Volatility is the Compton rappers native tongue.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Kendrick Lamartends to preach peace over conflict, but a shadow lurks in even his cheeriest songs.
Many artists are unpredictable, but for the 37-year-old rapper spontaneity is a worldview as much a style.
His narratives constantly fork and waver, swinging from pole to pole.
He prizes his contradictions and builds songs around the contrasts.
The results are head-spinning.
His party jams are antisocial.
His therapy raps are petty and bullish.
His disses promote unity.
Hes raps resident theater kid, an observer who canwrest dramafrom any situation.
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth spent years finding his voice.
By middle school, he was freestyling to DMXsIts Dark and Hell Is Hotat the lunch table.
On theKendrick Lamar EPand the mixtapeOverly Dedicated, his songwriting became more narrative-driven and moody.
But despite collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, Kendrick wouldnt become a true crossover act until later.
The album, led by thememe-ready videofor the chart-topping Humble, finally cemented his mainstream status.
After becoming a father and experiencing yearslong writers block, Kendrick returned in 2022 with the bristlingMr.
Split vision can be deeply relatable.
Sex With Society (2011)
Some freestyles are best left in the proverbial backseat.
The hook, an overwrought Chris Martin impression from singer Ashtrobot,is the nail in the coffin.
Thanksgiving featuring Big Pooh (2009)
Real hip-hop (pejorative).
On this precursor to the much slicker Hol Up, Sounwave and Kendrick havent loosened up yet.
Dying of Thirst, Untitled 01 | 08.19.2014., and Faith have far more conflicted ideas about religion.
Big Shot Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott (2018)
Shuri would never bump this in the lab.
Auntie Diaries (2022)
Another clunky morality tale that builds to an empty gotcha.
Uncle Bobby & Jason Keaton (2009)
Storytelling without drama is just summary.
All the Stars Kendrick Lamar and SZA (2018)
By-the-numbers stadium rap.
I Am (Interlude) (2009)
For Free?
Rapper Shit Ab-Soul and Kendrick Lamar (2012)
This middling track was left off Ab-SoulsLongterm Mentalityfor a reason.
Mirror (2022)
Savior is more to the point, but sure,Go, Kendrick, go.
Now or Never featuring Mary J. Blige (2013)
This upliftinggood kid, m.A.A.d.
The songwriting emphasizes the atmosphere more than the rapping.
I be in spots, chopping the rocks like Flintstone feet, he growls as his alternate-universe self.
This also features one of the first times he says good kid mad city.
Wanna Be Heard (2009)
A more stylish Determined.
I Do This featuring Jay Rock (2009)
The slow flows really highlight his offbeat humor.
Heaven & Hell featuring Alori Joh (2010)
The fadeout in the second verse is slick as hell.
It also suffers from having the same three-part narrative structure as songs from the album.
But removed from the battle, its grave tone and sepulchral mood feel bizarre and overwrought.
Truthfully, I dont have a hatin bone in my body, Kendrick claims.
Opposites Attract (Tomorrow W/O Her) featuring JaVonte (2010)
We Cry Together, but listenable.
Two Presidents, Kendrick Lamar and YG Hootie (2013)
Split-duty split vision.
I think its time for me to watch the party die, he says with icy intensity.
Im free / Finally I can say Im me, he exhales like hes been reborn.
Black Panther (2018)
Ryan CooglersBlack Pantherdepicts its titular superhero as a levelheaded statesman and family man.
Kendrick imagines the Wakandan king as a tormented prisoner of duty whose attention is always divided.
And Ill say it: The patronizing Drake verse is Good.
Chapter Six (2011)
Nate Dogg rider hums reimagined as hushed street gospel.
Monster Freestyle (2010)
The only person who went harder over the Monster beat is Nicki Minaj.
But he never loses lucidity: Racism is still alive.
Untitled 04 | 08.14.2014.
Even so, the horny hook has some potential.
Father Time featuring Sampha (2022)
This soulful outlier on the otherwise pricklyMr.
County Building Blues (2012)
Across Kendricks catalogue, the social-services building in Compton symbolizes poverty and shame.
The mood is so cheery that even the L.A. riots come to herald better days.
Untitled 03 | 05.28.2013.
(2016)
Uncle Sam appears acrossTPABas an archfiend offering Kendrick material wealth for the price of his soul.
The characters not as devilish on this funky offshoot, but the concept still lands.
The way he chuckles when the Aaliyah sample drops is charming.
Untitled 01 | 08.19.2014.
This is coke rap as a fever dream.
The Heart Pt.3 (Will You Let It Die?)
Have you ever took a fade and ran three more back to back?
you’re free to almost hear his sleeves being rolled up.
But Kendrick is clearly stoked to be rapping alongside his idol.
(2017)
Exuberant prosperity gospel thats haunted by guilt.
Kendrick pleads as he recounts charged scenes from his life.
(2011)
A precursor to Swimming Pools that channels molly and weed as well as booze.
Kendrick views his ties to past rappers as literally sacred.
But Kendricks emphasis on quality control and craft can arguably be traced to the notoriously meticulous beat producer.
Mr. Morale Kendrick Lamar and Tanna Leone (2022)
The thump on this is nuts.
Crown (2022)
Duval Timothys plangent piano melodies appear all overMr.
Morale & the Big Steppers, but here they operate at maximum strength, guiding Kendricks reedy croons.
(2017)
BLOOD.
Hes unfazed though, because they fuck with me, and bitch, I love it.
Untitled 08 | 09.06.2014.
It says a lot about Kendricks songwriting standards during theTPABsessions that a track this robust didnt make the cut.
6:16 in LA (2024)
Kendricks beat choices throughout the Drake beef were inspired.
Kendrick says, as if he must beef for the sake of his soul.
But his zigzagging flow here, timed to increasingly boisterous jazz, is mesmerizing.
Theres straw men in the writing here, but Capitalists posin as compassionists be offendin me is a bar.
It feels like a backyard wrestling match, as cozy as it is hectic.
Lucys got that good good.
Hol Up (2011)
Sounwave and Kendrick do the fusion dance.
Im saying that Im human.
Institutionalized featuring Bilal, Anna Wise, and Snoop Dogg (2015)
Aesops Fables for the Homies.
Although Kendricks not credited, his jaunty hook and ad-libs glue everything together.
N95 (2022)
A steamroller of a track that mocks cancel culture while taking it very seriously.
The hook is fun as hell, though.
featuring Rihanna (2017)
Long live cloud rap (and Rihanna features).
He veers on and off the beat like a biker threading lanes.
His casual delivery belies the melancholy lurking beneath his family pride.
54. heart pt.
The song doubles as a rebuke to Drake cribbing the title during the beef.
But I refuse to throw out this titanic Just Blaze beat with the bathwater.
The lacerating Assassin hook is the cherry on top.
Its genuinely shocking that neither of the proudly erratic rappers mentions theyre both Geminis.
Note that this features the best-written woman character in Kendricks catalogue that is not his mom.
(2017)
Smoldering R&B that can support a slow dance or a shoulder lean.
For Kendrick, love takes the form of grace and forgiveness despite lust and infidelity.
The Heart Part 4
Before this, Kendrick cleared his chest on The Heart songs.
Count Me Out (2022)
Kendrick thrashes like a shark out of water across the therapy-inspiredMr.
HiiiPower (2011)
A Super Saiyan version of A Little Appalled.
The watery, moonlit Tha Bizness beat ups the tension of Kendricks thirst.
Sing About Me, Im Dying of Thirst (2012)
Out-of-body experiences are a fixture of Kendricks writing.
Answers often elude him, but the body-hopping approximates intimacy.
Kendrick fits right in, caroming off the percussion like a pinball.
His frequent voice and flow changes amp up the fun, especially once the second beat kicks in.
The malevolence of this cursed banger will plague and stimulate clubs, dance floors, and Juneteenths for generations.
Peekaboo featuring AzChike (2024)
Drakeo the Rulerinspired boogieman raps from two of L.A.s finest.
Untitled 06 | 06.30.2014.
(2016)
While love songs featuring CeeLoare forever tainted, thisuntitled unmastered.standout is more about candor than seduction.
28. euphoria (2024)
Nuclear-grade hatin.
It was intended as a casual show of camaraderie, but Kendrick blows Cole out of the water.
And he has the audacity to rap, I kill this whole fuckin beat if Cole let me.
Where most of his music casts his omniscient people-watching as a superpower, here his constant witnessing is punishing.
(2017)
If Sounwave is the No I.D.
to Kendricks Common, Mike WiLL Made-It is the Kanye West.
Hes a full-on wiseguy on HUMBLE., rattling off cheeky one-liners while sounding supremely unbothered.
Humility this is not.
The hazy, blase Pharrell hook ups the sense that Kendrick is alone amid the Compton chaos.
Salvation, Kendrick suggests, is accidental.
Music isnt just a pastime for him: Its a sanctuary.
Swimming Pools (Drank) (2012)
The hallucinogenic liquidity of bullet time applied to binge-drinking culture.
(2017)
Kendricks Sunken Place, FEAR.
dilates dread into a stunning reflection on family, faith, and mortality.
(2017)
Kendrick repeats himself often onDAMN.
for emphasis, to create tension, and to convey his multiplicity.
This is less a chant and more a fireworks show celebrating the permanent expungement of all turncoats and pests.
Sometimes you gottapop in.
(2017)
This was one of the first songs Kendrick performed at last summers Pop Out.
The combative pride of ELEMENT.
fit the provincial mood of the night, but the song is as distraught as it is bellicose.
His pride is his final defense.
This is G-funk as acid bath.
Untitled 02 | 06.23.2014.
I could put a rapper on life support / Guarantee thats something none of you want, he threatens.
In a world without God, the homies are a sanctum.
Alright (2015)
Alright is an anthem of survival that promises more days rather than better ones.
The conviction of the songs conceit Wegonbe alright makes it fitting for public protest as well as private prayer.
Rich Spirit (2022)
Kendrick plays against throw in on this calm and masterfulMr.
Where he normally expresses agitation through heat and friction, here coolness conveys his testy mood.
Instead of offering relief, lucidity sharpens his misanthropy.
Stop playing with me fore I turn you to a song, he warns.
featuring U2 (2017)
Lets talk about gun control, Kendrick says half-seriously on this exhilarating two-faced track.
This goes beyond his mission to count lives on songs, instead connecting them across time and space.
1. m.A.A.d.
city featuring MC Eiht (2012)
Compton comes alive on this frenetic and layered portrait of home.
He seems utterly trapped inside this world, destined to be a shooter or be shot.
No longer trapped, he hatches schemes of his own, his anxiety supercharging his situational awareness.
This insoluble ambivalence is the foundation of his music, from his first EP toGNX.
The anguish he resents and harnesses as a vocalist is all here.
The hypocrisy he repents for and repeats throughout his catalogue is all here.
