Heat Rocks – Kris Bowers on Kendrick Lamar’s “Section.80” (2011) (January 2, 2018)

Episode notes

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):

• “A.D.H.D.”
• Kris Bowers: “Rigamortis (Kendrick Lamar Cover)”
• Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid M.A.A.D. City “m.A.A.D. city”
• MURS: Captain California “GBKW”
• Dr. Dre: The Chronic “Dre Day”
• A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory “Jazz (We’ve Got This)”
• “High Power”
• “Rigamortis”
• “Keisha’s Song”
• Kendrick Lamar: “Sing About Me”
• “Ab-Souls Outro”
• “Kush & Corinthians”
• Willie Jones III: The Next Phase “The Thorn”
• Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly “If These Walls Could Talk”
• Chapter Six

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