What happens when you combine smooth, buttery neo-soul with hard-hitting rap? You get something awesome, like Money Over Love, Kendrick Lamar’s latest collaboration with singer-songwriter Bilal.
The collaboration will be featured on In Another Life, Bilal’s upcoming album, which is set to come out on June the 30th. (Pre-order here) Money Over Love begins with the cruisy dreamscape of layered electric guitar and drums that Bilal is so known for, as well as his own warbling vocals. The song is slowly building, but its direction is unapparent. At about 1.50 minutes in the sound drops out completely, only to be replaced by a slow snare and… Kendrick Lamar. His rapping is own point, spitting out lines faster than it should be humanly possible. He completely changes the tempo and carries the song out to its end.
To be honest the track on its own is not one of my favourites, without the change of tempo and introduction of Lamar it would most likely become a little repetitive. However the collaboration works. Lamar gives it that structure and energy that it really needed. Bilal and Lamar actually performed the song live in concert last month, but the studio version was officially premiered on BBC radio on June 15.
This isn’t the first time that Lamar has leant his searing vocals to another artist’s work. He’s done guest verses on some incredible tracks, including A$AP Rocky ft. Drake and 2 Chainz’ Fuckin Problems and ScHoolboy Q’s Birds & the Beez.
Check out the live premiere by Bilal and Kendrick below, if you can look past the slightly distracting dude bopping his hand to the left its actually an incredible performance.