"Breathe Slow and You'll Find Gold Mines in These Lines"

Well...it looks like the cat from Compton is officially out of the bag. In one fell swoop everyone from XXL, to Pitchfork, to Rolling Stone, to Billboard, to The Washington Post to Huffington Post is buying stock in @kendricklamar. Matter of fact, buying stock may have been too flippant, they're in love with Kendrick's studio album debut good kid, m.A.A.d city to the point that it's been unanimously anointed a classic album overnight.

To give some perspective, when I first posted about Kendrick 562 days ago on April 11th, 2011, this is what I said about his first formally released single Hii Power:

With every listen, this track grows on me. I gotta feeling I'm gonna look back on this as the starting line of a well respected lyrical career...#TimeWillTell

Now before you go thinking that was a "me, me, me" moment, hold up a minute and let me explain. The reason I quoted myself was to point out how easy it was to tell that Kendrick possessed a talent that Hip Hop needed. Sure, the Dr. Dre co-sign and Interscope record deal sure made it difficult to ignore him, but any Hip Hop fan who has an appreciation for lyrical depth knew it was only a matter of time before success came knocking.

I'm not at the point yet where I feel comfortable doing a full album review, but I would be remiss if I didn't post his collabo with @drake. To the average person who isn't a big Hip Hop fan, the track below will probably make you yawn. For starters, Drake was upstaged by Kendrick's penchant for storytelling on Poetic Justice. My favorite three bar example from the track summarizes Kendrick's mystique fairly well..

Every time I write these words they become a taboo
Making sure my punctuation curve, every letter is true
Living my life in the margin and that metaphor was proof

He's on the intellectual level of @CrookedIntriago lyrically, he's got a uniquely calm, clear delivery and knack for storytelling comparable to Andre 3000 and he's from the epicenter of gangster rap. It doesn't get any more interesting that than and his music reflects that.

In accordance with every other review out there on the internet, you'd be a fool not to give his new album a listen. Let me put some more gas in the hype machine, most influential Hip Hop album since So Far Gone??? #TimeWillTell

Kendrick Lamar feat Drake - Poetic Justice (prod by Scoop DeVille)
|iTunes