A Good Kid in a Mad City

        During my first semester of high school, a friend told me to listen to an album called Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar. I did not know what to expect from it, but he made the statement that this is the greatest album he has ever heard. Naturally, I was intrigued and wanted to see how much of his claim was hyperbole. After listening to the album many times over, I started to agree with his very strong opinion. Obviously as years have went by I have listened to a lot more music, but the one thing that has stayed constant is that I could put many Kendrick Lamar projects in a greatest albums conversation and my claims would not be thought of as crazy.

 

            Kendrick Lamar was a boy from Compton that began rapping around the age of 16. I have actually listened to some of his earlier mixtapes and they are nothing like the albums that he dropped in the last decade. They are forgettable club and radio songs, and they do not have any introspective nature to them. Now, I actually enjoy songs with less substances as long as they sound good and are enjoyable, but it was just jarring hearing them from an artist that has released monumental pieces of art. Around 2009, Kendrick released an EP called Kendrick Lamar EP and it marked the moment where he stopped going by the moniker K Dot and started going by his actual name in the music industry. The name was not the only change because the subject matter started taking a very mature turn and was beginning to take a look into growing up in an impoverished neighborhood. 

 

            In 2010, Kendrick released Overly Dedicated which was a mixtape that started to display Kendrick’s potential to the general population. It still contained songs that were made for loud speakers, but it also had songs analyzing Kendrick’s psyche such as “Ignorance is Bliss” and “Average Joe”. A year later, Kendrick released Section.80 which was a mixtape, but it sounded like an album because of how complete is was. Kendrick’s rapping was great from the flow and rhyme scheme, but more importantly his subject matter had a lot of weight to it. He explored the hardships of growing up in a city like Compton and the obstacles that everyone faced just trying to escape it, that is if they even made it out alive to do that. This was the project that began a flawless streak for what would become one of the greatest rappers of all time.

 

            Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was an insane album from the production to the subject matter to the popularity. The album is three times platinum by this point and it should be celebrated that such a high quality and dense album has been able to move so many units. The songs range from analyzing addiction, growing up with peer pressure around you, and depression from things completely out of your control. Then the entire album has these short tapes in between songs that tie together to the tale of the summer before Kendrick’s senior year, and the climax before the last song is how his friend got shot and killed. It is an amazing album that many people thought could not be followed up by Kendrick. Yet, three years later Kendrick released To Pimp A Butterfly which is arguably one of the best albums across all genres. It would take a multiple page essay to analyze this whole album, but it is an immensely deep look into the deep rooted racism found within the systems of America. A big theme throughout is how black culture is robbed by large corporations without any proper compensation for the artist that does all the work to create these things. It is a once in a lifetime listen and it still holds up 5 years later.

 

            Kendrick’s last official album was DAMN. And it was released in 2017. I think this album is excellent and while some people dislike it, I believe that they were expecting a second part to To Pimp A Butterfly, when in reality there is no way to follow up such an album. Anyhow, I am patiently waiting for his next album and it will certainly further strength an unbeatable discography.