2013 is Kendrick Lamar (you could argue Kanye ought to be the fourth, but\u2026). Kendrick\u2019s impact on the culture may not be quite as obvious as Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s or as easily defined as Frank\u2019s, but the evidence speaks for itself. He\u2019s responsible for the decade\u2019s best lyrics, best production, best guest spots (with apologies to Nicki Minaj), best soundtrack, and best album. Which one? You\u2019ve got three to choose from, and you could make a case for any one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My choice is 2015\u2019s epic <em>To Pimp a Butterfly.<\/em> The entire 79-minute record is a classic, succeeding both as a treatise on race in America and as cutting self-analysis. The LP largely rejects au courant beats in favor of tense, jazz-influenced backdrops that provide a vivid landscape upon which Lamar&#8217;s storytelling comes to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlright\u201d is the popular highlight. Pitchfork named it the best song of the 2010s, it was nominated across top categories at the Grammys, and it became an unofficial anthem for Black Lives Matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, I\u2019m going with \u201cKing Kunta.\u201d It may not be as capital-I-Important, but it\u2019s an undeniable banger with an irresistible Thundercat bassline and a few great disses \u2013 including one allegedly aimed at Drake for using ghost writers. Poor Drake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are three schools of thought on who the artist of the decade was. Beyonc\u00e9 brought high art to poptimism, pushing the boundaries of how music is consumed while continuing to be the biggest star on the planet. Frank Ocean became a generational icon, driving what became the dominant sound in \u201810s R&amp;B and achieving&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-201x-favorites","tag-kendrick-lamar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar | Rich Bradley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It may not be as capital-I-Important as &quot;Alright,&quot; but &quot;King Kunta&quot; is an undeniable banger with an irresistible Thundercat bassline.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King Kunta - Kendrick Lamar | Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It may not be as capital-I-Important as &quot;Alright,&quot; but &quot;King Kunta&quot; is an undeniable banger with an irresistible Thundercat bassline.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RB.org\/songs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/richlbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-02T18:06:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-25T17:08:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/scott3icon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@rlbradley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rich Bradley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rich Bradley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cKing Kunta\u201d \u2013 Kendrick Lamar\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-02T18:06:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-25T17:08:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/#\/schema\/person\/20a932bf4ce1b2724037a850355d507c\"},\"keywords\":[\"Kendrick Lamar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"201X Favorites\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/king-kunta\/\",\"name\":\"King Kunta - 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