Text Review Assignment: Good Kid m.A.A.d. City

Kendrick Lamar’s album Good Kid, m.A.A.d City (GKMC) Perfectly toes the line of social awareness and classic rap album. On one side it is a biography of Kendricks’s young life in Compton CA and all the violence, fears, and pain that comes with living in this area. On the other side there are “straightforward rap thrills — dazzling lyrical virtuosity, slick quotables, pulverizing beats, star turns from guest rappers — directly to its narrative” (Greene, “Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city,”). Due to this mixture of awareness and pop culture, there are many people willing to call GKMC a classic album even though it was released just 11 years ago.

In the fourth song on the album, Lamar sings about gangbanging with his friends. However, the line that stands out the most is… “really, I’m a peacemaker, but I’m with the homies right now,” (Lamar “The Art of Peer Pressure”). In these two bars Kendrick Lamar show how he does not feel as though he fits in with his community but when he is with his friends, he ends up succumbing to his surroundings and committing crimes for fun. Lamar is blaming peer pressure for his actions, by doing this he does not need to blame his environment which was created from years of racist housing practices such as redlining.

“The Art of Peer Pressure” is the first song to show the struggles that Kendrick Lamar went through as a kid in Compton. The next song that reflects the idea of peer pressure and choices is titled “good Kid”. In “good Kid” Lamar talks about how he was getting pressured to join the Bloods or Crips. This is shown in the lyrics “But what am I ‘posed to do when the topic is red or blue and you understand that I ain’t” (Lamar “good Kid”). While he remains steadfast and refuses to join a gang he is still viewed as a gang member by the police. Lamar talks about this discrimination at the end of the second verse where he says

“And you ask: “Lift up your shirt,” because you wonder if a tattoo

Of affiliation can make it a pleasure to put me through

Gang files, but that don’t matter because the matter is racial profile

I heard ‘em chatter: “he’s prob’ly young, but I know that he’s down step on his neck as hard as your bullet-proof vest

He don’t mind, he know we’ll never respect

The good Kid m.A.A.d. City.””

Despite not having any gang affiliation Kendrick Lamar is still targeted by the police for the simple fact that he is a black kid in Compton.

Even though only two songs could be reflected upon in this essay every song on the album has similar tones of injustice and social awareness. Due to his environment, Kendrick Lamar was forced to realize the injustices in the world. This realization has shaped his music and can be seen and heard across his entire discography.

Greene, Jason. “Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city.” Pitchfork, 23 October 2012, https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17253-good-kid-maad-city.

Lamar, Kendrick. “good Kid.” Genius, https://genius.com/search?q=good%20kid

Lamar, Kendrick. “The Art of Peer Pressure.” Genius, http://rapgenius.com/Kendrick-lamar-the-art-of-peer-pressure-lyrics.

Voorhees, Andrew. “Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City’-an Academic Analysis.” Medium, Medium, 12 Jan. 2018, https://medium.com/@andrew.voorhees92/kendrick-lamars-good-kid-m-a-a-d-city-an-academic-analysis-71bfe86ffdb9.