good kid, m.A.A.d city

Deluxe, Explicit Version Now Includes: Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe feat. Jay-Z

good kid, m.A.A.d city landed in the tiny overlap between popular adoration and critical respect, selling more copies in its first week than any other debut album in 2012 and earning massive nods from Pitchfork, The New York Times, MTV and hundreds of other outlets. Lamar raps with hypnotizing precision, in triple time and in different voices, recalling the moments of dizzying theatricality of Eminem's The Slim Shady LP and combining them with the unglamorous grit of Nas' Illmatic.

Long before Kendrick Lamar was redefining the boundaries of rap, he was a kid growing up in Compton in the 1990s, trying to stay out of trouble. I'm six years old, seein' my uncles playing with shotguns, sellin' dope in front of the apartment. My moms and pops never said nothing, 'cause they were young and living wild, too, he said in a 2011 interview. The mayhem going on around him couldn't stop Lamar from getting good grades, but he found school frustrating: This is always in my head: There was a math question that I knew the answer to, but I was so scared to say it. Then this little chick said the answer and it was the right answer, my answer. That bothers me still to this day, bein' scared of failure.

Lamar idolized Tupac Shakur growing up, and by 16, he'd recorded his first mixtape, under the name K. Dot. He'd also signed with Top Dawg Entertainment, now home to other L.A. up-and-comers like ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock. Lamar released a series of mixtapes as K. Dot, receiving cosigns from rappers like Lil Wayne and Game, before dropping the moniker and going by his birth name in 2009. I'll always be K. Dot in Compton, he said. 'Kendrick Lamar' is more mature and I can talk more about what I want to do with my life. I want my legacy to be about who I am as a person, not just as an artist. 2011's Section.80, moved thousands of copies with no promotion and established Lamar as an songwriter with something meaningful to say to his generation, one that hadn't been spoken to with as much respect and conviction by any other artist. Lamar toured America behind Section.80, watching thousands of people scream every one of his words back to him, reveling in a connection with his fans that runs as deep as his lyrics.