Do You Know Kendrick?

Posted bynkhensanieditrixPosted inUncategorized
*warning: songs in this post contain explicit language.

I heard this guy’s name mentioned in passing almost a year ago, and after hours of going through Google search results, and downloading mixtape after mixtape from DatPiff, I can say “I’m a fan”.

This Compton, California native has me hooked with his well-placed samples, enticing beats and gripping lyrics.
He’s releasing his album good kid, m.A.A.d city soon. Swimming Pools (Drank) is a recently released single:

I had that on repeat for a while, but then I went back to the mixtapes and found this gem:

As Terrace says in the intro, this is a song about all those annoying hangers-on and passers-by who always want to call in “favours” and ride on the coat tails of others’ success. It’s also a song that makes very good use of a Stevie Wonder sample, over which Kendrick says:

“rolling like two miles per hour/ I was with Success- I don’t know where y’all were…”
He throws out another memorable line in “Dumb it Down”
“I’m looking past y’all like a fastball- strike/ And I ain’t even tryin’ to give it my all- yikes!”

The first time I heard that, I put it right at the top of my list of “Best Lines in Hip-Hop Music this Year”.
It just summarises (in my opinion) his approach to life and music: he’s out there working hard for himself, and he knows that he’s a force to be reckoned with. Everyone else can just sit this one out.
I might not be a die-hard hip-hop fan, but I think for this type of music, I’ll spend more time on Rap Genius to keep up.

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