Compton, USA, a hot bed for hip hop culture, home to arguably the best to ever rap in 2Pac, may have yet another great by the name of Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar his made big waves before with his previous albums but none as big as the waves made with good kid, M.A.A.d city. This album has multiple hits that were on the billboard 100. Lamar definitely is making moves towards being the greatest of this generation, at least.  

The western Cali style of music is to tell one big story within the album. This means there are a lot of intros, outros, preludes, and interludes. Each song links parts of the story together like scenes. Lamar’s story is over a couple of days. He skips school to hang out with his gang, meet his high school girlfriend, and just run the streets of Compton.

He speaks of his family’s past and has voicemails from his parents included in the songs, which help tell the story of the album. With so much reality mixed into his music, you get the feel of Lamar’s life.

Lamar illustrates his life as a teenager in Compton. You quickly are dropped into his life by the first song, “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter.” In this song you’re taken through the adventure of Lamar’s first meeting and then later hanging out with Sherane, his high school sweetheart.

There are a number of rappers who appear on this album, everyone from the TDE label that Kendrick signed with. Drake comes in on the song “Poetic Justice.” This was one of the songs that was on the Billboard top 100, peaking at no. 26.

The biggest artist to make an appearance on the album is the infamous Jay Z on the remix edition of “Don’t Kill My Vibe.” The buzz throughout the music industry is that Jay Z only hops on with the best of the best. He and Lamar collaborating sent shock waves throughout the rap world.

The only down side of this album is the explicit lyrics. Because of the vulgar language, many radio stations around America are not able to play his music.

In the end, good kid, M.A.A.d city is a top-tier album, an album that displays the life of a young Lamar, and in his life we see and feel Compton. Songs that weren’t played on the radio streamed 10 million-plus times on apps like Spotify and Apple Music.

This album rates a 9/10 because there’s no such thing as a perfect album — but this is the closest I’ve experienced to an album being perfect.