Originality: 5/5
Lyrics: 4/5
Beats: 4/5
Impact: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
“Kendrick Lamar did his major label debut justice with this album….”
Cali is back on the map with this album and its not gangsta rap, Kendrick Lamar is different than any of his counter parts from Cali everyone else was G-Funk or gangsta rap, Kendrick is a conscious rapper. Kendrick Lamar did his major label debut justice with this album; he came from dropping mixtapes such as C4 and Overly Dedicated to his independent album Section .80 last year which was a major success and put him on the map as one of the best young rappers and not from NY or from the south.
Kendrick is nothing short of a wizard when it comes to word play, that combined with his ability to tell mind provoking stories over perfectly selected instrumentals is a combination for success. In Section .80 Kendrick took listeners through a trip of the daily life of people in Compton California, diving into the evils of both males and females. After hearing Section .80 I thought it would be highly impossible for the young artist to accomplish this high level of creativity, however he surprised me with the release of GKMC.
GKMC depicts the day in a life of a young black male from Compton, California, from each track of the album to the details of the covers. This album is basically an art show it is pictures throughout sound; our job is to decipher each sound into a picture by processing the lyrics and skits after each track. This album could be easily compared to an early 90s film directed by John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood, Rosewood and Higher Learning).
This album has good amount of features including Jay Rock, Drake, MC Eiht and Dr. Dre, it also had great production from Dr. Dre, Hit-Boy and Scoop DeVille. Our personal favorite songs are “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Money Trees”, “Sing About Me/Dying Of Thirst” and “Swimming Pools”. Kendrick and Cash Moneys own Drake collaborated to present a smooth track produced Scoop DeVille known as “Poetic Justice” using a Janet Jackson sample.
We were expecting great things from Kendrick since Section .80 and he didn’t disappoint with his debut album GKMC. The future is bright for him if he continues to release projects like this, easily top 5 albums this year so make sure you go and buy this album its worth it and stop complaining about hip-hop being dead with music like this.
– Alain and Jay
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