“Over six years ago, about one week after the release of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Terrace Martin, in a philosophical conversation with Lamar, discussed a growing desensitization and a general lack of compassion amongst society,” a press release recounted, that led to the song “Drones” and the surveillance concept of Martin’s album, also out now.
![yg concert in washington yg concert in washington](http://www.stacksmag.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/yg-mkl-tour.png)
![yg concert in washington yg concert in washington](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51g+g68QlCL.jpg)
![yg concert in washington yg concert in washington](https://kavenyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NO1_1912.jpg)
Lamar provides an earworm of a hook on “Drones,” the slinky title track of Martin’s new album. We may still be waiting on the rapper’s long-in-the-works followup to DAMN., but in the meantime, he’s reunited with Terrace Martin, a saxophonist and producer who was integral to Lamar’s jazz-rap opus To Pimp a Butterfly. It’s a sentiment that will surely endure beyond this election cycle.Photo-Illustration: Vulture Photos by Getty Images and ShutterstockĪt the top o’ the morning - well, midnight Eastern Standard Time really, but who’s counting - the world got another new Kendrick Lamar performance. They did so with glee and fury, while the song’s chorus - which simply invokes the title - rang out with ardent disgust. It was the perfect segue into the tour’s namesake.īefore performing “FDT” (the song the tour gets its name from), YG selected fans to join him in destroying a remarkably orange Trump effigy. He speaks on what he’s seen and experienced growing up in Compton, so he balanced the expected delivery of favorites such as “ BPT,” the ode to his home town, or “ My N-” and “ Who Do You Love?” with the introspection of “ Blacks & Browns.” On the latter, he and rapper Sad Boy spoke to the discrimination levied against the African American and Hispanic communities. That’s as much a credit to YG as it is to his production, and the anti-Trump tour’s stop at the Fillmore displayed the energy, charisma and defiance that personifies his appeal. That’s another key YG identifier - in an era when broad tastes have blurred hip-hop’s regional lines, he remains distinctly West Coast.Īnd even without Mustard’s assistance (the two had a falling-out but have since reconciled), YG’s second album, “ Still Brazy,” channels the unmistakably West Coast spirit of old. The melodious bounce of his 2010 single “ Toot It and Boot It” gave him his first taste of success, a mere glimpse of the polish that manifested on his debut album, 2014’s “ My Krazy Life.” That project was notable for sounding as if it were plucked from a time two decades earlier as YG, with the help of producer DJ Mustard’s wailing synths and heavy bass, summoned the prevailing G-Funk sound of ’90s Los Angeles rap.
![yg concert in washington yg concert in washington](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z1KuQ6ZhG4A/maxresdefault.jpg)
His response was vulgar, unapologetic and punctuated with: “Protest that.”īeing habitually outspoken is just one way the rising 26-year-old star has made himself stand out within hip-hop’s current environment. It was an opportune moment for the Compton, Calif., rapper to reiterate his loathing of the Republican presidential candidate and promote his F- Donald Trump tour.īefore his show Wednesday night at the Fillmore Silver Spring, YG was on the other side of things: Members of the Chinese American community protested outside the venue, citing lyrics from his song “Meet the Flockers,” a home-invasion instructional that targets Chinese communities. The day after the second presidential debate, YG tweeted a picture of himself crouched over Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, both middle fingers aimed directly at it.