VABeats with this week’s braindead breakdown of Kendrick Lamars’ Good Kid, Maad City. VABeats is a baguette sucker and world traveler at the Daily Beat. Apart from hippity hopping, he is also a published editor of a book concerning agricultural stagnation in Nepal.

Good Kid, Maad City

I was in Nepal and managed to hear the leaked track “Cartoon & Cereal” back in February. If you have electricity, you should already have heard of this album. No doubt. If you don’t know who Kendrick Lamar is, you’ve clearly been living in a cave without any type of radio whatsoever. His new release and first studio album is reviewed below in extra special word vomit format.
*WEST COAST
*It is an homage to Warren G, Dr. Dre (who’s on the album, of course), as well as Snoop before he decided to become an animal of the Savannah.
*Another album in the tradition of talking about growing up in Compton through a LYRICAL INVASION.
*Old school 90’s ish revamped like orange soda flavored four locos (who loves malt liquor... Kel loves malt liquor).

To put it concisely: THIS ALBUM IS STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (in that old skool dre way, ya dig?).

Let us begin the song by song commentary:

Money Trees.

Jay Rock kills it on that with the chorus, and that's all I have to say,

Halle Berry or Hallelujah/Pick your poison, tell me what you’re choosing
****************************
Poetic Justice ft. Drake

…. I’m gonna let the Ghostface Killa back me up on this one, this quote is taken from http://bigghostnahmean.blogspot.com/

and summarizes my thoughts on Drake nicely.

“Kinda hard to hate on this shit. Like you jus gotta be honest sometimes yo. I dont jus go into autohate cuz some lame featurin on the joint. Not even that corny ass cake nigga Aubrey can fuck this shit up namsayin. I aint hatin on son...”- GFK

Okay, the dude might look like this (see left) but he drops a tolerable verse on a dope beat here which truly gives me faith in today’s beat-making, especially the smoov’ vocal sample used. With beats like this a Drake spit is more than salvaged, it’s actually awesome.

****************************

Backstreet Freestyle:

“All my life I want money and power/

I pray my dick get as big as the Eiffel Tower/So I can f**k the world for 72 hours”

As someone born and raised in France, I respect this reference.

“She rollin’/I’m holdin’/My scrotum imposing”

“Damn I got bitches/Wifey, girlfriend and mistress”

As someone with a scrotum, I appreciate this reference.

****************************
Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe
I can feel your energy from two planets away

Asks you to look inside your soul… but actually, spits that shii truthfully. The soul of this song is the realness of growing up in Compton, a reality in which many of his listeners may not share.

I said hey my name is Kendrick/She said no you're handsome

...Kendrick shows us how easy it is to pick up girls in Compton when you're rolling with Tha Doctor.

****************************

Swimming Pools (Drank)
This is that real Trap Muzik. (If anybody has an actual definition of what trap music entails, send it to me, no one seems to know...)

This track just makes you want to sit back in a Barca lounger with some Hennessy and a Honey Dutch, or Grape Swisher if that happens to be your preference. And maybe, just maybe… you’re in Vegas after renting an Escalade/limo after someone in your entourage suggested a spontaneous road trip to take a break from hollerin’ at ladies on Rodeo Drive. For tips regarding stuntin’ like a G, check out our Lifestyle section here at the Daily Beat. Or perhaps drop by my office once in a while.

****************************

The Art of Peer Pressure

The first 10 seconds of The Art of Peer Pressure begins with a jazzy smooth piano accompanied by some bongos to bring that feeling of chilling with a tribe. I wonder what would happen if Kendrick and Tribe did a collaboration, what would that sound like? Ah man, I’m getting sucked into the Ghetto of the Mind again…anyway, on the art of peer pressure, Kendrick once again instills some wisdom:

I got the blunt in my mouth/Usually I’m drug free…but s**t I’m with the homies. Me and the homies.

99% of the people who listen to hip-hop can relate to that feeling. But in his contradictory fashion, Kendrick turns it around to show his philosophical side:

I'm usually a true firm believer of bad karma/Consequences from Evil will make your past haunt ya

I always thought Buddhist ideals were contradictory with carrying a gat. But this makes me think Kendrick may be having deep discussions with the RZA concerning the Tao of Wu...

****************************

Favorite Track?

I can’t even pick a favorite track off this album. It’s one of those albums in the vein of The Chronic, Doggystyle, Life After Death, and needless to say, Illmatic, where maybe with arduous thinking fueled by various substances one might handpick a few favorite tracks that truly give you that eargasm you’ve been looking for your whole life. But you can’t just pick one, because that would mean your favorite lyrics and your favorite beats from the album probably wouldn’t be on the same track. This dissociation is very likely caused by one of my favorite parts of a true hip-hop album: the art of intros and outros. Kendrick decided to reintegrate crazy intros and outros to songs often taken from vocal samples on a corner or when he’s scheming while chilling with his homies. The difference between the intros and outros of today and those of the 90’s is that back in the day it was mostly supposed to give you an insight to the track and the album, but also make you laugh, perhaps trough dark humor albeit, but still laugh. Kendrick does a good job of returning to this tradition.

****************************

A final word on the Album Cover...

Now this album cover has got to bring out some reminiscence to the other albums I name drop in this post, what with the picture of him as a baby and all. If have no idea what I’m talking about, I got them on vinyl/I need to educate you in the Art of Hip-Hop/I’m gonna send Ice T to see you, where he’ll probably diverge from hip-hop and talk about…