Last year I was invited to a live performance, from a friend who worked at the local hip hop station in LA to see an upcoming local artist by the name of Kendrick Lamar.
Sad to say I didn’t attend. However, that was the first time I ever heard the name Kendrick Lamar.
Fast forward a year later the hype all over Twitter and the web is all about the highly anticipated release of “good kid m.A.A.d city”.
Kendrick Lamar, 25, hails from Compton California, the birthplace of “gangsta rap”. It’s only befitting, that Mr. Lamar happens to be signed to none other than Dr. Dre’s Aftermath/Top Dawg Interscope Records.
Mr. Lamar has six mixtapes under his belt, one EP, and one independent album titled “Section .80” on the Top Dawg label.
The record succeeded, and is available on iTunes, which now leads us to the topic that has everybody talking about…The ”good kid” studio produced release.
The album starts off with a prayer, with the titled song “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter”. We hear Kendrick Lamar just basically speaking on an experience, and describes every detail to a tee, including his surroundings.
Through out the album we hear phone voicemail messages from his parents…it’s raw, and in it’s purest form.
In the song “The Art of Peer Pressure” he talks about the advice his parents gave him saying that hanging out with his homies “one day it’s gon’ burn you out” with a catchy melody and then it changes after a minute.
Then the real fun begins, he gets down to business: talks about his experience with his boys, life in LA: Everything from video games, just ridin’, his momma calling asking for her car, girls, trying not to catch a first a offense in the law: with the homies, driving down Rosecrans and hitting blunts.
His lyrical skills are swift, precise and clean. Not to mention the production on this album is impeccable from the likes of Scoop DeVille and THC to name a few.
We also hear from Drake, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, and from Black Hippy member, Jay Rock. The mainstream song we’ve been hearing on the radio so far is “Poetic Justice” featuring Drake with a Janet Jackson melody in the background, as well as the famed “Swimming Pools”.
Another song that caught my attention is “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”. It talks about him hanging out and being mellow with a drink, not wanting to be bothered by his lady. He mentions that he can feel her “energy from two planets away”. Deep quote for a twenty-five year old. Leads me to believe he’s a thinker. His style of rapping is methodically intelligent, and the execution is relevant.
What used to be conscious hip hop over ten years ago on the forefront stationed in the east, maybe something similar in Kendrick Lamar presently. However it’s a new generation and a new coast. Kendrick Lamar makes no excuses for his hometown, but loves his hood and tells us all about it, with the art of storytelling. He’s style is not pushy, but calm and to the point, and not shoved down our throat.
XXL, Spin Magazine and a great write up by Jon Caramanica from the New York Times are subsequently feeling Kendrick Lamar and loving his style. The hype all over the web, is legit in my opinion. Mr. Lamar is not going anywhere anytime soon, as hip hop evolves Kendrick Lamar will be right there.
Mr.Lamar is affiliated with the group Black Hippy, which consists of Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul all hail from Los Angeles, south central to be exact.
[divider] Get all the latest from Kendrick Lamar in iTunesRelated articles
Well written piece. Look forward to more. Big ups to all the female writers!
Love it!!!