Recorded 2010 Release date 14 September 2010 | Length 59:18 Genre Hip hop music | |
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Released September 14, 2010 (2010-09-14) Similar Kendrick Lamar albums, Hip hop music albums | ||
Kendrick lamar overly dedicated full album bonus track
Overly Dedicated (stylized as O(verly) D(edicated)) is the fifth mixtape by American hip hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar, released on September 14, 2010, via Top Dawg Entertainment. The album features guest appearances from Dash Snow, Jhené Aiko, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Ash Riser, Dom Kennedy and Murs, among others. The album's production was handled by several TDE in-house producers, including King Blue, Sounwave, Tae Beast and Willie B; other producers such as Tommy Black, Drop, Jairus "J-Mo" Mozee, and Wyldfyer, also contributed production. As of October 2012, the mixtape has sold a total of 12,000 copies.
Contents
- Kendrick lamar overly dedicated full album bonus track
- Kendrick lamar heart part 2 feat dash snow overly dedicated
- Background
- Critical reception
- Track listing
- References
Kendrick lamar heart part 2 feat dash snow overly dedicated
Background
On September 4, 2010, Lamar unveiled the cover art for Overly Dedicated, which was designed by ASTHTC. On September 14, 2010, the music video for "P&P 1.5", a song taken from Overly Dedicated, featuring his Black Hippy cohort Ab-Soul, was released. On September 14, Lamar also released Overly Dedicated to digital retailers under Top Dawg Entertainment, the label that signed Lamar after he released his first mixtape, when he was 16. On September 23, it was released for free download online.
Overly Dedicated includes a song titled "Ignorance Is Bliss", in which Lamar glorifies gangsta rap and street crime, but ends each verse with "ignorance is bliss", giving the message "we know not what we do". It was this song specifically that made fellow West Coast rapper and legendary hip hop producer Dr. Dre, want to work with Lamar, after watching the song's music video on YouTube. This led to Lamar working with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on Dre's Detox album and him considering signing to Dre's label, Aftermath Entertainment. On the topic of the project's genre, Lamar called it "human music".
Critical reception
Writing for Vice, Robert Christgau gave Overly Dedicated an "A–" and found it to be as good as Lamar's first official album Section.80:
Only three classics: the besotted "Alien Girl," the merely sexed-up "P&P 1.5," and "Average Joe," a position paper for the gangsta realism to follow. But the many cameos document a party-crashing crew utterly delighted by how good they are at this shit. There’s a sense of fun and antic possibility here Lamar abjured on his road to iconicity. In pop music, that’s a spiritual resource there’s never enough of.