Kendrick Lamar

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Providing the sort of semi-autobiographical character arc, good kid would be enough for some, but it’s the lush environs surrounding this “short film” that makes good kid not only a compelling story, but also musically interesting.

With good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar drops what's easily hip hop's most cinematic album of 2012.

Good kid m.A.A.d city is a definitive album for Compton - though it is not without its flaws.

It is rare accomplishment to have such an array of different producers on one project to sound this cohesive.

good kid, m.A.A.d city is the rare album that feels alive with an entire universe inside of it. While I wouldn’t immediately label it a classic, I can say with confidence that any rap artist looking to make a classic should follow in Lamar’s footsteps.

Even when approached cautiously, it’s hard to pick out a single flaw.

Good Kid is an exercise in tasteful restraint, with Lamar employing his boundless budget in creative ways.

It's a completely exhausting listen, one that might prove easier to admire than enjoy. But at the very least, it's never anything less than fascinating.

good kid, m.A.A.d city is a cocksure record, but that confidence isn’t misplaced.

There are dramatic flourishes, rising crescendos and introspective lulls. In short, it is far more than your typical rap album.

Lamar is an unlikely star: a storyteller, not a braggart or punch-line rapper, setting spiritual yearnings and moral dilemmas against a backdrop of gang violence and police brutality.

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City has a widescreen narrative and scope. The dense, often lengthy tracks are interspersed with spurts of dialogue from friends and family, creating an air of intimacy reinforced by the hushed, watery beats.

From its ambitious narrative arc to its fine linguistic detail, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is a honed and deliberate major label debut.

Lamar's major-label debut, probably the year's most significant hip-hop release, proves his talent to be as prodigious as his online output

Throughout these 12 songs (often bi- or tripartite), Lamar reshapes and improves upon enough modern rap tropes to at least partially justify the “unique” and “forward-thinking” mantles that have been placed upon him.

Lamar is a technically supreme rapper, with varied, elastic flow and dexterous tongue twisting.

It might lack the raw appeal of Kendrick’s 2011 mixtape ‘Section.80’, but it’s also a big-budget reminder that the 25-year-old hasn’t forgotten his roots.