KENDRICK LAMAR

GOOD KID, MA.A.AD CITY

by JASPER RYDEN

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar’s major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, opens with the ominous “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter,” which itself begins with a recording of a family saying grace before dinner. Lamar then goes on to relate a story about a girl named Sherane with “the credentials of strippers in Atlanta” who he met at a “house party on El Segundo and Central.” As he soon reveals, he was “seventeen, with nothing but pussy stuck on [his] mental.” We discover that Sherane’s cousin is a gangbanger as the story plays out. In the closing seconds, as Lamar pulls up to her house wondering, “What position’s next,” he sees “two black hoodies” and freezes, when suddenly his phone rings. It goes to voicemail, and Kendrick’s mother leaves a message, demanding to know where her son is.

Immediately, the brilliant “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” turns the mood around entirely. As the track begins, Kendrick sings a hymn over a splash of serene guitar chords: “I am a sinner / who’s prob’ly gonna sin again / Lord forgive me / Lord forgive me / things I don’t understand / Sometimes I need to be alone.” This kind of introspection is one of Kendrick’s trademarks, recalling tracks like “Kush & Corinthians” from last year’s independently released album Section.80. After the hook, Lamar gets right to the rhythmic, polysyllabic, rhyme bending flow that made him famous in songs like Section.80’s “Rigamortis.”

Good kid, m.A.A.d. city is full of contrasts, from the tension between Lamar’s “sober soul” and the Compton streets he grew up on to the industrial complex presented by modern mainstream hip-hop to which Lamar has just become a party. GKMC debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard’s Top 200, shifting 241,000 units in its first week, and features the likes of Dr. Dre, MC Eiht, and an unexpected verse from Drake on the baby-makin’ “Poetic Justice,” which also features a familiar (and pricey) Janet Jackson sample.

The album was jointly released by Lamar’s own Top Dawg Entertainment and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, a subsidiary of Interscope Records. Dr. Dre’s support of Kendrick Lamar is a big deal in the world of hiphop; the man who helped found NWA, invented G-funk, and mentored and produced for Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, and The Game, in addition to selling unholy amounts of exceptionally average headphones, has found another protégé. There is little G-funk to be found on the album; rather, it draws influences from a remarkably comprehensive view of the hip-hop world. Besides the classic gangsta beat on “m.A.A.d. city” (which contains an excellent verse from Lamar’s fellow Black Hippy member Jay Rock) and the 2Pac talkbox at the tail end of “Compton” (the track featuring Dre), there is not much to designate GKMC as a West Coast rap album. Yet it still seems that West Coast hip-hop is back, in spirit if not necessarily in musical style.

Lamar certainly has the credentials to be considered Los Angeles rap’s spiritual successor. He’s claimed in the past to have been visited in dreams by Tupac Shakur himself, who allegedly said to Lamar, “Keep doin’ what you’re doin’. Don’t let my music die.” And at a concert last August, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and The Game crowned Lamar the new king of the West Coast and, in Snoop’s words, “passed on the torch.” At one point, The Game interjected:

“Ain’t no hate in Dr. Dre’s blood, he passed the torch to Snoop, Snoop passed it to Game, Pac restin’ in peace, so is Eazy…I hate when people say the West ain’t poppin’. I told you it was coming.” <

BEST ALBUMS 2012

RECORDS THAT GOT US THROUGH THE END OF DAYS

1. Frank Ocean –channel ORANGE One of those albums that’s great on a first listen. It’s also great on every subsequent listen.

It’s full of introspection but not enough to make you slow down your drive with Ocean’s voice blasting and synths pulsating.

It’s R&B but, like Stevie or Prince, sounds simple, poppy and universal at face value. A skillful, quick-witted scribe of our generation more comfortable on the outside looking in, getting inside our heads but never making us think too hard. Subtly powerful.” – Dylan Portelance 3. Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

4. Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan The voices of Longstreth and the 2 seem beautiful and ethereal enough to conquer (figurative) death. - Melissa Roberts

5. TNGHT - TNGHT EP

Hudson Mohawke and Lunice forged the wonkiest, most intrepid set on 2. Kendrick Lamar – good dance tracks on the planet this year kid, m.A.A.d city with their debut collaboration. It’s as if the two producers stuffed all the elements of hip-hop, trap, and EDM into a bomb shelter, threw in a few grenades, and then rebuilt society with its ashes. Everything is so simple and effortless-nothing feels out of place, but it manages to get people moving more than any kind of Pretty Lights’ hyper-contrived, clusterfucks of sound. I guess Rome can be built in a day (or few). - Andrew Garsetti

10. Flying Lotus –Until the Quiet Comes

8. Sleigh Bells –Reign of Terror You haven’t heard this much whammy bar abuse since Dimebag’s glory days.” – Scott Sugarman

6. Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It Mike Hadreas doesn’t have particularly strong piano skills, songwriting ability, or a powerful voice, but somehow, it manages to help his cause. Hadreas’ quiver of a voice, emoting over lyrics about his tumultuous life or the plight of gay teens coping with a still-pejucided society, has some of the most hardhitting pathos of any record this year, and it’s easily the most touching.” Andrew Garsetti

9. Converge - All

We Love We

Leave Behind

The best heavymusic album of 2012. Yeah, Converge get hyped to the heavens every time a new album rolls around, but once that album drops it’s always so innovative, so vicious, and so brave a work of art that said hype ceases to mean a single thing. All that’s left is the music. - Craig Dathe

7. Death Grips - The Money Store The Money Store is you and your friends running through the streets in broad daylight smashing everything that you come across with bloodstained baseball bats to the soundtrack of a boombox with blown speakers belching a burned CD mix of crusty hardcore, indignant rap, and shitty brostep and when the police come you just keep running barking “I’ve seen footage” over and over again to no one and everyone as you start foaming at the mouth but you just keep running and somewhere inside you’re exhausted but you can’t stop smashing shit . . . – Scott Sugarman

BEST TRACKS 2012

THE YEAR THAT BROUGHT US CALL ME MAYBE & GANGNAM STYLE

3Major Lazer – “Get Free”

2A$AP Rocky –“Goldie”

5Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Thrift Shop”

4Sleigh Bells – “Comeback Kid” Hard to believe this dropped in February, because it fucking screams summer. I’m so cold... -Molly Wallace

1Grizzly Bear – “Sleeping Ute” This swelling, atmospheric and tense opus typifies Grizzly Bear’s prowess with indie rock texture. They cover acoustic, electric, psychedelic and balladic ground all in a structured and cohesive package. But more impressive than their palette of sounds is their ability to weave in and out of infectious melodies and harmonies.

“Ute” is a memorable classic and a true timestamp for simultaneously accessible and alternative music in 2012.” – Dylan Portelance