Breaking Down The Masterpiece That Is Kendrick Lamar's "m.A.A.d city"

From the story it tells, to the names that are attached, there’s no doubt “m.A.A.d city” is a classic in the rap genre. With the amount of elements that go into the final production of the track, it’s hard to pinpoint the specifics that make it so great. However, since we at AMG are obsessed with these kinds of conversations, that’s exactly what we tried to do.

“m.A.A.d city”, placed right in heart of K. Dot’s colossally successful debut album Good Kid, m.A.A.d city can almost be a trailer for everything the listener should expect when going through the LP. The album itself places you in a young Kendrick’s shoes as he was growing up in Compton. We feel the pressure of gang affiliation, the struggles of being born to an addicted mother and father, as well as the fight against the temptations of addiction itself. Life in South Central was a high speed roller coaster for the young artist and unless he was strapped in and ready for any turn he went around, he was easily going to get thrown off the track.

If you listen to the album straight through, you will come across “Good Kid” leading up the smash hit. Unlike the chaotic setting that “m.A.A.d city” throws you into, “Good Kid” is very calm, almost too calm for what Kendrick is saying over it. The beat and the chorus sound as if it is attempting to put you under its spell, while we have Kendrick speaking to the city, though it sounds as if he is speaking to us, and he’s filling us in on the battles he faces internally everyday, as if he is putting us in his position. The overall vibe is very hypnotic and If this album was a magic act, then “Good Kid” would be the part that puts you in a trance, and “m.A.A.d city” would occur at the snap of the fingers. That’s the part of the show that everyone came to see.

When he song starts off, it sounds like a war

is about to breakout. Kendrick is expressing

the stress he’s under through an acapella that really adds emphasis on the danger he’s in. Then the famous onomatopoeia kicks in and the beat drops you right in the middle of pandemonium. Kendrick is rapping about the evils within the city using wordplay and flow that is purposely meant to put you in a tailspin. This is complimented by the multi-layered, fast paced beat; the synths, the echoing hi hats, the low hitting bass mixed with the booming 808’s all coming together to mimic the chaos that goes on in the rapper’s life.

When Dot transitions into the the second part of the song with a new beat and new cast, the whole vibe switches up as well. The beat suggests that it’s a do or die moment for the rapper. We’re placed in a scene with car crashes, gunshots, and helicopters, again painting the picture of turmoil along Kendrick’s voice which is essential to this part of the song. Much like the tone he’s uses in later songs such as “u” and “For Free?”, Kendrick’s voice suggests a sense of delirium and confusion. All of the road blocks in his way out of this life are closing in on him and starting take over. While we hear about his first time smoking weed and how he was fired from his job as a security guard, the whole verse feels as though it’s meant to be absorbed all at once as just the mayhem that occurs and how quickly it can swallow you up.

Then we get to MC Eiht’s verse which seems to take control of the whole situation. Unlike Kendrick who tries and dodge the temptations when he can, Eiht feeds off it. He embraces the everyday lifestyle and thrives in situations that separates the real hittas from the stunnas. His verse fits so perfectly into song and is such a great transition into Kendrick’s final verse who is now, no longer a kid, but an established general if we’re sticking with this war theme. His voice asserts itself over the instrumental and bounces from ear to ear, giving off a sense of freedom from the beat. He closes out the song with somewhat of a preach and hints that all of the mayhem he’s seen in his life has really shaped him into the artist and role model he grew up to be. To top it off, the song ends in a very Grand Finale esque way with all the instruments coming together, commanding itself as a track that knows it just pulled off a classic.

It’s hard to put into words exactly what makes “m.A.A.d city” such and epic anthem for the genre. Yeah it’s the beat and the lyrics and everything we talked about above, but there’s a feeling of just perfection that I get whenever I listen to it. Like there isn’t one lyric or sound that seems out of place, which is to be expected when you have Dr. Dre executive producing the whole album. The song tells a story while incorporating so many different elements of both hip hop and the mainstream which is why the replay value is so high.

Someone once told me they compare it to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and I can see so many similarities to the two. Neither of the two have hooks or any sort of order to them for that much. They both portray that sense of anarchy and pandemonium that is controlled to the right amount so that the song itself doesn’t sound sloppy and uncoordinated, but yet it still gives off that vibe. Bohemian Rhapsody has also been playing in peoples speakers consistently for the last 40 years, and that’s a pedestal I can definitely picture this song being at years down the road. To put it in simple terms, “m.A.A.d city” is a masterpiece that tells one of the greatest stories in hip hop. If anyone wishes to expand on that, than I’m sorry but there aren’t enough words to do it justice, not even in this article.