Maad City Kendrick Lamar Sum

The best concept records still have fabulous singles. There is a reason that people know ‘Juicy’ by the Notorious BIG, ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ by Marvin Gaye, or ‘Ziggy Stardust’ by David Bowiedespite maybe never hearing the full albums that feature them. Those singles alone are strong enough that even someone with just a casual knowledge of the albums they come from, can’t deny the talent that is behind them. The same could be said for ‘B__ch, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ or ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’ from Kendrick Lamar’s major-label debut, Good Kid, mAAd City.

Since K Dot released Good Kid, mAAd City on 22October 2012, the album not only holds a place in the hip-hop cannon but it shifted the culture. It’s even been incorporated into the curriculum in several universities.

The Good Kid, mAAd City cover art features a childhood Polaroid of Kendrick with his uncles and grandfather. There is a baby bottle, a 40-oz bottle and one uncle is flashing a gang sign. In the background is a picture on the wall featuring Kendrick and his father. Everyone’s eyes are blacked out. Speaking on the cover art, Lamar says, “That photo says so much about my life, and about how I was raised in Compton, and the things I’ve seen, just through them innocent eyes. You don’t see nobody else’s eyes, but you see my eyes are innocent, and tryna figure out what is goin’ on.”

The title on the cover also reads: “a short film by Kendrick Lamar”. This is not an accident. Good Kid, mAAd City is cinematic and tells a gripping specific narrative. It’s a day in the life of the protagonist, K Dot, as he becomes Kendrick Lamar and in it, hooks up with his girl, robs a house, and goes through misadventures, which makes him question hood politics.

The first track, ‘Sherane aka Master Splinter’s Daughter’ isn’t really the beginning of the story but rather sets the stage. Picture the beginning of Reservoir Dogs and the now infamous Madonna and ‘No Tipping’ monologues. They don’t necessarily push the story forward but they create the world that you’re about to step into. In this song, you step into the mindset of Lamar’s persona, K Dot, who’s the protagonist of the story. K-Dot, is meeting with a girl named, “Sherane” and much like in a Tarantino film, the story doesn’t exactly follow one thread. It’s filled with fits and starts, twists and turns.

The skits following the songs are concise but actually feature Kendrick’s friends and mother and father. They’re what pull the story completely together. The skit after ‘Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter’ has Kendrick’s mother and father wanting him to bring her van back to the house. A picture of this van is also featured on the deluxe version of the record.

The single, ‘B__ch, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ also serves as sort of an introduction and is more about the state of hip-hop. The original version feature guest vocals by Lady Gaga and was titled ‘Partynauseous’. However, timing issues came up and ultimately her version didn’t end up on the album. She later released it herself to Lamar’s surprise. The skit that ends ‘B__ch, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ once again pushes the story along. In it we hear K Dot’s friends telling him to meet them in the car where they have a beat CD.

‘Backseat Freestyle’ and ‘The Art of Peer Pressure’ naturally flow together. The former tells a story about K Dot freestyling with his friends in the car dreaming like “Martin had a Dream/Kendrick have a dream” and that they will make their mark. The song captures a vivid amount among close friends and the simple joys of hot boxing a car and freestyling with friends, then it sets the stage for, ‘The Art of Peer Pressure’, which is a major development in this narrative.

A seemingly innocent caravan with friends ends up being a night of smoking and drinking and robbing someone. There’s less bravado with this but more of an internal conflict. Despite the situation, you’re still rooting for K Dot and relieved when he eludes the cops. He’s then faced with a dilemma, does he fellow the path of his peers, or keep his head down and make that money, which leads to ‘Money Trees’.

‘Poetic Justice’ brings us back to the beginning of the story with Sherane. A group of men jump K Dot just because he’s from a different hood. He realizes even after robbing a house that the predator can just as easily become the prey.

‘Good Kid’ and ‘mAAd City” are linked as well. ‘Good Kid’ is about the eternal struggle of the hood. How can someone survive in a world where the question is whether you wear red or blue and where you are from? This song is another turning point in the narrative. K Dot wonders if he can make it out alive. Engineer, MixedByAli, explained further in an interview in Complex how “being a good kid is being stuck inside of the box and how [he] has no choice but to ride along on the drive-by shooting, have no choice but to go into the houses and rob, because this is what he’s around”. He’s just going with his people.

He’s once again faced with the double-edged sword of gang life on ‘mAAd City’. If he doesn’t follow the way of the gang, he has no protection. However, if he aligns himself with a gang, it makes him more of a mark for violence. The song is split into two parts: starting with a slow intro before building up to a hard club beat. Legendary West Coast MC Eiht makes a guest appearance on this track in what is yet another moment where Kendrick gives a salute to the Compton hip-hop sound that came before him.

To the casual listener, ‘Swimming Pool (Drank)’ sounds like a party jam, but if you listen closely it’s more of a cautionary tale. At this point in the story, Kendrick’s friends decide to seek revenge against the people who stomped Kendrick earlier, resulting in the death of his friend’s brother, Dave.

‘Sing About Me’ has Kendrick thinking about tragedies that have impacted his life. The first the aforementioned Dave, the second a sister of a prostitute who was the subject of a song in Kendrick’s debut release. Finally, we hear ‘Kendrick’ for the first time questioning his life as K Dot. The song represents being baptized and finding oneself.

By the end of Good Kid, mAAd City, you’ve come to understand that K Dot’s previous view that “money, power, respect” being the end all be all is dangerous code to live by. And that ‘Real’ is a reflection of what could have been. “That’s the start of me recognizing everything I was doing throughout that day, it wasn’t real,” Lamar said. “Everybody has their own perception of what a ‘real ni__a’ is. Most of the time a real ni__a is a street cat or someone putting in some type of work and doing violence. That’s what we thought they was. But on that record, it was me getting an understanding of what real is.”

The ending track ‘Compton’ could have appeared early in the story, though some liken it to what plays during the credits of this narrative album. It can also signify the cycle starting over or a wink at what new chapters bring.

Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, mAAd City is available to buy here.

Kendrick Lamar’s debut album, good kid m.A.A.d city, introduced the world to a new breed of emcees who spearheaded the “new West” which promised a G-funk bounce with a prominent splash of consciousness not normally heard from past notable predecessors like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and others who had put California on the proverbial map in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Hailed as a freshman calling card as notable as the Beastie Boys’s License to Ill, Led Zeppelin’s self-titled release, Biggie’s Ready to Die, the Sex Pistols’ Nevermind the Bollocks, and the Ramones’ self-titled project from 1976, good kid m.A.A.d city is equally as impressive for the narrative throughline as it is for its sonic composition – and was recognized as an instant classic, although it only enjoyed its fourth anniversary this week.

While it would be easy to just sit back and enjoy Lamar’s oration over production by the likes of Scoop Deville, DJ Dahi and others, a closer analysis of the lyrics and accompanying skits reveal a narrative and story behind the album which holds up when viewed through a lens reliant solely on plot. Thus, names like K.Dot, Sherane, O-Boog, L Boogs, Yan Yan, and YG Lucky serve as characters with depth and motivations that rival cinematic and literary figures steeped into tradition and reinforces why it was billed as a “short film by Kendrick Lamar” on the album cover.

good kid m.A.A.d city is a coming of age story of “K.Dot” – a youthful teen in Compton battling maturation and gang violence – as he transitions into “Kendrick Lamar,” the iteration of the emcee who has come to embody the uplifting voice we know today.

Although the story isn’t completely chronological – and a few “Kendrick” tracks appear which interrupt the aforementioned narrative – there is a definitive cohesiveness to the entire project which Lamar echoed in the press following the October 2012 release.

“This is a dark movie album,” Lamar said in 2012. “I wanted to tap into that space where I was at in my teenage years. Everybody knows Kendrick Lamar, but he had to come from a certain place, a certain time, and certain experiences. I’ve been planning this for years. Everything was premeditated. I already knew what I wanted to talk about, what I wanted to convey. I had that album cover for years. I knew I was going to use it and that it was the best description of what I was talking about in the album. It’s a long time coming. Everything we dwelled on is coming to light.”

As mentioned, good kid m.A.A.d city isn’t packaged in a tidy bow. Lamar has always been forthcoming that it needs to be listened to multiple times to begin to see how all the coded pieces connect and can then be interpreted.

“There are twists and paybacks,” Lamar said. “The story is about one day in the life of me and my homeboys. I really didn’t want to make it song-by-song. Each piece, I want to trigger certain points where you make a connection. Almost like a Pulp Fiction feel — you have to listen to it more times to live with it and breathe with it.”

good kid m.A.A.d city has been analyzed so much that it has even warranted a collegiate course that draws parallels between it and literary works from James Joyce, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Personally, here’s how I see it existing in a narrative structure where a good kid gets caught up in the pitfalls of a mad city.

Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter

The album begins with the recitation of a prayer by a group of young men, “Lord God, I come to you a sinner, and I humbly repent for my sins.” This sets up a religious motif that will recur throughout the album, however, the reference to a higher power seems ironic when the subject matter of the song becomes more apparent.

Like other Hollywood fare, we’re introduced to a boy-meets-girl scenario as the “film” opens with K. Dot coveting a girl named “Sherane” who is colloquially referred to as Master Splinter’s daughter in the title. I believe this is due to her father’s connection to boys/sons wearing colors (how the TMNT wear colored rags on their faces) which donates a definitive gang connotation.

But this is not the beginning of the story. Rather, it serves as the basis for what the K.Dot character covets the most at this time in his life. In a place like Compton where nothing is promised, temporary bliss is something a teenager wants more than long-term stability.

In a later song, “Money Trees,” we have the understanding that he and Sherane weren’t inexperienced lovers with one another – with K.Dot rapping, “I fucked Sherane and went to tell my bros.”

The song ends with the lyrics, “I’m two blocks away, 250 feet, and six steps from where she stay, she waving me ‘cross the street, I pulled up a smile on my face, and then I see, two niggas, two black hoodies, I froze as my phone rang.” This eludes to a bout of violence that would come later in the story and serves as the crisis brewing between K.Dot and Kendrick Lamar.

Later still, K.Dot pulls up at Sherane’s house and his mother tries to call him but instead gets his voicemail. We learn from his mother that K.Dot said he was borrowing her van for just 15 minutes. She warns him not to mess with “them hoodrats,” especially “Sherane.”

Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe

“Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” is the true introduction to the short film narrative – although the song doesn’t advance the plot like in a traditional structure where an inciting incident sets the main character off on his journey. Rather, it is told from the perspective of present-day Kendrick Lamar, who isn’t happy with the state of hip-hop music and is particularly dissatisfied with people chasing radio co-signs and being placed in a cliché “box.”

However, the song does conclude with a skit element that pushes the story forward: “Ay K.Dot, get in the car, nigga. Come on, we finna roll out. Nigga I got a pack of blacks and a beat CD. Get yo freestyles ready.”

This skit is a bridge between this and the next song on the album which seems to show a side of the K.Dot character who feels his burgeoning rap career must reflect cliché hip-hop tropes.

Backseat Freestyle

The braggadocios refrain, “Martin had a dream/Kendrick have a dream,” establishes the dichotomy between who K.Dot is in this moment, and how he views any major change (becoming Kendrick Lamar) as cataclysmic a shift as a simple man eventually becoming as legendary and spiritual as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“It’s about me and my homeboys really getting in the backseat and starting our day,” Lamar remember. “Sometimes we’ll rap, it takes away from everything else. That’s one of the feelings that the record produces.”

The Art of Peer Pressure

This song serves as a major plot point of sorts for the conceptual album after K. Dot’s usual sober demeanor is altered when he and his friends smoke and drink and eventually rob someone they outnumbered and further their criminal exploits by executing a house robbery on a residence they’ve been staking out for two months.

In turn, K Dot’s character reveals his internal struggle with lines like, “Really I’m a sober soul, but I’m with the homies right now,” and “Really I’m a peacemaker, but I’m with the homies right now.”

“If you looking at the album as a movie, that song is like the action scene—the story of him and his boys after the ‘Backseat Freestyle’ and what they’re about to do,” said TDE President, Terrence “Punch” Henderson.

Despite K.Dot’s antics, we still view him as a “good kid” and are relieved that he got away from the approaching police cars.

Money Trees

In the classic three-act structure, “Money Trees” exists in the second act and serves a refresher of the inciting incident and conflict that has already occurred for K.Dot: namely, recapping the robbery and his rendezvous with Sherane. But unlike on other songs that fall into similar hip-hop tropes like “Backseat Freestyle,” K.Dot is much more self-aware – after the effects of the alcohol and drugs have worn off – and he has come to realize that like-minded behavior has serious consequences. Specifically, he remembers the death of his uncle at Louis Burger on Rosecrans Avenue in Compton.

This song also contains lyrics, “Everybody gon’ respect the shooter, but the one in front of the gun lives forever,” which highlights one of the prominent themes of the short film: martyrdom.

This statement is a similar sentiment to civil rights activist, Huey Newton, who once said, “You can kill my body, but you can’t kill my soul. My soul will live forever.”

This lyric falls in line with K.Dot’s “coming to Jesus” moment at the end of the film as Christians believe that those that have been killed and lived a righteous lifestyle will live forever with God in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Finally, in the outro, we once again hear from K.Dot’s mother who says, “Kendrick, just bring my car back man. I called in for another appointment. I figured you weren’t gonna be back here on time anyways.”

Poetic Justice

The song “Poetic Justice” occurs chronologically in tandem with the first song, “Sherane,” and we revisit the same instrumental heard in the latter which cements this notion.

From a story standpoint, we begin to understand that the same men who confronted K.Dot in the album’s opener, end up jumping him for no other reason then where he grew up. Suddenly, our morally conflicted hero understands how he is not immune to the acts he has perpetrated on others earlier in the day/night.

good kid

In the aftermath of the beating, K.Dot references the prior day, “For the record, I recognize that I’m easily prey, I got ate alive yesterday.”

This song could be considered a turning point for K.Dot’s transition into Kendrick Lamar where he questions how he can make it out alive if he’s forced to choose between gang sets (“what am I supposed to do / when the topic is red or blue?”) – with the color imagery also serving to make reference between the growing unrest behind regular Compton residents and law enforcement who have been tasked with protecting those with unaffiliatibn – but who are still viewed as gangbangers.

m.A.A.d city

“m.A.A.d city” finds K.Dot continuing to see the irony in gang life. If he doesn’t choose a “set” and engage in illicit activities, he is a man without a country. On the other hand, seeking out refuge in a faction that champions violence makes him even more of a target. Thus, the “suicide” reference illustrates that the only way a person can take their own life in their hands in Compton is by ironically ending it on their own terms.

Swimming Pools

To cope with the pressures of not only his daily existence, but his newfound problems with the men that accosted him at Sherane’s house, K.Dot and his friends engage in a liquid ritual one could call a “baptism by alcohol.”

Whether it’s the booze or the need to defend his personal reputation, the crew decides on retribution which results in the death of his friend’s brother, Dave.

Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst

In the aftermath of Dave’s death, K.Dot pontificates on three tragedies that have impacted him – all from the point of view of the victims. The first, Dave, reasons, “I find nothing but trouble in my life” whose sudden and violent demise is cemented when the verse cuts of mid-sentence with a “pop, pop, pop” from gunshots. The second, Keisha’s sister accuses Kendrick of exploiting her life lived as a prostitute on his debut project, Section.80. Despite her pleas that her life has purpose and meaning, her voice fades out slowly as an aural compliment to Dave’s death which happened suddenly and hers which erodes more like cancer impacting the body. Finally, we hear “Kendrick” for the first time as he questions who he was and what he was trying to achieve as K.Dot.

“‘Sing About Me’ is definitely a true song,” Kendrick confirmed to MTV News. “First verse is speaking from my partner talkin’ to me, speakin’ on a story of how I was there when his brother passed and I got to watch him take his last breath.”

This song – and specifically the latter third – marks a turning point for the K.Dot character when he comes to realize that he must make a change for the better and seek out a higher power. This is reinforced by the late, great poet, Maya Angelou, who tells him, “You need to be baptized, with the spirit of The Lord,” and promises “the start of a new life. Your real life.”

Real

As the title would suggest, “Real” is K.Dot’s realization that everything he thought were tenets of a meaningful lifestyle like “money, power, respect” – which he references as a trifecta both on this song and “Backseat Freestyle” – are fleeting and ultimately juvenile pursuits.

“Real is a reflection of what could have been. That’s the start of me recognizing everything I was doing throughout that day, it wasn’t real,” Lamar said. “Everybody has their own perception of what a ‘real nigga’ is. Most of the time a real nigga is a street cat or someone putting in some type of work and doing violence. That’s what we thought they was. Someone who’s about that life. But on that record, it was me getting an understanding of what real is.”

All that is left for Kendrick Lamar to do is listen to the advice of his mother and father who urge him to make a difference in his community.

“My pops breaking down on that record, it shows the influence he had on my life,” he said. “‘Real is taking care of your family. Real is responsibility. Real is believing in a high power, believing in God. Real is having morals. Real is carrying yourself in a manner where you’re not influenced by anybody else. You have your own mind, your own outlook on life. You’re not doing what’s just the trend or doing what people want you to do.”

Compton

While some have speculated that the bonus track, “Compton,” actually exists as the second song in the narrative, I have interpreted the ode to the city as a way in which the story can serve as a continuous loop like Leonard’s character experiences in Christopher Nolan’s Memento.

In the latter situation, it represents the Sisyphys-esque existence for a youth growing up in Compton who is doomed to repeat past mistakes until they have a similar experience and response as K.Dot.

“That’s the start of my life,” Lamar said. “That’s the start of the positivity that I kept in. That’s the exact start. The movie ends after ‘Real.’ You’ll hear the cassette loading. It ends with ‘Real.’ The new chapter starts with ‘Compton.'”

• Featured/Main Image: Top Dawg/Aftermath /Interscope