Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City

I got my drink, i got my music, i will share it, but my catchphrase is "enough of that mopey junk." Hard to argue that isn't "bish don't kill my vibe," though, so tonight it's Kendrick Lamar's 2nd album (read major label debut), Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City, a short film by Kendrick Lamar. Several chart-appearing singles, but i think Swimming Pools (Drank) is the one that actually propelled him into the mainstream. 

It's a coin-flip of an acronym, "my angry adolescence divided" or "my angels on angel dust." It's about growing up in Compton, partly autobiographical but used as a wider description of the experience of growing up surrounded by drugs and gang violence. It's a non-linear narrative, but it's very much an audio movie about a good kid slowly realizing how messed up the world around him actually is, and eventually getting out rather than being sucked in. 

Stylistically speaking, we're hearing a kind of total synthesis of West Coast Hip Hop, Conscious, and Gangsta Rap. Now, you could totally argue with me on this, but for me the distinction between East and West Coast Hip Hop is source material. East Coast relies heavily in Jazz, Pop, and World musics as it's foundation, while West Coast uses Funk and Soul, often of the psychedelic persuasion. 

Gangsta Rap has always seemed like a misnomer, i like the original term "reality rap" much better. Yes, gang violence and lifestyle are a major component, but the actual reality of inhabiting that world without euphemisms or PR spin is the point. People don't actually like living with crime, corruption, and violence all around them; they might justify or accept it in all sorts of crazy ways, but they don't like it. 

Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City is very much a Golden Age album where the interlude skits advance and contextualize the tracks, and the physical medium of a double album helps further contextualize the narrative in a way that one big playlist simply can't do. I don't often like double albums, but this one is a worthy exception. Side A gives you the clash between family and street, Side B zooms in to being caught up in the mundanities of that street life, and you get to hear how those two worlds clash, interact, and affect each other. Borrowing the van has a real effect on his family, driving his friends around on those nefarious errands changes the outcome of meeting up with Sherane later, the underlying river of alcohol and drugs is where we'll zoom in for Side C before panning back out to the effect of Compton as a whole on his personal psychology. 

The cameos and multiple voices of Kendrick himself serve an important purpose for the world building, and the real art is how it all weaves together with a track growing out of a throw away line, a whole story arc developing out of a simple intention, a musical expansion of a simple scene as he analyzes that experience, all meaningfully contextualized by the stripped back, almost minimal, approach to beat work and sampling. It's quite eclectic in a musical sense, but consistently detatched and observational in its perspective. It doesn't convey fear by actually frightening you, for example; instead, it sets up a context in which you empathize with the sudden fear K Dot experiences. It's a delicate balance, but you never lose the sense that you're listening to Kendrick tell the story rather than act it out. The album has been taught alongside other masterworks of storytelling in universities, and it should definitely get more of that. Lamar has been forgivably modest about it, saying it's probably not a "classic" album, but might be "classic worthy" in the future. It's 10 years old now, i think i can fairly say that yes it is a classic album, not just of Hip Hop, but of albums in general. Is it better than DAMN.? I dunno, in some ways i suppose you could say that, but i like the idea that the latter is itself a commentary on never really being able to escape the former; the good kid doesn't necessarily win by choosing the better path. That definitely qualifies as reality in my book. 

I have the "deluxe" edition with the actual van rather than the original family Polaroid, but any version is worth checking out. If Hip Hop isn't your thing, don't worry, tomorrow we'll listen to pasty old Trent Reznor triple down on the mopey junk and half scream, half talk sing about it. Tonight, though, i'll reiterate: bitch, don't kill my vibe.