October 23, 2015
Aftermath Entertainment
2xLP
Kendrick's sophomore album sounds little like his culturally significant debut, even if it navigates the same themes — and raises the stakes. Over the alchemical voodoo of LA's neo-Jazz trifecta (Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Flying Lotus), Kendrick's incendiary observations on the Black Experience kicked in the door with its hands up, and did enough to shock the world to inspire peer-reviewed academic articles for decades. TPAB is a dense album that makes no compromises when challenging listeners to a engage in a long-overdue dialogue.