In honor of Kendrick Lamar's Section.80 turning 10 years old this month, we are re-airing our convo with Kris Bowers on Lamar's debut studio album.
[show notes from original post]
To talk about Kendrick Lamar’s studio LP debut, we wanted to find someone of K-Dot’s generation, another L.A. young gun, and who better than pianist and composer, Kris Bowers? Like Kendrick, Kris grew up in L.A. and just as Kendrick has ascended the hip-hop ladder, so has Kris in jazz, as he won the prestigious Theolonious . But more than that, the web of Los Angeles musical ties was bound to bring the two into orbit in different ways – something we discuss in the episode – not the least of which is the fact that Kris covered one of the biggest tracks in Kendrick’s early career: “Rigamortis.”
In our conversation with Kris, we got deep into how he put together both the song and video for his version of “Rigamortis,” whether or not Kendrick has a jazz sensibility in his style, and what it’s like to see a hometown kid become the Greatest Rapper Alive.
More on Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80
- Kendrick talking about Section.80 in an interview with Complex.com.
- Ditto but in an interview with Billboard.
- Ogden Payne’s revisit of the album in 2016 for Forbes.
More on Kris Bowers
- Kris on NPR’s “Piano Jazz: Rising Stars.”
- NY Times on Kris winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Prize.
- Website | Soundcloud | Twitter | Facebook
Show Tracklisting (all songs from Section.80 unless indicated otherwise):
- Hol' Up
- A.D.H.D
- Kris Bowers: Forget-er
- Kris Bowers: Rigamortis
- Rigamortis
- Murs: Everything
- Chapter Six
- Keisha's Song (Her Pain)
- Kendrick Lamar: Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst
- Ab-Souls Outro
- Poe Mans Dreams (His Vice)
- F*ck Your Ethnicity
- Kush & Corinthians
- Rigamortis
- Kris Bowers: Rigamortis
- Willie Jones III: The Thorn
- Rigamortis
- Blow My High (Members Only)
- HiiiPower
- Ab-Souls Outro
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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