Kendrick Lamar Page 3

10. Drake - If You're Reading This Then You're Too Late
Making an impromptu release of his 4th studio album Drake made a return proving why he is one of the most in demand rappers. Highlights of the album include opening track Legend -which features a long instrumental introduction with background vocals giving a harmonic feel to the track. Track Energy sees keys help make the track come alive with the Canadian rapper pushing himself as an artist and pushing the boundaries in the rap industry.

9. The Libertines - Anthems for Doomed Youth
Released in September The Libertines marked a return to the music scene following their 2004 self-titled album. A decade on the band proves their songwriting skills never went away with tracks such Gunga Din a racous, fun indie track making fans of The Libertines feels as if they never went away. Athems for Doomed Youth is a softer album from a band who is constanlty in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Heart of the Matter is a highlight of the album catchy, light and will become a firm favorite when the band play summer festival next year.

Continue reading: Chloe Dobinson's Top 10 Albums Of 2015

10. Jack Danz - Ouija Slang
Jack Danz is one third of Defenders of Style, leading exports of the West Yorkshire hip-hop scene (alongside Joe Snow and Prys) who also dropped their excellent The Death Of Meaning album this year. The producer/rapper released his debut solo LP Ouija Slang through Sheffield based independent label Bad Taste Records. The vivid imagery, hard-hitting eclectic production and a vast array of quotable punchlines (e.g. I'm in the club getting lifted like the world cup) make Danz's album one you can constantly revisit and repeatedly enjoy.

9. BlabberMouf - Da BlabberMouf LP
Dutch MC BlabberMouf's 2015 solo album is a breath of fresh air. It's rare that a rapper can sound so authentically nineties. Da BlabberMouf LP sounds as if it was recorded back in '95, and has been lost to the world until now. With a rapid delivery, raw energy and quality production, BlabberMouf spits with a unique charisma that sets him apart from the competition. European hip-hop is often overlooked, but this LP is one of the most impressive releases in a year dominated by quality American and British rap music.

Continue reading: Sam Bennett's Top 10 Hip Hop Albums Of 2015

The youth of America is no doubt proud to have a president and first lady that are cool enough to be such a huge part of pop culture, but they're about to get a little prouder as Barack Obama announces his most favourite track of 2015: step forward Kendrick Lamar.

Obama is a Kendrick Lamar fan

Obama loves rap music, that's universally acknowledged, and now we know he was a particular fan of Lamar's ground-breaking, critically acclaimed album 'To Pimp A Butterfly' which was released earlier this year. He has named the song 'How Much A Dollar Cost' as his favourite track of the year - which will no doubt be a thrilling prospect for 28-year-old Lamar who's already vying against the likes of Taylor Swift and The Weeknd for multiple Grammys in 2016 including Album of the Year, Song of the Year for his single 'Alright', and Best Music Video.

More: Check out the 2016 Grammy nominations

Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama is a huge fan of 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars which she famously led a work-out dance to on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'. It was a multi-Platinum number hit that brought the whole world to its feet as it channelled James Brown with uproarious effect.

Aside from top tracks, which the Obamas revealed to People in an interview, they've also named some more of their favourite things. While the president loved the novel 'Fates and Furies' by Lauren Groff, Michelle was a huge fan of the Elizabeth Alexander memoir 'The Light of the World'. Both books explore the intimacies of marriage from different perspectives.

And when it comes to the best films, Barack Obama insisted that Ridley Scott's 'The Martian' starring Matt Damon won his approval, while Michelle joined the many adoring fans of Amy Schumer after watching her first feature film as a writer, 'Trainwreck' directed by Judd Apatow.

Dr Dre has announced that he’ll be donating all the royalties from his newly released album Compton to help fund a new performing arts centre in his hometown of Compton, California.

The news was unveiled on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 programme on Thursday (August 6th), the eve of the release of Dre’s first album in 16 years, called Compton: A Soundtrack, which features music inspired by the new N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton which is out on August 14th.

Dr Dre will be donating the proceeds from new album 'Compton' to fund a new arts centre in the city

Continue reading: Dr Dre To Donate All Royalties From New Album To Arts Facility In Compton

Surprise albums are becoming increasingly common in 2015, to the point where they’re failing to have the desired impact any more. Even so, there were many eyebrows raised on Wednesday as rapper Ice Cube mentioned that Dr Dre would be releasing a new album over the weekend.

The 46 year old former N.W.A. star was talking to Philadelphia radio station Power 99 today (July 29th) about the forthcoming biopic about the legendary rap group Straight Outta Compton, which arrives on August 14th, when he dropped the bombshell that a new album, featuring original material by Dre and others inspired by the movie, would be arriving this Saturday (August 1st).

Is Dr. Dre's much-vaunted third album 'Detox' going to be released this weekend?

Continue reading: 'New Dr. Dre Album' Set To Drop This Weekend, According To Ice Cube

New Look Wireless Festival is returning to Finsbury Park, following last year's success at the North London venue, celebrating its 10th birthday this year. The 2015 line-up is set to be the biggest yet with headliners Drake, Avicii and David Guetta playing to the 40,000 a day capacity festival.

For the first time, Wireless festival goers expect to see karaoke, a tone 'n' tweak area and plenty of choice in the food court. In celebration of their 10th birthday though, here are Wireless' best acts to see across the line up from this weekend.

Continue reading: Get Wired For Wireless 2015! London To Explode With Pop Favourites This Weekend

Bonnaroo is in full swing and while we've seen some pretty impressive acts so far, the musical forecast shows things are not going to get quieter anytime soon. One of America's biggest and most diverse summer events, fans flock in their thousands to Tennessee this weekend to welcome some of the world's top entertainers.

Friday's line-up is a particularly mixed bag; where you've got music veterans the likes of 80s new wave legends Tears For Fears and 70s R&B band Earth Wind & Fire, you also got newer names such as LA duo Mini Mansions, who recently won acclaim for their second album 'The Great Pretenders', and Brit award winning UK chart toppers Royal Blood. Making some noise on the main What Stage throughout though are house producer Deadmau5, 'To Pimp a Butterfly' rapper Kendrick Lamar and roots rock collective Alabama Shakes. 

Continue reading: Bonnaroo 2015 Is Here! Here's What The Rest Of The Weekend Has In Store

Have you seen Taylor Swift’s video for Bad Blood already? Statistically speaking, if you’re on the internet, you probably have. The thing is everywhere. It’s already broken the record, specifically Vevo’s record for most views in a day.

Once again, Taylor Swift wins all the things.

The video first premiered at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 17) and since then, the internet (specifically Tumblr) has gone NUTS. Selena Gomez! Hayley Williams! Zendaya! Cara Delevingne! The explosions! The leather bodysuits! The GIFs!

Continue reading: Taylor Swift's New Video Receives Mad Love, Tops Vevo Record

Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar was not a combination we ever thought we'd see, but with their collaboration on 'Bad Blood' - alongside a host of other celebrities in the hotly anticipated video - seems this pop starlet is ever expanding her much-loved sound.

[L-R] Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar and Cindy Crawford in 'Bad Blood'

There might be a whole action movie vibe to the video, which opened at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards yesterday (May 17th 2015), but there's not much to it in terms of plot. It opens with Catastrophe (Taylor Swift) and Arsyn (Selena Gomez) seemingly working together to defeat a horde of masked assassins, before Arsyn - with her eyes on the prize - takes out Catastrophe too. Then she finds herself at Welvin Da Great's (Kendrick Lamar) headquarters being - for want of a better word - 'repaired' by The Trinity (Hailee Steinfeld x3) before rallying her army of scantily clad beauties to go against her newfound enemy.

Continue reading: Taylor Swift Goes Latex Mad In The Female Led 'Bad Blood' Epic [Video]

At last night’s Billboard Awards, Taylor Swift reached a new milestone in her career, becoming the award show’s most decorated artist. Her eight awards (out of 14 nods), including one for Best Artist, bring her Billboard total to twenty, more than the previous record holder, Garth Brooks.

All of the awards.

Taylor had more than one reason to celebrate on Sunday though, since the award show coincided with the release of her music video for Bad Blood, featuring the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Zendaya, Ellie Goulding, Hayley Williams and many more. The video premiered at the awards, after a brief introduction from the woman of the hour. Taylor also won a special achievement award chosen by fan voting.

Continue reading: Billboard Awards: Taylor Swift Wins All Of The Things

Taylor Swift has been teasing what looks like a pretty special video for ‘Bad Blood’ ahead of its debut next week. Over the last three days, the singer has been uploading some kick-ass looking Sin City-style posters casting herself and some of her friends as a team of superheroes.

On May 7th, Swift posted a noir-ish looking picture of herself on her Instagram page, dressed in a leather motorcycle-style jacket and looking straight down the camera, with the words “Taylor Swift starring as ‘Catastrophe’. The picture also contained the words “Bad Blood” with the tagline “Band-Aids Don’t Fix Bullet Holes”, in the style of a movie poster.

Continue reading: Taylor Swift Assembling Team Of Superheroes For 'Bad Blood' Video

The 23rd edition of the Netherlands' Lowlands Festival sees yet another wave of incredible artists hit the bill ahead of the date this summer. Hot Chip and Kendrick Lamar are among the major new additions, with seventeen more acts also announced.

Following the enormous success of his worldwide number one third album 'To Pimp A Butterfly', Kendrick Lamar is bringing his hip hop talent to the festival circuit with Lowlands just being the latest in a string of gigs this summer; he will also be playing Bonnaroo, Summerfest, Outside Lands and Reading Festival in the UK. Hot Chip will be supporting their own new album, 'Why Make Sense?', which is set to be released on May 15th 2015.

Continue reading: Lowlands 2015! We Have Good News And Bad News...

It’s all change at the top of the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart this week, as rapper Wale claims the Number 1 spot with his fourth LP The Album About Nothing – his second chart topper following his previous effort, 2013’s The Gifted.

Wale’s album, which he has revealed was inspired by Jerry Seinfeld and features the comedian himself, sold 100,000 copies in the week ending April 5th, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Billboard chart now measures individual track and streaming equivalent sales as well as conventional physical and digital album sales.

The rapper scored his second American Number 1 album this week

Continue reading: Wale Scores Second U.S. Number 1 With 'The Album About Nothing'

Kendrick Lamar is engaged! The 27-year-old rapper announced the news of his engagement on Friday (3rd April) whilst appearing on a radio show. Lamar was asked about the engagement rumours during the interview on Power 105's The Breakfast Club. 

Kendrick Lamar is engaged!

Read More: Kendrick Lamar Spends Second Week At The Top Of U.S. Albums Chart.

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar Engaged To Long-Term Girlfriend Whitney Alford

In a quiet week on the US Billboard 200, Kendrick Lamar’s new album To Pimp A Butterfly spends a second week in the Number One spot. The rapper’s third album sold more than double the amount of its nearest rival, the soundtrack to TV drama ‘Empire’, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Shifting 123,000 copies in its second week on sale, including track and streaming equivalent sales figures as well as physical copies, To Pimp A Butterfly is the first album to spend its opening fortnight at the top of the chart since Taylor Swift’s behemoth 1989 at the end of last year. The ‘Empire’ soundtrack was a non-mover in second place, selling 61,000 copies.

Kendrick Lamar spends a second week on top of the US Albums chart

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar Spends Second Week At The Top Of U.S. Albums Chart

Surprise albums are all the rage, and it’s easy to understand why. They make sense for both fans and artists, and there’s hardly any downside to just throwing your highly anticipated album up for download on a random Saturday night with nothing else going on around the Internet. It practically sells itself at that point.

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly saw an early release

Take a look at Kendrick Lamar: his new record, To Pimp A Butterfly, wasn’t even technically a surprise, as it was just allegedly “accidentally” released early on iTunes before its release. It still yielded the same results as a complete surprise album would, and it smashed a ton of streaming records like the 9.6 million number that was achieved via Spotify listens. The record-holder before that was, of course, none other than Drake’s surprise mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. You can see the trend here.

Continue reading: Four Artists Most Likely To Release A Surprise Album This Year

More additions have been announced for Bonnaroo 2015 as the June event draws ever closer. D'angelo & The Vanguard, Kacey Musgraves and Songhoy Blues join an already stellar line-up for this 10-stage bonanza, while the full late night sets are also announced.

Adding to a line-up headlined by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Billy Joel and London Grammy winners Mumford And Sons are soul collective D'angelo & The Vanguard, young country star Kacey Musgraves and Mali four-piece Songhoy Blues. As usual, the epic festival - which is set to play host to a massive 85,000 music lovers - presents one of the world's most diverse line-ups as it prepares to hit Manchester, Tennessee this summer from June 11th to 14th.

Continue reading: Bonnaroo 2015: More Thrills Added To The Summer Line-up

Hip hop sensation Kendrick Lamar has stormed to Number 1 in the US Billboard 200 Albums chart with his third album To Pimp A Butterfly. It clocked up over 363,000 equivalent sales (totalling physical, track and streaming data) despite being released one week earlier than planned, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

To Pimp A Butterfly has the second highest first-week sales of 2015, behind fellow rapper Drake’s recent surprise release If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, which sold 495,000 in its debut week back in February.

Kendrick Lamar is Number 1 in the US Billboard 200 albums

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar Scores First US Number 1 Album With 'To Pimp A Butterfly'

Outside Lands organisers have finally unveiled the spectacular 2015 line-up for their eighth year, featuring headliners Elton John and Mumford And Sons. The event is set to bring its usual combination of music and munchies to San Francisco this August.

Joining Elton and Mumford are a range of equally exciting acts, both of the veteran and the up-and-coming variety. Man of the moment Sam Smith - whose already bagged a total of six awards this year, including four Grammys - will bring his pop genius to the stage, alongside The Black Keys who released their first chart-topping album last year, and Kendrick Lamar whose highly anticipated third album 'To Pimp A Butterfly' sailed to number one in both the US and the UK last week.

Continue reading: Sound And Sustenance: Outside Lands 2015 Brings Another Weekend Of Cultural Delights

Following the release of his album, To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar went back to where everything started for him. The rap prodigy hosted an album signing in Compton to reconnect with his fans on Saturday.

According to ABC7, over 2000 fans gathered at the event, hosted at the Compton Best Buy store. 

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar Celebrates "To Pimp A Butterfly Release" With Compton Fans

Kendrick Lamar has taken the top spot in this week’s Official Albums Chart in the UK, knocking Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour off the number one position. To Pimp A Butterfly is the third studio album from the Compton- born rapper, following on from 2012's Good Kid, MAAD City.

Cover art for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly

The album caught fans off guard after it was made available March 16th on iTunes and Spotify, nearly a week before its original release date of March 23rd. Since becoming available on Spotify the album has broken the service’s global streaming recording, notching up over 9.6 million streams on the service last Monday.

Continue reading: 'To Pimp A Butterfly' Gives Kendrick Lamar His First UK Number 1 Album

Kendrick Lamar's new album To Pimp a Butterfly, which was released one-week early, has broken streaming records on Spotify. Tracks from the record notched up 9.6 million streams on the first full day of release, more than any LP in the streaming service's seven-year existence.

Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly racked up 9.6 million streams in one day on Spotify

To Pimp a Butterfly beat the record of 9.5 million set by Michael Buble's Christmas on Christmas Eve in 2014.

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp A Butterfly' Notches Record 9.6 Million Streams

Kendrick Lamar has released his new album To Pimp a Butterfly a week before its scheduled release date. There's a bit of confusion as to whether this was supposed to happen, or whether someone messed up.

Kendrick Lamar has released his new album To Pimp a Butterfly, one week early

Lamar seemed pretty okay with things, tweeting, "Keep calm. All is well," though Anthony Tiffith, Top Dawg's chief executive, said, "I WOULD LIKE 2 PERSONALLY THANK @Interscope [Records] FOR [...]ING UP OUR RELEASE... SOMEBODY GOTS 2 PAY 4 THIS MISTAKE !!!! #TOP."

Continue reading: Kendrick Lamar Drops 'To Pimp A Butterfly' A Week Early. Happy Monday.

Stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention because Kendrick Lamar has just dropped his new album. The hip hop prodigy announced didn’t quite go full Beyoncé with his new record, To Pimp a Butterfly. Instead, he just released the record a week in advance. To Pimp a Butterfly (how cool is that title?!) was supposed to be released on the 23rd, but instead was made available on iTunes and Spotify early Monday morning.

While Lamar was celebrating the new release, Top Dawg management was left baffled.

It wasn’t sparked by a leak, in case you’re wondering. Judging by Lamar’s cryptic tweets from late Sunday night, it was all planned. “Yesterday, March 14, was a special day,” he tweeted in the lead up to the release. This was followed by: “2 yrs. Later” and ”Keep calm. All is well,” before the big one.

Continue reading: It's Here! Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly" Is A Week Early, But Nobody Minds

Kendrick Lamar finally unveils the title to his third studio album less than two weeks before release. 'To Pimp A Butterfly' is one of the most anticipated rap albums of the year and - having already heard two tracks from the release - it's easy to see why.

Kendrick Lamar unveils album title 'To Pimp A Butterfly'

A follow-up to his major label Platinum debut 'good kid, m.A.A.d city', which topped both the US R&B and Rap charts and came in at number two on the Billboard 200 in 2012, 'To Pimp A Butterfly' is Kendrick Lamar's new release via TopDawg Entertainment/ Aftermath/ Interscope Records. Six tracks have already been confirmed, as well as the release date which is remarkably soon given how much detail is still under wraps; March 23rd 2015. The mystery surrounding it is only increasing the hype, and Lamar already has some of hip hop's top guys desperate to work with him; Raekwon being the latest, according to an interview Noisey. So what DO we know about the album so far?

Continue reading: 5 Things We Know About Kendrick Lamar's Album 'To Pimp A Butterfly'

A few more details about one of the most anticipated follow-up albums of the decade so far have been announced. Kendrick Lamar’s second album is apparently called Untitled and, crucially, we now know its release date: March 23rd.

The news was announced by the rapper late on Friday via his Twitter page, which included a link to his iTunes artist profile where the album is available to pre-order now. The album consists of sixteen tracks, but all except one of them are greyed out and labelled as ‘Track 1’, ‘Track 2’ etc.

Kendrick Lamar's second album will be out on March 23rd

Continue reading: New Kendrick Lamar Album 'Untitled' Set To Drop March 23rd

Canadian rap star Drake surprised the world by releasing his new album unannounced on Thursday. However, it has since been revealed that If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is a mixtape, rather than a proper studio album.

The reason for the confusion behind the new material is apparently so that Drake can fulfil a contractual obligation and free himself from Cash Money Records, according to XXL. Under copyright, the new record appears as his fourth studio album for Cash Money, thus bringing him to the end of his contract.

Drake's new mixtape was released online on Thursday

Continue reading: Drake's New Album Is Actually A Mixtape

Budweiser Made in America

We explore the diverse Denver music scene as Budweiser unveil the latest in their series of documentaries ahead of the fast-approaching Budweiser Made in America festival.

When Jay-Z embarked on his Budweiser Made in America project, the ethos he wanted to represent was simple; bringing together bands and artists of all genres to celebrate the rich variation that has become the US musical community. And where better to enjoy this multi-genre theme than Denver, Colorado, home to the likes of everyone from gentle folk rock crooners The Lumineers to industrial Goth collective Velvet Acid Christ?

Continue reading: Dancing In Denver! Budweiser Made In America Explore Colorado's Exciting Music Scene