Tonight we had the opportunity to attend Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city listening session in New York City. The private event was packed to capacity as everyone was anxious to see Kendrick and hear his much anticipated debut album on Aftermath / Interscope. Once everyone settled down, Kendrick addressed the audience and thanked everyone for their support. In the control room, Ab-Soul, Pusha T, Fred The Godson and Elle Varner made appearances to support the young MC. He was careful in not giving out any song titles or other details on the songs, but wanted everyone to enjoy what he played.
Kendrick made us hear 7 tracks from the album and we were certainly impressed with each one of them. Here are the songs we had pleasure of listening, in the order that they were played for the audience. Kendrick made it clear that they were not necessarily in the sequence on the final track list.
Album in stores October 22nd.
One:
Kendrick introduced this record as his much talked about Lady Gaga collaboration. Neither the title nor the producer were mentioned. The beat on this comes in real smooth as Kendrick follows with his usual catchy vocal effect. This record has a Cali feel and we see it as potential single material. K.Dot repeatedly recites “B*tch don’t kill my vibe” which will likely to get stuck in listeners’ heads. Gaga on the hook is not what you’d normally hear on her Pop songs so fans should be excited to hear the final product. Her sound flowed really well with Kendrick’s killer verses and harmonizing. This is for sure to be a highlight on good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Two:
This one is produced by Hit-Boy and easily the toughest, meanest, hardest record out of all. DJs are going to have a ball spinning this in clubs around the world. I’m assuming Mixed by Ali mixed this track and the gentleman has definitely done a commendable job. The instruments stand out and Kendrick’s verses float seamlessly. As you can expect with a Kendrick song, the lyrics were passionate. He poured some serious emotion into the second verse. This was our personal favorite of the night.
Three:
Once again, no title or producer revealed but from the lyrics, we could guess this might be called ‘Black Boy Fly’. Don’t hold us to that though! The intro has that larger-than-life feel as it leads into Kendrick reciting “What up, what up, n***a I made it“. This was one of the darker sounding beats of the bunch. The verses contain some serious substance as the song builds with stories and perspectives of Kendrick’s personal life in Compton. The concluding verse has Kendrick exclaiming how he is going to rise from the streets to success. This song was one of the slower ones in terms of tempo.
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Four:
This one is aimed at the clubs we believe. The beat sounds a little similar to ‘Mercy’ but adds that West Coast feel with a lot of drums. Kendrick sounds different than usual and raps in a slightly higher pitched voice but definitely wouldn’t bother you. We noticed that the attendees in the room were rocking to this track on par with the Hit-Boy record.
Five:
Another track with street feel. The beat has that old school vibe to it and Kendrick attacks his rhymes as usual. This was definitely some classic music and featured another rapper whom we couldn’t quite figure out — but qualifies as a good contribution. This one’s for the hardcore Hip-Hop heads.
Six:
Number 6 is for all the smokers out there. The chorus is built on the words — “that’s just how I feel” and his vocal arrangement is harmonious as usual, something which was prevalent on almost all songs we heard. There was a feature on this track as well who was probably Jay Rock but we refrain from confirming that for sure.
Seven:
Kendrick closed out the session with the song most folks are hyped about. This was the Drake-featured ‘Poetic Justice’ with a Janet Jackson sample on deck. If we had to describe the sound in a few words, we would say a soulful, melow vibe with heavy bass and Kendrick delivering great bars again. Drizzy contributes with one, full impressive verse. This has hit written all over it.