K-Dot's Bandwagon and the Road Less Traveled

I've noticed a little trend. Kendrick Lamar and his good kid, M.A.A.D city are getting a really big whoop.

In the eyes of many music critics and aficionados, it’s well deserved. Off the bat, comparisons to Nas’ Illmatic were made in countless album reviews. So far, he’s been dubbed the “magnum opus of a generation” and “an anointed-by-acclamation savior” by The Washington Post and The New York Times, respectively.

He’s bulked up on some hefty cosigns for the most part (let's all just ignore Shyne calling the album “trash”).  Game called him the “West Coast Nas” and earlier in time, K-Dot teared up as he, Snoop and Dr. Dre symbolically passed him the torch. His first week projections serve as his accolades, boasting sales of over 240,000 units in his first week alone even without a real hit single (Swimming Pools was nice, not viral). 

Kendrick even joined the ad-lib/twitter quotables Hall of Fame (Ya Bish!) alongside the likes of Rick Ross’s heavy grunts, Yeezy’s hanhhs, Drake’s YOLO, and Big Sean’s “oh god,” “boiii” and “swerve.”

He's had a magnetic effect on people since he dropped Section.80 and it's looking like GKMC is the hook, line, and sinker.

So I heard all these rants and raves and naturally had to give it a listen.


And it was okay. Just okay.

But see the thing you have to understand about me is that I like things later and on my own. Something about drowning something in positive reviews and sicing my expectations oft’ leaves me disappointed. Drake’s Take Care was sooo weak to me after weeks of audible anticipation from my peers. It took a month of being force-fed the album, but now, I love that ish. Every song can be played one after the other and mesh with any mood I have. Life is Good didn’t get any repeats from me the first time around. I’d just stare at the album cover, swoon over Nas for a couple of seconds, then keep it moving. Now, “No Introduction,” “Cherry Wine,” and “Bye Baby” are absolutely unskippable in my iTune shuffle rotation. And I still swoon over Mr. Jones' face. Circa 2007, I couldn’t stand Graduation or Kanye West at all for that matter. It wasn’t until I split with my ex—who was a devout ‘Ye Stan—that I finally allowed myself to fall in love with that body of work and respect his genius. I just had to do it on my own terms. So, in accordance to the natural order of things, I’m sure GKMC will grow on me with time and I will soon join the ranks of the album’s most vocal loyalists.

But any who, what I do bang with is the consumers’ acceptance and praise of Kendrick’s creative direction. The fact that this painfully adorable, funsize and elf-eared man’s music is being catapulted to such success, all while the sheer message of it all is that he’s sincerely a good kid, is amazing to me. No full-time stripper tippin’ and molly popping. No gang banging and chilling on some random inner city corner selling drugs. No overly cocky, cancel-that-bitch demeanor. No simpleton mannerisms. And my favorite part of all: I found someone in this scarce world that isn’t down with the smoking weed thing and openly professes this in his music. He’s just an intra-conscious storyteller who happens to rap and feels compelled to pick his own thoughts out loud. And people love it.

I’d rather this sort of love and admiration for him go viral than all the crap Chief Keef “Don’t Like” (and all of the actions surrounding him and his affiliates that keep him someone I don’t like). Anyone who knows me knows that if I was rich, I would pay any amount of money for Keef and Lil Reese to lose their fame. In my humble opinion, people like that who make music like that stir a helluvalotta trouble we don’t need, whether it reflects 'real nigga life' or not. Please, take all that violent and illegal stuff elsewhere.

Kendrick is a breath of fresh air and I’m happy to see masses willingly following the smell of roses.

Good people, continue to ride Kendrick’s coattail and jump on his bandwagon, because for once, here’s an artist who deserves it. Until then, I will play good kid, M.A.A.D. city until it sounds like buttery gold.

Don’t worry, I’ll soon catch up.