New Music Reviews: Mk.Gee, Kendrick Lamar, and Tyler, the Creator

School holidays are just starting. This means I must review the albums with inappropriate language before my girls are home for the summer. Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator are both hip-hop superstars who stretch the boundaries of the genre. On a completely different note, Mk.Gee’s debut album sounds like John Martyn around 1980.

Kendrick Lamar

GNX

2024, 8.5/10
Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar has enjoyed a stellar career so far. With his critical acclaim, a string of #1 albums, and a Pulitzer Prize in Literature, Lamar’s one of the most significant musical artists to emerge in the 21st century. After 2022’s expansive Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, he returns to basics with GNX. It returns to the G-funk pioneered by Dr Dre in the 1990s, the sound of West Coast hip-hop.

Since Mr. Morale, Lamar’s also released a series of non-album singles, feuding with Drake. His wheezy rapping is distinctive. On GNX he works with ubiquitous producer Jack Antonoff, who’s more interesting when he’s working outside his usual pop idiom.

Lamar has made even better albums than GNX, but he’s a pro. GNX is a tight, entertaining album that pushes outside the boundaries of hip-hop. In particular, the duets with female artists take his music in new directions. In ‘Luther’, named for Luther Vandross, he harmonises smoothly with SZA on a smooth R&B ballad, with Kamasi Washington on saxophone. SZA also provides vocals on the ‘Gloria’, while ‘Heart (Pt. 6)’ is pretty with its guitar and gentle rapping.

But Lamar’s abrasive much of time time. ‘Man at the Garden’ percolates nastily, while ‘Reincarnated’ is a spiritual epic, reflecting on past lives as John Lee Hooker and Billie Holiday.

Lamar’s still at the top of his game, and the wide-ranging GNX sounds effortless.

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Tyler, the Creator

CHROMAKOPIA

2024, 7/10
Lamar’s hip-hop is socially conscious and spirituallly searching. Tyler, the Creator’s hip-hop is feverishly eclectic and cartoonish. He’s even more eclectic than Lamar, taking in jazz and R&B. He’s of Igbo ancestry on his father’s side, and has enjoyed critical acclaim for records like Flower Boy and Igor.

Chromakopia is narrated by Tyler’s mother, Bonita Smith. It reflects Tyler’s experiences growing up in Hawthorne, California. Tyler’s recorded such an impressive kaleidoscope of records over the past few years, and this record doesn’t really bring anything new to the table musically, although the more personal lyrical approach is appreciated.

The record’s less fun and expansive than his last few. But there’s still an ear for an effervescent pop hook on ‘Judge Judy’, and a sense of fun on ‘Sticky’. But it’s often heavy-handed – not a term I thought I’d ever use for a Tyler record. There are a ton of guests – Thundercat is on bass for half the tracks, Inflo is on drums for ‘Noid’, and Childish Gambino contributes backing vocals.

The therapeutic Chromakopia is an album Tyler needed to make, but it feels a little lacklustre

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Mk.gee

Two Star & the Dream Police

2024, 9/10
Michael Gordon grew up in New Jersey, where he played in bands but gravitated to making solo music in his bedroom. He uses a Fender Jaguar guitar which he fits with baritone strings. Sometimes he reminds me of John Martyn’s work in the late 1970s, with the wash of noctural, electronic sounds, along with jazzy bass, behind his guitar. Like Martyn, Gordon’s voice is also gentle and a little slurred.

He’s enjoyed a vote of confidence from Eric Clapton. It’s perhaps a kiss of death for an aspiring artist in 2024, but Clapton told Stereogum that Gordon “has found things to do on the guitar that are like nobody else.”

On his debut album, his songs are straightforward but there’s plenty happening with his gently emotional voice and creative guitar lines. His songs are succinct and textural. ‘How Many Miles’ is gentle and yearning, while ‘Are You Looking Up’ is subtly propulsive. He’s writing pretty tunes like ‘Candy’ and ‘Alesis’. ‘Breakthespell’, the only song longer than four minutes, allows more spaces for textural exploration.

Mk.Gee’s ability to create perfectly formed vignettes on his debut album is impressive.

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