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Feb 14, 2018Generally speaking, where Black Panther succeeds most is in these moments where Kendrick blends South African and American sounds together.
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Feb 14, 2018Though informed by the blaxploitation soundtracks of the ‘70s and the label-driven hip-hop soundtracks of the ‘90s, Black Panther: The Album is very much of its time: a well-produced and incredibly cohesive album with the loose swagger of a curated playlist.
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Feb 9, 2018It all works, really. The tracks play it safe, but the project itself does not, an audacious exertion of energy from one of the planet’s most universally revered musicians.
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Apr 4, 2018Black Panther: The Album is an instantly enjoyable project that allows its featured artists to shine under the watchful eyes and ears of Kendrick Lamar.
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Feb 20, 2018For all the deft, varied professionalism on display here, Lamar’s omnipresence on Black Panther: The Album might be its most compelling feature.
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Feb 16, 2018Given the level of the performances, the majority of the guests evidently approached this as a Kendrick Lamar album, not as a soundtrack. Black Panther: The Album serves both purposes well.
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Feb 15, 2018Though not as powerful as Lamar’s own albums, it’s similarly diverse, with elements of boudoir R&B, sinister street creep and ebullient electro dancehall stippled with a variety of sonic detail, such as whistle and kalimba, reflecting the film’s African setting.
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Feb 14, 2018A coherent album that juggles multiple missions. ... Black Panther the Album is very nearly as densely packed--with ideas, allusions and ambitions--as one of Mr. Lamar’s official solo albums.
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Feb 13, 2018There is lots of excellent rapping, but the most startling bars belong to Yugen Blakrok, a female MC from Johannesburg, who gets a feature alongside Vince Staples and outshines the headliner, no mean feat.
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Feb 12, 2018Marvel soundtracks have a new gold standard, and it’s this.
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Feb 9, 2018How this all will works in the context of the film is an intriguing question, but it certainly hangs together as an standalone album, albeit a less consistent one than Lamar’s solo releases.
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Feb 12, 2018It’s fitting that this slightly convoluted, sometimes generic offering largely delivers on its promise, much like the larger comic world it now occupies. A fun, rap-centric album is now Marvel canon. In their first roles as bit players, the TDE roster delivers a product benefiting the whole. Their effort is one befitting the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its blackest entry.
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The WireApr 5, 2018It’s not a bad record--if nothing else it goes some way to atoning for the disappointment of AC/DC rather than Ghostface landing on the Iron Man 2 soundtrack--but it could have been so much more. [Apr 2018, p.50]
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Feb 20, 2018This is an album of songs for a big idea before it was shrunken down and packed into the blockbuster money machine, and its well-intentioned attempt at bringing legitimacy to Marvel leaves Lamar and co. alone on a podium, broadcasting their passions through a megaphone to kids who just came to see superheroes do some backflips.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 187 out of 223
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Mixed: 24 out of 223
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Negative: 12 out of 223
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Feb 12, 2018
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Feb 9, 2018
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Feb 13, 2018Critics call Kendrick Lamar a Hip-Hop genius, I don't see it, a lot of the songs felt really uninspired.