By: Judah Gregory
*Note: This album and review includes songs with explicit language
The album ‘good kid m.A.A.d city’ is an album released by Kendrick Lamar in 2012, and is considered to be one of the best rap albums of all time. It was only his third album ever. He’s considered one of the best rappers of all time and the album would win Grammys for Best Rap Album, Rap Song, and Rap Performance. The album has 11 tracks in total and I’ll be going over them and what they’re about since each song has a story about Kendrick’s life connected to the album. I’ll be going in depth about that.
“Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter”
(The reason the title would call Sherane, Master Splinter’s Daughter, is a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Master Splinter who is a human. Basically calling her a rat for setting him up)
This starts the album off with a skit of men saying a prayer before ominous vocals start to make it feel like something bad is going to happen and gives some suspense. Then the beat changes and Kendrick raps about him being a 17-year-old boy meeting a girl at a house party named Sheraine and how he would try to pursue a relationship with her, with him really just wanting to sleep with her. The beat change from the men praying would make the song sound more calm then ominous when Kendrick raps about it like it’s a change in setting and would go well with this track.
The song would end though with Kendrick going to her house but being greeted by two men in black hoodies, who were her cousins, that would take him out to his van and jump him for not saying where he’s from. Each song in the album would end with a tape recorder of his mom and dad sending voicemails. This would be his mom telling him to avoid Sheraine since she knew they were talking over the summer and that she needed the van he took (cover of the album) back.
“B##ch Don’t Kill My Vibe*
This song would not connect to the story but would have a voicemail at the end. The song would start with a spicy beat and was a song to vibe to via the title. I think Kendrick did that well with him being able to flow on different beats nice, and the song is told from the current day perspective of Kendrick as he didn’t like what the state of rap was and how everyone wanted control him and was killing his vibe.
The voice mail at the end would be one of his friends telling him to get into the car and to grab some CDs for them to freestyle with.
“Backseat Freestyle”
This one would again follow the story of Kendrick again and he would be raping in the perspective of 17-year-old him in the back seat with his friends. That would mean this would be more sloppy and he would be saying crazy things in the song on an 80’s sounding beat, but he would rap about how he had a dream of being big and having what a 17-year-old would want at the time, and him being focused on more materials at the time.
The end of this song didn’t have a voice mail.
“The Art of Peer Pressure”
This song would follow right after “Backseat Freestyle” and Kendrick would rap about him being in the car with all of his friends. The song starts with the chorus of him singing that he was smoking and drinking but then saying that he really was a “sober soul” but he’s with the homies right now, following again with him saying they rush someone quick then laugh about it later but really he’s a peacemaker. Kendrick raps in the song about how he was caught in between two sides in his city with him being Good but being in Compton at the time where he was at. And in the song, he showed it well when he would rap “Rush a anybody quick then we laugh about it” but then say “That’s ironic cause I’ve never been violent until I’m with the homies”. He would actually rap about in the end about how they committed a home invasion not knowing there was a person there and almost getting caught.
The voice mail at the end would be him and his friend actually going over the plan to rob the house and to drop Kendrick to his van to go to Sheraine’s house meaning this happens before he gets jumped by her cousins.
“Money Trees”
At the start of this track Kendrick would focus in more on the home with the start saying “From 9:00 to 5:00 i know it’s vacant ya bish” saying the person works one and also saying “Hit the house lick tell me, is you with it ya bish” here are his friend talking to him and using peer pressure to get to him to do it. One thing I like in this song and in others in this album is that that he will ad-lib some of the story or the lines people would say in the song and it still all sounded nice with it all multiple voices or thoughts in his head talking.
At the end of the song, the voicemail this time would be his mom wondering were he is at and just wanting to get out the house since his dad, at the moment, was intoxicated he would be heard singing in the back ground and was one of the funny skits in this album.
“Poetic Justice”
Now this song would be a reference to Janet Jackson’s ‘Poetic Justice’ and would use some of her vocals in the song. In this song he sings along side Drake about women and their flow together and them being considered 1# and 2# interchangeably. It was going to be a good song no matter what and it flowed nice with Drake’s part being good with the theme of the song since it’s about women.
Everything is nice until at the end the ominous beat starts playing and it brings us back to the moment we’re he would meet up with Sheraine and instead sees her cousins. It starts with Kendrick being interrogated by Sheraine’s cousins after figuring out he’s there for Sheraine they would ask where he’s from and countinue to press him before it ends with them saying to get out of the car or they were going to drag him out.
“Good kKd”
Immediately it starts the song with a loud beat with drums and bass booming in the back. It would foreshadow Kendrick’s headspace at that time with this being after getting jumped and everything going down with him saying “Look inside of my walls and you see I’m having withdrawals,” and in with the line “This is your station baby” making it feel like Kendrick was stuck here and his station was Compton. The beat would drop and he would rap about wanting to become a big rapper and more, getting respect from the streets as he says, “Step on my neck and get blood on your Nike check I don’t mind cause one day you’ll respect the good kid m.a.a.d city,” but he would also rap about the police injustice and the city of Compton killing his innocence. With him also realizing that he won’t ever be able to gain respect of the police as a black man when he says, “I heard them chatter he’s probably young but I know that he’s down,” with Kendrick saying from his perspective again “Step on my neck and get blood on your bullet proof vest I don’t mind I know you’ll never respect the good kid m.a.a.d city”.
At the end of the song, at the time he would say that “The streets were sure to release the worst out of my best”, but him saying that he didn’t mind because he just wanted respect. This would not have a voicemail at the end.
“m.A.A.d city”
“If Pirus and Crips all got along they probably gun me down by the end of this song seem like the whole city goes against me”. This song would talk about now with him being in this negative head space and all the way up until now him being friends with some Bloods and Crips, but not claiming he would be caught between with them hearing how he was done by Sheraine’s cousins they would want to help him but he would have to choose eventually becoming a pirus blood(not confirmed but his friend calling each other blood when they talk and him being with bloods when the shooting happens are hinting to it). This song’s beat matches the decision at the moment as in the song he plays back the moment of the men asking him questions with it saying “were you from” but then changing to “where your grandma hung”.
In the second part of the song, before the transition where he’s woken up by a friend saying that it was just a Compton thang, referring to him getting jumped, and then the beat changes. Here it goes back to a more ominous beat, but not the same, as here it seems to be Kendrick giving it off instead of it being Sheraine and her cousins being around. I think how it means at the time he was in the same headspace as them and focused on getting back.
He would end the song with him saying Kendrick aka “Compton’s human sacrifice” with him later saying that all the things that he went through was almost like he was a sacrifice for the city. The end track to this song would be him with his friends after getting jumped passing him a bottle and saying that he’ll be okay.
“Swimming Pools”
“Swimming Pools” would be played as a anthem for clubs with it lyrics about swimming in drinks and partying, but would also talk about Kendrick’s over use of it at the time with the chorus of the song being “Pull up drink hop out drink faded faded” and with him riding around drinking with his friends. He would rap about all the things up until now and finishing the song with “And when I thought I had enough” indicating that something bad was going to happen at the end of the song.
A skit would play, and this would be Kendrick with two other of his friends who would plan to get back for him, but when they go to execute the plan one of them would get shot in the car and pass.
“Sing About Me I’m Dying of Thirst”
This song is a letter and would be after the shooting of one of Kendrick’s friends who he explained passed in his arms while he was trying to comfort him. With the song being in three parts the first from the perspective of the brother of the friend who died. In his part, he would tell Kendrick that ever since his brother passed his plans were vindictive and that everybody was a victim in his eyes. With him set on revenge he would ask that when Kendrick would make it big that he would sing about him, and that he would not be able to change with his part ending in shots.
The second part of the song would not focus of Kendrick but instead a woman’s sister he wrote about named Keisha, and her story in the streets and how her sister now feels like Kendrick was judgmental with the things he was saying, and her feeling like if you can’t fit in her shoes she can’t be talked to. Her part ends with “She’ll never fade away” as she fades away to the next part of the song which would be him. Here he would rap responding to both the people earlier, with him telling his friend that his brother was like one to him and him saying that he wasn’t trying to offend the sister of Keisha but just trying to speak on something bigger than what’s on TV.
And finally, in this song, he would realize that he can’t be in Compton anymore and he had to make it out. With the skit at the end talking about them spinning back on the people, but before they can, they’re stopped by an old lady. This lady would be the one to tell them the prayer that we would hear in the beginning of the album. And with her saying that, this is the start of their REAL life.
“Real”
The last track of this album, and would be a close to this part of the story of Kendrick’s life. Here he would rap about how all of the things that he was doing don’t make him real, and in the song between him rapping his parents would talk to him on a voicemail with his dad first saying that he was sorry about his friend and that anybody can hurt a person and that don’t make you real, and how getting out of where he is may be possible with music, before giving the phone to Kendrick’s mom with her telling him that a man name top Dog came by and had wanted him and his friend Dave to come up, and with her also, to take the music seriously and to spread positivity and to tell his story to the kids in his city with the story ending here.
Overall, this is my favorite rap album of all time and is definitely a 10/10 in my opinion with “Good Kid” being my favorite song of the album.
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