I don't mind cuz one day you'll POLL the good kid...m.a.a.d. city

feel like the only easy prediction is that "Backseat Freestyle" won't (and shouldn't) win.

I'm torn on what I'll vote for. "The Art of Peer Pressure" has always held high esteem because of the way its constructed, the imagery, particularly the line "It's ironic cause I've never been violent/until I'm with the homies".

"Good Kid" too, though, particularly the evolving "red/blue" motif across each verse, and his very grounded depiction of trying to escape the pressures of street life around him.

when the album gets lush and its scope increases, I really kind of blur it al together between "Swimming Pools" and "Real" - not a bad thing at all, but it's more like a movement, really.

and the way music shifts in pitch at "I'm with the homies" too.

precisely! captures his inner cognitive dissonance real well.

I guess I should listen to this but I really didnt like Section.80

kinda feel like you'd like this

it's not boom bap rap but it has a lot of texture

Have to go with Good Kid. Such an incredible song.

I actually found Section 80 way more instant than this. The first time I played it I was a bit disappointed, but since then it's just kept on sounding better every time and I haven't really gone back to Section 80 at all.

This and Miguel was one hell of a top two for the 2012 list.

As corny as it sounds, this album in 2014 does feel like the classic it was presented as. I don't even mind Pharrell and Fucking Drake.

I actually found Section 80 way more instant than this. The first time I played it I was a bit disappointed, but since then it's just kept on sounding better every time and I haven't really gone back to Section 80 at all.

my experience with this album was like exactly that too. are you more of a production person than a lyric person (as i am)? i thought section 80 had much cooler production at the time gkmc first dropped, but in retrospect... i dunno.

voting for 'art of peer pressure'.

Boring album #justsaying

^lol I kinda agree but I'd try to explain better just cuz I feel like "boring" doesn't specifically get at my issues with it

anyway I'd say "Vibe" or "Real," the second of which I'm aware most people don't seem to like but it's a cool fake-Neptunes vibe to me

I'm still absorbing this album, it just feels like it has so much going on that it's hard to get a grip on it

Yeah I mean it sounds casually dismissive bt I've listened to it quite a lot, it just doesn't get to me at all, and things like "It feels like a classic" make that worse

my experience with this album was like exactly that too. are you more of a production person than a lyric person (as i am)? i thought section 80 had much cooler production at the time gkmc first dropped, but in retrospect... i dunno.

― write 500 words of song (sleepingbag)

Yeah, I was definitely taken with the production on Section 80 when I first heard it. I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics as much on either of the albums at first. It's only as I've listened to good kid more that I've started to notice and enjoy the lyrics a lot more. I also feel like there was so much more going on with good kid, almost too much to take in. Even though it was harder to get into, it's been a much more rewarding listen the more I stuck with it.

NB: I don't write those words often. "Classic" in my book isn't "perfect" (I still dislike about three songs).

"money trees"

i liked section 80 a lot more, i still haven't especially clicked w/ maad city. to the extent that i have stopped listening to section 80 while i wait maad city out, so as not to making it seem lesser by the comparison.

Maad City definitely isn't immediate. even his style of rapping on it, his cadences, his phrasing isn't ear-catching at first, not to mention the production is more dense.

I remember thinking after two listens "This is going to be another acclaimed album I don't get". I think it was about listens 4 or 5 before I liked it, and possibly 9 or 10 before I started loving it and its entire scope.

But returning to it this week after not listening to it since 2012 (since I quit listening to rap for a while) was full of riches. I remembered it all but it sounded even better than I remembered. Actually mellowed me the fuck out today!

I think part of the issue with my first listens of Maad City is I was listening to lots of 'slappy' west coast and shit like Compton's Moat Wanted so in comparison it was a lot more resolute.

8. "m.A.A.d city" (featuring MC Eiht)

he closed w/ that tonight :-)

Voted "Swimming Pools" cause it feels like a standout, but this is a rare new-ish record, and an even rarer new-ish hip hop record, that feels like it demands to be heard as a whole. I still shut it off before "Compton" can begin, though, and I do appreciate that it has the courtesy to save its one dud track (yeah, I love "Backseat Freestyle"--sorry) for the very end.

Compton's Moat Wanted is a typo, isn't it :(

CARTOON & CEREAL

i think either "good kid" or "m.a.a.d city" though will have to relisten to make sure

i really appreciate that "backseat freestyle" and "swimming pools" were very public crossover anthems in the midst of this dense, conceptual record

"bitch don't kill my vibe" remains the worst

don't really gaf about this album but "maad city" is nice, although admittedly mostly for eiht

I love "Money Trees," mostly for Jay Rock's verse at the end.

sing about me, i'm dying of thirst > the art of peer pressure > sherane aka master splinter's daughter > bitch don't kill my vibe

i could go on tho, i loved this album from the first time i played it. i haven't actually listened to section 80 tho, guess i should give it a shot.

Fuck it, I'm voting for "Poetic Justice".

I am going with neither of the original two I propped up, and instead going with "M.A.A.D. City". love the Ice Cube sample/lyrical callback, and not to mention the intensity of the grim subject matter.

Good Kid

Difficult - Peer Pressure vs Money Trees vs Good Kid vs Swimming Pools

that voice that says "just ridin....just ridin" on Art of Peer Pressure gets me every time. like it's his inner voice tryin to calm himself down, "we're just ridin, it's cool", hoping their actions won't keep escalating.

Aw man, goddamn, all hell broke loose
You killed my cousin back in '94, fuck your truce
Now crawl your head in that noose, you wind up dead on the news
Ain't no peace treaty, just pieces BG's up to pre-approve
Bodies on top of bodies, IV's on top of IV's
Obviously the coroner between the sheets like the Isleys
When you hop on that trolley, make sure your colors correct
Make sure you're corporate, or they'll be calling your mother collect
They say the governor collect, all of our taxes except
When we in traffic and tragic happens, that shit ain't no threat
You moving backwards if you suggest that you sleep with a Tec
Go buy a chopper and have a doctor on speed dial, I guess, m.A.A.d city

there was a moment at the show last Sunday when he said something like he was glad we (the audience) was feelin' him and the place erupted for about 3 minutes and he paused and you could see it register on his face and momentarily overwhelm him, almost like he was K. Dot again seeing his dream realized in the future, and he got teary-eyed for a moment and said "Wow...that's love". probably the warmest moment I've ever had at a concert in general.

either money trees or MAAD city, the big fuckoff synth at the end of the latter might push it over for me

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

holy shit this A-Ha mashup

https://soundcloud.com/n04hmusic/a-hakendrick-lamar-take-on-backseat-mashup

ilm & hiphop is such a bizarre combo to me

it is a v funny mashup indeed, well done

I didn't think the results would be Money Tree 10-2 Poetic Justice (two of my favorite tracks). And Bitch don't kill my vibe at 3.

wow that mashup is glorious !

still his best album. by a big margin.

well now we know what tori amos would've voted for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1emfLQ-Jqw