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Album Review: Good Kid M.a.a.d City by Kendrick Lamar


Kendrick Lamar is one of the more well known rap artist of this generation. He has found recent success with making songs about current social issues going on in America. Lamar has a one of a kind sound along with a one of a kind creativity. He has released 5 official albums along with numerous mixtapes. His debut album titled Good Kid Maad City is still some of his best work. This album was written in the form of a story that his being narrated by Kendrick Lamar himself. The story loosely follows the upbringing of Kendrick Lamar sharing a lot of his personal experiences. He starts the album of with a smooth intro into his love life with the recurring girlfriend at the time. The name of the song is Sherane a.k.a. Master Splinter’s Daughter, in the song he speaks on how they first met over a melancholy beat as his he takes his time with each punishing flow. Kendrick often visits Sherane throughout the album driving his mothers minivan. This takes us into the next song on the album B*tch Dont Kill My Vibe, this track starts off with a voicemail from his mother asking for him to return home with her car. Kendrick is ignoring the calls and instead relaxing with a group of friends over a calm chorus as he delivers clever punchlines over the relaxing beat. Throughout the song a collective of chorus singers repeat “I am a sinner who’s probably going to sin again, Lord forgive me”. This is a reacurring theme throughout the album as Kendrick deals with temptation and peer pressure, which brings us to the next stop in the album. On track #4 “The Art of Peer Pressure” Lamar goes into detail about a specific memory of he and his friends breaking and enters a house. Kendrick flexes his unique ability to constructively create a vivid story in his raps. He does this again on track #10 Sing About me/ Dying of Thirst, here he carefully unfolds a story from someone else’s point of view. He is telling the story of two of his dead friends that asked him to share their story if they were to die before they got the chance to see his career take off. This is one of his more clever songs as he perfectly pieces various parts of a story into one powerful tale. On this album Kendrick Lamar delivers an extremely strong performance. He shows his ability to make radio hits like Poetic Justice and Swimming Pools along with along with hard street hits like m.A.A.d city. This is easily one of his best albums still to date as he shows his many styles of bringing his music to life.

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