Kris Bowers on Kendrick Lamar’s “Section.80” (2011) [redux]

Episode notes

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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