It’s evident that Kendrick Lamar is extremely meticulous about his music. You could even argue that he’s a perfectionist, given the extended time between his records. For what it’s worth, it’s paid off for him. Records like Good Kid, m.A.A.d City and To Pimp a Butterfly are heralded as classics in the canon of hip-hop. However, each record had its own specific creative process. For the latter, it was bred out of a desire to try something new while also avoiding the typical sophomore slump.
“It’s all about finding that balance. I remember the sophomore jinx of Good Kid, m.A.A.d City. It was for that year and for that time. I was in a different space in my life. I already knew off the top I can’t make Good Kid, m.A.A.d City Part Two,” Kendrick Lamar told his cousin Baby Keem in 2020. “The second I’m making that, it’s corny bro. That takes the feeling away from the first. I need that motherf***er to live in its own world. Then boom, To Pimp a Butterfly. Some people love it to death, some people hate it.”
However, for Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, the album’s creation came out of constant repetition. In a 2017 conversation with TDE CEO Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith, Lamar recalled how working on his early projects with Top was like “boot camp.”
Kendrick Lamar Recalls Crazy Work Ethic Behind Good Kid m.A.A.d City
“That s*** was like boot camp. Getting in there and learning how to rap, put words together, freestyles and bars and s***. As time progresses, you develop. I remember coming to Top like, ‘Hey, I want to change to my real name [from K.Dot],’” Lamar recalled.
Top approved immediately. Then, the pair began workshopping what they wanted his big debut album to sound like. “Like, that sounds like cologne—we can sell that s***! I’m thinking, ‘What’s the [musical] approach?’ It’s got to be real, it’s got to be my story,” Lamar said. “It’s got to be some s*** that not only I feel, but everybody else can feel. That was the initial idea: I’m going to give a small piece of my backstory before my debut album. Because good kid was already prepped.”
Naturally, the interviewer speaking with Top and Kendrick Lamar was taken aback by the timeline. But Lamar said he’d already worked on the record “three, four times before the world got to it.” “New songs, new everything. I wanted to tell that story, but I had to execute it. My whole thing is about execution. The songs can be great, the hooks can be great, but if it’s not executed well, then it’s not a great album,” Lamar explained.
The post Kendrick Lamar Restarted ‘Good Kid, m.A.A.d City’ 3-4 Times Before He Was Ready to Release It appeared first on VICE.
