Is the deluxe version of 'good kid, M.A.A.D city' worth the extra money? DISCLAIMER: I will not torrent music. I will not download it illegally. Don't waste my time telling me just to go download the album for free. If Kendrick's dick ain't free, then his music shouldn't be either.
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Kendrick Lamar Maad City
Kendrick Lamar Good Kid Maad City
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Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (stylized as good kid, m.A.A.d city) is the second studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar.It was released on October 22, 2012, by Aftermath Entertainment, Interscope Records, and Top Dawg Entertainment.

Kendrick Lamar's 'Good Kid, Maad City' album is a.Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City - Kendrick Lamar on AllMusic - 2012 - Hip-hop debuts don't come much more.Listen free to Kendrick Lamar good kid,.

Has anyone ever compiled the narrative bastion of GKMC into an easily digestible guide? Because we just did.

Last year Kendrick Lamar released his major label debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city and the rap internet collectively shat their pants.

It wasn’t just scrawny white boys with a passion for snapbacks who found their trousers soaked with excitement, though. Critics who have a limited lexicon heralded it as rap’s return to form, while others lazily labeled it as the West Coast’s Illmatic. It was a record so great that in ten years, if these ~~critics~~ content farmers are still around, they’ll be compiling listicles celebrating its anniversary.

The other day, while passively hating on the rest of the commuting public for using the same transport as myself, I found myself listening to Kendrick’s masterpiece. As I listened, I no longer found myself on the coffee machine jockey’s convoy to the coast; instead, I was riding through South Central Los Angeles tarnished with sympathy for Kendrick’s dad and his Dominos. In between wondering if Kendrick’s father ever satisfied his want to sink ships of over-priced pizza crust into seas of garlic and herb sauce, I wondered if anyone had ever compiled the narrative bastion of GKMC into an easily digestible guide.

If anyone ever has, I’m sorry. This is the internet and unfortunately, it’s illegal to superglue our interns to laptops to search through every miniscule rap blog for a mention of Kendrick Lamar.

For everyone else, let’s start at the beginning….

But first – TL:DR – The story starts at the end. GKMC’s narrative focuses on K.Dot's transition to Kendrick Lamar as he tries to break free from Compton. The story isn’t completely chronological, as we’re told stories from K.Dot’s perspective, with a few Kendrick tracks peppering the storyline throughout.

The Prelude – Introducing Us To Compton

Kendrick Lamar Maad City

“Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe [Skit]”

“Backseat Freestyle”

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GKMC opens with “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter”. In terms of narrative, though, this isn’t the beginning. It’s like the opening scene in Annie Hall. Except instead of Woody Allen encapsulating all the neurotic aspects of my personality into five minutes, Kendrick sets up the story of him and Sherane. We’ll get back to that later, though.

Instead, the prelude to the story starts right after “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” with Kendrick’s friends picking him up.

“K.Dot, get in the car nigga. C’mon it’s time to roll out. I’ve got a packet of blacks and a beat CD”

In the story, Kendrick is playing the character of K.Dot, his own persona based around his real life experiences growing up in Compton. The majority of the record focuses on K.Dot and his journey toward transforming into Kendrick Lamar. Anyway…because a packet of cigarillos and a beat CD sounds appealing, K.Dot jumps in his friend's Toyota and rides around town.

When I spent my weekday nights clustered inside a steamed up Vauxhall Corsa, I was happy with a scruffily rolled stick of the devil’s lettuce and a trip to Tesco. But, I’m not Kendrick. I’m a white kid from the suburbs where the only danger is coming home too late. Instead, Kendrick starts freestyling with a verse that seemingly represents the mantra of his community ('Backseat Freestyle')

“All my life I want money and power / Respect my mind or die from lead shower”

Which leads us to…

The Beginning – K.Dot Sets Up The GKMC Narrative

“The Art Of Peer Pressure”

Maad City Kendrick Lamar

“Compton” [Skit]

“Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter”

I’m going to put my Media Studies A-Level to use and suggest that the narrative of K.Dot's transition to Kendrick truly starts with “The Art Of Peer Pressure”. It’s clearly split into two separate songs. The first acts as a leading intro, backed up by Kendrick’s narration – “Everybody sit your bitch ass down and listen to this true motherfuckin’ story told by Kendrick Lamar on Rosecrans” – as they drive down Rosecrans Avenue.

The introduction to the track, with the mention of location, seems to represent a clear start to the story with the composition not sounding dissimilar to that of a film. It’s as if Kendrick is introducing the story of K.Dot.

After the “rolling credits”, the bulk of the track starts. We’re brought right out on to location with K.Dot and his homies as they “roll deep in a White Toyota… on a mission for bad bitches and trouble.” We follow them as they bump through Jeezy’s first album, and hotbox the car like “George Foreman grilling the masses”

If the title wasn’t enough for you, we’re also introduced to the perpetuation of gangbanging culture through strong friendships. As they speed down the 405 past Westchester, K.Dot takes a huff of a blunt.

He doesn’t normally smoke, but, shit. He’s with the homies. And, as we learn, being with the homies in Compton doesn’t just involve sparking a roll-up. Instead, it means rushing people in colours and robbing Nintendos from houses. Gang culture and the lifestyle that it perpetuates throughout the community is probably the most dominant theme across the album.

The track ends with K.Dot’s friends dropping him back at his house because they “know he trying to fuck on Sherane tonight.”

We fast forward here to the end of the album. Sounds confusing, right? But at the end of “Compton”, you can hear Kendrick asking if he can borrow his mother’s van, telling her that he’ll “be back in 15 minutes”. This directly coincides with “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter” where we listen to Kendrick’s mother leaving him a voicemail in which she says: “I’m sitting here waiting on my van, you told me you’d be back here in fifteen minutes!”.

So, there we are, right back at the beginning of the album, which sits slap bang in the middle of the story. Does that make sense? So, in terms of narrative, we run through from “The Art Of Peer Pressure”, the skit at the end of “Compton” and back to “Sherane”, with the skit at the end of 'Bitch Don't Kill my Vibe' and 'Backseat Freestyle' setting up the events that led to Kendrick getting blunted and taking his mother's car to visit Sherane.

The Middle: Realisation Of The Danger’s Of Compton’s Lifestyle

“Poetic Justice”

“Good Kid”

“M.A.A.D City”

Where “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter” introduces us to the story of Sherane as Kendrick drives to meet her, “Poetic Justice” seems to act as the simultaneous thought process inside K.Dots’s head. It also makes sense that the two tracks are linked, because at the end of the track we revisit the instrumental heard in “Sherane”. The skit picks up the story directly after K.Dot pulls up outside her house and is greeted by “two niggas [in] two black hoodies”.

The run-in with the gangbangers kicks off the second half of the story. It’s like the bit in every good gangster story where the protagonist realises that they need to break out of the death-ridden community they’re living in, before it eats them alive. On “Good Kid” the transition from K.Dot to Kendrick starts to take place.

Kendrick talks about almost being killed the previous day – “I recognise that I’m easy prey / I got ate alive yesterday” – and ponders over the gang colour war that’s threatening Compton – “what am I supposed to do / when the topic is red or blue?”

K.Dot

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