good kid, m.A.A.d city - TV Tropes

Compton, Compton, ain't no city quite like mine.

good kid, m.A.A.d city is the second studio album and major-label debut of American rapper Kendrick Lamar. Billed as a "short film", the album plays as a fictionalized narrative about Lamar's teenage experiences in Compton, California (the titular "m.A.A.d city"^note ), deconstructing Gangsta Rap by featuring a darker and more realistic vision of teenage gang life.

The album centers around a young Lamar — the titular "good kid", referred to as "K-dot". However, he isn't such a good kid when he's "with the homies"; he claims to believe in sobriety and nonviolence but discards both in their presence, barely evading arrest and suffering through bad drug trips as a result. Distracted by sexual fantasies, K-dot impulsively drives into the wrong neighborhood alone to hook up with Love Interest Sherane. Two blocks from her home, he is instead intercepted by members of a rival gang who predictably beat him senseless for his trouble.

Tired of Running, K-dot's friends get into a shootout to avenge him and drive off the other gang members at the cost of one of their own, seemingly ensuring a Cycle of Revenge. Encouraged by family and religious figures not to continue down this path, K-dot is implied to find religion and grows into a successful rap artist.

The album controversially lost all five of its Grammy Award nominations, with most of the public outcry resulting from the award for Best Rap Album that it was up for going to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for their album The Heist (alongside their song "Thrift Shop" winning Best Rap Performance, for which "Swimming Pools (Drank)" was nominated). Even Macklemore himself deemed Lamar's loss a robbery and personally apologized to him via text after the award ceremony.

---

Tracklist

1. "Sherane, a.k.a. Master Splinter's Daughter" (4:33)
2. "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" (featuring uncredited guest vocals from Anna Wise) (5:10)
3. "Backseat Freestyle" (3:32)
4. "The Art of Peer Pressure" (5:24)
5. "Money Trees" feat. Jay Rock (featuring uncredited guest vocals from Anna Wise) (6:26)
6. "Poetic Justice" feat. Drake (5:00)
7. "good kid" (featuring uncredited guest vocals from Pharrell Williams) (3:34)
8. "m.A.A.d city" feat. MC Eiht (5:50)
9. "Swimming Pools (Drank)" (5:13)
10. "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" (12:03)
11. "Real" feat. Anna Wise (7:23)
12. "Compton" feat. Dr. Dre (4:08)

Deluxe Bonus Tracks

1. "The Recipe" feat. Dr. Dre (5:52)
2. "Black Boy Fly" (4:38)
3. "Now or Never" feat. Mary J. Blige (4:17)
4. "Collect Calls" feat. Kent Jamz (3:57)
5. "County Building Blues" (4:18)
6. "Swimming Pools (Drank) (Black Hippy Remix)" feat. Black Hippy (5:14)
7. "The Recipe (Black Hippy Remix)" feat. Black Hippy (4:22)
8. "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe (Remix)" feat. Jay-Z (4:38)

---

Seem like the whole trope list go against me, every time I scroll down I read (YAWK YAWK YAWK YAWK!):

• The Alcoholic: "Swimming Pools (Drank)" is from the perspective of one.
• all lowercase letters: The title "good kid".
• Album Title Drop: The album title is drop at the end of each verse in "good kid".
• All There in the Manual: Averted Trope; the spoken word sketches common to rap albums here color in the narrative rather than serving as comic relief.
• Alternate Album Cover: The cover for the deluxe edition changes it to a black Chysler Town & Country van.
• Anachronic Order: The narrative jumps back and forth between Kendrick getting jumped on his way to meet Sherane, hanging out with his friends, and voicemails from his parents. The story ultimately begins at the end of the second track, when K-dot is invited to come along with some friends.
• Anti-Hero: Kendrick is sympathetic, but displays horrible judgement and is hardly heroic.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Exaggerated for comedy in "Backseat Freestyle":

  I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower
  So I can fuck the world for 72 hours!

• Bittersweet Ending: Kendrick's friend gets shot and killed after they retaliate against Sherane's cousins jumping Kendrick at the end of "Swimming Pools (Drank)". He and his friends, in a broken rage, are about to fight back until an elderly woman convinces him to not to and embrace God as a way to recover in "Sing About Me, Dying of Thirst" and Kendrick's able to slowly recover and cope with the events in "Real", with his mother and father sending their voicemails to comfort him from the ordeal, his mother encouraging him to follow up with Top Dawg Entertainment and tell his story to the kids of Compton and "give back to his city".
• Boastful Rap: "Backseat Freestyle" is an exaggerated version and possibly a partial deconstruction, clearly meant as the work of an immature teenager. It's also a Discussed Trope during one sketch - two of K-dot's friends work out that anyone successful enough to actually make these isn't on the streets enough to back them up.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens thrice on the album: once when he refers to producer Hit-Boy^note  on "Backseat Freestyle", another when Keisha's sister refers to Section.80^note  on "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst," and lastly when Just Blaze^note  inserts his name into "Compton," the one song on the album he produced.
• Broken Record: In "Real", in the bridge section, Anna Wise sings "Sing my song, it's all for you" 16 times.
• Call-and-Response Song: "Poetic Justice" provides a Sampling-based variant in the chorus, where Lamar's repeated "you can get it" queues Janet Jackson singing "anyplace" and "anytime" in response.
• Catchphrase/Singer Namedrop: Record Producer Just Blaze inserts his on "Compton", though it also functions in context as a drug reference.
• Censor Box: The eyes of all the people on the album cover have been blackboxed, save for the child (which is the artist himself).
• Coming of Age Story: The later songs imply that K-Dot takes responsibility for his life after years of ill-judgment "when he's with the homies".
• Concept Album: It's a short film. An actual short film adaptation, directed by Lamar, is supposedly in the works.
• Darker and Edgier: Easily one of the darkest and most intense works mainstream gangsta rap has seen in recent memory, even compared to albums that redefined the genre, like N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton. What makes it stand out exceptionally is how Lamar doesn't just narrate the realities of life in Compton, but does so through a much more introspective and psychological lens. Unlike the albums of N.W.A, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, or 2Pac, which, while reflecting the violence and struggles of street life, often did so with frantic beats, touches of cartoonish violence, G-Funk and Black Comedy that at least provided some lightness to the explicit content of their lyrics, good kid, m.A.A.d city dives into a gritty, emotionally complex, and desolate narrative. The characters in his songs aren't just figures of power or resistance; they are people trapped in a cycle of violence and hopelessness, without the relief of humor or exaggeration that defines other albums in the subgenre. Instead of glorifying gang life, Lamar deconstructs the myths that have been perpetuated for decades in gangsta rap and explores the psychological and emotional consequences that this life brings. Like a neo-western, the album is relentless in capturing the feeling of desolation and fatalism, exploring the moral dilemmas and the morality in a violent environment.
• Epic Rapping: Sort of. Many tracks run long, but the spoken-word sketches are responsible in large part - live versions are actually more reasonable in length.
• Face on the Cover: The album cover shows an infant Kendrick with two of his uncles and his grandfather.
• Fun with Acronyms: "m.A.A.d city", as revealed by Lamar, refers both to "My Angry Adolescence Divided" and "My Angels on Angel Dust".
• Genre Deconstruction: This album is the ultimate Deconstruction of the Gangsta Rap subgenre and pointing out how empty the lifestyle is and how it instead will lead those down darker paths, as K-Dot almost does after the events of "Swimming Pools (Drank)".
• Genre Throwback: The latter section of "m.A.A.d city" shifts into an old-school Gangsta Rap style from The '90s.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: The end of "Poetic Justice", leading to the skit setting up the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Poetic Justice" and "m.A.A.d city".
• New Old West: Although a Gangsta Rap album, it certainly has an extremely cinematic aesthetic, complete with gritty and deconstructive storylines that can be compared to contemporary neo-westerns like Breaking Bad, while also sharing key tropes and themes found in this genre. In the album, Compton functions as a bleak and dangerous urban space (a far cry from the perspective of Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle and 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me), where gang violence and the pressure of social dynamics act as a modern-day Wild West. Much like the desert landscapes of the Western, Compton appears inhospitable, with Kendrick as the Anti-Hero, narrating his experiences as a "good kid" trying to survive in this environment. Similarly, the violence depicted in the album is not only physical but also structural and emotional. This introspective exploration of the consequences of violence and moral dilemmas is very similar to how the neo-western genre portrays its characters.
• One-Word Title: "Real", "Compton"
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Throughout the album, Kendrick's dad is depicted as a minor form of comic relief, where he can be heard singing, objectifying his wife and asking for dominoes. In the song "Real" however, Kendrick's dad drops all his humorous qualities since he's learned that his son just lost a close friend, and needs some fatherly love and advice before it's too late.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: In the skit following "m.A.A.d city":

  Nigga, pass Dot the bottle, damn! You ain't the one that got fucked up, what you holding it for? Niggas always acting unsensitive and shit.
  Nigga, that ain't no word.
  Nigga, shut up!

• Period Piece: Various references in the lyrics place the album in the mid-2000s.
• Riddle for the Ages: Why did Kendrick's dad keep asking about dominoes? Was he talking about an actual set of dominoes, or did he want Domino's Pizza, or (as some have theorized) was "dominoes" in this case a slang term for amphetamines?
• Running Gag: Throughout the album, Kendrick's father can be heard demanding that he needs his "dominoes", much to the exasperation of Kendrick's mother.

  Where my mothafuckin dominoes at?!

• Running Gagged: The final time Kendrick's dad is heard, he immediately assures his son that he's not tripping on dominoes anymore, to pave the way for making a sincere plea to his son to not go down the dark path he's set on.
• Sampling:
  • "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" contains a sample of "Tiden Flyver" as performed by Boom Clap Bachelors.
  • "The Art of Peer Pressure" contains a sample of "Helt Alene" as performed by Suspekt.
  • "Money Trees" contains a sample of "Silver Soul" as performed by Beach House.
  • "Poetic Justice" contains a sample of "Any Time, Any Place" as performed by Janet Jackson.
  • "m.A.A.d city" contains a sample of "Don't Change Your Love" as performed by The Five Stairsteps, "Funky Worm" by The Ohio Players, and "A Bird In The Hand" by Ice Cube.
  • "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" contains a sample of "Maybe Tomorrow" as performed by Grant Green, "I'm Glad You're Mine" by Al Green and "Use Me" by Bill Withers.
  • "Compton" contains a sample of "What's This World Coming To" as performed by Formula IV.
  • "The Recipe" contains a sample of "Meet the Frownies" as performed by Twin Sister.
  • "Backseat Freestyle" contains a sample of "Yo Soy Cubano", by The Chakachas.
• Stealth Pun: The first track introduces Sherane as "Master Splinter's Daughter" - she's a hood rat, you see.
• Shout-Out: The album uses a fair few of these to establish its mid-2000s setting:
  • The album's opening track is named "Sherane, a.k.a. Master Splinter's Daughter".
  • When Kendrick meets Sherane, she's dancing to Ciara.
  • Kendrick references Curtis Jackson whilst driving to Sherane's house,
  • In "The Art of Peer Pressure," Kendrick and his buddies are riding round listening to Young Jeezy (who featured on Kendrick's song "Westside, Right on Time", released as a non-album single just prior to the album's release).
  • "I fucked Sherane and went to tell my bros / then Usher Raymond 'Let it Burn' came on."
• Silent Protagonist: A rare musical example with the outros. Kendrick isn't actually heard speaking in any of them, even when addressed, until the end of Compton, where he lets his mother know that he's borrowing her car.
• Song Style Shift: "Good Kid" starts off with a beat reminiscent of classic g-funk, but it becomes dark and atmospheric when it gets to the first verse.
• Special Guest: Drake, Jay Rock, MC Eiht, and Dr. Dre all take guest verses on the album proper. The rest of Lamar's Black Hippy supergroup appear on bonus tracks from various versions and Jay-Z appears on a remixed "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe". Lady Gaga was supposed to appear on "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", but Creative Differences and scheduling issues put a stop to that.
• Symbolic Censored Eyes: The album cover is a photograph of several people whose eyes have been blackboxed, save for the child. Lamar confirmed that the photograph features himself as a child along with his two uncles and grandfather — in addition to wanting to censor their faces for practical purposes, he purposefully allowed himself to remain unobscured to reflect on the album's concept, that being the story of his own childhood in Compton as told through his own eyes.
• Tempting Fate: "Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst":

  Just promise me you'll tell this story when you make it big/And if I die before your album drop I hope — (gunshots)

• Title Track: Split into two on this album across the 7th and 8th tracks.

---