Kendrick Lamar – “good kid, m.A.A.d city”

Kendrick Lamar’s new elpee good kid, m.A.A.d city has been buried beneath a crushing amount of praise from critics and hip-hop fans, and yeah, it’s about as well put together as a record could be. Lamar is Compton born and bred, and the Los Angeles neighborhood is his subject, his muse and his constant co-star all the way through. West Coast grooves slink through Lamar’s empathetic tales of hood life and its challenges, with a point of view that is not exactly in the mess, but is quite frank about being of the mess. good kid, m.A.A.d city is brave, complicated, poetic, and is easily the best hip-hop record to come out of California in 2012, and is second worldwide only to the brute force of Killer Mike’s R.A.P Music.