The voices and the characters immerse the listener in the album’s world making them feel a part of it, as if they too were growing up there. It is this cacophony of voices that helps bring Kendrick’s own character to life in the way he relates to them and the city of Compton itself. Dot on ‘Backseat Freestyle’ to the composure of Kendrick on ‘Real’. When it isn’t the voices of others pushing into the album, it’s Kendrick himself changing his voice to play different characters or to show changes in his own person like the shift in style from the immaturity of K. When you eatin’ cheese from the government? city’, while Jay Rock makes a compelling argument for the thug lifestyle on ‘Money Trees’: MC Eiht plays the street savvy veteran to Kendrick’s young pup on ‘m.A.A.d. Some of the album’s featured artists are also characters. There are phone calls from Kendrick’s father asking where his ‘dominoes at’, and his mother fretting about her van and her son. There are the young men praying at the beginning of the album, or the old woman, based apparently on Maya Angelou, who confronts a group of angry youths, or even the despairing voice of a man mourning the death of his brother. Through a selection of skits, scenes and recordings, Kendrick populates the streets of his hometown with tangible characters. On good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick’s Compton is a kaleidoscope of characters, brought to life so vividly by the use of the human voice. The city of Compton, is central to Kendrick’s debut album–it moulded him into the man he would become. While he would go on to further success and greater acclaim, it was good kid, m.A.A.d. Kendrick is the titular good kid, and the album details his life as a teenager and a young man on the deprived, gang divided, and damaged streets of Compton or the m.A.A.d. City, that made him into a bonafide star. But it was his sophomore album, good kid, m.A.A.d. It was very well received by rap fans, and saw Kendrick signed to the major record label Interscope and Dr Dre’s label Aftermath Entertainment. He first began to attract attention thanks to his independently produced debut album Section.80, released in 2011. Over the past decade, Kendrick Lamar has released seminal albums, won multiple Grammys, and even picked up a Pulitzer prize in literature on his way to becoming a living legend.
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