Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
It's October of 2012, Drake released Take Care the previous year, firmly cementing his place at the top of the Hip-Hop world. Gone were the days of "comeback season" drizzy, or even so far gone Drake, now there was this brooding crooner who only rapped seemingly when there needed to be a break in between his opus of melancholy. For "Hip-Hop heads" like myself, those who lived and thrived off of the art of rap it seemed that the new generation would be ushered in by a pop superstar who had already shown signs of his impending genre blending sound and would only give us the true rap icon that we so desperately were seeking for out generation when he felt like it, but instead... Enter Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick was coming off of his first studio release Section.80 which was received with much acclaim and began to bend the ear of those scouring the blogs looking for the latest Hip-Hop music. Section.80 had some very high moments, songs that many consider to be among the best in the Compton MC's discography, but it also had moments that could have been better and potentially room to grow but nevertheless Section 80. was a great project and word had began to spread in anticipation for Kendrick's Label Debut album, and with the record "Swimming Pools" Kendrick Lamar was about to be pushed to the forefront of rap music for his make or break moment.
There is a stigma in rap music that sometimes the better lyricists are unable to create a "HIT" song, a song that crosses over to popular music and ultimately could catapult the artist to a level where they are recognized my the masses. "Swimming Pools" wasn't your typical rap song and especially different from HIT songs of the past, the song; with it's stirring back drop, infectious chorus, and seesaw like pitch inflections told the story of Kendrick's first experience with alcohol and spoke more of the potential pitfalls of drinking rather than the normal glorification in music.
Swimming Pools thrust Kendrick into the spotlight and anticipation for his upcoming album titled good kid, m.A.A.d city(GKMC) had begun to grow in hip hop circles and blogs alike. With the release of his next two singles, the anticipation for GKMC had grown to hysteria in the hiphop community, not the question was would he deliver? In recent history highly anticipated rappers released their first albums to mixed reviews. In 2010 Drake released Thank Me Later to mixed reviews and just a week before J.Cole released his first album Cole World: The Sideline Story to less than stellar reviews and now Kendrick would be put to the test.
GKMC was everything fans hoped it would be and more. The album took you into the day of the life of a Compton, California teen and touched on everything from friendship, to love, to death GKMC had the type of impact that had not been felt from a debut album by an Hip-Hip artist in years and it signaled the arrival of King Kendrick Lamar and is one of the most revered albums in the genre today.
Swimming Pools thrust Kendrick into the spotlight and anticipation for his upcoming album titled good kid, m.A.A.d city(GKMC) had begun to grow in hip hop circles and blogs alike. With the release of his next two singles, the anticipation for GKMC had grown to hysteria in the hiphop community, not the question was would he deliver? In recent history highly anticipated rappers released their first albums to mixed reviews. In 2010 Drake released Thank Me Later to mixed reviews and just a week before J.Cole released his first album Cole World: The Sideline Story to less than stellar reviews and now Kendrick would be put to the test.
GKMC was everything fans hoped it would be and more. The album took you into the day of the life of a Compton, California teen and touched on everything from friendship, to love, to death GKMC had the type of impact that had not been felt from a debut album by an Hip-Hip artist in years and it signaled the arrival of King Kendrick Lamar and is one of the most revered albums in the genre today.
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