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

8th July 2021

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.

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

More on Kris Bowers

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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In this episode...

Guests

  • Kris Bowers

About the show

Hosted by Oliver Wang and Morgan Rhodes, every episode of Heat Rocks invites a special guest to talk about a heat rock – a hot album, a scorching record. These are in-depth conversations about the albums that shape our lives.

Our guests include musicians, writers, and scholars and though we don’t exclusively focus on any one genre, expect to hear about albums from the worlds of soul, hip-hop, funk, jazz, Latin, and more.

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