First of all, thank you to Ryan Bassil for his interpretation of this album, you can find his interpretation at http://noisey.vice.com/blog/the-narrative-guide-to-kendrick-lamars-good-kid-maad-city. He inspired me to post the album in its narrative order rather than the given album order. That order is also found at that link.
The album is what I would like to call a "Rap Opera". The main character of this opera is K.Dot, a young man who lives in the thug-life city of Compton. The opening "scene" of this opera is the opening credits, so to speak, and Compton plays during these credits, minus the ending narrative section in which K.Dot grabs his mother's keys to the car and says he will be back in 15 minutes, as this happens later. The first real part of the story is the skit at the end of Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe in which one of K.Dot's "homies" pulls up to him and tells him he has some cigars and a beat CD, and K.Dot hops in the car, wanting to be one of the in-crowd. This begins Backstreet Freestyle, in which K.Dot is presumably freestyling over the beat CD in the car that he is picked up in. The Art of Peer Pressure begins, in which K.Dot describes how he does things he does not usually do when he is with his "homies", like drugs, alcohol, etc. in order to fit in. They had been camping a house for a couple of months and finally go in and rob it. They are pursued by the police, who make a wrong turn and K.Dot and company escape. The character of Sherane is introduced as the love interest of K.Dot, as his homies mention that K.Dot is probably going to "fuck on Sherane tonight". When K.Dot can no longer wait, he grabs his mother's car keys and says he will be back in 15 minutes (this is found at the end of Compton). Sherane AKA Master Splinter's Daughter then begins, and he describes how the two met and their relationship. By the end of the song, he has reached her house, but two figures in black hoodies confront him when he is about 250 feet away from Sherane's house, as his phone rings. It is his mother, telling him that he said he would be back in 15 minutes, that she needs to pick up the food stamps for food, and that K.Dot's father keeps asking for Domino's Pizza (which I find hilarious). Poetic Justice then plays, and by the end, we hear the two hooded kids giving K.Dot a hard time, and presumably he is beaten. The next day he reflects on what happened in the song Good Kid, saying that he got "eaten alive" last night and that he is an easy target. This is one of his revelations that perhaps the thug life of Compton is not for him. m.A.A.D City is next, and he describes an incident at a burger stand in his past in which he witnessed his friend killed by a rival gang. Then comes the skit after Money Trees, in which K.Dot's dad has forgotten (almost) about the Domino's pizza and his mother is aggravated and says she will just reschedule the appointment and she just wants her car back. When, after Swimming Pools, which is another reference to pressure to drink alcohol with his friends, his friends decide to enact revenge on the ambushers of K.Dot. As they make their plan and enact it, one of the gang, Dave, gets shot. This is the final piece of the pie for K.Dot, now fully transformed into Kendrick Lamar. Sing About Me/I'm Dying of Thirst is a final plea of Dave to sing about him when he is gone, but he dies before he can finish his sentence. The song switches to the viewpoint of a girl, Keisha's sister (Keisha is referenced on Lamar's first album, Special.80) who describes that she doesn't want anything to do with Kendrick anymore. Kendrick apologizes, and his transformation is complete after his neighbor sees him and his friends with guns, and asks them to pray and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is the final step toward Kendrick's enlightenment, and on Real he finally feels complete and comfortable with himself and who he has become. The "closing credits" as described by Ryan Bassil is Compton, which you can picture playing as the screen fades to black. The album is over, and Kendrick Lamar is born.
My Ratings -
Story: 7.5/10
Music: 9/10
Themes: 8/10
OVERALL: 8.2/10
LISTEN at http://www.spreaker.com/user/djsteele/m-a-a-d-city (Part One)
and http://www.spreaker.com/user/djsteele/m-a-a-d-city-part-two (Part Two)
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