mrwildenfree: Section.80 by Kendrick Lamar

"Section.80" was a transcendent album to me. The sonic profile was dexterous & ethereal, yet felt reminiscent in its percussive highs & familiar in that way to the Hip-Hop I already knew & grew to love. The way the album opened with "F*ck Your Ethnicity" was so potent, and the visuals were incredibly palpable. The audible atmosphere of gathering around the camp fire truly pulled me in to the storytelling like few other intros have been capable of doing. From the earthly setting of a camp ground to directly 30,000 feet in the air, the juxtaposition first grounded us within the frame of deeply rooted moral storytelling, only to follow with an immediate sense of levity & lyrical dexterity. Kendrick vacillated between great wittiness & deep reflection on this project — a clear exploration of duality that, as a fellow Gemini, I continued to feel seen & emboldened by. This is the era of Kendrick Lamar where I was able to first catch him on Tour. In 2012, he visited The Moon in Tallahassee, FL, where I was present, having already been a fan since his Kendrick Lamar EP. I have a whole story about how Kendrick fanned the flame of my musical journey that night of his tour — when he personally handed me a signed pair of Beats headphones. Feel free to read that whole story here: a.welll.io/wf-blog-7

Section.80

7/2/2011