After listening to hundreds of albums, music fans have been conditioned to expect certain things from an artist\u2019s major label debut. Like a first novel or a rookie season, the major label debut arrives on the scene as a short burst of raw talent, a curated explosion of ambition meeting opportunity. But paired with that power is the weakness of inexperience, rough cuts that will need to be sanded down into something more palatable in order for the artist to produce their best work. Major label debuts, in other words, are meant to be first impressions \u2013 no one captures the crown on their first go-around.<\/p>\n
But Kendrick Lamar did. With an album that functions as an autobiography, a three-act play, and both an ode to and a warning about his native Compton, good kid, m.A.A.d. city <\/i>announced to the world that hip-hop had found its next genius. <\/p>\n
The stage is set with, of all things, a recording of several men reciting the Sinner\u2019s Prayer, a move that foreshadows the album\u2019s constant recognition of both the darkness of thug life and the possibility for redemption from it. After a brief interlude, \u201cSherane .k.a. Master Splinter\u2019s Daughter\u201d then launches into the story the album tells, that of a brash young black man in Compton focused on girls, friends, and looking cool, only to be met with the harsh realities of life in the hood when the song ends with the foreboding line \u201cI pulled up a smile on my face \/ And then I see \/ Two niggas, two black hoodies \/ I froze as my phone rang.\u201d<\/p>\n
That dance between the thrill of danger and the reality of its consequences is the heart of this deeply personal album\u2019s story. Bouncy songs like \u201cBitch, Don\u2019t Kill My Vibe\u201d and \u201cMoney Trees\u201d have you bouncing along with the beat and Lamar\u2019s brash lyrics celebrating life in the hood. But those customary delights of hip hop are contrasted with the ominous messages of \u201cThe Art Of Peer Pressure\u201d and \u201cm.A.A.d. city,\u201d tracks which make clear that the dangers of drugs, gangs, and police brutality bring with them not just excitement but life-and-death consequences.<\/p>\n
This tension touches every aspect of life in Compton, according to Lamar, from the violence of the streets to the dangers of the house party. The hook of \u201cSwimming Pools (Drank)\u201d sings \u201cWhy you babysittin\u2019 only two or three shots \/ I\u2019ma show you how to turn it up a notch \/ First you get a swimming pool of liquor, then you dive in it,\u201d making the song sound on a first listen like a celebration of alcohol and drug use. But upon closer inspection, the verses warn of the emptiness of excess: \u201cAll I have in life is my new appetite for failure \/ And I got hunger, pain, that grow insane \/ Tell me, do that sound familiar? \/ If it do, then you’re like me \/ Makin’ excuse that your relief \/Is in the bottom<\/span> of a bottle \/ And the greenest indo leaf.\u201d<\/p>\n It all culminates with the masterful, brutally honest \u201cSing About Me, I\u2019m Dying of Thirst,\u201d in which Lamar lays his soul bare, expertly expositing what life in Compton really looks like for a young black man: a world of gangs and guns, money and women, life and death \u2013 a world Lamar loves and hates in equal measure, having escaped by telling its story. As Drake raps in his verse on \u201cPoetic Justice,\u201d \u201cI can never right my wrongs \/unless I write \u2018em down for real.\u201d<\/p>\n good kid, m.A.A.d. city <\/i>is exhibit A in the argument that hip hop can be art, a masterpiece of street theater weaving themes of faith, family, and friendship into the darker fabric of destruction. Not everybody gets out of Compton alive, Lamar seems to be saying, but since I did, I\u2019m obligated to tell its story. Tell it he has, with the lyrical prowess and the musical mastery of a rapper much more experienced than he. With good kid, m.A.A.d. city<\/i>, Kendrick Lamar brings power and polish, entertaining bravado and insightful honesty, a profound story told by a wise storyteller. If major label debuts are intended to be first impressions, then rest assured, you will leave this one impressed in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":33609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10257],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-45430","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kendrick-lamar","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45430"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}