Soundtracks, in my opinion, have always been mediocre at best. Granted, past soundtracks haven’t all been curated by Kendrick Lamar and TDE. I thought they did a great job with the Black Panther soundtrack. They clearly understood the cultural impact the film was going to have, and the music truly reflected it. That’s something I thought this had, and that most soundtracks were missing. There are also a lot of really good songs on here, (All The Stars, Paramedic!, and King’s Dead) but also a lot of songs that I thought could’ve, and should’ve been a lot better. You could say Big Shot was more like a Big s---, (and I’m Big Mitch....... I should stop) and I thought Pray For Me was a borderline Star Boy bonus track. Overall, there are a handful of tracks that I really enjoyed, but also some trash. And I didn’t like the movie.
Such a great soundtrack, with production that perfectly captured the vibe of the film with a electronic African grungy feel. Kendrick feels on auto-pilot for most of the album - at least on his verses, his hooks are mostly excellent - but almost every featured rapper brings their A-game. Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chains, SOB RBE, Vince Staples, etc. all give top tier performances that make this album feel consequential and hungry. It's not even close to a masterpiece; again, kendrick is sleepwalking through most of this thing, All The Stars and Big Shot are really inconsequential, the interludes/intro aren't really necessary, I Am doesn't feel right to me (maybe it's just poorly sequenced but it doesn't grab me like Jorja Smith has before) but the positives outweigh the negative by a good margin. Paramedics and X are f---ing hype.
