When: October 2012
Where: Interscope Records
Last year, Kendrick Lamar
dropped one of the highly regarded albums that made many best of lists with Section.80. It was a great example on
how to produce a record that’s accessible to the masses without limiting production,
beats, hooks and personality. Now this year Kendrick looks to continue his
momentum with good kid, m.A.A.d city, and certainly does in a big way.
One thing I liked about
Section.80 was its concept, and I was hoping that Kendrick would carry that
trait of his over to future releases, and he does for good kid, m.A.A.d city. Complete
with phone messages and excerpts of Kendrick’s life, from his parents to him
being around his friends, it’s a brilliant way of making sure the listener gets
the concept without necessarily beating them over the head with it.
Throughout the record
Kendrick talks about his family, romance and doing crime with his friends. But
while he’s going ahead with all this, it’s clear that he is disagreeing with
some of his friends’ ideas. Tracks such as The Art Of Peer Pressure reveal his
true feelings about breaking into somebody’s home, and it captures the true
crux peer pressure has on some people. Kendrick is the good kid and he’s stuck
into this life of committing crimes because, like many of us, we just wanna
look cool infront of our friends.
Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe
and Backseat Freestyle show off the personality Kendrick has while he’s around
with his friends. The lyrics, instrumentation and Kendrick’s flow goes over the
top with arrogance and overconfidence. It’s fantastic, and really does reflect
well on how much a teenager’s company can affect them.
The production is a little
inconsistent but I think that just adds more character and depth to good kid,
m.A.A.d city’s concept. Kendrick has written it as a short film, and it makes
sense for the tracks about Kendrick’s young life to feature production that’s
as premature and juvenile as he was at that point. Also the obnoxious, robotic
voice Kendrick tends to do throughout this record does become irritating upon
first listen, but fortunately grows on you come the third or fourth listen.
Well once again Kendrick
Lamar has succeeded in bringing out another phenomenal record. Good kid,
m.A.A.d city is easily the most cinematic releases of the year, and Kendrick
has done a brilliant job in bringing forward how his childhood was, and the
events that affected how he grew up without it seeming like it was being forced
down the listeners’ ears. The production is great, the lyrics are great;
Kendrick does a great job in constantly sounding entertaining on the mic and
never letting his delivery drop. Another hit, can Kendrick Lamar do anything
wrong?
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