There has to be a reason why Kendrick Lamar said “brother” like that on “family ties.” How could this be the same “conscious” rapper who, in his own words, can spit about “money, clothes, hoes, god, and history all in the same sentence,” now sounding like a cross between a boat shoe, a Banana Republican, and a coked-up Hulk Hogan promo? Comedic audacity and timing combined to create a truly cartoonish moment on an otherwise intense verse, in which Dot references two different archangels, commands a certain embattled Chi Town producer-turned-rapper to “burn that hard drive,” and once again stakes claims to rap's throne. Kendrick Lamar is freeing his inner goofball.
If these new musical collabs-“family ties” and “range brothers,” both on Baby Keem’s new album The Melodic Blue-are any indication, one of the genre’s most intense rhymers is loosening up. It’s unclear just how Lamar’s role might shift over the next few years, as he evolves from rap’s moral conscience to media mastermind. It’s always news when one of hip-hop’s most virtuosic and enigmatic artists closes a chapter on one era to start another. These two aren’t just linked by blood (Baby Keem is Lamar’s cousin), but also through their multipurpose media boutique pgLang, which they founded last year with former TDE president Dave Free.
Since the Compton-bred rapper announced that his next body of work will be the final act in his run with record label TDE, he’s been featured on two tracks alongside Baby Keem. With a new album cooking for a late 2021 push, rap savant Kendrick Lamar is primed to enter a particularly noisy-if stale-mainstream hip-hop arena.