Here, Kendrick sounds like a terrified kid: 'I made a promise to see you bleeding,' he raps, his voice pitched at a pleading, near-hysterical sob. When 'The Art of Peer Pressure' brings Kendrick and his friends to Rosecrans Ave., the music downshifts into menacing G-funk mode as a salute to hallowed ground. Ice Cube’s “Bird in the Hand” is invoked to set up “m.A.A.d city” (“Fresh of out school, 'cause I was a high-school grad.'), which appropriately marks the moment when real violence erupts. Lamar grew up in Compton, and ghosts of West Coast gangsta-rap haunt this album's edges, casting shadows on Kendrick's complicated relationship with his hometown. It's also a monster of a radio-ready single, with Kendrick rapping in three voices (in double- and triple-time, no less) over an insane Hit-Boy beat. It's a pipsqueak's first pass at a chest-puff.

Framed this way, his 'damn, I got bitches' chant gets turned inside out: This isn't an alpha male's boast.

But on the album, it marks the moment in the narrative when young Kendrick's character first begins rapping, egged on by a friend who plugs in a beat CD. For example, when 'Backseat Freestyle' leaked last week, its uncharacteristic subject matter ('All my life I want money and power/ Respect my mind or die from lead shower') took some fans by surprise. But the miracle of this album is how it ties straightforward rap thrills- dazzling lyrical virtuosity, slick quotables, pulverizing beats, star turns from guest rappers- directly to its narrative. In this album's world, family and faith are not abstract concepts: They are the fraying tethers holding Lamar back from the chasm of gang violence that threatens to consume him.Īll this weighty material might make good kid, m.A.A.d city sound like a bit of a drag. These voicemails appear through the record, reinforcing that good kid, m.A.A.d city is partly a love letter to the grounding power of family. The song is interrupted by the first of several voice mail recordings that delineate the album's structure: Kendrick's mother, rambling into his phone and pleading for him to return her car. As his voice darts and halts in a rhythm that mimics his over-eager commute, Lamar explores the furtiveness of young lust: 'It's deep-rooted, the music of being young and dumb,' he raps. It opens on a 17-year-old Kendrick 'with nothing but pussy stuck on my mental,' driving his mother's van to see a girl named Sherane. Lamar has subtitled the record 'A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar', and the comparison rings true: You could take the album's outline and build a set for a three-act play.

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