Dissect - good kid, m.A.A.d. city | LAST SONG STANDING (E1)

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

In the premiere of LAST SONG STANDING, Cole and Charles debate Kendrick Lamar's good kid, mAAd city in order to determine the single best song on the album. LAST SONG STANDING is a new show from Dissect and The Ringer. Each season focuses on one artist in attempt to determine their greatest song of all time by debating through their ENTIRE catalog. New episodes of Last Song Standing publish Thursdays on the Dissect feed. Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes Producer: Justin Sayles Audio Production: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everyone to Last Song Standing. I'm Cole Kishna. And I'm Charles Holmes. And today we'd like to introduce you to a new show with a very simple premise. If you could only pick one song to define your favorite artists, which one would it be? In this first season of Last Song Standing, Cole and I will try to answer the question. What is the greatest Kendrick Lamar's song of all time? By debating our way through his entire catalog, we're talking every single album plus mixtapes, single, and features, my man, Cole. How are you feeling? I'm great, man. I'm really excited for this. Welcome to the Dysect Podcast feed. You should probably tell people who you are, Charles. What's up?

It is an honor to be on the dissect feed. I'm ready to be dissected. Okay? All right? And for those that don't know, my name is Charles Holmes. I've been a music writer for some years now. My work has appeared in Rolling Stone,

Billboard, Complex Fader. If it's a music magazine, I've probably written in it. But now I'm full-time. at the Ringer. I host two podcasts, the Ringer music show and Midnight Boys. Poo, Poo! And dog, I'm here along for the ride.

But the people are wondering, just like, how did Charles and Cole become the bestest of friends? How did their friendship bloom? It's an unlikely pairing, right? It's a little bit unlikely pairing. But I'll take the listeners back

to the moment I knew I needed to start a podcast interview. When the words came out of Charles Holmes's mouth that Drake is a better artist than Kendrick Lamar. He told me this with a straight face. I knew I was horrified, but I also knew in that moment, okay, we got something because I was flabbergasted.

Oh, you're the face that you had was beautiful. It is, when I troll, that's the face that I look for. And to this day, I stand on it. I'm a Drake fan. I'm Aubrey's Angels. But guys, fellas, ladies, this is not a Drake podcast. This is a Kendrick podcast. This is last song standing.

You know what I mean? The award goes to Kendrick Lamar. Damn, Kendrick Lamar. And the Grammy goes to to Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar. I said my name, Miss Kinchick. Yeah, man.

Tell him about the show. Yo, so I want to take people behind the curtains a little bit when both of us were like, yeah, we should do a show together. There was this question that popped into our mind while we were arguing and debating. We're like, what is the greatest Kendrick Lamar song. And I think what's so hard to, about that question is that Kendrick is an

album artist. He's someone who gives you a complete world anytime he drops. So it's really hard to pick out a song and point to it and be like, no, that's his best. So we worked backwards from there and we're like, yo, let's make it a game. So the rules of last song standing are really, really simple. The broad thing we're doing all season is trying to figure out what the greatest Kendrick Lamar's song is. But what we're doing every single episode, we're taking a project, we're taking a mixtape, any features, remix he's done, and we're literally figuring out what the last song standing is. So if we have an episode that's about to Pimp a Butterfly, we take every single song onto Pimp a Butterfly, we debate it, we nominate our three choices. I have mine. Cole has his,

and at the end of the episode, both of us have to crown the last song standing. And then at the end of the season, I'm going to have my list of picks. Cole is going to have his list of picks. It's going to be a Royal Rumble, a March Madness, a bracket system. We're knocking songs off. And then Colin, I will have to agree, what is the greatest Kenj Klemar song of all time? Did I get everything? I think so, man. It's like, when you, when you spelled out like that, I'm just a little bit scared because this is kind of a daunting task, right? I mean, he has so many songs, he has so many great songs that it's just going to be very, very difficult to try to determine the best one. But it should be fun.

Oh, it should be fun. And, yo, you should let them know that I'm not, this isn't replacing the normal dissect episodes. This is just wet people's whistle. It's a little bit of seasoning to get you all through the summer, okay? A little bit of a game. And you guys need to play with us, right? I want everybody to be yelling at us in the comments.

Like, how could, how dare you choose the song as the best song off of damn? It's really blah, blah, blah. I want that, you know? Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yo, before we dive into the album that we are going to debate today, I want to know from you, Cole, what's your criteria for an artist's best song? Yeah, I think for Kendrick specifically,

it's got to represent who he is as an artist. One song we can point to that hits all the markers of what makes Kendrick Kumar are great artists. So for me, personally, that is number one concept. I think he does conceptual, thematic records better than anyone living at this moment. So that's going to be top tier, top on my list. It's got to have that.

Number two, of course, lyricism, bars, flow, cadence. That's got to be, I mean, that's, Kendrick Lamar is a great lyricist, so it has to have some of that. Third, and maybe a little bit lower on the list for Kendrick specifically is production. He's not a producer, although he is more of an executive producer very much in control, like puppet, but not hands on the computer, making the beats. So this is where, for instance, like Kanye, production would probably be number one. But if Kendrick, a little bit lower, but it's got to have great production value. And then, like I always say on dissect, like, it's got to have some kind of, we can do all this analysis,

heady stuff, but we've got to, it's got to also affect you emotionally in a level that just hits you in your gut where you can't describe it, but it moves you so much. It's got to have some of that magic quality to it. So that's my criteria. What about you? I'm not going to be as well-spoken as. you, Cole. That's not my job here. My job here is to be the antagonist, okay? But what I will say is Kendrick Lamar, a lot of people consider him the best rapper going. So for me, yes, yes. I mean, he's not. Like, stop it. Cole, stop it. All right. He is. I let you have your five minutes, Cole. Can I have my time? Can I have my time? Hey, producers, please put more time on the podcast.

But yes, I think for Kendrick, you know, it has to have the depth of of storytelling, of lyrics, of humanity. I think one of the best things that Kendrick is able to evoke. I think that's made him so popular, whether it's good kid, Mad City, to Pimp a Butterfly, Damn, is he such a cinematic storyteller? And what he has really, really done throughout the past decade plus is he's kind of introduced the world, not only to what it's like to grow up in Compton, but he's introduced the world to what it is to be kind of like an 80s baby. and to have grown up in a certain situation to be poor, to grow up around death, to grow up around where, you know,

government in a society because of structural and institutional racism has disadvantaged you. And I think he's so good at that. And I think the best songs, some of the best songs are going to be bangers. Some of the best songs are really, really going to just be very, very deep, moody cuts.

But I think everything that those things will have in common is like a humanity. and if somebody has never heard a Kendrick Lamar song, his best, you have to be able to sit them down, be like, I'm going to play you one song, and they can understand what makes him so special and what makes him a generational talent. And that is literally all of the credit I will give to Kendrick Lamar

because Cole is smiling. He's like, look at him. I love this. He's talking about my boy. You're glowing. Yeah, you're glowing about Kendra. I am not glowing. I am not glowing.

But it's time. Y'all have been wondering, what album are we doing? Or you've probably read the title. so you know it, I'll work. Let's get into our first album of this season. It's going to be 2012's classic Kendraimar's debut. Good Kid, Mad City.

Dreams of living life like rappers do. Bump that new E40 at the score. Every time I write these words, they become a taboo. Making sure of my punctuation curve, heavy letter his truth. All right, Cole, before we get into this, this album. I think it's really, really important that we set the stage for Good Kid Bad City. We have to go back. This album was released in October 22nd, 2012. And Kendrick at this point, he's already been anointed by Snoop as the next guy out of L.A., the person that's going to put

L.A. rap back. He has this Dr. Drey's co-sign. He signs with aftermath. He signs with Interscope. But there's this feeling. He shows up on Drake's Take Care and he's hungry. He wants that. wants what Drake has. He wants to be the best rapper alive. Okay. He's, he's opening up for a Mac Miller and a whiz and all of these, all of these artists. But he wants to be the headliner. And there's this, there's something going on in the ecosystem where so many of these heavyweights in the industry believe and Kendrick Lamar. And you're wondering this entire time, can he do it? And boy, does he do it. This album spawns five singles. I'm talking the recipe swimming pools, backseat freestyle, poetic justice, bitch don't kill my vibe.

It debuts at number two on the Billboard 200 and it sells an amazing 242,000 copies in its first week. And most people will hear those stats, be like, who cares? But at that point, like Kendrick was not a star yet. So to see him do that with his debut album is incredible. Can you kind of walk people through the story of Good Kid Mad City? because when we talk about good Kim Mad City, we're really talking about the origin of Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, it really is like a true cinematic kind of origin story, right?

This is like his hero's journey. This is his coming of age story. And it's set, of course, in Compton, California. And the story takes place over one day. I don't know if people realize that. But the span of the album is one day in the life of a 16-year-old kid, Kendrick Kamar, and his friends riding around Compton, getting into trouble. And so we follow them

quite literally in the car with them as they are freestyling as they're doing a home invasion as Kendrick is lusting after Chorraine and crosses territory lines and gets jumped. Horny Gremlin. Let's be horny Gremlin on this album. I'll use after Shereen in a way that we're listening to the album like, calm down. Take a cold shower. Kenjee. And so yeah, that's like the sin that kind of

leads to this really culminating moment where his friends retaliate and they get into a gunfight with this rival gang and Kendrick's friend Dave dies in his arms and you know there's a pivotal scene in which uh kendrick and his friends are debating if they should retaliate they're in this food for less parking lot one of them has a gun and what i think is divine intervention or is is purported to be divine intervention and a true story an old woman walks up to them and questions what they're doing and then leads them into in a sinner's prayer

and you know at this point Kendrick feels like he's saved at that moment this is a new life for him and you know the arc of the album is really him experiencing hell and salvation in the same day and if we believe Kendrick it is a true story

and you know that's the story I think we're going to get into a lot of like the themes of what that means and like his, what it is his experience means, like more generally about what it is to be living in Compton and coming from these communities. But that's the story. And for me, like, if we're looking back now almost like 10 years, it's just crazy. This is, a album has been out. Like, it has aged so well.

It's aged really well. And you know, like, I'm a troll. And listening to it, I was just like, oh, no, this album like has aged like fine wine. And this is coming from someone when this album comes out. I'm living in Philly, okay, going at Temple University. When I hear backseat freestyle leaks. When I hear backseat freestyle, I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like, get this out of here, okay?

I don't think Kendrick Lamar can do it. And he just does. And it's really, really hard to sum up what it was like seeing Kendrick actually make good after years of kind of playing second fiddle to a bunch of rappers who had already blown up before him. and it's just kind of amazing to see. I think a lot of people go back and look at this album and be like, yeah, Kendrick was always supposed to be this. And I'm like, no, I was listening to overly dedicated in high school.

I was listening to Section 80. And there was no, like those albums and I mean, mixtapes are fine. But there's not, it's not, there's no way you can listen to those mix. They'd be like, yeah, man, Kendrick is going to be one of the biggest rappers of all, of all time. But Cole, like, I remember this moment. I was listening to it in real time. Like, I remember being a sophomore in college at Temple University, listening to this album. You were not listening to hip-hop in college, were you?

I was not, yeah. My story is definitely different from yours. Like, I was just getting out of college. I call it the black hole. I was studying classical music, and I was, like, totally new to that world. So I had to make all my time, free time listening, was listening to classical music, trying to catch up. So then when I emerged out of this, like, four-year black, Cole had not been listening to what was going on in popular music at all. And so I always point to

like two records that really like reintroduced me to where music was, where hip hop was. One of them, Kanye West Yeez-is and Kendrick Kumar's Good Kid Mad City. Arguably, Connie West eases us better than good kid Matt City. That is a debate for another show. And I love. I love both. You like literally like literally. No, I mean, actually, that's a great debate, actually. I would have that debate. But yeah, so specifically with a good kid, it was like, the same with Jesus, though, it was like this draw-dropping moment of like, oh, this is where hip-hop has gotten to in this, like, this incredible evolution, I thought sonically, I think Kendrick brings back like kind of the cinematic storytelling that was more common in 90s hip-hop with the skits and stuff.

But yeah, I think it's a really important element to me because of that, and then the more that I've dug into it, you know, with my first season of Dissect, I went into this album a bit. And man, it's just, uh, it was, it's been a very big learning experience for me, studying Kendrick Lamar and his experience and researching all the references and going down those rabbit holes, uh, because he's talking a lot of a lot of stuff about this country, about different experiences. And so I really appreciate this, this album really has a special place in my heart. And I actually really loved revisiting it. Oh, that's beautiful. Before we get into our first bit of the day, I have to ask you, Cole, what was college?

Like, were you, like, when you guys went to parties, where y'all just listened to, like, classic music, like, where girls, like, twirking to, like, Beethoven and Rock, is that what was happening? My, okay, my college experience was just like my high school experience. I barely talked to anyone. I was all about, I loved school. Obviously, you can tell I'm, like, kind of a nerd. I was not going to parties at all. How about you? But now you live in it.

Like, now, call you. when I roll through town to hang out with Cole, my Arabis, it's like, yo, Cole, you coming to this party? You're like, no, no, I'll catch you all later. I'm hitting the thing. I'm hitting the weed with the shenanigans, yeah. Yo. What about you, though?

I was a nerd. Come on. I was not going to. Okay, yeah, yeah. Like, you know what I do for a living cold. Like, I was not cool. All right. And it's time for our first segment of the day called,

damn, that's wild. This segment is all about album trivia. Both of us have gone deep, deep into the wells of Wikipedia, Googles, okay? And we're coming back. I'm going to have some questions. Cole is going to have some questions. We're going to see which one of us can get the most answers right for a little bit of the factoid about this album, Good Kid, Mad City.

Yo, Cole, my man, can you guess what artists originally recorded to backseat freestyle before Kendrick? My first thought is fabulous Because Because he recorded the first version of what became All right He jumped on that beat first Wait for real? Yeah

Fabulous on All right would have been trash I'm sorry Thab You can hear it you can look it up Were you playing that song? Just put it in the back No I was not That would be terrible You have two more guesses

I will give you this Hint R&B singer Can't be Drake Not Drake Not Drake Drake. I'll give you one more hint.

All right, all right. This beat is automatic supersonic. Notic punk fresh. Okay, that was amazing, but I don't know anything about R&B, so you're just kind of Wait, you don't know Sierra? No. I'm not going to say you're the whitest man alive, but geez. I'm pretty, oh, Sierra?

You weren't, listen. You weren't one two stepping in high school? All right, that's fine. That's the first ding. Cole is written. I love you, Cole. But Sierra, yeah, Hip Boy, who's on this interview for hip-hop D-X,

and he was saying, like, Sierra, the name of the song for Backseat Freestyle was Hit Boy. And she was literally saying Hip Boy's name. And I was like, thank God, Kendrick got Backseat Freestyle, because I can't imagine Good Kid, Matt City without it now. But yeah, so now it's your turn, your quiz. All right. What was the first song recorded for Good Kid Mad City?

Ooh, I'm going to get three chances. I'm going to go first. Black Boy Fly, which was on the deluxe version. Negative. Damn. Was it? Towards the end of the album. I'll give you that.

Towards the end of the album. Okay. Sing about me. I'm dying of thirst. Definitely not. God. Damn. All right.

One more. Compton. Trey. Yep. Yep. Yep. Woo! Got on.

Everyone. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty incredible story. So, like, he recorded it the very first time that he met Dr. Dre. So he gets this call. I think him in, I think it's him in Absal or at, like, Applebee's, some chain restaurant. And they get this call. It's someone saying, Dr. Dre wants to talk to you.

They hang up on them, think it's a prank call. Calls back. They ended up realizing this was a real call. Kendra goes to Dre's studio. They don't say much. Dre just plays him the beat and he's to write to this Swiss beats, which becomes Compton. And this is a quote that Kendrick said about this moment. He said, everything that I worked for, everything that I built up to came down to that moment. That moment I recorded my first song

with Dre, which was Compton, which is the last song on my album, Good Kid, Mad City. So if you understand the story of Good Kid Bad City, where it's this kid growing up in this harsh environment, makes it out and the crown jewel, the crowning moment of the album is Compton. And that's the first song that he records with Dre. You realize how real this album is. You know, he is living this story in real time as we experience it on this album. So I just thought that was pretty incredible. Yo, can I say it tells you, that story tells you so much about where Kendrick was at?

Because my man was still eating at Applebee's. I'm not an elitist, okay? I used to be an Applebee server. Okay. Every single time, like, I would go up to a table, people would be like, you know who you look like? And I would just roll my eyes because I knew I would get Drake. I would get Kikuddy and I would get J. Cole. Basically, you're a light skin rapper at that.

Every single time. It just happened. So, yes, like shout out Kendrick. Wonder if he still goes to Applebee's. He looks like a two for 20 type of thing. Last, last damn, that's wild of the night. What rapper was supposed to appear on Bish Don't Kill My Vives remix before J.C. It's not the Lady Gaga story, is it?

It's not the Lady Gaga story. Like, let's be, for the listeners, I don't know, Lady Gaga was originally supposed to be on the hook of Bish Don't Kill My Vive. I think it leaked, actually. Or she released it, yeah. Terrible. Terrible. Yeah.

Can we just acknowledge that if you've heard it, it sounds bad. No offense, Lady Gaga. And I love that Kendrick, at this stage of his career, turned down a feature from one of the biggest pop stars in the world at that time. All right. I'm going to be real. It tells me everything about his artistry. I'm going to be real while they had a Lady Gaga feature and that didn't do one. All right.

All right. So, not Lady Gaga. So you have three. Three. J-Rock? Not J-Rock. No, it's a legend. Like, it's a legend on the level of J-Z.

Nas? Not Nas. One more. Someone old, like Rock Kim or someone? No, a little younger. Okay. Wayne. Not Wayne.

According to TDE President Punch, Andre 3,000 was supposed to be on the remix, but he was filming the 2013 Jimmy Hendrix movie, Jimmy, all by my side. Ah, man, that would have been great. I'm going to be honest. I would have rather had the Andre 3,000 versus. Like, Jayzie killed it. Like, honestly, Jayzie got Kendrick, but Andre would have been better. But guys, that's our first damn.

That's wild. of the season, both of us probably should have studied a little bit more. So we've got some of those answers, right? But now that we set up the history of Good Kid Mad City, we're going to debate the best songs in the album to determine the last song standing the single best song from Good Kid Matt City. So make sure you stick around for that. We're back and it's nomination time.

Remember, the goal of each episode is for Cole and I to determine the single best song from each Kendrick album. The songs we select over the course of the season will then duke it out in our season finale, a royal rumble where we will be forced to agree on what is the last song standing, the single best song by Kendrick Lamar. But right now, we're each nominating

what songs from Good Kid Mad City should be in the running, and why? Cole, why don't you do the honors and start us off in round one? What's the first song you're going to nominate, my man? It's tough. but I'm going to start out somewhat tame. I think that we're going to probably,

I'm guessing we're both going to agree on this one. It is the pivotal track, Mad City. Oh, coming out hot! I love it! Yeah, this is undeniable. I think this is on everyone's list. Everyone's respectable list. It is a phenomenal song.

Produced by Soundwave and THC, the first half, the second half is produced, by Terrence Martin. So you have this beautiful culmination of two top-tier artists that Kendrick works with his entire career. And before I get in, I'm going to do some nerdy music stuff about it. But before we get into that, what is this song like evoke? What kind of emotions does this song evoke in you? The best way I can describe this song and I was thinking about it once I read some of Punch's old tweets about them trying to make this album like a Tarantino movie. And to me, not only does

Mad City operate is kind of the climax of the album. It's also kind of like a great trailer. Right. He touches upon like every single thing that's, that's either going to happen or has already happened in the album. This is great synopsis. And it's so forceful. It almost like bowls you over with everything that Kendrick is saying. You have these like yack, yack, yack's in the back. It's way more energetic than a lot of the rest of the album. But I think it's also it sums up the theme of the album. And I've talked to you about this before. One of my favorite Kendrick Lamar lyrics of all time is when he goes, if I told you I killed a nigga at 16, would you believe me? Perceive me to be innocent Kendrick you seen in the street with the basketball and some

now and later seat. If I mentioned all my skeletons, would you jump in the seat? Would you say my intelligence now is great relief? There's this feeling throughout the whole project of who Kendrick wants to be and where he's home, the nature is forcing him to become, to survive in this place. And there's this good kid. There's this version of Kendrick that believes in karma, that believes that the bad things that he's doing in life will have repercussions, you know. But there's this other part of him, which is like, hey, I'm this good kid. Why are you, why the whole world looking at me as if I'm not. And there's this, there's this tension. And that's what I love about Mad, Mad City, because there's always this thing when I've listened to

Kendrick's projects where I'm like, where are the skeletons? You've done so many reprehensible things, or at least you've said, you say you have. So why do you think you're a good kid? There's always that tension with me and Kendrick where I'm just like, are you the good kid, though? Is this kind of what your music is about, not wanting to be accepted as the sanctified person, but also pushing against what people perceive you as. Right. Yeah. And I think for me, like, I agree with that. I agree that it's like, yeah, definitely like a great representation of this album, which is, of course, what we're going to be looking for in a best song to represent this album. When I hear this, I don't know about you, like, it feels like a vivid sonic painting of Compton. Like, I feel immersed in the environment. I don't know if you feel that when you listen to this song. Hell you.

And so like someone like me with like kind of music theory background, I'm always like wondering like how do they capture this in art? Because you feel it so vividly when you're listening. So I'm always trying to figure out like what are the musical elements that they're doing to make us feel this way? You mentioned like there's a lot of ambience. There's a lot of like you'll hear like police sirens and yeah, you got the schoolboy cue and you got all these kind of environmental sounds. So that's operating on one layer. I think another layer is Kendrick's voice is just very theatrical in this song, right? Like it's panic.

You can feel the anxiety and the stress weighing on him and just like fearing for his life at all at all times. But I think there's some very cool musical stuff that I want to just quickly break down. And so I'm going to start with the main riff that we hear. Wait, really quick. Is this our first Cole corner of the season? We're going, Cole is ISOing? That's what you're doing now, Cole? I'm isoing.

Let me set the scene for y'all, okay? He's about to illustrate some musical shit. My man Cole just brought out the keyboard, okay? Like, all right, Cole, let's, listeners, let's lounge in our scene and see what Cole's about to do for us. All right, so the first half of the song is based on a really simple beat with just one main riff and a drum beat. And so the main riff is this one.

Everyone knows it. Right, pretty iconic at this point. And this riff just repeats over and over throughout the entire first half of the song. And so there's some really dense musical information tucked in here, though. So the intervals, which is just the space between the two notes, like one note and the next. The first interval that we hear is what's called a minor second, this one. So the space between these two notes is a minor second. Makes that sound very harsh, very dissonant.

very anxiety-inducing. This is what you hear in like Jaws. It's like classic horror film. And so a lot of the tension that we're hearing throughout this first half of the song is just this repetition of the... Just this really dissonant interval. But then the second interval

is what's called a major third. And this is the basis of a major chord, which is a very bright and happy chord. So you have this dichotomy between this harsh dissonance and this very consonant, beautiful, harmonious sound. This is going to take us to our reoccurring

segment that we're going to call Hot or Cold Take, aka is Coal Full of Shit. This is where I try to convince you of one outlandish theory about the album and you're going to tell me if it's bullshit or not. I'm not ready. Because here's the thing, this is why we came up with this. Let's be real. You get a lot of flack on Twitter.

A lot of people go at you. Come at your neck, Cole. You know what I'm saying? You told me, you told me off the air. You like, fuck these motherfuckers. Okay? I got money, bro. Dissect.

I'll dissect your ass. Like, I'm just joking. But yeah, like, come on, Cole, Cole. I'm going to be, I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you if you're full of bullshit or not. I'm here. I'm saying. All right.

So here's my theory. You have these competing, contrasting. intervals. Could we say that this is a sonic kind of representation of the Mad City and the good kid? No. No, no, I'm not letting you get that one off. It's like it's great. I can see it. I can see it. You're like you're not that far off. No, I don't think so. Like I don't think so. I don't think so either actually. For the record. Okay, that's the kind of thoughts that go through my head.

That would not, like, if this were episode to dissect, I would have thought about that and it would not have included it in the episode. This is what the listeners need to know because I'm always wondering, like, do you ever try to sneak some shit into dissect and then you like wake up and you like, I was wild and we got to think so. I usually try to censor myself as much as possible. All right, so can I just break down now quickly the second half because it's really cool. Go for it.

All right. So the second half takes us into this. sample-based section of the song where we hear MC8, who is a Compton native rapper in his own right. And the sample that we hear is from BB King's song called Chains and Things. So, BB King, for those that don't know, is a famous blues guitarist. One of the most famous blues players, maybe the most famous blues player ever. And it's really cool because the string part that we hear is this. So this is playing the same exact interval.

So they basically kind of developed this minor second interval and kind of, that's why these two halves of the song, sometimes when you have a beat switch on a song, like it feels just like they clipped together two separate songs into one. These two feel incredibly related, and I think part of that has to do with this musical connection between that same use of the minor second interval. But the really cool thing about this sample

is that it comes from that BB King song Chains and Things, which was also sampled by Ice Cube in a song called A Bird in the Hand. Obviously, Ice Cube is another rapper from Compton in the 90s who was very influential on Kendrick. And Kendrick actually cites this song in the very first line of the second half. He says, fresh out of school because I was a high school grad, sleeping in the living room of my mama's pad. Ice Cubes, a bird in the hand starts out, fresh out of school because I was a high school grad, got a job because I was a high school dad.

And so he's paying homage not only in the beat that we hear, but also in the opening lyric of that verse. And so you're getting like this history to me, this is like the coolest thing about hip hop to me is that when samples are strategically used to build a thematic world. And so we have on this song like three generations of essentially black music expressing the plight of the black experience in America as the foundation of the song. We have BB King, Ice Cube, MCA, and now Kendrick Lamar. And to me, like, if we're talking about Mad City being a representation of good kid, Mad City, but also just this sonic painting of Compton, like, we are literally hearing, like, the history of Compton in this song. Damn, Cole, this is why I let you ISO. That was beautiful.

Also, really quick. Something that I love about Mad City, I was reading what Kendrick had said about Mad City. And something he said that was so special is he told Genius when he was annotating his lyrics, I have always been this streamer. I am a realist. But at the same time, what separates me from the rest of my homeboys is the fact that I can dream of this hope rather than just saying, fuck everybody and shit is about to happen. I, what I love about Mad City so much is that it does have that duality where, so much of Good Kid Mad City, like, this is going to be my first hot take.

Good Kid Mad City is essentially like a Christian album. The story is essentially Kendrick becoming saved, meeting this woman after he loses a dear friend and realizing that there's another path. There's another way for him to really break away. Like you even on Black Boy Fly, you hear. hear how jealous Kendrick is of everybody else making it out of Compton and he's stuck. And I think Mad City is such an, is so evocative of why someone would try to escape, why someone would be jealous of some people who can get out of Compton. And I think like Mad City to me, the record truly does not work without this song. And I honestly could make the argument that this record,

especially when where we're at in Kendrick's life, he needed this record in terms of live. This is one of the first Kendrick songs I can really remember that no matter where he was would go off live. He didn't really have a lot of these songs. So this is also one of the reasons I picked it where even though it wasn't one of the singles, to me this is probably one of the most important on the project

because every single time Kendrick would be out live, he could play this song because it summed up, everything you needed to know about him. And it's just a banger. Kendrick really can't make that many bangers, but this is a banger. Right. Yeah, and I locate that it's a banger that's true to him. Like, a song like Swimming Pools, to me, like, listening back to this album, that one has

aged the worst, because it feels so much like, this is my single, here's this big chorus. And I get like the themes of the record are, like, important and they're atypical for a radio song, but like, the sonics of it just feel like, this is my single. this feels like a very natural like to me when I saw this live a few times like knowing the content of the song it's really hard for me to like rock out to it or whatever like singing a crowd of people like chant the pyruz

and cripsing is just so weird to me but can I just say really quick before we move on to our second nomination I've never loved you so much call we rarely agree on anything but re-listened to this album I was like at the time being in college swimming pools was a thing and the irony of that song Kendrick has said that he made it for this reason is that like if you shut off your brain

swimming pools is like a frat song it's a frat pro song where you're like yeah taking shots but if you listen to it it is about the history of like alcoholism and his family and just what alcohol can do to a city and everything like that right and before we move on this is only because this i'm going to add one more thing because it's kind of crucial to like this best song conversation what i love a lot about lyrically about this out this song is that it all culminates to this final line where he says, I live inside the belly of the rough Compton USA, made me an angel on angel dust.

And then we hear scratches of Mad City Compton. And this, obviously, Mad City is the part of the album name and made me an angel on angel dust is the acronym for, one of the acronyms for M-A-D-D-City. And so, like, if we're talking thematically, in terms of like, yeah, essential song on this album, to culminate into the album title

and reveal the meaning of the album title as the culminating moment of the song like how perfect is that? It's amazing. That is our first song. A first song that's going to be a contention. We agreed, right? We agreed on it.

We are probably going to disagree so much on the next song. But, yo, Cole and I have just picked both Mad City for round one. Can I go for our round two, our next song on the list? Yep. Cole.

I'm going to drop a hot take. What's the best verse on Good Kid Mad City? Best verse? I think it's the final verse on Mad City, the song we just talked about. Wrong. What is it? Have you heard of a low guy named J. Rock? In the streets with a heater under my dungarees.

Dreams of me getting shaded under a money tree. Oh, God. Jay Rock's money trees. I knew you were going to come in with this bullshit. It is the best verse on this album. It is not. What are you talking about? It is so not.

No effect, I love J. Rock. It's like not even the top. It's not even the top five verses. Cole. Cole. Dude. Make the case. All right.

Wait, first before I make the, he says, Magic Rock up in the project way them niggas pick your pocket. Wait a big is on a yola with me. Oh, God. I get... Sorry, we should probably say your nomination is Money Tree. My nomination, my nominations is Money Trees produced by DJ Dahi. Yeah.

Most effortly song in this entire project. I think so much of Good Kid Mad City is so, like, good. But it's very considered. It's very worked over in a way where to make us an album like Good Kid Mad City work, it's operating on a few levels, okay? It has to tell this story, but it's telling it out of order, like a pulp fiction.

So the story has to be that tight and that good to make us follow it. What also you have to think about is like normally with albums, I skip the little outroes where people are talking and the skits. I just do. Nobody really enjoys skits.

I don't know why artists keep putting them on albums, but whatever. So the other tricky thing is why you're telling the story, Kendrick has his parents and these friends and everybody coming in and out to kind of guide you through this non-linear structure. For that to work, the skits have to be so perfect that you don't want to skip them,

that they just feel seamless. So to do all of that and to make hits, to make a swimming pools, to make a poetic justice, that's so difficult. Any other artists would fail and many other artists have failed trying to make that.

I say all of that to say, Money Trees is just the Bob. This is the jam. And that's why I actually picked it as a nomination because in an album that's so considered, in an album that is so, so, so hyper-detailed, sometimes I just want to listen to a banger. Sometimes I just want to listen to a song

that makes me feel good and nothing makes me feel on this record. Yeah. Like Jay Rock's verse on it. And it broke my heart. It broke my heart, man. It broke my heart. When a couple, a while ago, like a bunch of leaks dropped. And there was a reference track where Kendrick's rapping J. Rock's verse.

And I'm always like, Kendrick, if you pen J. Rock's verse, I've talked so much shit on you this entire, for years being like, Jay Rock got you on your own album. Did you actually hear it? Because I only saw that the guy that leaked some songs also said there was a reference track, but I never actually heard it. You did. Oh, wow. Yeah, I did hear it.

And I was just like, I was like all of my takes being like, how are you going to let Jay Rock get you on your debut? Like crumbled. And I was like, fuck. Kendrick wrote this verse. Was it the same to the same lyrics? It was the same lyrics. It was just like a cadence. So I don't know. It might have been one of those things where like J. Rock had penned it and like Kendrick had performed it being like, hey, can you do it like this? I don't know. Yeah.

But what I will say about money trees that that I love so much is that. it gets you into this world where Kendrick is on this precipice of fame, right? He's on this precipice of being one of the biggest rappers ever. And Money Trees takes you back to this moment where I'm going to be real. White people like to say this shit all the time. It's like, money can't buy you happiness. I'm like, yeah, people with money say that shit.

Right. Like, yeah, money. Like, I've gotten money. Like, it makes me so happy. What are you talking about? Right. And there is this feeling in Money Trees. of Kendrick daydreaming almost

of this life. And I think so much of Good Kid Mad City is about this escape is so much of it is about about Kendrick daydreaming of what it would be like to escape, to be a good kid that makes good that can finally get outside of this.

Money Trees gives me that like intangible feeling. It's also just like something like hot sauce all in our top rhyme in your bitch. Like that is such an evocative thing. Like just in that bar, you can understand so much about poverty of like what it is to like all you can afford is top ramen. But if you've ever had top ramen and hot sauce and you have nothing else, that that's like a four course meal. It feels so good.

It tastes so good. And there's so many little lyrics in this in this song that paint Compton. in this light. And what I love about Good Kid Mad City is, if you've ever gone to a hood, if you've ever had to live in the hood, I think sometimes in these movies, they're always painted as like hell.

And I think Good Kid Mad City, what Kendrick actually does really, really well, not only on this song, but throughout the album, is he gives Compton a humanity. He paints it as like, these are all nuanced characters. These are all people.

So when his friends die, you feel it. when his mom and dad talk, the real people with real emotions and real worries. And Money Trees does such a good job of like making Compton still feel so familial and soulful. I love Money Trees. Now you can shit on me loving the J. Rock verse, Cole. Get your shit off. I'll say he has the best verse on the song.

I'll give you that. But like on the album, hell no. You don't wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The J. Like you really don't mess with the J rock verse. no, I do. I actually, I really like the verse. It's just, if you're going to, like, throw it in the top five, I'm going to, no.

It's a great verse. It's a great verse. But let's not get hung up on that because it is a great song. It was actually on my list. So this is like, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you also pick money trees? I actually also pick money trees. Wait, what? All right, here's the, for the, for the listeners, we don't, like, before we do these episodes, we do not tell each other what our nominations are. This is all live. I don't want Cole seeing my hand. I can't believe you, yo ass,

picked morning trees. Go ahead, Cole, get your shit off. It barely made the list. I was on the fence with it, but it was, I mean, for all the reasons you laid out

in terms of being accessible and just like a fee, like that feel good, emotional quality. You can like listen to it in your car. It's like, it's not a heavy song, but it's also hitting

all those things that you just touched on, the details of living in Compton. Like you're getting all of it in a nice, and a not like mad city is very heavy and like i feel that weight every time money trees feels like yeah you feel that dream you feel that kind of that mind that adolescent mindset in a way that's a little bit more listenable um but when i was really digging into the lyrics and prepping for this like you realize he's actually doing a lot of the thematic stuff and that's probably maybe why you're not

like his verse as much where kent or j rock's like more like a character kendrick's doing a lot of narrative work is especially his first verse. He's like recapping the story. He's talking about the home invasion that they just did on pure pressure. He's talking about freestyling in the car, which they did on back street freestyle. He's talking about fucking Shireen without a condom, which is how the album starts. So let's also be real. He says, then Usher Raymond Let It Burn came on. And I want to ask you, are you a fan of Usher's confessions? I'm not. I'm not an R&B guy. Cole. So I'm not going to know your Sierra reference. I'm not going to

know your usher reference. I'm also white. What we're going to do, actually, Cole, what we're going to do, I'm going to make a black playlist for you. I'm going to make a nice arm bit playlist, right? You're going to step a little, I'm going to get you a nice pinot grigio. Okay. Because you don't like confessions.

That shit is wild. Like, you're going to love this album more when you listen to confessions. Okay. You might actually think confessions is better than this album. Okay, but, okay, actually about that line, have you ever looked at the genius annotations for this line? I have. Kendrick came on.

specifically gave a personal annotation to the only, I don't know if it's only this line, but specifically to this line to say that he didn't actually have an STD. He wanted to everybody to know. He felt the need. But yeah, I think like going back to your points, like, I feel like the money tree is such a vivid, like symbol, right? It's like this place of shelter, of comfort of where you're not feeling the heat. And they're talking about hustling from nine to five, whatever they say in the hook.

And you can just get this feeling that they're just expending so much energy just to like make it, just to like survive day to day. And then this this image of a money tree, the shelter and the comfort and the ease of worries that money does provide at a certain level. I think that's really what for me, that's why I ended up making this my list because it just that symbol tells so much about this story. And combined with everything else, I think also one of the, here's my, okay, here's my theory about the J-Rock version. You know the verse on Devil in the New Dress, Rick Ross? Yes. People said the same thing about Twisted Fantasy. Ross has the best verse on the album.

It's like, no, he doesn't. Because Kanye set like a silver platter red carpet for Rick Ross to come in and have like a magnificent impact with a very good verse. But like so much of our feeling about that verse is the red carpet that Kanye gives him. He doesn't come into the song until like five minutes after that song. starts. Same thing happens here. Jayrock doesn't come in until four minutes and 25 seconds. The song could have been over, yet he comes in and it's almost like a surprise every time, because we're used to songs ending after three minutes. And so to me, like Kendrick kind of gave him this nice red carpet runway. And so when he comes in, it just feels so like surprising every time.

And yeah, I mean, again, not to discredit J. Rock's verse, but I think a lot of it has to do with the way that it, just his placement in the actual song. But here's the thing, here's the thing. If I'm going to be real, it's not just that. Like, you have to think about what he's doing. When he did, like, if we could play a little bit of his first few bars. There's like forced rhyme going on there. He rhymes, he force rhymes, projects, pockets, stockings, and poppins.

and pop in in this way that is like so sublime. And because J. Rock is such a forceful rapper, Kendrick is very, like, you know Kendrick's always thinking about what pocket is this hitting, the syllables, he's making sure everything's pristine. You don't really expect that from J. Rock. When I was listening to J. Rock, J. Rock is more so like a force of nature when he comes on, which is also a great way to rap.

Like, there's such technical beauty in this verse. And thematically, what I will agree with you, something that Kendrick told Complex back in 2012, he said, that's where we were at the time. Everything was about money. We didn't care about nothing else truthfully. And I think why I love this song the most. And J. Rock helps with this. Kendrick helps with this. Is that I think what listening back as a 29-year-old is kind of so heartbreaking about this.

is that so many of the choices that Kendrick is making seems so boneheaded. Like, if you think about the consequences of running up in someone's crib and stealing a bunch of shit. Right. You know what I'm saying? When you think about going to another neighborhood

to fuck on terrain, when you think about everything that he's doing, bonehead stuff, teenage stuff. Yeah. But being a teenager in the suburbs where I was, like there's guardrails for you. There's societal guardrails. that can help you navigate that.

With Kendrick, he's reminiscing back on a point where any of these stories could have gone a different way. And Money Trees is this song. And it's very bright and happy as Money Trees seems. It's like super sad when you think about it where it's just like for a lot of black teenagers, Compton, Chicago, wherever you want to call it, money, generational wealth would be the things

that give them the guardrails. So they're not making a good kid mad, where they have to tell these, like, stories of running up in people's houses and their friends getting murdered. And Kendrick Havoc to, like, seek revenge and do all of these things. So, like, as much as, like, we're talking, like, Money Trees is such, like, a feel-good song. There is this sinister layer of it that, like, being 29 makes me so sad. Yeah, no, I mean, there's a lot of empathy in the song. And I think, yeah, again, that comes from just that symbol of the Money Tree and what it represents.

but yeah, should we move on, song three? Hell yeah. So, to recap, round two, both Cole and I agreed. Money Trees, second nomination, okay? Now it's the final round. For those of y'all that have forgotten at the end of the episode, Cole and I will both pick one song that's officially going to be the last song standing for Good Kid, Mad City.

Cole, I went first. Give us your third nomination. Please don't say we're going to agree again. I don't think so. My number two or my number, well, this is my second on my list. Sing about me. I'm dying a thirst. I woke up this morning and figured I call you in case I'm not here tomorrow.

I'm hoping that I can borrow a piece of mind. Like I like it. Like it objectively is one of the most beautiful poignant songs that Kendrick has ever written. Right. Come on. Yo, you're scaring the hose, Cole. You put this song on in the, like, Chris and everybody's like, what is going on, Cole?

Anyway, get back to your... I'll admit, it's not the most, like, replayable song. It's like, like, Mother I Sober on Mr. Moral, where I can't listen to it without crying, so I don't actually listen to it all that often. Like, this is one of those... I have maybe five or six songs. Cross anyone's discography that just tears every time I hear it.

This is one of those songs for me. There's something about the beat. I mean, it's a very simple beat, but there's just so much emotion. and like, I don't know, dejection and exhaustion in the beat. Yeah. That just makes like a perfect kind of free, like, it's like, it's not in your face and it's, it's like, kind of subdued enough to like really let these stories shine.

And, you know, for anyone that doesn't know, I'm going to mostly talk about singing about me. I know I'm dying of thirst is like tagged on to it, but I'm going to mostly talk about singing about me. And on that song, there's three verses, each told from a different perspective. and it really kind of like wraps the album up a nice classic the way that Kendrick ties bows on the album this is what's doing that work i feel like for me so the first verse you're getting like the perspective of Dave's brother um who Dave was the one that was killed on the previous song and essentially he's like just telling Kendrick like you know my brother died in your arms I have this like he says I have this demon glued on my back telling me to go get him like

telling me to like go retaliate and so it's like it's just this thing where they know it's not the thing that they should do but they feel like they need to go retaliate and it's just this vicious cycle that kendrick is kind of bringing up time and time again on this album the second verse is from the perspective of keisha's sister uh keisha is a is a sex worker that was featured her story was featured on the previous album section 80 and the perspective and she this sex worker died in a car by a client. And so Keisha's sister comes on, or the perspective of her on the second verse,

and says, basically kind of choose Kendrick out for putting her sister out there, and you come to realize that she is now a sex worker. And so I know there's some controversy with that, but I think if we're just saying thematically, conceptually, what is this doing? It's, again, Kendrick trying to point out this cycle, like this cycle, these cycles that people,

in Compton are not able to escape because now she is a sexual worker following in her footsteps. And then the third perspective is Kendrick and he's really just trying to like make sense of everything he just experienced, trying to make sense of these stories, what his responsibility to

these people and his community is. And it really kind of culminates into what is the resolution of the album where they they're in that food for less parking lot. They have the divine intervention and Kendrick is saved. And I think this thematically does so much work.

And if we're thinking about, again, best song, it's hitting all the points for me. It's hitting the conceptual arc. It's capturing that and doing a lot of work there. Lyrically, it has some of his best storytelling, I think, some of his best really potent lyrics in this song. And production, I would say probably not the standout, but again, it's serving a purpose.

So that's why I chose it. I know we're going to disagree on it, but... Oh, come on. I'm not an asshole, Cole. Sing about me, I'm dying of thirst. It's a beautiful song. I never listen to it because it's one of those songs

where you're just like, it's the equivalent of going to a museum and being like, I objectively know that this painting is a masterpiece, but come on. What am I going to do? Sing about me,

I'm dying of thirst. I do think is probably one of the most important songs not only on this album, but in terms of Kendrick's discography. Because I say this a lot just about rappers that I cover in my day job is having to have been a music journalist who's talking to a lot of young kids who come into a lot of money. I think a lot of this thing about me, I'm dying of thirst, is like, I don't think your average person understands the weight that a lot of young black rappers are in where you come into wealth, sometimes generation.

wealth, millions of dollars, more than generations have ever seen. And you want to tell your story, but there's this other responsibility of you want to tell the stories of everybody who didn't get to make it. Because I think the insidiousness of racism in ghettos and what mainly poor people of color have to deal with is the fact that so much of it is luck. So much of it is lottery. I don't think Kendrick survived because he was more, over more talented than the next person. I don't think, like, it's luck. And I think probably if you talk to Kendrick, you'll be like, yeah, like, the bullet could have hit me at any point. Any bullet, any straight bullet could have hit me. Any, like, any, I could have gone out one day

and something went wrong. One, one move, and I'm on another path. So I do think the thing that you see throughout Kendrick's career and it really starts on Sing About Me I'm Dying of Thirst. So with each subsequent album, he always kind of has that one song where he's still trying to wrestle with. What is it like being one of the biggest rappers of all time and of a generation and still having a home and still knowing people and still knowing stories that either you need to tell or are hard to tell or people that you're letting down? And yeah, sing about me dying of Thirst is just beautiful. It's like a really beautiful song. Just hard to listen to. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. And that's all that's very true. Like in interviews, if you go back to this time, like he's talking exactly what you said. Like, he references that house, like that near house arrest on peer pressure. Like, that was a real thing. They could have got arrested for robbing that house. It could have been

him that was shot, not Dave. All these things that I think, partly on this album, like lead to him feeling like he was chosen, that this was divine intervention, that he made it out. and then feeling that responsibility to tell these stories, and then also not really knowing how to do that. I think that's why he's kind of wrestling with the Keisha's sister specifically.

Like, he did this thing on Section 80 that he thought was going to help. You know, at the end of that song, Kisha's song, he says that he sits his younger sister down and played her the song in order to, like, inspire her not to live that life. And like that you can just not saying that that's going to work, but it's like that was his mentality creating these songs and then kind of realizing there were some backlash there and maybe he didn't do it in the most graceful way and i think he's been wrestling that with that since this album like how to tell these stories how to yeah be that famous rapper but also recognize and don't forget about this this place that you came from and the stories and the people there

j rock even said a similar thing about his money trees verse where he was saying like that that opening line that you reference saying he's got it he moved out of the projects he's saying that like that was very difficult for him despite it being a poverty situation like he's that was his home that was his family um so i think that's that's all very true um and i'm glad i'm glad you like this song i'm glad you just didn't totally shit on it of course cold i'm not a troll i know okay i have a heart can i tell you what my nomination for number three is because i'm i almost pick sing about me i'm dying up thursday but I'm like, oh, really? Okay. That's the critics choice. Come on. Come on. Don't like, so.

My number, my nomination number three. Smoking on our vines dope. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye. Drink and telling I can. I'm out. Really, I'm a soap soul. But I'm with the homies right now. We got the art of peer pressure. I love this song. The art of peer pressure is like, I think it's probably one of the best examples of storytelling on this entire, on this entire project where he tells this story of this home invasion,

this one that I think was very, very pivotal, pivotal. Because like, in interviews, he's just like, yeah, like, to your point, Cole, he's like, I could have, this could have been it, you know, he could have been in jail, T.D. E.E. She, all that shit's not happening. And there's this beautiful in the chorus, because it's split up into two parts. This is, um, produced by Tabu, that line and mama used to say,

one day it's going to burn you out has been kind of seared into my brain. Because it's so beautiful when Kendrick was talking in interviews, he was talking back then in 2012, he was talking about how his parents, their parenting style,

how they were so hands off because they knew that he was just going to go do the shit anyway. And he tells this story about, he did something so reprehensible. so bad that his parents like kick him out for an entire summer. And he's like hopping over the fence to the backyard, cutting the lawn, being like, hey, can y'all let me back into the house, please?

And it's like, it's stuff like this. It's stuff that his dad who is like comes from this life, who moves from Chicago to give Kendrick a better life. He's like, yo, I know what you're doing. Like, why are you doing this? Like Kendrick in songs would be like, yo, like my dad said I needed a job. I didn't believe him. Like there's this.

there's this feeling on the art of peer pressure that I think is like actually as much as we talk about sing about me, I'm dying of thirst and Mad City and all these songs. I think art of peer pressure is actually one of the foundational legs of Good Kid Mad City because it is this song where you're learning about, where you're learning about these friends and what inspires somebody like Kendrick, who's a smart kid to do dumb ass shit. There's nothing that he is going to gain. There's no amount of money he's really going to gain from running into this house. But there is this level of like, yo, they're just listening to GZi.

Jesus is popping back then. There's this, there's this ultra masculinity, this hyper masculinity of just like, I need to prove myself. And I think such a thematic element of Good Kid Mad City is that the thing that connects him to Dave Free, who's now his partner and was foundational early in his career and throughout his career, is that Kendrick's telling the story where like he's not a, gangbanger. He comes from this place, but he's not, he's of this place, but he's not doing the type of things that someone like a snoop, you know, immortalizes, someone like an easy immortalizes Tupa, all these people, like, he's this good kid who's removed from it. But this is

the, this is the moment on the album where he's like, I was a good kid, but also, yeah, I was getting into it. And like, there's this level of detail, kind of the last thing I wanted to zero in on is it's 2.30 and the sun is beaming. Air conditioner broken. I hear my stomach screaming. I'm hungry for anything unhealthy. And if nutrition can help me, I'll tell you to suck my dick, then I'll continue eating. I like love that level of detail because it is this thing where like when I was when I was in Philly living in Philly, there was this thing of like, man, kids was eating like hot Cheetos at like 8.30 a.m. And there was this like feeling of like, these kids aren't up because they want to be. Like these like kids who are on my corner like,

getting that work in, don't want to be here. There's this anger of just like, yo, I know my life is fucked up. I know that like, yeah, should I be eating like a nice, wholesome breakfast and like trying to do something, yeah. But when I need to survive, when there's this like, there's this kind of like beast behind me that's saying like, yo, no one escapes from here. So either you're going to make money when you're talking about money trees or you're going to die. Like, that's what I love. There's so many across this album, but in art of peer pressure, there's so many little details. There's so many little details that like Kendrick's really painted for you. I just love I love the art of peer pressure. My wiles were picking this for third. No, I was debating. So truth be told, I was debating between

this song and money trees. So really? Yeah, it was close. It was close to my nominations. I love this song. The piano intro is so beautiful. And then when he gets into the actual beat and the storytelling, like the beat is so minimal, but it's, it's so perfect for the kind of night ride that he's describing. Like you could just picture yourself in that car at night riding around. Like, it's just kind of murky, but there's a solid kind of beat behind it. Yeah, it's just so vivid. And like, I usually don't like skits within the song, but the way that he does that, we made a lie. Right. We made a left. Yeah. He's like, I hit the back window withsters Nintendo. Yeah, yeah. He's fly the screen, CVs in the truck. He's like, we made a right. They made a

left. They made a right. It's like so vivid because in that moment, like, your mind immediately starts like filling it in. I love that part of the song. Yeah, it's so great. It's like, yeah, it's the skits on this album are just so top tier that I just don't mind them. I don't skip them, which is weird. Yeah, it's like, it's so great. And to know that those are like his real parents. I don't know who did the acting for the friends, but everyone on on it did an exceptional job. I don't know Kendrick was there coaching them, but yeah, I love this pick. It's interesting because he did a performance, like that retrospective performance. I can't remember where it was, maybe Coachella or something,

where he performed songs on every album, and he had these big, like, projections behind him when he was performing certain songs from the album. Oh, yeah, I remember this, yeah. When he got to Good Kid Mad City, he specifically called out this song and said that the piano chords in this intro is what inspired the entire album.

Which I thought was, like, a interesting nugget. I would never have thought that. But then actually, when you listen to the, like Mr. Moral and all the piano work on that CD. He's always been drawn to these very lush jazz chords a la to Pimp a Butterfly. I just thought that was a very interesting nugget that that's what inspired the album was the intro to peer pressure.

Damn, I didn't not know that. Hey, art of peer pressure. This is my third pick. Guys, that's the end of the nomination process. Okay. Cole's first nomination, Mad City. second nomination, money trees, third nomination, sing about me I'm dying of thirst.

My first nomination, also Med City. Second, also Money Trees. But I deviated. I picked the art of peer pressure. Now, it is almost time for the climax, for the part y'all have been waiting for it. Cole and I are going to have to pick what is the best song on Good Kid Mad City.

But before that, we already know what y'all are going to say. y'all gonna say are y'all on that weed why don't you pick my favorite song so before we get into the get into why y'all are here let's talk about some honorable mentions or let's even talk about why some songs didn't make it I think briefly we talked about with a bit one of the biggest songs from this project swimming pools I'm gonna be honest swimming pools just didn't we don't have to re-litigate it but it's like it's just aged the worst it's like it just I don't I get why it's on the project but it does seem like the one song where I'm like you were trying to make it. it. And it's the only one that dates it. Like, what I love about this album is that the sound of it is timeless. It doesn't sound of its time to me. Yeah. Except for when I get to swimming pools and it sounds very 2013.

Because it has the T-minus B and at that time, like, Team-minus was like working with like, Drake and Wayne and his sound was so pervasive. And like, I love T-minus. He's one of my favorite producers, but I agree with you. It sounds like 2012. Right. And it's a good song. I like it.

But it's, yeah, it's just a little dated. think another one for me, I was debating, also a bigger song. Talked a lot about a little bit, but back street freestyle. It didn't hit all the marks, only because like, I mean, its function is to put you in this adolescent mindset and just like ridiculous lyrics and just having fun with your friends in a car freestyling. So that was really the only reason why was just the substance for me was just not enough to put it into that top tier, even though I know it's serving a certain function. But as a song, just a stand-alone song to put on a playlist, like, I love it. Like, it's, it's probably the song that I want to play in my car the most,

aside from money trees. Oh, Backseat Freestyle is like, was just under. Like, it was in contention, but I agree with you where I'm like, it doesn't, it doesn't really capture everything that's great about Kendrick. It captures this one really, really good part where it's like, Kendrick has loved rapping and loved the art of rapping since he was a child. And this perfectly illustrates someone who was in that mindset. It's just like, there's better songs on the project. And I think as much as this is probably one of the Kendrick songs you can throw on for anyone, and they're going to have like some fun rapping along to it, didn't make it. Here's, can I do a, can I do Charles's trolling corner, trolling for soup? Can I troll you really quick?

All right. Yeah. Like, this is actually like my hottest take probably off of this album. Yeah, let's hear. So this is going to be a recurring segment, right? Yeah. I don't know if you're ready for this, Cole. I can't stand, bitch. Don't Kill My Vibe. I can't stand the song. I've hated Bish Don't Kill My Vibe. That's actually what took me so long to really get into the record. Is it his voice? So to paint the picture for people, like back in 2012, we're at a point where hip hop is slowly morphing and becoming more melodic. We had had T. Payne and Future and Kanye and everything that's coming out of Chicago is very auto-tuned, coming out of Atlanta, is very processed.

And we're getting to this point where if you want to be a rapper, you have to have some type of melodic inclination. The problem with Kendrick is he's just not a good singer. He just does not have that type of voice. So what Kendrick would do is he would do this hyper-processed alien-type vocal, just don't kill my vibe. And every single time I hear it, the way it just hits, I was just like, come on, man. Like, what are we doing, bro?

like throw some auto tune on this shit man like i can't see i can't do with this for me i it took me a long time to warm up to this song and it's definitely not my favorite it's actually crazy that it's one of his biggest singles still to date it's a huge song a lot of people love this song and i've i've grown to like it it's again not my favorite song and the verses i actually really like the verses and i like the beat i like the remix actually a lot better i like the remix so much better like because the way kendrick is and like Jay-Z, there's just a little bit more aggression where I love his original verses. Here's the thing. It's the hook that does it.

I actually think the verses on both versions are very, very good. It's just the hook that is so like, dude, what are we doing here? Right. Yeah. So for me, I think my song that, and I'm surprised you haven't brought this up because it seems like in your lane, but poetic justice. Hell no. You know, like, how no.

No, I don't like poetic justice at all. Re-listen to this album? Like back when Poeta Justice was out Like it was like like it was cool It was a vibe I didn't mind it I'm gonna be honest man It's just like whatever Like fine

Yeah it just has It has the swimming pool quality In a different way in that It sound like he was trying to make a hit He had Drake on it Yeah yeah it's like the beat itself Bags for a hit And I think it was Drake's actual song

He probably would have made it a hit But I guess it was a hit in its own right but I don't know. So if I had to pick like a skip on this album, which I don't think there is because they all kind of serve a purpose and they all flow very well together. But if I was forced to pick a skip, I think it would be poetic justice.

Yeah, here's the thing. And I'm not like, I don't want to make anybody feel bad. Like poetic justice is like a good song in a vacuum. But if we're like talking about like music I want to play in my whip, you know the kuchma, you play Eminem in front of y'all lady? Like, I'm not paying poetic justice.

Like, come on. No, I'm not doing that. Are there any other songs that were in contention for you before we move on to the finale? I just will shout out very quickly. I love Good Kid, the song Good Kid. That's so haunting and so weird. I know it's probably not the most popular one. I think it's one of the most least stream songs on Good Kid Mad City, but I personally really like it.

My last is just we don't have to belabor it. I love Black Boy Fly. I know it's like not technically on the album. but I listen to the deluxe because we're listening to all the Kendrick albums. But like I love Black Boy Fly. And while I hate the recipe, we're listening to The Recipe remix with Black Hippie, it just, it did something to me.

Right, right, right. All right, guys, now that we've made a case for what songs from Good Kid, Mad City are in contention for Kendrick's best album of all time, each of us must choose our last song standing. The song we're bringing to the season finale, Royal Rumble. and guys, we're going to let you know.

There's no cheating on this podcast. Once we pick our song, we can't go back. Next episode, we can't change this shit. We can't change this shit. This is, we're sticking to our guns. This is the song we're calling the best off good Kim Ed City and in contention for the greatest Kendrick Lamar song of all time. So, Cole, it's time for us to put on our big boy pants, all right?

I didn't pre-pick this out. I was allowing our debate to try to sway me some way. Did you pick yours out beforehand? No, no, no, no, no. I thought I thought maybe you would you would help me a little bit but yeah I came to this fresh I was just like this is going to be off the cuff so who wants to go first you want to go first go do we do a one two three say it simultaneously let's do one two three all right one two three mad city wait you didn't say anything you didn't say anything that was on purpose that was on purpose god damn it I wanted us to disagree I'm going mad

City, too. I'm going mad city too. Here's the thing. We can't force the disagreement. We'll disagree enough. We're going to disagree. Let's not, yeah, yeah. When we get to Tip him a butterfly. Oh, my God. Oh, boy. We're putting boxing gloves on for that. But here's the thing. It has to be Mad City to me because it hits so many of my

criteria of it's a hit. Yeah. It is live. It works in terms of like when people hear that song, there's a visceral emotion. Yeah. It does such a good job. I think Kendrick does a good job throughout Good Kid Mad City of always kind of reiterating what the themes are, what the story is. But I think Good Kid Mad City actually does a very, very good job of illustrating every single thing that's happened so far or is about to happen. And it's just like it's so dynamic, both of the beats.

It's some of his best rapping throughout. It's just everything I love about Kendrick. It has to be Mad City. Yeah, I agree. it's a i think it's the obvious choice maybe i was it was between this and sing about me i think i thought you were going to pick sing about me i thought like cole like i'm like cole's the type of dude to pick sing about me it's well i came into it thinking i was going to pick sing about me i was i was i was sure that i was going to pick sing about me but once i started digging into some of those

things i brought up in my kind of dissection of the song i just kept getting every it was just nugget after nugget after nugget and i was just totally blown away of all the layers of the the song. Everything you just talked about, I think one thing I'll point out that I didn't think I mentioned before, like, part of me is what I love about Kendra Kumar is the way that he uses his voice as an instrument so much. Like, it almost becomes like part of the production. Now, I mentioned, like, those first two verses, he sounds very panic, but when he gets to that pivotal last verse that you quoted about him saying that he might have killed someone at 16, and he does that voice effect where it goes from the high voice to the low,

voice and it's panning in your left and right speakers like cinematically like surround sound and it's like you're getting i think this is like literally the good kid and the mad city i don't think that's a reach like i think he's expressing that dichot of that push pull that tug of war between him being a good kid and the mad city trying to pull him all these dark places and so yeah just it's it's it hits every single not even for this album but for a kendrick kamar song it hits every single point Yo, Cole, before we leave the people, first you should let them know, hey, guys, we're going to give you a little treat. Episode two, we're doing Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. We want to give you two big episodes back to back.

Anyway, guys, yo, that was our first episode of Last Song Standing. How are you feeling? That was fun, man. That was great. Hell yeah. Yo, I think we need to shout out some people who made this podcast possible. Everybody. I'm new to the dissects feed.

Thank you so much for listening and being a welcoming family. Thank you to Cole, you know, the hostess with the most is. But there are some special people we have to thank. Thank you so much to my producer, Justin Sales, our audio production editor, Kevin Pooler, and Devin Ronaldo for that sweet theme music. And most of all, thank y'all for listening once again. Make sure you go to Dissect Podcasts, Charles X Holmes, wherever you get your socials, and argue with us. Tell us what song we should have picked, all right?

We want to get into the muck with you guys, all right? I'll stand by my pick. What about you, Cole? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. We'll see y'all next week.