Vin Ricanย Showcases Classic Samples Used Onย Kendrick Lamar‘s ‘Good Kid, m.A.A.d City‘. Join the Hip-Hop Heads conversation over on Reddit regarding the five year anniversary.ย
The official release date for the highly anticipated debut major label album from rising rapperย Kendrick Lamar–crowned the “new King of the West Coast” by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at an L.A. concert last year–was announced today.ย good kid, m.A.A.d cityย (Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records) will be releasedย October 22, 2012.ย Featured will be the single “Swimming Pool (Drank),” which was releasedย July 31stย andย is produced by T-Minus.ย Lamar will introduce the album by headlining a nationwide tourย that also includes the BET Music Matters Tour beginningย September 7.
Lamar’s indie-issuedย Section.80ย ranked as one of the top digital hip-hop albums of 2011. Despite not having a physical release,ย Section.80ย cracked Billboard’s R&B/Hip-hop Top 25, Rap Top 15 and Top 200 Albums charts. Theย Compton, Californiaย native has since been racking up the praise.ย After his Bonnaroo performance this year, esteemed criticย Jon Parelesย wrote in theย New York Timesย (June 8): “Instead I prefer Kendrick Lamarโฆ (who) instead of directing his anger at the police, women or outsiders, he criticizes himself and his environment, and he projects far more ambition than victimization (with) tales of striving, self-improvement and overcoming a rough past, delivered with a cutting rasp and fast, complicated meter shifts.”
Lamar first drew the attention of Dre with his 2010 mixtapeย O(verly) D(edicated). This year, he performed alongside Dre and Snoop as they co-headlined the Coachella Music & Arts Festival.ย good kid, m.A.A.d cityย also features “The Recipe” with Dr. Dre and was released in the spring and reached the Rap Top 25.
