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good kid, m.A.A.d city
by Kendrick Lamar

First Released: 22nd October 2012
Interscope, TDE & Aftermath
Hip-Hop, Rap
Kenrick Lamar good kid mAAd City Album Cover

Review

Having been a big fan of To Pimp A Butterfly, it’s nice to dip back three years to his previous effort, his first on a major label. In my experience Kendrick Lamar approaches albums as an art form in a way that is relatively rare in mainstream hip-hop, with a considered and rounded thematic approach and a sense of each track contributing more to the artistic whole than prioritising hits and singles. Of course, he still smashes out some bangers, but within the context of their respective records, they almost speak more strongly than they do alone. This record is no different in that regard, really, with an incredibly strong sonic fingerprint and an interesting narrative concerning adolescence in a drug addled, gang heavy Compton. There’s a great deal of musical range across the record, with tracks offering impressive dynamic range and considered development within the instrumental work that eschews the more traditional loop based hip-hop approach for a more compositionally complex and robustly orchestrated approach. Rarely did I find myself getting tired of any specific sonic element, which is something that I’m always on the hunt for in lyrically focused music of the genre. It’s pretty cinematic too, with a broad sonic palette including synthesis, sweeping string arrangements and well selected samples (the Janet Jackson based track is superb). I do feel like there is the odd moment when this does slide a touch back into more classic hip-hop techniques, but those are fairly fleeting and do act as a bridge between that more traditional approach and the next step that he would take on TPAB. Kendrick is a superb rapper and lyricist when he puts his mind to it, and the way he flips in and out of different rhythmic patterns and uses space to emphasise his lyrics and allow the music to breathe is fantastic. I do feel like this album suffers a little bit lyrically in the odd place though, as Kendrick is still a little too steeped in the misogyny that is all too commonplace in hip-hop. He would begin to step a bit further away from that type of thing on future releases, but I do feel that tracks like Backseat Freestyle really don’t help to endear the listener to the strengths of his more carefully constructed work. To be honest, the fact that this album clocks in at 68 minutes really is its weakest point, because those bits and pieces that drag the album back could easily have been given the chop in favour of a more concise and forward thinking collection that would be well worth a top rating. As it is, this is a really great piece of work that acts as an enjoyable and impressive document of Lamar’s journey towards a place among hip-hop royalty, while still having slightly rough edges here and there.

Track by Track

1

Sherane A.K.A Master Splinter's Daughter

The atmosphere of this is great. There’s so much space and ambience built into the production, and there’s a care and nuance to the sound design that makes the musical elements particularly strong. The melodic work is subtle but enhances the vibe well without distracting from the vocal work. Lamar’s delivery is quite laid back, but there’s a sharpness to it that ensures that the rhythm still has punch. I’m not so keen on the skit section at the end, but it’s a strong start other than that.

2

Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe

Interestingly, the musical content of this track are pretty slow paced and chilled out, while Lamar pulls and pushes the pace backward and forward with his delivery, with the best sort of floating between the two. I’m not entirely sold on the sung vocal style. It’s a bit too heady and nasally, while the melodies are a bit on the limited side, but it feels like the kind of thing that might grow on me. Outside of that, it continues on the theme of having strong and deep production, with an evolving, layered approach to composition that shows plenty of growth and development.

3

Backseat Freestyle

I’m fairly sure that this isn’t the kind of thing that Martin Luther King was thinking of with his dream, Kendrick. The rapping here is rhythmically fantastic, but the lyrics are pretty embarrassing. It’s just a load of bragging and misogyny that has an edge of humour to it, but feels particularly tone deaf when bookended with references to the most famous speech about equal rights. Musically, the vibe is strong, and there’s some cool sound design, but it does get quite repetitive, and there’s not the care or development there to match with the previous tracks.

4

The Art Of Peer Pressure

The thickness of the layering and production here is quite cool, with some nice soulful elements and some cool sample choices. But then it drops completely and changes so much that it’s essentially a different track about a minute in. The second part drops back into a similar vibe to the opener. The lofi beat with the top end rolled off gives a great shuffling base to the track and, while musically, it’s a little repetitive, there’s enough bits of production work, drop-outs and breaks, that it manages to stay fresh, especially with Lamar’s rhythmically precise vocal delivery. Pretty good stuff.

5

Money Trees

This starts to move into a more neo-soul direction and the sung vocal works really well. Kendrick’s vocal work has a melodic edge that matches really well with the instrumental and give this a different textural flavour to what’s come before, while retaining that floating ambience within the production to keep it tonally consistent. The beat is fairly considered and subtle, but has great punch and gives the track a solid bounce. This is probably the highlight of the record for me so far, and the addition of some rapping from Jay Rock and some backing vocals give it more sonic interest. Excellent.

6

Poetic Justice

That Janet Jackson sample slaps. I love the space and ambience that Lamar generates in his beats with well balanced use of reverb and delay. The groove here is fantastic and blends superbly with the vocal samples. Vocally, Lamar uses space really well and little switch-ups of timing and emphasis to push and pull the groove of his delivery. I can’t say I’m a Drake fan, but his verse here works pretty well, although it does feel like he’s trying to do a Kendrick Lamar style delivery, rather than his own thing. There’s a lot of harmonic depth and melodic richness to this track too, and we’re really cooking now.

7

Good Kid

Again, the neo-soul edge to this is cool, and reminds me a little of the stylings of Raphael Saadiq. The bass line is cool, and this continues on the theme of having a lot of interesting musical content and developments throughout the song that make it feel like a considered whole, rather than the simple “rapping over a sample” that hip-hop can often be. The vibe is soulful and jazzy, but with an interesting tension running through it.

8

M.A.A.D City

As if to respond to my last comments, this has a very repetitive sample that dominates, and a much more typical beat. There’s still some cool ambience and production elements, but even the rapping here feels much more by-the-book. And then it flips half way through again. The second half is much stronger, with much more nuance and quality to the musical content. There’s still repetition, but the there’s a lot more variation and instrumental development to work with, and the production work follows suit to give things more sonic interest. Tonally, it feels a bit more akin to more traditional gangsta rap, but it’s still well executed.

9

Swimming Pools (Drank)

The production and ambience is so strong again here. Some of the synth work that builds that ambience is pretty subtle, but does an awful lot to make the texture feel rich and deep. The string stabs into the chorus and soaring synth accents are excellent. The range of vocal delivery across the track works really well with that vers/chorus dynamic change brilliantly. There’s a little too much repetition in some of the vocal motif here for me, but I think I can overlook that because the musical content and vive are so well handled. The final verse is superbly constructed too.

10

Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst

The light jazzy soul of the instrumental set against the more punchy drums and rapping is a cool blend. The rhythmic delivery of the chorus is off in an interesting, wonky-beat way that I quite like, like it’s been chopped up by Dilla or Flying Lotus. The orchestration in the choruses is incredibly lush and well produced too. The way each verse is truncated, by being cut off by gunshots or faded to nothing is a really effective narrative device. I was just getting to the point where this track was starting to get a bit repetitive and he chopped it out and pushed it in a different direction. The second half has a different rhythmic emphasis and more punch, though it probably doesn’t have quite the musical range and depth that the first half does, though the backing vocals are great. It’s a shame really, because a bit more development of the themes in the second half and this could have been exceptional. It’s still great though.

11

Real

Another track with a decent vibe, and the flow of the rapping in the verses is really strong. The chorus is a bit weaker though, particularly the repetition of real, real, really really real, which is fairly uninspired. There’s quality in the production, but as a whole, especially for a 7+ minute song, it doesn’t really do enough for me.

12

Compton

It’s a solid ending though, with a dive back into some heavyweight soulful hip-hop and a nice appearance from Dr Dre. There’s some solid rhythmic delivery of the rapping, interspersed with some quality sung vocal for the choruses. The beats are lovely, and the thickness and weight of the production has great presence and thrust. They use synths well to add extra ear candy and nuance to the production, which get a bit more focus during the outro. A nice way to round out a pretty damn solid record.