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

If you’re not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!