What Does 'untitled unmastered.' Actually Mean?

To many a music fans' delight, Kendrick Lamar surprise released a new album, untitled unmastered, simply tweeting out an unassuming link to the iTunes version of the album, which is available across all music platforms. But, as excited as fans are, they aren't without their questions about the purpose behind the music. Not only did the release seemingly come out of nowhere, the album itself is pretty bare bones, in that every track named "untitled" coupled with a date, and of course, that the album name itself is so plain. So, why did Kendrick name his latest release untitled unmastered.? Well, considering the guy is an absolute genius, I can only assume he knows exactly what he's doing with the seemingly straightforward title.

His plain, brownish-green cover art, untitled and dated songs, and the untitled unmastered. title seem to imply a focus on the music itself above all the other fanfare that typically comes along with an album. After all, it's a very Lamar move to be more focused on the music itself then to care about such trivial things. The album appears to be a direct response to fans who were clamoring for more music after Lamar's Grammys performance back in February, during which, he performed an untitled and unreleased track. Lebron James now somewhat famously tweeted a request for Lamar to release the the untitled tracks, so I guess some thanks are in order to King James. And, in that respect, the title is actually pretty perfect.

However, there is another factor to take into consideration when pondering Lamar's choice: untitled unmastered. isn't actually, as of yet, being referred to as an album, but more of a project. It truly appears that Lamar is delivering us nothing but the raw goods — so to put it simply, the album title means exactly what it appears to mean. And I, for one, am all about it; less time spent on coming up with a title (*cough* Kanye West *cough*) only emphasizes the importance of the music itself.

And at the end of the day, whether you're into the name or not, there's only one thing that matters right now: Lamar has eight new tracks for you to listen to. I can only hope that with this new release, he is already on his way towards another Grammy nomination (and hopefully a win). Now, go have your mind blown by all of the previously unreleased magic you have been missing out on from the past three years.