Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2LP) [AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

Billed as "a short film by Kendrick Lamar," GKMC sold 242,000 copies in its first week and is routinely ranked among the greatest hip-hop albums ever. This 2LP set includes "The Recipe," "Black Boy Fly" and "Now or Never" alongside "Swimming Pools," "Money Trees" and "Backseat Freestyle."

This edition

• 2LP set, 15 tracks over four sides
• Includes "The Recipe," "Black Boy Fly" and "Now or Never"

About the album

Even if you didn't get ahold of Kendrick Lamar's 2011 indie debut, Section.80, back in the day, you were almost certainly aware of his existence when Good Kid, M.A.A.D City rolled around via Interscope and Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint the following year, due to his by-then well-established habit of being the best damn thing about every single record upon which he was featured.

Unsurprisingly given all that titillating preamble, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was an earth-quaking debut embraced as a landmark in hip-hop history on delivery. Billed as "a short film by Kendrick Lamar," the record weaves an engrossing 70-minute narrative about the young MC's teenage years in Compton and his conflicted relationship with the gangsta rap and gangsta culture that simultaneously casts a long shadow over his work and serves as a point of alienation from his peers. There's a lot to chew on lyrically, then, as well as musically (producers with a hand in this record include Dre, Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Just Blaze and T-Minus) but if you don't want to think too much about what's going on, it's immensely satisfying to just sit back and listen to Kendrick Lamar do his thing. Because, simply put, Kendrick Lamar can rap his freakin' ass off. A must-have for any serious student of hip-hop.

Also at Kops: more Kendrick Lamar on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Aftermath / Interscope / Top Dawg (cat# B001769501), first out in 2012.