What do I listen to next
December 21, 2012 9:39 AM   Subscribe

Where do I go from Kimbra and Kendrick Lamar?

I've been listening to Vows and good kid, m.A.A.d city constantly. I am a total stranger to all things rap/hip hop and soul/jazzy/rock/dance/bluesy weird like Kimbra. I love Kimbra's voice and interesting sound. Kendrick's lyricism really does it for me, but there's also something about his rhythm (?) I like. (That may be totally off the mark.) Kimbra and Kendrick do some cool things with their voices, too, which reminds me of Regina Spektor when she was weirder, but vibe-wise she's not really what I'm looking for.

Sorry for the vagueness. Properly isolating the things I like about Kimbra and Kendrick Lamar is giving me fits. Thanks.
posted by goosechasing to Media & Arts (8 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am not familiar with Kendrick Lamar, but ran "Related Artists" on him and Kimbra in Spotify and Childish Gambino showed up on both lists.

Other artists Spotify groups with Kimbra that I think might be worth a listen, based on your criteria: Tune-Yards, Little Dragon and Santigold.

I think you should also check out Doomtree, but I've got a bit of a thing for Doomtree (especially Dessa), so maybe take that with a grain of salt.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:15 AM on December 21, 2012


For Kendrick Lamar try Killer Mike or Kid Cudi.

For Kimbra, try tUnE yArDs.

For some kind of intersection of the two, the latest Asteroids Galaxy Tour (I think there's some interesting integration of some of the beats and marching band sounds from US hip-hop into otherwise totally unrelated music).
posted by cmoj at 11:32 AM on December 21, 2012


When I first heard Kimbra, I couldn't get over how much she sounds like Esthero, who has two albums out that are quite good as well as "Song for Holly" from the Go soundtrack.
posted by wondermouse at 2:15 PM on December 21, 2012




Killer Mike fuck yeah, and maybe Devin the Dude?
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:11 PM on December 21, 2012


Something about that Kendrick Lamar album reminds me of the classic album "Illmatic" by Nas. If you're not already familiar, you should Spotify that album post-haste. The production sounds pretty different since "Illmatic" came out in the '90s and the style was different, but if you're mainly into Kendrick for the lyrics, I think you'll dig it.
posted by wolfnote at 5:59 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


Big agreement with wolfnote on the similarities between gkmc and Illmatic.

In addition, check out Lupe Fiasco's earlier works, especially Food & Liquor and The Cool. Lupe is also a great storyteller and does a lot of interesting things with lyrics and wordplay, though his production and beats are quite different.

Also for anyone who hasn't already, please check out good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Kendrick Lamar is a relatively new name, but it's really a fantastic album.
posted by C^3 at 8:25 PM on December 23, 2012


The Stepkids opened for Kimbra on her last tour.
posted by ohkay at 4:02 PM on January 1, 2013


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