Hey, everyone. Bigthony Cringetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for a couple of track reviews.

Yep, some brand new tracks are out and about. In fact, all of the tracks are out and about from the finally released, long-awaited, brand new Playboi Carti album, I Am Music. Because Playboi Carti is, in fact, music, says it right there on the cover.

Anyway, if you're at all familiar with the lead-up to this album's release, you guys are already familiar with the fact that it has been pushed back again and again and again and again. Just to add insult to injury, just as it was actually going to come out, it got pushed back one more time, several hours. That's just a part of the Playboi Carti recipe, just really keep fans hanging.

And you know what? I am going to say, the album upon release immediately has already been living up to at least some fans' expectations in terms of some of the surprises held within in, one of which is not one, but two big fat Kendrick Lamar features on the track's backdoor, as well as good credit.

And in this video here, I thought I would talk about both of those songs and the greater implications of them, given Kendrick Lamar's recent beef with Drake. I should also add, Kendrick does bring an intro and some additional adlibs and background lines and stuff to the track "Mojo Jojo", too.

First off, before I get into the music on these tracks, let's talk about the greater context going on here, because with these two songs, we're not just simply talking about a couple of hype crossovers, some unexpected features from artists that have very respectively different styles. No, we're talking about Kendrick-God-damn-Lamar, a guy who is deep in the midst of a very big victory lap at this point in his career off of the giant W that he took in his beef with Drake last year.

And between all the tracks Kendrick launched in the midst of that beef, be it "Euphoria" or "Meet the Grahams" or "Not Like Us", there were some really consistent themes coming up again and again and again around morality, around being a creep and accusations and guilt by association, around Drake being accused of all the stuff that he is citing in his recent UMG lawsuit. All of this stuff we have covered in detail on the channel multiple times. You should be well aware, which is why I don't think it should require much explaining to highlight why it's weird Kendrick Lamar would be doing these two features here with Carti on his new record.

And sure, you could make the argument that Kendrick just made Drake out to be a bad guy on those songs and made the accusations that he did because it was a personal thing for him. He just wanted to attack Drake in any way that he could. Drake pushed it to a certain point. He pushed it further. Drake mentioned his wife, so on and so forth. Yeah, sure, I get that angle of it, but simultaneously, over the course of this whole thing, Kendrick Lamar also made it very clear that he does have a personal moral vendetta here. He's made this clear in his recent interview with SZA. He's made this clear in that other post-beef track he came out with. He clearly feels strongly about the guilt by association angle. He clearly believes on some level that there are some moral rock going on in the music industry, in the world of hip hop at large, and Drake, in some way, is representative of it. Kendrick has made it clear in his bars repeatedly that he does not mess with people he finds morally reprehensible, and that being so on some level in his eyes means he thinks you should die.

I think I and many are just wondering, why does he not share not even the same energy, but even a modicum of a similar energy for Carti? Because honestly, when you look at the man's past and record, he's not exactly a Boy Scout. He has literally been credibly accused of putting hands on a pregnant woman.

And furthermore, in regards to the Drake stuff, it's often obviously made light of the fact that, yeah, he got bullied into being a dad by Pusha T, which sure, if you have a child, you should actually be in that child's life and raising that child actively, which is something that Iggy Azalea routinely says on social media, Carti is not doing. She has called that man out multiple times for having little to nothing to do with his son, which obviously I'm not personally involved in that man's life. I don't know if that is currently his status in terms of his deadly obligations.

I just find it really funny how this behavior seemingly sticks to Drake in a way that is embarrassing and dogs him to this day. Meanwhile, it slides off of Carti's back like it just doesn't really matter.

Now look, with this video, I'm not personally making a prescription in terms of what you, the viewer, the listener, needs to do, needs to listen to, needs to engage with, needs to avoid. Do and listen to whatever it is the fuck you want to do. I don't care. The point I'm trying to make here is that Kendrick, through his diss songs against Drake, has expressed morals and views that I'm just looking for a little consistency on. If you're hating on and distancing yourself from this one person because you perceive him to be bad due to behaviors X, Y, and Z, why not do the same with other individuals who also clearly have some issues?

And I'm not just simply talking about Kodak Black here on his Mr. Morale album, obviously. I mean, really, the only conclusion there is to come to at this point is that Kendrick Lamar, when it comes to the morals he puts into his songs and the ones that he throws in people's faces as a means of endearing you to him, he selectively applies them when it's convenient for him and most to his benefit. If it allows him to build on his popularity and get a leg up on a competitor or tell a certain story and narrative, he embraces it. But simultaneously, if it prevents him from doing a collab with an artist that might actually benefit his numbers and his appeal, then he's going to look the other way.

That's how it all reads, honestly. I don't know, from this point, hearing him make commentary on this front is going to be a lot harder to take seriously because of this. Because, again, we're not just simply getting one little tiny, quick, random feature on a loose track or a song that was a demo. No, we have three very obvious appearances on a new album from Kendrick Lamar on this Playboi Carti LP.

The first of which we will get into, it is "Backdoor". Spun this track a few times over. It's different for Carti stylistically, but am I impressed with it generally? Not really. You have those really tinny, almost distorted perks tracks that over time just sound horrendous. Carti is bringing back the baby voice a little bit, which I'm sure a lot of fans are going to be hype for. And as far as Kendrick's contributions to the song, he's given us those lazy, laid-back vocal harmonies and leads which I know a lot of people have been digging on recent tracks, such as "Luther" with SZA, for example.

Obviously, he's had a similar delivery on many a deep cut in the past, too. And it's very tried and true style and sound for Kendrick. But is this one of the best performances or sets of melodies he's delivered on this front ever in his career? Not really. But with that being said, in terms of the hook appeal of the song, the melodic appeal of the song, it's mostly Kendrick bringing that to the table. If he actually had a fuller verse on the thing, this would feel more like a Kendrick song than a Carti song.

That is, if the weird chipmunk vocal chops in the background weren't fully giving Drake. This is like a Drake-ass instrumental. But yeah, it's rare that you hear something this easy, going and smooth and melodic from Carti. It's cool that he can pull it off, but it's not exactly, again, blowing me away.

"Good Credit", I will say, in comparison, much more thrilling of a track. Distorted, aggressive, upfront in your face, more along that dilate energy, I will say, even though Carti is coming at it with a deeper, a husky-er flow, more of an explosive, whole lot of red vibe for sure.

Also, a versatile track for Carti, too. There's a key change in the midst of it that I didn't really expect. And the Kendrick feature does switch things up effectively on the back end. But I'll say in terms of the cohesion of the verse and the flow of the verse, it's interrupted by a few different weird breaks.

Yeah, it has some eccentric qualities to it, but it never really quite gets going and builds up any momentum. In fact, it feels like Kendrick is trying to map over some of the chaotic energy that he showcased on GNZ, and also typically works up with Baby Keem when they're collaborating on a track, and just bringing it to here on a Carti record. Which I think also is the case for "Mojo Jojo" to an extent, too. And I'm not so sure it really works. It feels like it's a forced chemistry on some level. And again, it's just very odd.

One more time, I will bring up the morality and the accusations and guilt by association element of all of this. In his verse, he acknowledges Carti as his evil twin, which at that point, I feel like you're just throwing it in our fucking faces. Like, yeah, I'm collaborating with a guy who's a known dirtbag immediately after winning a Grammy for creating this giant moral panic around the biggest rapper out there right now, which, again, is weird. That's a weird thing to do.

Yeah, I mean, I will dig into this Carti record further, and I'm sure on some level, these tracks will probably pan out to be highlights in this 30-song tracklist. But are they so good that they were really worth whatever inconsistent moral optics these tracks give Kendrick at this point? Not really. At least from the standpoint of somebody who actually thought on some level, the content lyrically he was putting into tracks like "Euphoria" and "Not Like Us" actually meant something. But I don't know. Maybe they actually didn't.

Let me know what you think about this down in the comments, I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, Kendrick Lamar, Playboi Carti, Forever.