Kendrick Lamar Releases ‘DAMN’ But Will We Get Another Album This Weekend?

Kendrick Lamar, Cornrow Kenny, Kung Fu Kenny, King Kenny, whatever you want to know him it’s impossible to avoid him at the minute. After teasing his fourth LP with the promo track ‘The Heart Part 4’ his name has been plastered all over social media and music forums worldwide. Closing the track with ‘Y’all got ’til April the 7th to get y’all shit together’ announcing  the release date of the still untitled album.

‘DAMN’ got pushed back a week, something that is pretty common and not usually anything suspicious but every Kendrick fan knows of his attention to small details that makes him as impressive as he is. By pushing back the record a week, it would mean that it would drop on Good Friday, and this is where the conspiracies begin. I didn’t really think all that much into it until the album actually dropped and I heard the first track ‘BLOOD’. The track sees Kendrick approaching a blind woman to help her find something she’d lost, leading in a (spoiler alert) gunshot being fired and Kendrick seemingly dying. If you’ve still not made the connection, Kendrick wasn’t the only one to die on Good Friday, and fans are hoping that Jesus isn’t going to be the only one to come back on Easter Sunday.

The record is drenched in religious connotations and imagery, fueling the fire of the double album conspiracy. The flame got turned into a full blown conflagration following these tweets from one of the Top Dawg Entertainment producers who worked with Kendrick on ‘DAMN’ :

The photo shows Morpheus from the Matrix with the reflection of a blue pill and a red pill in his hands. Kendrick changed his picture on Spotify to a picture of him standing in front a BLUE wall, opposed to the red wall shown on the artwork for DAMN. The opening track again, BLOOD, is an infamous Californian gang, identified by their red gang colours. The theory is there’s a matching ‘CRIP’ track on the opposing album, the rival gang of the bloods, identified with the BLUE gang colours.

I suppose only time will tell as to whether we will get another Kendrick album this weekend, but at least it’s not too long to wait. If we do it will be insane, but if not ‘DAMN’ is a solid listen and I’ve loved every single listen so far.

Do you believe the conspiracy theories? Let Me Know!

First Hurdle Music.

Record Collection Update

Since I invest a lot of time and money into buying and appreciating vinyl, every now and again I’m going to post a small update on things I’ve recently bought. I’m a massive supporter of independent music shops and definitely encourage people supporting their local scene (See my post on record shopping in Manchester here).  So here’s the last five records I picked up.

Beginning with Solange’s critically  acclaimed 2016 effort ‘A Seat At The Table’. This is a gorgeous double LP on pure black vinyl. The disks are housed within lyric bound sleeves and a gorgeous photo covering the full side of one of the sleeves (pictured above). The records themselves feel very sturdy and have a decent weight to them which is great. This was one of my favourite albums of last year and I’m glad that I’ve finally grabbed a physical copy. I picked this record up online due to none of my regular record stores having any copies. If you’re into soul influenced and political RnB then this album from the lesser know Knowles’ sister will be right up your street.

Secondly this is The Antlers – ‘Live In London’ gatefold double LP. The Antlers are a really great indie rock band who’s album ‘Hospice’ is what brought my attention to the band (definitely worthy of a listen). This is surprisingly the first live album that I’ve bought on vinyl! I didn’t intentionally seek out this record but I saw it for sale in Fopp for five pound which for a double gatefold album is insanely cheap. Again on solid black vinyl a particular highlight is the dreamy rendition of ‘Hospice’ closer ‘Epilogue’. In the actual gatefold itself is a creative drawing of the venue which The Antlers played when this record was recorded.

Next is Sampha’s debut full length album ‘Process’. I wrote a review to this album here. Although this album is still very new (released only earlier this month) it’s certainly not to be ruled out as an early album of the year contender. It’s that good. On solid black vinyl the disk is housed in a sleeve with one side lyrics and credits, and the other a picture of Sampha as a child next to his late mother who this album is largely about. I picked this up from Piccadilly Records in the centre of Manchester for the very reasonable price of £15.99. This LP also came with a CD copy which is great for having on in the car or to pass on if you don’t play CD’s and want to put someone on to a great release.

Well well, what can I say about this album. With already reselling for prices no less than £150, I’m proud to say that I own a copy of Frank Ocean’s Blond(e) on wax. Available to purchase for only 24 hours on last years Black Friday I HAD to have a physical version of this album. In a stunning minimalistic gatefold sleeve, the artwork gets the black and white treatment. Again on solid black vinyl this has become one of the gems in my collection. On the right hand half of the gatefold you’ll find the picture above but that’s the extent of the artwork (I told you it was minimalistic). I shelled out around £50 for this record including international shipping.  But seeing how much people are paying for these now, I don’t think I would struggle to make my money back.

Finally is NxWorries’ 2016 effort ‘Yes Lawd!’. NxWorries is made up of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Anderson Paak and profound producer, Knxwledge. This is the Rough Trade exclusive clear vinyl pressing limited to only 300.  This is a double LP and the gatefold features pictures of both musicians responsible for the album. It took me a little while to warm to this record but now that it’s hit home, it’s become one of my favourite modern hip hop albums. The soul influences are insane on this album, with Paak literally name dropping Marvin Gaye and Bloodstone in one of the album highlights, Suede. I picked this up from Discogs online for around £30, which for a sold out limited record, still sealed, is more than reasonable.

This will be a frequent feature on the blog and I’ll update every time I pick up another five records or so. If you haven’t heard an album on this list, check it out, you might just find your new favourite artist.

First Hurdle Music.

January Album Of The Month

As we know 2016 was a fantastic year for music and 2017 is going to have to bring some really special music to compete. As the month of January comes to a close I must say that it has gotten off to a pretty flying start.

This year really started on the front foot and the king of ambient music, Brian Eno, didn’t hang around with his ‘Reflection’ project which he released on January 1st. This is another great record from Eno and it marks his 26th solo studio album which is insane!

We got the David Bowie ‘No Plan’ EP made up of tracks from his Lazarus LP recorded in the sessions for his, sadly, last album ‘Blackstar’. It seems even the grave isn’t going to stop Bowie from releasing music.

Bonobo, the British downtempo electronic wizard released his sixth full length ‘Migration’ which I jammed out quite a few times this month.  It’s a very cinematic and transcendent record with a definite tinge of melancholy, it’s a very interesting listen. I’m still really discovering this album but I’m finding new things to love about it after every listen.

Pennsylvanian hardcore band Code Orange unleashed ‘Forever’ which is my favourite thing that they’ve put out. It’s essentially a hardcore album with massive metalcore influence and I can even hear some Fear Factory style industrial metal in their sound too.

The XX released ‘I See You’ which I won’t get into too much detail about because I reviewed it recently so check that out!

Cloud Nothings put out ‘Life Without Sound’ which is another great addition to their pretty solid indie rock discography.

Kehlani released her first full length LP ‘SweetSexySavage’ which to be honest I was pretty disappointed with. I really enjoyed her ‘You Should Be Here’ Mixtape. It’s a fairly bland Trap Soul album and it just got a bit stale a lot earlier than I expected it to. There are still some great tracks on here such as ‘advice’ and ‘distraction’.

Canadian indie / garage rockers Japandroids returned with their first LP in 5 years ‘Near To The Wild Heart Of Life’ which is a great comeback and shows they haven’t lost it while they’ve been away.

Georgia trap rap group Migos released their second full length ‘Culture’ which boasts an impressive features list including: Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott & Lil Uzi Vert. They also bagged the number one spot in the Billboard Hot 100 which is absolutely massive for them and rap culture as a whole.

January boasts a lot of great releases but my album of the month is Julie Byrne’s ‘Not Even Happiness’.

Julie Byrne is an indie folk singer from New York. Her 2014 LP ‘Rooms With Walls And Windows’ is one of my favourite modern folk records. I was lucky enough to see (and meet!) Julie live in 2015 and her live show blew me away. That being said, it’s an understatement to say I was looking forward to another full length from Julie Byrne.

‘Not Even Happiness’ did not disappoint. This LP is stunning. Without straying too far from the sound from her first record of ethereal acoustic folk, Julie’s songwriting style is a lot more honest on this project. The songs are spacious and guitar tones are very dreamy it’s almost too easy to get lost in this record.

From the siren song opening track aptly named ‘Follow My Voice’ to the autobiographical ‘I Live Now As A Singer’ this is a gorgeous collection of music.

What music have you enjoyed this month? Get in touch & let me know!

Here’s my signed copy of Julie Byrne’s 2014 album Rooms With Walls And Windows.

First Hurdle Music.

York Trip: Earworm Records.

I was lucky enough to sneak away for a night to York this week with my girlfriend. Amongst all the fun things we managed to pack in, we also found a little bit of time to check out a local record shop.

After doing a little bit of research into the York vinyl scene, it seemed if I had to go to any of the stores it had to be Earworm. And tucked away off a busy winding street right in the centre of York, it wasn’t the easiest place to find. We actually walked past it twice and had to be made aware of the arrowed sign to get us there. Regardless we made it eventually and were greeted warmly by staff and the sound of Anderson .Paak’s Malibu which was a great welcome.

With it only being a relatively small shop they boasted a great collection spanning across most genres. A great mix of new music and classics from all eras across both new and second hand vinyl. I also found the pricing to be very fair on everything I picked up to have a look at.

I made two purchases from Earworm Records: Outkast’s – Stankonia 2 x LP and Venezuelan electronic artist Arca – Mutant album on red vinyl! Both records were second hand but were both in great condition, especially Mutant which is pristine.

Next time I head to York I’ll be definitely making another trip to Earworm records and if you are a lover of records, you should too.

Adam Grime

First Hurdle Music.