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Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 sophomore album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is regularly discussed as one of the most influential albums ever and now Rolling Stones has scored it #1 in its Top 50 Greatest Concept Albums Of Time list.
“Good Kid, M.A.A.D City vividly takes us through a day in the life of Lamar with Compton as a backdrop in each song’s hook, skits, melodic rhythms and masterful lyricism.
In addition, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City has spent 519 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart. Lamar’s critically-acclaimed body of work is the longest-charting Hip Hop studio LP of all time.
On Tuesday, W magazine interviewed Kendrick Lamar and he expounded on the conflicting feelings that came with releasing his latest LP, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.
“When I got to completion and I said, ‘I may or may not put this out; I’m not going to put this out; it’s way too much,’ I thought about my children,” he said. “I thought about when they turn 21, or they’re older in life, and when I got grandchildren, or if I’m long gone—this can be a prerequisite of how to cope. That’s the beauty of it for me.”
Lamar continued, “I’m a private person; it was tough for me… The reason why I had to make that decision, whether they was for or against it, I just didn’t want the influence. I could have cut corners and got flashy with it and worded my words a certain way—nah, I had to be in the rawest, truest form I could possibly be in order for it to be freeing for me, in order for me to have a different outlook and the perspective on people I’m talking to. I had to reap whatever consequences came behind that, and also be compassionate and show empathy if they were hurt by it.”
The Top 5 of Rolling Stone‘s “50 Greatest Concept Albums of All Time” also included The Who’s Tommy (#5), Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (#4), Pink Floyd’s The Wall (#3), and Green Day’s American Idiot (#2).
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