(No chorus, just lyrics about hitting on a chick with a big ass)Ģ.
Instead of handpicking lyrics that show Lamar being an imitation of the predictable rap music of today (which would be like shooting fish in a barrel), I’m going to simply give you a sampling of the chorus/hook from each track on the album:ġ. They seem to think he’s a breath of fresh air in a genre where most artists focus solely on promoting themselves and talking about the usual suspects: money, violence, drugs, liquor, and treating women like a piece of meat. In most reviews, it is a common sentiment that Kendrick Lamar is, simply put, a lyrical genius. I scoured the online reviews and saw many of the same catchwords being thrown out: “intelligent,” “narrative,” “sonically complex.” I can’t think of three words that could be further from the truth. For an album that has already been lauded as the most important rap LP of the 21 st century, good kid, M.A.A.D city is one damn mediocre listen.Īfter a couple exhausting run-throughs of the album, I had to figure out what I was missing. It’s not even the best album to come out of his Black Hippy Crew (Schoolboy Q’s “Habits & Contradictions”). It’s not even one of the top 10 best hip-hop albums of 2012 (in alphabetical order: Action Bronson, Brother Ali, Death Grips, El-P, Joey BadA$$, Killer Mike, Roc Marciano, Schoolboy Q, Theesatisfaction, Wu-Block). In fact, it wouldn’t even come near my honorable mention list. city is far from one of the top 10 best albums of 2012. I mean really, so many reviewers couldn’t be wrong, right? It has to be an incredible listen, an unforgettable collection of songs that will go down in hip-hop infamy, correct?įirst off, good kid, M.A.A.D. Are these two publications that far off, or could it be that the other reviewers were blinded by the hype and rapped up by this deuce of an album? The only two major publications I can find that gave it a score below 80 were Tiny Mix Tapes and NME. Hey mom! It’s Kendrick Lamar and that dude who makes over-priced headphones! city has ranked on the “Best Albums of Year” lists that have been released so far: city live up to the hype? Here’s just sampling of scores it’s received from major music publications: All of this had gone down before anyone had even heard the album! Before anyone had even heard the album, Vibe Magazine ran a story on why his new album would change California rap forever. Before his first release on the label even came out, Dre and him could be found mean-mugging on the cover of XXL Magazine, and inside, the XXL touted his latest album as “the biggest debut since Illmatic.” Even Nas himself said that Lamar was the future of hip-hop. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and The Game, the trio called him “The King of the New West Coast.” Dre took it a step further, signing Lamar to his Aftermath label.
From there, the hype began to grow (out of proportion). After several mix tapes, he released “Section.80,” a promising album for a young rapper. One of the artists to get his start through the mix tape avenue is Kendrick Lamar and his Black Hippy crew. In recent years, a major factor in the growth of an artists hype results from the online, mix tape movement, an avenue for budding artists to get their sound out there. In the world of rap music, hype is king, whether it be legendary hype-men like Flavor Flav and P Diddy, or the multitude of hip-hop outlets that rely heavily on the idea of “hype” (, H.Y.P.E. Hype made artists like 50 Cent, Drake, and Nicki Minaj household names before they’d even released their first record. Hype is an important factor for any musician’s start in the business, but out of all the genres, it is most important in the world of hip-hop.
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