In today's new music round-up, Kendrick Lamar returns with "i", Mary J. Blige deals with a painful breakup on "Whole Damn Year" and Azealia Banks is "Chasing Time." Listen inside....
Expectations are high for Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album and his first release is an anthem of self-reassurance "i." Set against a sample of The Isley Brother's "Who's That Lady", Kendrick repeats the mantra "I Love Myself."
“Everybody lack confidence, how many times my potential was anonymous? / How many times the city makin’ me promises, so I promise this / I love myself.”
Kendrick talked about avoiding the sophomore slump and following up his classic debut GKMC in COMPLEX a few months ago, “If I keep focusing on, ‘I need to make something better than good kid,’ it’s going to be just that,” says Kendrick. “That’s not challenging yourself. I don’t want to become that person reflecting on what has been done. What I’m doing now is the question. I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.”
Check out "i" below and see the direction he's going in for his second album...
Also....
The next single from Mary J. Blige's highly-anticipated album The London Sessions in the piano-tinged “Whole Damn Year.” It's classic Mary..a tragic song about a bad breakup that take FIVE year of recovery. “It took a whole damn year to repair my body / It’s been a bad five years / Gone take a long, long year for me to trust somebody.”
The London Sessions is expected to drop December 2nd.
In other new tracks...
Another year...another delay...another set back...another single. We don't know if Azealia Banks' LONG delayed debut album Broke With Expensive Taste will become a myth (much like Dr. Dre's Detox) but one thing's for sure...she's NEVER stopped dropping singles or videos. Azealia's follow-up to Heavy Metal & Reflective is a Euro-pop breakup record, "Chasing Time."
The song is catchy, bouncy and features another one of Azealia's undeniable flows...but will it be a hit? Maybe, maybe not. At this point, it doesn't seem like Azealia is chasing a hit. She's an artist. Either you like her...or you don't. And we're liking this right here.
By the way, she hit the stage at the O2 Academy Brixton in London on Friday (pictured above).
Photo: Ollie Millington Photography